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.

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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

In a survey, nearly three-fourths of consumers call Gillette “socially responsible” in the wake of its "We Believe" ad. But the survey also showed how the reaction fell along political lines, with 73% of Democrats giving it high marks and 48% of Republicans reacting favorably. (WSJ) While consumers appreciate brands taking a stand, only brands comfortable with risk should be considering such moves.
Get inspired by these 11 quotes on content marketing for 2019. (TopRank)
The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Audience (For the Interested)
Amid all of the algorithms and technology, humanity is making a comeback. Here's a marketing manifesto for human-centered marketing. (Mark Schaefer) P.S. pick up a copy of Mark's new book Marketing Rebellion, which covers this very topic.

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

There's a new network of influencers aimed at average Americans, rather than coastals. (AdWeek) Hear that, coastals? You're not average.
Done well, word of mouth marketing is the most effective and cost-effective way to grow any business. So here's the The Ultimate Unified Word of Mouth Strategy. (Convince & Convert)
Tom Peters believes DEE (Deep Employee Engagement) is the secret to pretty much all of businesses' woes. Or, as Richard Branson said, "Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives ... or it's not worth doing." (TomPeters.com)

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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.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are challenging traditional retail brands through earned media. (eMarketer)
Some say traditional retail is dying; however, we might actually be in the midst of a golden age of retail. (TechCrunch) Given the amount of data and the increased online competition, retail stores are doing everything they can to keep us shopping there.
With all of these innovations (forced and otherwise), here are 10 retail trends to watch in 2019. (Retail Dive)
Make no mistake: Amazon is on the path toward total domination. “Amazon is moving us toward a future in which the buying and selling of goods occurs not in an open public market, but on a private platform controlled by Amazon.” (Medium)
Some of the major retailers such as Macy's, Kohl's, and Target have indicated that in the post-holiday market and throughout 2019 they're expecting less demand. (Bloomberg)
Sears is still alive (barely), thanks to the revamped bids of the guy who put them at death's door. (WSJ) Um... thanks?

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.

A study from Michigan State University published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, has shown that chronic social media use is just as bad as drug addiction or gambling. (New York Post) The good news is that it's cheaper.

Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ

Facebook is secretly building LOL, a cringe-worthy meme hub, in order to lure back teenagers. (TechCrunch) I know what you're thinking.
Zuckerberg's challenge for 2019: get out of his bunker and talk to people. "I’m an engineer, and I used to just build out my ideas and hope they’d mostly speak for themselves." (Quartz) Perhaps — hear me out — this is why we need humanities majors working side-by-side with engineers.
Facebook is putting $300 million into supporting news, with an emphasis on local news. (Nieman Lab)

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

Google News Initiative will be fighting fake news and supporting journalism. (The Verge) It will be dedicating — hey, would you look at that? — $300 million to the cause.
A thoughtful piece on the demise of Google+. Good strategy, questionable people. (The Vital Edge)

Media

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

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

The creators of the Choose Your Own Adventure books are suing Netflix over Bandersnatch, which used the same concept to allow viewers to select the storyline. (io9) Netflix, you have a choice: settle, or go to court. Which will it be?
Netflix added nearly 9 million new paying subscribers during the final three months of 2018, beating its own expectations of 7.6 million. (CNN Business)
Netflix says it accounts for 10 percent of total TV time in the U.S. (Recode)
Hulu now has 25 million subscribers and took in $1.5 billion in ad revenue in 2018. (Variety)
NBC is entering the streaming wars, announcing a new streaming service that will compete with Netflix, Disney, and Amazon. The service will be free to anyone who subscribes to pay TV. (CNBC)
Here are the digital innovators who are pushing the boundaries of media. (Variety)

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."

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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

A fake LinkedIn profile linking poisoned double agent Sergei Skripal to Christopher Steele — which prompted conspiracy theories about MI6’s role in the Novichok attack — was allegedly created by the GRU more than a year before Skripal was poisoned. (The Telegraph) They probably went with "Hi, I'd like to add you as a connection," so as not to be discovered.
T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T are selling access to their customers’ location data, and that data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters and others not authorized to possess it. (Motherboard)
A German student admitted he was behind stealing and leaking private data of politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel. (Al Jazeera)
U.S. regulators have met to discuss hitting Facebook with a record-setting fine for its privacy violations. (Washington Post)

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

A broken neck and a torn artery caused this journalist to re-think ride-hailing. (Bloomberg)
Airbnb held talks to buy Hotel Tonight, the hotel-booking app. (WSJ)

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.

About half of Facebook users say they are not comfortable when they see how the platform categorizes them, and 27% maintain the site's classifications do not accurately represent them. (Pew Research Center)

Here's how to find out how much Facebook thinks it knows about you and how it categorizes you. (Quartz)

CMOs are still struggling to get the most out of data analytics, but do executives even have access to the right data for their efforts? (MarketingCharts)
It's tough to stay on top of all of the technology out there. So here are 29 recommended tools for your agency technology stack. (Agency Leadership Hub)
Nielsen’s Total Ad Ratings – which lets marketers rank how well their ads perform across platforms – will include YouTube’s mobile audience. (Fast Company)
P0rn sites collect more data on you than Netflix or Hulu. This is what they do with it. (Quartz)

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.

For whom, the bell tolls: the English language is complex and changing all the time. It seems that "whom" is dying a slow death, and some people are up on arms about it. (Quartz) I'll admit that I am one of those people for whom this is an unwelcome development.
How's your affective presence? It's how you make people feel. And it has a great deal to do with whether or not people look forward to seeing you. (The Atlantic)
You've undoubtedly used one. Multiple times. But did you know that it's called a Brannock Device? It has a fascinating history. (Tedium)
Brilliant leader, kind horseman and friend of Socrates: Xenophon’s writings inspire a humane, practical approach to life. (Aeon) We could all use more practical and human advice.
At CES earlier this month, Osé was one of the devices that was honored with the Innovation Award. Until the organizers discovered it was a sex toy, rescinded the award, and called the device "obscene." (BuzzFeed News) No way, Osé?
Here are 400 free Ivy League courses you can take online right now. (Quartz)

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

Tuesday, January 22, 2019