The Human Fund — December 3, 2018

Amid our technological advances, we seem to be leaving the human component out; A.I. for social good; Waymo invests in safety; how influencers make so much money; a survey of what matters to CMOs; brand trust matters in purchases; digital innovation is driving more brick and mortar engagement; 2018's Most Spineless Board; what teens like and loathe about social media; Fox Nation is a new streaming service that is devoid of news; 90% of podcasts have received fewer than 10 ratings; what the Marriott breach says about security; Airbnb's building phase; the odds on sports data and Vegas; the secret to leading a fulfilling life; how to have more self-confidence; and so much more in the Human Fund edition of The Full Monty for the week of December 3, 2018.

The Full Monty makes you smarter faster, by curating the essential business intelligence every week. Links are below with commentary in italics. Please sign up for our email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing.

Announcements

Just an advance notice: with Christmas and New Year's Day falling mid-week, there will be interruptions in holiday deliveries of The Full Monty. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Top Story

Cyber Monday is behind us now, and the retail sector continues its holiday dash. But did you stop to think about what made all of those purchases and deliveries possible?

A former Amazon warehouse worker described the conditions of working in an Amazon fulfillment center during the big push of Black Friday / Cyber Monday. And it wasn't pretty.

Similarly, I listened to this episode of The Daily that investigated the human cost behind instant delivery, looking at conditions of an XPO warehouse in Memphis. The details were chilling. (You should listen too.)

We might console ourselves in the knowledge that robots will be replacing these workers soon (how depressing is it to know that they're working under such conditions, only to find themselves replace by machines?), but meanwhile in China, the race to A.I. supremacy is predicated by cheap human labor as people are tasked with sorting through and cleaning up data.

The Cleaners is a documentary about the individuals who are "content moderators" for sites like Facebook, where they have to sort through and discard some of the most objectionable and heinous content for hours on end. In this case, Silicon Valley has outsourced its dirty work to Manila.

In each of these cases, there's a decided toll being exacted on these people. To us, it may seem like a box, a data set, or a photo that's the end product, but the cost to actual humans in the process is real.

Meanwhile, new research from customer engagement platform Braze seeks to identify the top emotional and functional attributes that make a brand feel human to customers.

Would more transparency in your firm's products and processes help or hurt that measurement? Something to think about.

More on humanity and the power of the personal in this week's Timeless Wisdom (please make sure you're signed up for that).

About this week's image: Gassed was completed in March 1919 by John Singer Sargent. It depicts the aftermath of a mustard gas attack during the First World War, with a line of wounded soldiers walking towards a dressing station. Mustard gas is a chemical warfare agent developed by the Germans, who first used it in WWI. This, along with airplanes and tanks, were three technological advances that took warfare to the next level, at great human cost.

Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and blockchain, mobility, and autonomous everything.
Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ

A.I. is not a silver bullet, but it could help tackle some of the world’s most challenging social problems. (McKinsey)
Amazon is using A.I. to develop new speaking styles for Alexa, including a newscaster voice for reading articles. (The Verge) No word on whether you can choose Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, or Peter Jennings as voices.
Because machines should be teaching as well as learning, your kids will quickly learn to be more polite when Google Assistant will be nicer when you say please and thank you. (TechCrunch)
In FAIR versus DeepMind, Facebook is fighting for dominance over Google in A.I. (Wired UK)

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

While automakers have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into autonomous vehicles, it's the infrastructure that's going to hold the developments back, as U.S. roads will require $1 trillion or more in repairs and updates. (Axios)
BMW's vision for future vehicles is "autonomous and frighteningly intelligent." (Car and Driver)
GM president Dan Ammann is leaving the No. 2 job at the company to become CEO of its self-driving car unit, Cruise Automation. (Fortune)
Waymo hired Deborah Hersman, who was chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the Obama administration, as its first chief safety officer. (CNBC) Great to see that Waymo is taking safety seriously.
Insights on Super Commuters: what super-commuters look for in their vehicles. (otonomo) Hint: more than cupholders.

