Apoplectic Complexifier — February 11, 2019

Transparency and reputation are closely linked; the 100 most promising A.I. startups; A.I. may have a larger impact than the internet; ride-hailing companies struggle for profitability, despite AVs; the latest Inc. 500 social media study reveals confidence and concerns; customer-centricity should be central to digital transformation; Sears gets saved—for now; why online groceries are difficult; look beyond social networks to boost traffic; Marie Kondo your Twitter feed; Fortnite and the future of entertainment; hot takes on Spotify/Gimlet; discovering your reused passwords; compliance laws cloud influencer marketing efforts; other bnbs besides Air; living a life of liquid modernity; and more in the Apoplectic Complexifier edition of The Full Monty for the week of February 11, 2019.

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Top Story

I feel like I'm a week ahead of myself. Last week, I mentioned how the week before I talked about the lack of trust, then I continued the theme, focusing on transparency. This week, it's about reputation.

And what do you know? Last week, the bombshell Jeff Bezos Medium post became a lesson in complete transparency. By going public with his response to the questionable legal approach and idiotic business move that AMI, owner of the National Enquirer took ("What's that? You want me to stop investigating you or you'll release my naked selfies? I'd like that in writing, please."), Bezos pulled the rug out from under them.

In doing so, he managed to keep his reputation fairly unsullied. The texts were already out there, so he really didn't have much to lose. Not to mention that as the world's richest man, he has the resources to back him.

The true story behind the Bezos mishap?

But it's an interesting lesson in going on the offensive before your opponent does. It's a classic political maneuver: define yourself before someone else can. That way, your reputation is still within your control.

A related piece worth reading is Shame Storm (via First Things). It helps put into context these ever-escalating pitchfork-and-torch incidents online. The more online shame cycles you observe, the more obvious the pattern becomes: everyone comes up with a principled-sounding pretext that serves as a barrier against admitting to themselves that, in fact, all they have really done is joined a mob.

If you think we're any different now with the Internet at our back, we really aren't. We're nothing if not consistent, and frankly, human nature is pretty dark (via Aeon): Schadenfreude sets in by the age of four, we view minorities as less human, we are vain and overconfident, we're moral hypocrites and potential trolls, and more. But we can overcome those baser instincts.

Pick your friends, colleagues, and counselors carefully. For their character may rub off on you, for better or worse.

“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation.”

– George Washington

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About this week's image:

The lithograph above is Album Comique. L'Apoplexie foudroyante by Ambrose Tardieu. It pictures sudden apoplexy: a large man stretched out on a chaise lounge attended by a doctor and servants. August Ambrose Tardieu was a French medical doctor and preeminent forensic medical scientist of the mid-19th century. Apoplexy is a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke, and Tardieu would have been interested in the pathology underlying the condition.

Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

The latest in A.I., machine learning, and bots; mobility and autonomous everything.
Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ

CB Insights published its list of the most promising 100 A.I. startups working across the artificial intelligence value chain, from hardware and data infrastructure to industrial applications. (CB Insights)
Researchers are training A.I. systems to recognize nonverbal cues in speaking and subtext in writing, including sadness, happiness, and ultimately, sarcasm. (Science News) And not a moment too soon.
MIT Media Lab spinoff Affectiva’s neural network, SoundNet, can classify anger from audio data in as little as 1.2 seconds. (VentureBeat) Think of the possibilities in vehicles alone: when combined with Nuance's monitoring for driver fatigue, this could mean reductions in road rage or accidents.
Robots have demonstrated the ability to do amazing physical things, like backflips. But can they hold down a desk job? (Aeon)
Around the globe, CEOs have differing opinions on whether A.I. will have a larger impact than the internet. (Marketing Charts)

Be sure to download a copy of Christopher Penn's AI for Marketers: An Introduction and Primer (Second Edition). You'll find the kinds of questions you should be asking vendors, five practical applications of AI for marketing, what it will take for you to succeed on your journey, and more. (Disclosure: affiliate link)

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

Even with autonomous fleets, ride-hailing companies may struggle to improve their bottom lines without addressing other inefficiencies in their business model. (Axios)
E-scooters are all the rage. You'll find them in most major cities, left on sidewalks in random places or zipping through traffic and pedestrians. It should be no surprise then that an investigation found e-scooters are a cause of some 1,500 accidents. (TechCrunch) Wear your helmet, kids.

