Recent years have seen Millennials blamed for just about everything, from the changing norms around working hours, to marriage and car ownership, and for killing things like napkins, golf, and department stores.
And while it's easy to lay the blame at the feet of a new generation that is disrupting the age-old way of doing things, this generational conflict has a tradition that spans the ages. If we can understand the patterns of differences in the generations, we can prepare for how to position our businesses appropriately.
Hit replay for the TV revolution, and a bonus Streisand effect sitcom; A.I. and ethics are becoming interwoven (or should be); what the tech sector gets wrong about mobility; the #AdobeSummit is here; how to build trust as a leader; what went wrong at Boeing; tales of the drunk shopper; Walmart's secret weapon against Amazon; Instagram goes shopping; Facebook's adult content guidelines, explained; Pinterest files for an IPO; Google gets a massive fine; Disney completed its acquisition of Fox; branded podcasts are preferable; Facebook employees may have had your password for years; Airbnb's guerilla warfare against municipalities; marketers can't put ROI against everything; why Wite-Out is still at thing; and more in the This Again? edition of The Full Monty for the week of March 25, 2019.
The Full Monty makes you smarter faster, by curating essential digital 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.
I consult and advise brands and agencies through Scott Monty Strategies, which I founded after serving as an executive at Ford Motor Company. I've worked with digital communications teams, customer service leaders, and C-level executives at companies like Walmart, McDonalds, T-Mobile and IBM on issues related to strategy, crisis communications, customer experience, and digital, social and content strategy. It's all about better strategies to improve customer relationships and grow business. I welcome the opportunity to explore a relationship with your team.
Let's have an introductory chat. Or maybe you'd just like to pick my brain for an hour.
Top Story
Remember when streaming video was a novelty? When you could brag about being among the first to switch from Netflix's DVD-mailer model to online video? The world of streaming media seemed simple in those days.
The idea was that you could exercise choice and determine what kind of programming you wanted to watch — not be told by your cable company that you had to accept the sports package if you wanted to include a channel like AMC or Bravo. It was called bundling, and it led to ever-higher prices for consumers as they were locked into programming situations that they couldn't control.
Along came Netflix — and Hulu— and Amazon Prime Video — and you were free from that.
Until...
Suddenly streaming services popped up everywhere. CBS, HBO, Showtime, and now newcomers Apple, Disney+, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal and suddenly consumers are feeling subscription fatigue. It's like the 1990s, all over again, but this time consumers are creating their own bundles. And it's getting a bit pricey.
It's as if we forget the past and long for it at the same time.
Another case in point: there are instances when the misinformed public uses historical examples to reinforce a point, but haven't done their research thoroughly. Which is why it' heartening (at least for this former classics major) to see historians taking to Twitter to set the record straight.
Then there's the instance of Congressman Devin Nunes suing Twitter over the Devin Nunes Cow account — a parody account — that annoyed him. But Rep. Nunes forgot the very real Streisand effect: the account had around 1,000 followers before last week's lawsuit; it currently has over 630,000.
Those who don't know history...
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About this week's image:Ulysses and the Sirens (John William Waterhouse, 1891) depicts Homer's hero Odysseus (the Greek version of Ulysses) on his way home from the Trojan war, facing the Sirens. The Sirens, who with their melodious voices lured all navigators to destruction were, according to classical tradition, creatures having the body of a bird with the head of a beautiful woman. They were informed by the oracle that as soon as anyone passed by without heeding their songs they should perish. Circe warned Odysseus in advance, and he plugged his the ears of his crew with wax and ordered himself to be bound to the mast, allowing them to successfully pass the fatal coast.
Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
The latest in A.I., machine learning, and bots; mobility and autonomous everything. Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ
In the last week or so, we witnessed how tech companies simply haven't prioritized some things that are harmful to users, but instead have worshiped at the altar of the golden calf. (Medium)
The high tech sector certainly has a lot to contribute to mobility, but the arrogance that has characterized its initial forays into the space has also exposed a deep sense of utopian naivete. (The Drive) This former auto executive's take: tech's predictions are usually on an unrealistically sped-up timeframe and involve urban prognosticating for the entire country. More ranting on this tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom.
Autonomous cars will generate more data and as blockchain technology develops, it could offer a secure way to manage that data while providing additional benefits to passengers. (Axios) The data thrown off by cars is already voluminous. The future of auto data needs to be secure and manageable.