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.
Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

Influencers: celebrity, micro, nano — they seem to be everywhere lately. How is it they make so much money? (Vox) And how many of them are actually influential?

Payless ShoeSource made a fake luxury brand and tricked fashion influencers into spending $640 for their discount kicks — an 1,800% markup on shoes that normally retail for around $35. Hey, we said influential, not intelligent.

CMOs in North America and the U.K. now spend more on marketing technology than on any other resource area, according to a recent survey. Also, when asked to define the most important metrics on their marketing dashboard, CMOs cited “awareness” as the most important, beating ROI and measures of customer value and customer satisfaction. (Gartner)
Over-reliance on legacy technology and lacking the right tech tools is one of the biggest challenges to digital transformation. (eMarketer)
Check out this list of 25 Women in Digital Marketing Who Rocked and Inspired in 2018. (Top Rank) And follow some of them.
If you're stuck for ideas about your content and strategy, check out 8 Content Promotion Showstoppers for 2019. (Top Rank) Honored to be part of this list!

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

Mic was one of the many companies that followed Facebook's insistence that they pivot to video; now Mic has sold for a measly $5 million and laid off most of its staff. (Recode) Mic check? Nope, that's one big mic drop.
Two-thirds of adults in the U.S. say that trust in a brand has a great deal (31%) or a lot (37%) of influence on their decision when making a big purchase. (Marketing Charts)
Here are 10 essential PR blogs that you should be reading. (Ragan) Thanks for including Timeless Wisdom on the list!

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Retail Apocalypse

Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.

Digitally-inspired innovation is now helping brick-and-mortar regain relevance and get shoppers back into physical stores. This includes aggressive moves by dozens of digitally native direct-to-consumer retailers to plant their flag in brick-and-mortar. (eMarketer Retail) Maybe Retail Apocalypse should be renamed Retail Relevance?
Amazon's Cyber Monday was the biggest shopping day in the company's history. (TechCrunch)
Can you guess what Amazon's best-selling item was on Cyber Monday? (Digital Trends) I got it right on my first guess. Let me know if you did too.
Amazon is putting more pressure on brands. So much that a revolt may be brewing. According to one analyst, “I don’t think Amazon understands how close they are to blowing themselves up.” (Recode)

"Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy."

–Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

Just a quick moment to thank those of you who have recommend this newsletter (publicly) to friends and colleagues. You've helped countless others discover these stories and learn from them.
Please consider doing it again, as the busy season is upon us.

Platforms

News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.

Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ

Instagram now lets you share Stories with a close friends list. (TechCrunch)
WhatsApp's chief business officer is becoming the latest high-profile executive to leave Facebook. (CNBC)
Sheryl Sandberg reportedly asked Facebook employees to examine George Soros's finances after he criticized the social media giant. (New York Times)
Mark Zuckerberg is in a crisis of leadership. He needs to make a drastic change. (Newco Shift)
Related: 2018's Most Spineless Board. (GartnerL2) Ouch.

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

Twitter has rolled out an out-of-home campaign in New York City’s Times Square to promote the fresh, irreverent tone of voice of its flagship @Twitter account. (The Drum)
Twitter redesigned its core iOS app to de-emphasize follower counts, in an effort to reprioritize "meaningful" conversations. (The Verge)

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

Teens credit social media for helping to build stronger friendships and exposing them to a more diverse world, but they express concern that these sites lead to drama and social pressure. (Pew Research Center) Like so many issues with teens, it's complicated.

