Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Episode 62: Pickle Barrel Conversations




Technology has brought with it so many advances that have allowed us to do more than we once thought possible. But with it, we're losing out on some of the things that connected us in the past.

While it doesn't mean we need to regress, it does give us a chance to reflect on the power that binds humans together emotionally. Which in turn can give you a leg up on the competition, as you zig while they zag.

And just like that, you're growing your business based on better customer experiences, humanity and trust.

"The human spirit must prevail over technology."
– Albert Einstein


Download now (3.3 MB, 7:10)

Would you consider leaving a rating or review for the show on iTunes? It help other people find us.


Links:


Credits:

Theme songAfternoon by Maestross is on a royalty-free license from Jamendo.com.

Incidental music: Heartwarming by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100207
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Image credit: Photograph of mural General store and post office by Doris Lee at the Ariel Rios Federal Building, Washington, D.C. (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons)

Subscribe on Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSoundCloudSpotify, or Stitcher.

Or try this: ask Alexa or Google Home to "play the latest episode of The Full Monty podcast."


If you find this program valuable, please consider supporting it on Patreon. It covers the cost of hosting, email, music and more.

Monday, January 28, 2019

Believe Me — January 28, 2019


Who can you trust these days? Is Alexa dangerous? What happens when new mobility meets the U.S. legal system? What concerns CEOs most in 2019? Why aren't DTC brands saying yes to Amazon? What 10 social media trends will matter most? What's the secret sauce of podcast advertising? How is streaming turning into cable's business model? Should you be able to monetize your own data? Is it time to regulate influencers? How are marketers changing their TV attribution strategies? Are digital detoxes solutions looking for problems? When can I come speak to your team? The answer to these questions and more await in the Believe Me edition of The Full Monty for the week of January 28, 2019.



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.

Contents:

Announcements
Top Story
Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy
Retail Apocalypse
Platforms
Media
Privacy / Security / Regulatory
Measurement / Analytics / Data
Mental Nourishment

Announcements

Have you signed up for updates from my main blog, Timeless Wisdom? That's where I share insights on current issues, through the lens of what great figures of history, philosophy or literature have taught us. Please add this essential to your inbox.



Top Story

"Can I be honest with you?"

That question should spark immediate suspicion. Because it connotes that the person asking the question (a) isn't usually honest with you, and (b) is about to bring down a hammer of sorts.

Here's the thing: we have a problem right now with the truth and trust. The #3 issue keeping CMOs up at night is establishing trust.

It's apt then that the latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer came out last week. Also ironic that Mark Zuckerberg's opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal ("The Facts About Facebook") was the same untrustworthy stuff we've heard from him — such as the old canard "We don't sell people's data." No, you sell access to people by using their data. Semantics.

And entirely transparent that Zuckerberg used the WSJ as the medium for his message. Facebook has systematically weakened the news industry, and its CEO can't publish this on his own page? Oh, right: regulators don't necessarily follow him on Facebook, but they do read the WSJ opinion pages.

Ever since getting caught up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has said that its #1 mission is to establish trust (I won't say "restore," because that implies they had it in the first place). But gaffe after gaffe has seemingly obliterated that platitude.

As you read though the links this week, take a good look at how many of them have to do with a lack or breach or trust, or an absence of honesty.

It's an epidemic. And the brand that figure out how to be authentic, believable, and trustworthy stand to win.


If you enjoyed this commentary, please sign up for Timeless Wisdom in addition to this newsletter and I'll send you a couple of more items a week.

About this week's image:
The Procession of the Trojan Horse into Troy by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1760) illustrates a famous passage from Virgil's Aeneid (Book 2). After a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse—the horse being the emblem of Troy—and hid a select force of men inside including Ulysses (Odysseus). The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, ending the war.


Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

The latest in A.I., machine learning, and bots; mobility and autonomous everything.
Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ
  • We're just at the beginning of voice assistants. Soon, they may be much more than humble servants. Which leads some to ask: is Alexa dangerous? Which really stems from a wider question of trust. (The Atlantic) Alexa, are you dangerous?
  • Alexa is now delivering headlines in a "newscaster" voice. When U.S. users ask "what's the latest?" the device will use direct waveform modeling to respond in the tone used by anchorpeople. (TechCrunch) I wonder if we'll be able to pick the newscaster voice that's the most trustworthy to us? Imagine if Walter Cronkite or Sean Hannity answered.
  • Hey, if you don't trust your voice assistant, just do with this designer did: build a device to keep your home voice assistant from spying on you. (FlowingData)
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing unit is open-sourcing Neo-AI for machine learning. This will serve as a framework for optimizing A.I. models on other platforms, such as Google's TensorFlow, Nvidia, and others. (VentureBeat)
  • The technology behind Libratus, the A.I. bot that defeated human poker champions in 2017, has been contracted by the Pentagon for $10 million. The technology will be used for military strategy, planning, and simulations. (Outer Places) But not for shutdown negotiations, obvs.
Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ


Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

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


Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ
Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ


SPONSOR

IRI Webinar

  • Personalization is needed more than ever. But how do you do it at scale? It's really all about knowing your audience and serving them up what matters to them, ideally based on what you know - such as their purchase history. IRI has the solution in their latest FREE webinar: How to Improve Audience Targeting for Your CPG Ad Campaigns. (IRI Worldwide) 


Retail Apocalypse

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



Have you recommended this newsletter (publicly) to friends and colleagues? You rock! You've helped countless others discover these stories and learn from them.
If not, please consider recommending it with a tweet.


Platforms 

News to know about relevant social media and technology platforms that may affect your business.
  • How a Vermont social network became a model for online communities. (The Verge) The bad news for large players like Facebook is that it takes human curation, approvals, and interaction, and that it seems to work well in manageable numbers (Vermont's is about 160,000 members). The good news is that it serves as a model for brand- or interest-based communities.
  • Related: the 10 social media trends that will matter most this year. (Search Engine Journal) 
Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ
 Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ
  • Twitter is beginning to roll out a redesigned interface for web users, including the addition of an emoji button and an update to its trending section. (The Verge) I've been using it for the last couple of weeks; it's very similar to the mobile app.
Oᴛʜᴇʀ



Media

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

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ
Aᴜᴅɪᴏ
Please subscribe to The Full Monty podcast, our own 5-minute weekly business commentary. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

Do try this at home: "Alexa, play the latest episode of The Full Monty."


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
Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ


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.


    Speaking 

    How can you energize your team and give them actionable ideas for boosting customer engagement? It's all about applying Timeless Wisdom to your process — practical and relatable lessons drawn from historical and literary contexts. 
    Combine this with Fortune 10 executive experience and some great stories, and you'll be happy that you spent a fraction of what it costs to send your team to a major conference. I'll spend anywhere from an hour to a whole day with your team and give them the power to develop trusted, lasting relationships with your customers.
    Let's chat and see if I can customize a session for you.


    Mental Nourishment

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


    Top image credit:  (public domain, Wikimedia Commons)

    Wednesday, January 23, 2019

    Episode 61: Resilience, Resoluteness, and Enthusiasm




    Life can be tough. We've all experienced a setback from time to time. And often, those setbacks can seem difficult to surmount.

    But imagine if you had traversed 1,500 miles over ice and snow, only to lose your race into the history books, and then realize that you wouldn't make it out alive, with only 11 miles to go. Would you still keep going?

    Keeping perspective and staying true to your mission are critical in times like this.


    "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." 
    – Winston Churchill


    Download now (3.1 MB, 6:45)

    Would you consider leaving a rating or review for the show on iTunes? It help other people find us.


    Links:


    Credits:

    Theme songAfternoon by Maestross is on a royalty-free license from Jamendo.com.

    Image credit: Situation of HMS Resolute, Baffins Bay, June 1858 (University of Melbourne)

    Subscribe on Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSoundCloudSpotify, or Stitcher.

    Or try this: ask Alexa or Google Home to "play the latest episode of The Full Monty podcast."


    If you find this program valuable, please consider supporting it on Patreon. It covers the cost of hosting, email, music and more.