A guide to the future of trucking. Trucking is among the three most common jobs in 29 U.S. states, but it’s getting automated and the trucking industry is transforming. (Quartz)
If you think leadership and communication doesn't matter, look at the impact Alan Mulally had on Boeing (and Ford). (Forbes) The "Working Together" model is deceptively simple: articulate a clear and compelling vision, develop a comprehensive strategy to deliver on that vision, and execute on that through a relentless implementation process led by a team of talentedpeople working together. Which is where leadership and communication come in.
Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.
What percentage of alcohol-consuming Americans shop drunk? How much do they spend? What do they buy? The 2019 Drunk Shopping Survey has answers. (The Hustle)
Walmart announced it was halting its popular Savings Catcher feature in its app, which automatically refunds customers the difference of any item purchased at Walmart that's found elsewhere for less. Then the social media backlash began. (Retail Dive)
New York Magazine has opened a retail store based off of its newsletter offerings. Is this the future of retail? Or perhaps the future of commerce for publishers? (Medium)
Two from the excellent series The Amazon Diaries (OneZero):
News to know about relevant social media and technology platforms that may affect your business.
Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ
Instagram announced it is launching a beta shopping program with over 20 beauty and fashion brands, including direct-to-consumer players, in which it would test the ability to shop, check out and manage orders within the app. (Digiday) Watch this space. As Facebook looks to link Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, commerce is a play that puts it on par with WeChat, the app from Tencent in China that is a Swiss Army knife of services.
Twitter is cracking down on API abuse. If customers primarily use the data to serve business customers as a B2B tool, like for customer service or social media monitoring, they’ll have to pay to enter a commercial licensing agreement with Twitter with a custom price based on usage. Twitter refused to even specify the range those prices fall into. (TechCrunch) If data is the new oil, expect to pay.
Pinterest filed for its IPO, speeding up the process to race to market. The company will be PINS on Nasdaq. The company reported a $63 million net loss on $756 million in revenue for 2018, compared to a $130 million net loss on $473 million in revenue for 2017. (Axios)
The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them. Vɪᴅᴇᴏ
Disney officially completed its $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox, a move that transforms the entertainment and media industry. (AdWeek) The impact of this deal should not be understated. Disney is a media juggernaut, now with a 30 percent stake in Hulu, ownership of Twentieth Century Fox, FX, National Geographic, ABC, ESPN, and the catalogs of Marvel, LucasFilm, Pixar, and Disney proper, to name a few. When you wish upon a star...
Program of the Week: "Tally," the first season of Over My Dead Body is a seven-part series from Wondery that looks at the "perfect" couple, two lawyers whose relationship ended in a bitter divorce and the husband's murder. Throw in Miami-area gangsters, an overly possessive set of in-laws, and you've got yourself a real-life murder mystery.
If you're not already, please subscribe to The Full Monty podcast, 7 minutes of weekly business commentary, many times with a historical or literary twist. It's like Paul Harvey for business. New episodes every Wednesday.
Try this at home: "Alexa, play the latest episode of The Full Monty."
Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more. Pʀɪᴠᴀᴄʏ / Sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ / Hᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ
Why is there so little tech regulation? Politicians are reluctant to disrupt the enormous wealth creation machine that technology has turned out to be. (The Register)
I'm pleased to be heading to the #AdobeSummit as an Adobe Insider, courtesy of Adobe.
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.
The 1922 book The Fourth Dimension and the Bible by William Granville is a fascinating example of the intersection of science and religion. In this case, Granville explored the more mysterious aspects of the Bible through the rigors of pure mathematics, using the terminology of C.H. Hinton, who visualized this spatial dimension in "Tesseracts." (The Public Domain Review)
A history of the humble milk crate, and the story of this commonly stolen type of container: how it became an icon of storage and design, and the target of tough legal regulations—and how those regulations have started to backfire. (Tedium)
Correction fluids have improbably outlasted the typewriter and survived the rise of the digital office. Who Still Buys Wite-Out, and Why? (The Atlantic) I think I smell a good story...
Top image credit: Ulysses and the Sirens by John William Waterhouse, 1891 (Wikimedia Commons - public domain)
The practice of ethics seems to have been forgotten – or perhaps ignored – as technology has improved. At every turn, we seem to find examples where someone realized they could do something without stopping to ask if they should.
Further, the long-lasting and wide-ranging impact of technology is not fully understood. We're only beginning to see the dangers that lie ahead. Who's at the helm to steer the ship through these rocky ethical shoals?
“I think technology really increased human ability. But technology cannot produce compassion.”