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

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

Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

According to the latest annual study from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, almost all (96%) of the Inc. 500 agree that social media is effective in building brand awareness, with 92% also agreeing that it’s effective in creating relationships with consumers/customers. But they also worry about ROI and privacy issues. (Marketing Charts)
How TUMI transformed its customer service. It's about being where your customers are. "When customers are able to use various real-time channels to reach us, like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, they’re a lot happier, and they get the resolution they’re looking for a lot sooner.” (Forbes) It's not rocket science.
According to recent research by MarketingProfs, half of marketers are happy, fulfilled and engaged. Which half are you? (Mark Schaefer)
A surprisingly large number of corporations are still failing to consider customer needs when it comes to digital transformation strategies. (VentureBeat) It's about more than the tools and technologies, folks.

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

From making a public presentation to asking for a raise, communication is all about personal, concise storytelling — great advice from a speechwriter. (Fast Company)
If you want trust, start with some transparency. (Timeless Wisdom)

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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.

We shop online for almost everything. Why are people reluctant to buy groceries online? It comes down to two major things: cost (to the consumer and to the retailer), and selectiveness. (The Atlantic) Fruit eaters can be fussy.
Amazon is reconsidering its New York HQ2 after facing opposition from locals. (Washington Post)
Amazon recently won a patent for "Mobile Pickup Locations" that could lead to customers picking up packages from public buses. (Retail Dive) Bookmobile, anyone?
Thanksgiving is now the number three shopping day of the year. More retailers need to treat it that way. (eMarketer)
The launch of sponsored products means a new way for Wayfair to compete with other marketplaces like Amazon. Brands can bid to promote certain SKUs within certain categories on a pay-for-performance basis. (Digiday)
Sears got a lifeline as chairman Eddie Lampert won approval to buy the company for $5.2 billion. Sears has 425 stores and 45,000 employees left. (CNBC)

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Platforms

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

With slippage of traffic generated by Twitter and LinkedIn, where are your readers/visitors coming from in 2019? Flipboard is one promising platform. (Nieman Lab) It's time to look beyond social platforms to others, where you have more over control the narrative and algorithms.

Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ

Facebook said it mistakenly blocked a museum in Switzerland from using images of two nude statues, a marble Venus and a bronze of a kneeling man. (NZ Herald). Facebook, your priorities are screwed up.
Germany’s antitrust regulator ruled that Facebook was exploiting consumers by requiring them to agree to such intensive data collection in order to have an account. (Wired) That's pretty much Facebook's whole business model.
Facebook Messenger lets you delete messages after they've been sent. But only within 10 minutes of sending. (The Verge)

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

Twitter disclosed its daily active user numbers for the first time, revealing the platform hit 126 million DAUs in the fourth quarter, a 9.5% increase from the same period in 2017. It also noted that video is the fastest-growing ad format. (MediaPost)
Periscope (remember Periscope?) will allow broadcasters to accept request for viewers to make audio calls to the show while it's live. (TechCrunch) First-time / long-time. Twitter is clearly upping its live video game to compete with Facebook. This could actually make live video much more engaging on Twitter.
Marie Kondo your Twitter feed today. Tokimeki Unfollow shows you recent tweets from one account you follow at a time (from your earliest follow, your latest, or randomly—your pick).

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

Flickr will soon be deleting photos of users who haven't signed up for a Pro account. Suddenly, entire sections of the Internet that have relied on embedded Flickr images will disappear. “We have apparently been training a generation of computer users that they don’t have to pay for anything.” (Vox) This isn't going to be pretty.
Now that Tumblr has banned NSFW content, there's an orgy of sex-based social networks being erected. (Fast Company)

Media

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

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

Fortnite's Marshmello concert was a glimpse of what the future of entertainment might look like. (The Verge) Immersive,
Much has been said about Fortnite’s revenue, users, business model, origin and availability. But these narratives are overhyped. It's fundamentally a story of rebundling and how Epic Games combines Fortnite with other successful entertainment lines and creates a Metaverse. (Redef)
How the sports OTT landscape in the U.S. is disrupting TV. Disruption is coming from several areas: subscription-based streaming services from the top leagues, standalone services run by broadcasters and independent startups, linear OTT services that deliver live TV content over the internet, and social and digital media companies that have enough capital to buy coveted streaming rights. (eMarketer) TL;DR: it's complexifying.