    Tuesday, January 22, 2019

    Winter Is Coming — January 21, 2019

    Scene in the Arctic by William Bradford (1880)

    Difficult is worthwhile; the human mind is still elusive from A.I.; Ford is shutting down Chariot in favor of micromobility solutions; the guide to growing your audience; flyover influencers; what will solve almost every business woe; personalization at scale; traditional retail is in a golden age; Amazon's aims are big; chronic social media use is a societal problem; Facebook and Google put $300M toward news; Netflix and Hulu growth numbers; what it will take to double podcast listening; LinkedIn was used in a Russian spy effort; what CMOs are mostly concerned about; how to have a practical, humane approach to life; and so much more in the Winter Is Coming edition of The Full Monty for the week of January 21, 2019.



    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.

    Contents:

    Announcements
    Top Story
    Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
    Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy
    Retail Apocalypse
    Platforms
    Media
    Privacy / Security / Regulatory
    Measurement / Analytics / Data
    Mental Nourishment

    Announcements

    Have you signed up for updates from my main blog, Timeless Wisdom? That's where I share insights on current issues, through the lens of what great figures of history, philosophy or literature have taught us. Please add this essential to your inbox.



    Top Story

    The first workday after a long weekend. Getting out of your toasty warm bed on a frigid morning. Walking to the nearest public transit stop in windchill temperatures below zero.

    All of these things are hard.

    You know what else is hard? Doing your own thing when the crowd is doing another. Focusing on quality work while your competition is churning out vast quantities of work. In short, doing great things.

    The seemingly inextricable situation in which Facebook currently finds itself — thanks to product engineering that outpaced ethics — is not going to be easy to address. But society (and perhaps soon, government) demands it.

    It's also the case for the politically-fraught topic of toxic masculinity that Gillette chose to address in its controversial ad. The topic deserves discussion, but it's going to be hard going for those willing to stake their brand on it.

    There are rewards available to all of us. The question is whether or not you want to put in the work.

    If you enjoyed this commentary, please sign up for Timeless Wisdom in addition to this newsletter and I'll send you a couple of more items a week.

    About this week's image:



    Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

    The latest in A.I., machine learning, and bots; mobility and autonomous everything.
    Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ
    • “Today, A.I. is not as good as you hope and not as bad as you fear." That may soon change — but AGI, or general A.I., remains elusive. "There's a lot about us that we don't understand…that's not explainable in terms of neural networks and computation algorithms." (60 Minutes) The human mind is more complex than we can understand.
    • The future of voice assistants is more likely to come through your car than your phone or your home devices. (Recode) I've been talking to my Ford and Lincoln vehicles for 10 years, through the SYNC system. My dad's been talking to his cars for 60 years...
    • Ford invented a robot to mimic your sweaty rear end when testing its seats. The name? Robutt. (Motherboard) Some of these headlines write themselves.
    • Japan's robot hotel laid off more than half of its robots after they created too much work for humans. (The Verge) And here we were, fretting about losing jobs to robots. I wonder if there's an automated process in HR for these kinds of layoffs
    Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ
    • Ford is shutting down its on-demand bus service, Chariot, after lagging demand. The company is instead focusing on scooters. (The Verge) Just goes to show that in some cities in the U.S., public transit is a hard sell.
    • Scooter startup Bird is raising $300 million in its bid to dominate micromobility. (Axios) Looks like Ford's decision makes sense.
    • The two biggest things holding back autonomous vehicles don't have anything to do with technology, but rather how we grapple with the changing landscape of mobility: risk and trust. (Axios)


    Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

    Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.
    • Executives are watching these 2019 consumer trends. (CMO.com)
    • Which issues are keeping the most CMOs and brand managers up at night? (MarketingCharts) The top three are ROI, big data/tech/security, and establishing trust.
    Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ
    Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ


    SPONSOR

    IRI Webinar

    • Personalization is needed more than ever. But how do you do it at scale? It's really all about knowing your audience and serving them up what matters to them, ideally based on what you know - such as their purchase history. IRI has the solution in their latest FREE webinar: How to Improve Audience Targeting for Your CPG Ad Campaigns. (IRI Worldwide) 


    Retail Apocalypse

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



    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 new year is upon us.