Media

The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.
Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

AT&T may be jettisoning its stake in Hulu, making way for Disney to play a larger role.(Quartz)
How streaming services stack up against traditional cable: streaming wins on content availability and quality, while pay-TV maintains an edge with its sports and local programming. (Marketing Charts)
Fox News has eschewed news to go for strictly opinion/entertainment with its new Fox Nation streaming service aimed at younger viewers. The service costs $5.99 a month. (Business Insider)

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

Money is pouring into podcasting through advertising, but it’s all going to the top 1% of podcasts. Anchor Sponsorships changed that by leveling the playing field and making it possible for all podcasters to get sponsored and get paid. (Anchor)
A profile on the astonishment-prone Guy Raz, host of How I Built This. (New York Times)
What do podcast ratings tell us? A lot. One thing to note: approximately 80% of podcasts in iTunes have received fewer than five ratings and 90% count fewer than ten. (Panoply)
Lessons learned after spending over $50,000 on podcast advertising. (Ahrefs) Some great insight and advice here.

How many of the top 15 podcast advertisers can you name? (Magellan)

Program of the Week: As we get toward the end of 2018, I'm pulling on additional resources. Here's a list of the best podcasts of 2018. (Time)

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Privacy / Security / Regulatory

Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.
Pʀɪᴠᴀᴄʏ / Sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ / Hᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ

The big security news last week was Marriott's data breach in which 500 million records were compromised, including passport numbers, emails and mailing addresses, and possibly some credit card numbers. (Bloomberg) Evidently, it was the second largest data breach ever, after Yahoo's.
A perspective on what the Marriott breach says about security for both consumers and companies. (Krebs on Security) Spend some time with this. We all have a stake in data security and can be victimized by the action (or inaction) of others.

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

Airbnb will start building and distributing its own prototype homes through a new project called Backyard as early as next year. (Fast Company) How does that old saying go? If you can't beat them, skirt the regulatory requirements by building your own homes.
Airbnb got itself a new CFO from the ranks of Amazon's financial staff. (Bloomberg)

Measurement / Analytics / Data

The future is not in plastics, but in data. Those who know how to measure and analyze it will rule the world.

Does your HR team have an analyst yet? It might be time to get one as analytics reinvents human resources. (Towards Data Science)
How to measure the value of influencer marketing. (Christopher Penn)
The NBA signed deals with sports data providers Genius Sports Group and Sportradar to...you guessed it, provide betting data to U.S. sportsbooks. (Bloomberg)
MGM has entered into its third official league partnership in the past few months, partnering with MLB, which follows a similar sports betting agreement with the NBA and another betting deal with the NHL. Each of the three contracts includes sponsorships and access to official data, including at least some advanced tracking data. (SportTechie)

Speaking Engagements

Always looking for recommendations for venues to share my stories. I connect our digital selves with classical influences, pointing out the universal human truths that can unlock the secret of retaining and growing customer relationships. Feel free to contact me to discuss speaking to your organization or at an event you've been to recently where you think I might stand out.

SPECIAL OFFER: There are only three slots left on my discount offer for up to three subscribers of The Full Monty. Book me to speak in 2019, and I'll speak to your group for 30 percent off my normal rate. Let's have a call to discuss it. This offer is ending soon, so please act quickly.

Mental Nourishment

Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.

A bookstore in England finally sold a book that had been sitting on its shelf for 27 years. (My Modern Met) And you think your book isn't selling?
Beethoven perfectly summed up the conscious preparation and the unconscious incubation of creativity as he described how he carried his thoughts around with him before writing them down. (Brain Pickings)
You'll find more than a few inspirations in 23 Life Choices That Are In Your Control. (George Raveling) Examples include: 3) Be positive, not negative; 9) Give more, take less; 12) Listen more, talk less; 22) Think more, react less.
A 75-year long Harvard study found the secret to leading a fulfilling life comes down to one thing. (Fast Company)
If you want to try boosting your short-term memory, try walking backwards. (New Scientist)
Ten things to do on the weekend to make your Monday more productive. (Quartz) Oops. Looks like you have to wait until next weekend to try it.
Henry Ford, Marcus Aurelius, and Norman Vincent Peale knew how to handle self-doubt. How to boost your self-confidence every day. (Timeless Wisdom)

Top image credit: Gassed by John Singer Sargent, 1919 (Wikipedia, Public Domain)

Monday, December 3, 2018