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

Three solid reads on the Spotify/Gimlet/Anchor announcement from last week:

What Spotify's $230 Million Gimlet Deal Means for the Podcasting Industry (The Vulture)
Spotify's Podcast Aggregation Play (Stratechery)
Spotify, Music, and Podcasting: The Meteor Is Coming (Tom Webster) This is my favorite take, because Tom has the inside angle of audio trends, being the head of marketing for Edison Research, whose Share of Ear study is one of the industry's most referenced. Tom's take on the use of music within podcasts is particularly worth noting.
And my own take with Shel Holtz on FIR. (For Immediate Release)

Program of the Week: Money. Romance. Tragedy. Deception. The Dropout from ABC Radio is the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, as told through exclusive interviews with former employees, investors, and patients, and for the first-time, the never-before-aired deposition testimony of Elizabeth Holmes.

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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

Many popular iPhone apps record your screen activity without asking. (TechCrunch) My plan is to drive them crazy with all of the red notification dots on my home screen.
On Safer Internet Day, Google found that 65% of users reused the same password across multiple sites and 51% had a favorite password that they stuck with for most things. (Forbes)
Google's new Password Checker extension will tell you if your password is reused and if it has been compromised. (CNN Business)
Hackers and scammers are finding ways to access iCloud-locked iPhones. Using phishing kits and fake receipts, they reprogram the phones for their own use. (9to5Mac)
A deeper look at data privacy issues and connected cars. (ReadWrite)
A crypto CEO died holding the only passwords for about $150 million in cryptocurrencies. Everything — his laptop, email addresses, and messaging system — was encrypted, and only he had the passwords, so his investors are out some millions of dollars. (Bloomberg) The good news is, no one else can get to the money either. Live by the crypto, die by the crypto.

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

While disclosure continues to dominate the conversation around influencer marketing, data compliance laws are adding another layer of confusion—and cost—for those operating in this evolving market. (eMarketer)
Taco Bell is adding GrubHub to its delivery network. This is in addition to DoorDash, opening it up to many other cities. (Engadget)
The family of the woman killed by an Uber autonomous vehicle has filed a $10 million lawsuit — against the city. (Newsy)
Because it's so intimately involved in travel, Airbnb hired Virgin America's former CEO as their chief of transportation. (Fast Company) It looks as if Airbnb wants to own end-to-end travel. Watch this space.
Airbnb wants to you check out its other bnbs: Earthbnb, Firebnb, and Waterbnb.

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.

When it comes to business analytics, it pays to think like Sherlock Holmes. (Timeless Wisdom)
Oracle has spent billions of dollars and years tracking people around the web, but it didn't see the data reckoning coming. The result: layoffs from its Data Cloud division, responsible for its advertising software. (Bloomberg)

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, updated to inform business growth.

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.

If you enjoy the neoclassical paintings I use in each issue of The Full Monty, you must check out Recreations of Famous Paintings of Myths Using Only My Children's Toys. It's sheer joy. (Idle Musings | Medium) Here's a sample:

Francisco de Goya, “Saturn Devouring His Son” (1819–1823) and Sarah Scullin, “Kronos Rex” (2019)

Most personality quizzes are junk science. Take one that isn't. It measures the Big Five of psychology: openness to experience, extraversion, negative emotionality, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. (FiveThirtyEight)
Try Reddit's best tips for reading more books. (Lifehacker)
Colorize your black and white photos with Colourise. Historical images, family photos — it's breathtaking.
This commencement address by Harvard Law graduate Pete Davis is perfect. He identifies how we live in liquid modernity — or "infinite browsing mode" in Neflix or social networks. This is in direct opposition to selecting a direction or making a commitment. (YouTube) It's not only a great object lesson, but it's a masterful delivery of a speech, done without notes. It's only 8 minutes long, but well worth your time.

Top image credit: Album Comique. L'Apoplexie foudroyante by Ambrose Tardieu, 1822 (British Museum)

Monday, February 11, 2019