    Platforms 

    News to know about relevant social media and technology platforms that may affect your business.

    Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ
     Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ
    • Twitter has made updates to improve 'conversational health' on the platform. The updates include a new design for threads, meant to make it easier to follow conversations as they unfold, as well as completely new features like statuses and presence indicators that could indicate when someone is online or when someone is typing. (Mashable)
    Oᴛʜᴇʀ



    Media

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

    Vɪᴅᴇᴏ
    Aᴜᴅɪᴏ
    • Fifty-three million U.S. adults now own a smart speaker. (Edison Research)
    • Nearly one in 10 people got a smart speaker over the holidays. (Recode) "Alexa, send a thank you note."
    • What will it take to double podcast listenership? That's the question posed to Tom Webster, Senior VP of Marketing at Edison Research and 'podcast guru', who said, “We are talking about a medium that is knocking at the door of mainstream America.” (Medium)
    • Program of the Week: Retropod, a show for history lovers, featuring stories about the past, rediscovered. Host Mike Rosenwald introduces you to history’s most colorful characters - forgotten heroes, overlooked villains, dreamers, explorers, world changers.
    Please subscribe to The Full Monty podcast, our own 5-minute weekly business commentary. New episodes drop every Wednesday.
    Try this at home: "Alexa, play the latest episode of The Full Monty."


    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
    Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

    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.

      Speaking 

      How can you energize your team and give them actionable ideas for boosting customer engagement? It's all about applying Timeless Wisdom to your process — practical and relatable lessons drawn from historical and literary contexts. 
      Combine this with Fortune 10 executive experience and some great stories, and you'll be happy that you spent a fraction of what it costs to send your team to a major conference. I'll spend anywhere from an hour to a whole day with your team and give them the power to develop trusted, lasting relationships with your customers.
      Let's chat and see if I can customize a session for you.


      Mental Nourishment

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

      Top image credit: Scene in the Arctic by William Bradford, 1880 (public domain, Wikimedia Commons)

      Wednesday, January 9, 2019

      Episode 60: Reflect on This




      You've got your plans, you've made your resolutions, and the new year is upon us. The sky's the limit!

      Not so fast.

      Somewhere along the way, there's going to be a glitch. Someone's going to find a way to slow your project down, to put up objections. You're going to self-sabotage and fall short on your resolutions by March. It's inevitable.

      We all experience failure. The thing is, it's what you do with that failure and how honest you are with yourself that will give you a path forward.


      "Learning without reflection is a waste. Reflection without learning is dangerous." 
      – Confucius


      Download now (2.6 MB, 5:41)

      Would you consider leaving a rating or review for the show on iTunes? It help other people find us.


      Links:


      Credits:

      Theme songAfternoon by Maestross is on a royalty-free license from Jamendo.com.


      Subscribe on Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSoundCloudSpotify, or Stitcher.

      Or try this: ask Alexa or Google Home to "play the latest episode of The Full Monty podcast."


      If you find this program valuable, please consider supporting it on Patreon. It covers the cost of hosting, email, music and more.

      Monday, January 7, 2019

      New Year, Old You — January 7, 2019

      One bite at a time

      New Year's resolutions normally don't stick - unless you approach them differently; A.I. and its effects on humans; humans go to war against autonomous vehicles; five phases of digital eras; five content marketing trends you can't ignore; real influencers with fake sponsors; the photo that Walmart's CEO keeps on his phone; feeling bad for Facebook; get your sales team to use social media; which streaming service is better for films or television; podcast predictions for the year; the biggest tech challenges ahead include security and privacy; who's winning ride hailing; differentiated data will help win machine learning races; what attention actually is; and so much more in the New Year, Old You edition of The Full Monty for the week of January 7, 2019.



      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.

      Contents:

      Announcements
      Top Story
      Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
      Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy
      Retail Apocalypse
      Platforms
      Media
      Privacy / Security / Regulatory
      Measurement / Analytics / Data
      Mental Nourishment

      Announcements

      Have you signed up for updates from my main blog, Timeless Wisdom? That's where I share insights on current issues, through the lens of what great figures of history, philosophy or literature have taught us. Please add this essential to your inbox.