I'm not pulling any punches with the lack of ethics in some tech companies; how CMOs are using A.I.; fixing the robocall problem; the cost of autonomous vehicles is a concern; social video ads need your attention; a social media influencer study worth noting; some conditions in Amazon warehouses are brutal; Facebook's rough week; the hottest chat app for teens is...; the significant podcast statistic hiding in plain sight; the Spotify-Apple battle royale; phone numbers aren't good authentication data points; a new take on the data/oil analogy; your spouse doesn't know you as well as someone else; how museums are rethinking the way they collect art; and more in the A Question of Ethics edition of The Full Monty for the week of March 18, 2019.
The Full Monty makes you smarter faster, by curating essential digital 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.
Scott Monty Strategies leverages my time as an executive at Ford Motor Company and the counsel I've been giving to brands and agencies since. I've worked with digital communications teams, customer service leaders, and C-level executives at companies like Walmart, McDonalds, T-Mobile and IBM on issues related to strategy, crisis communications, customer experience, and digital, social and content strategy. I welcome the opportunity to explore a relationship with your team.
Let's have an introductory chat. Or maybe you'd just like to pick my brain for an hour.
Top Story
"All the world's a stage"
— William Shakespeare (As You Like It)
The world saw the impact of a terrorist unleashed in two mosques in New Zealand late last week. Rather than try to describe the situation in my own words, I'll borrow from The New York Times:
"On Friday, a gunman strapped on a helmet camera, loaded his car with weapons, drove to a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, and began shooting at anyone who came into his line of vision. The act of mass terror was broadcast live for the world to watch on social media."
The original video was removed within the first hour, but by then, the damage was already done. Around the world, people copied and uploaded the horrific video to their own accounts and to additional platforms. And the tech companies had difficulty in taking them all down.
The A.I. that they've developed was too slow in flagging and shutting down violent videos. Some will say, "That's just how A.I. works. It's easier to match to known and expected things." Maybe so. But share a nipple on Instagram or a copyrighted song on YouTube and it'll get yanked immediately. Not to mention that Facebook says it can now detect revenge porn automatically.
The sad reality is this:
Tech companies don't care enough about curbing hate speech and violence. If they did, they'd have made this a priority.
“The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.”
– Albert Schweitzer
Tech companies have engineered a reality in which conspiracy theories and hate are allowed to fester and then go viral, both online and in real life. The power they have unleashed is beyond their comprehension (or at least their expectation). But hate and anger is what fuels the social web. And that drives clicks.
We've long believed that with great power comes great responsibility. And yet Mark Zuckerberg — who has operated Facebook by apology — wants to control the encrypted conversations of nearly a third of the world's population.
At some point, we need to hold such companies to account — not from a regulatory perspective, but from an ethical and human angle. Where is their moral compass?
At this point, their True North seems to be profitability and user growth. They worship at the altar of the golden calf. Sadly, the only way they may pay attention is from an exodus of users and advertisers.
Speaking of exodus, that's the book in the Torah and Old Testament that includes a story about the people worshiping a golden calf while waiting for Moses to return with the Ten Commandments.
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: Garrit de Wet painted The Adoration of the Golden Calf in the first half of the 17th century to memorialize the scene described in Exodus in the Torah and the Old Testament, in which Aaron and the Israelites constructed a golden calf to worship while Moses went to Mount Sinai, from which he eventually descended with the Ten Commandments.
Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
The latest in A.I., machine learning, and bots; mobility and autonomous everything. Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ
CMOs are using A.I. primarily for personalization and predictive analytics. See what else they've got planned. (Marketing Charts) As with any kind of machine learning, the more data you have to work with, the better the system will get.
Robocalls are a growing problem. If only we could make the FCC care a little bit more about fixing it. (Last Week Tonight) Warning: strong language. And strong ideas.
If driverless cars are going to change the world, they need to be affordable. (Guardian) As with any cutting-edge technology, early versions are quite expensive. When Henry Ford introduced the Model T and a desire to create transportation for all, it took 10 years to get the price to drop.
The CDC is opening an investigation into e-scooter injuries. "Preliminary observations from the study found that the vast majority of injuries — 98 percent of them — happen to riders who aren't wearing helmets." (Engadget) Just a friendly reminder: if you're using a scooter, please wear a helmet.
Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy
Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.
The psychology behind brand storytelling should be apparent by now. Creating empathy and using social proof are helpful in that regard. (AdWeek) But all too often, brands forget this: don't always make it about you.