      Top Story

      It's a new year, as you know. And that's typically when we make pledges to ourselves in the form of resolutions.

      Do they work? Well, the jury is out on that. If you're anything like most humans, the new habits may stick for a while, but you'll find that you simply slip back into your old ways.

      There's nothing wrong with that. It's just the way we're wired. So stop trying to change.

      It's difficult to tackle something new and different if we haven't properly prepared ourselves for it. That could range from beginning to exercise, developing a new strategy, taking some operations back from agencies, a leadership role, or more.

      If you haven't been warming up and you try to just jump in, it's going to be hard going.

      "We must undergo a hard winter training and not rush into things for which we haven't prepared."
      – Epictetus

      The alternative is to adopt Atomic Habits. That is, begin with the smallest things and build from there. So, rather than pledging to stop drinking alcohol entirely in 2019, try cutting back to one drink a week. Or instead of giving up carbs at once, cut back your servings per day. And don't expect to figure out the analytics of your entire department in one quarter; begin with the metrics around one specific part of the operation.

      It's human nature to want to make drastic changes to show our commitment to change. But those changes are more likely to stay with you if they're done bit by bit, over time.


      If you enjoyed this commentary, please sign up for Timeless Wisdom in addition to this newsletter and I'll send you a couple of more items a week.

      About this week's image: Goya depicted the story of god Saturn (the Titan Cronus in Greek mythology) eating his children upon their birth, as he feared he would be overthrown by them. His wife Ops eventually hid his third son, Jupiter, on the island of Crete, deceiving Saturn by offering a stone wrapped in swaddling in his place. Jupiter eventually supplanted his father just as the prophecy had predicted.



      Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

      The latest in AI, machine learning, and bots; mobility and autonomous everything.
      Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ
      • Experts say the rise of artificial intelligence will make most people better off over the next decade, but many have concerns about how advances in A.I. will affect what it means to be human, to be productive and to exercise free will. (Pew Research Center)
      • A look Five Standards for Responsible A.I. Use through the eyes of CEOs in industries that will be affected by it. (strategy+business) Ultimately, this is an exercise in many areas beyond the technology; namely, ethics, operations, risk management and more.
      • A smartphone that detects your sadness? A car that knows when you’re tired? Experts in "affective A.I." are building emotionally intelligent technology. (Wall Street Journal) Quite a feat when there are humans that have a hard time with even emotionally intelligence.
      • We're on the cusp of widespread facial recognition. But tech companies know that implementing it comes with a wide array of toxicity. (Venture Beat)
      Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ


      Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

      Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.
      5 eras of the digital age
      Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ
      Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ


      SPONSOR

      IRI Webinar

      • How does personalization at scale grab you? It's really all about knowing your audience and serving them up what matters to them. But how are you supposed to know exactly what to deliver if you don't know their purchase history? IRI has the answers and shares them in their latest FREE webinar: How to Improve Audience Targeting for Your CPG Ad Campaigns. (IRI Worldwide) 


      Retail Apocalypse

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



      "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 new year is upon us.


      Platforms 

      News to know about relevant social media and technology platforms that may affect your business.

      Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ
      • It's kind of a nuanced ethical question: despite everything that's gone down, is it okay to feel bad for Facebook? (Six Pixels of Separation) Here's the thing: it comes down to your belief in their intentions and the usefulness of the platform to you. You need to be comfortable with those.
      • Facebook shelved plans for a product that would have promoted civil discourse. Evidently, conservatives would have thought it was biased against them. (The Verge) I'm still trying to make sense of that last sentence.
      • While the social network will face serious problems with user engagement, Facebook, in tandem with Google, will continue to dominate digital ad revenues. (eMarketer)
      • Instagram is testing a new set of promo buttons for brands to use on posts. (Mashable)
      • Instagram launched walkie-talkie voice messaging. This will place it in competition with other messaging services like Messenger, WhatsApp, and Telegram for voice services. (TechCrunch) My teenager hangs up on friends to text them, so I don't know how well-received this will be.
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