And if you're going for empathy, the link between brand and leadership means connecting with your heart. How do you do that? (Foster Thinking)
If you work in influencer relations, you'll want to download this social media influencer study from Trust Insights that looks at engagement by platform, and by audience size. (Trust Insights) Bottom line: larger audience means less engagement.
Are influencers ignoring your emails? There's something you can do about it. (Agility PR) I receive a lot of pitches; one bit of advice is this: please take the time to read and understand the people whom you're pitching. Don't cut and paste.
Sign up for email updates
Retail Apocalypse
Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.
The Amazon Diaries is a series that contains stories from workers at every level of the Amazon empire. This is the story of the relentless misery of working inside an Amazon warehouse. (One Zero) This is a serious issue, and one that we as consumers don't have much control over. Perhaps as you consider your next Amazon purchases, consider bundling them rather than making multiple small orders, as a start.
If you haven’t taken a moment to recommend The Full Monty in the past month, please find a couple of minutes. Three effective tactics (do one, two or all three): 1. Share the URL smonty.co/fullmontysub with a group of your friends at work, a community of practice that is relevant, on Slack, a Facebook Group, etc. with a recommendation. 2. Write a review on your blog, LinkedIn or in your column.
3. Tweet a recommendation. You could try this one or create your own.
Platforms
News to know about relevant social media and technology platforms that may affect your business.
Two important Facebook executives are leaving: Chris Cox, the head of product, who has 13 years at Facebook, and Chris Daniels, the head of WhatsApp. And Zuckerberg is taking full control. (Recode) It should be noted that this came directly on the heels of Zuckerberg's privacy/encryption announcement regarding the merging of Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Glad to see someone appears to have ethics.
Twitter is introducing a new 'Subscribe to Conversation' feature to allow users to follow topics of interest. (TechCrunch) Now I'd like a feature that allows me to opt out of people who use the Twitter-equivalent of reply all.
Twitter is getting snappy: when you swipe left on the Twitter timeline, it will immediately open the camera function. (TechCrunch) If this sounds close to Snapchat, you're right.
Oᴛʜᴇʀ
Snap is launching a gaming platform next month. (Cheddar) Gaming is certainly hot, and Snap is smart to capitalize on mobile eyeballs for gaming, when people are away from their gaming consoles.
The hottest chat app for teens is...Google Docs? (The Atlantic) Makes sense. They're not allowed to use their phones in school, but they're in GDocs all day, which has a chat feature. Boom! Teen ingenuity FTW.
Wondery does a masterful job of selecting shows that will work cross-media. In short, if there isn’t a potential to develop a show into another form of intellectual property (a movie or a TV show), Wondery probably won’t back it. (Fast Company) We've recommended a number of their shows here, particularly Business Wars.
Program of the Week: The featured show is Jensen & Holes: The Murder Squad. A cold case investigator and an investigative journalist try to solve a case each week. The twist is that you can help them. The show debuts the week of April 1.
If you're not already, please subscribe to The Full Monty podcast, 7 minutes of weekly business commentary, many times with a historical or literary twist. It's like Paul Harvey for business. New episodes every Wednesday.
Try this at home: "Alexa, play the latest episode of The Full Monty."
Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more. Pʀɪᴠᴀᴄʏ / Sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ / Hᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ
Phone numbers stink for security and authentication. Here's why. (Krebs on Security)
As Lyft, Pinterest, Postmates, Slack and Uber — among some of this decade’s most prominent start-ups — get ready to list on the stock market, investors are preparing to write checks to a new generation of companies created by their workers. (The New York Times)
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.
Citizen data scientists desire to do data science but are not formally schooled in all the ins and outs of the data science life cycle. (ZDNet) With the advent of more machine learning solutions, this means they may not need such formal schooling to discern insights.
The traces we leave on the Web and on our digital devices can give advertisers and others surprising, and sometimes disturbing, insights into our psychology. The Internet Knows You Better Than Your Spouse Does. (Scientific American)
I'm pleased to be heading to the Adobe Summit as an Adobe Insider. And you can join me — just use the code S19SMPC to save $200 on registration or watch the live keynotes here.
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.
Ramin Djawadi may not be a household name, but you've most likely heard his music. He's the composer for Game of Thrones and this is how his music helped make the show a hit. (The Atlantic) Side note: he's also behind Westworld.
Comedian isn’t the first word you associate with Machiavelli. Most familiar today as the godfather of Realpolitik and as the eponym for all things cunning and devious, the Renaissance thinker Niccolò Machiavelli also had a lighter side. (The Public Domain Review)
With storage spaces filled with works that may never be shown, some museums are rethinking the way they collect art, and at least one is ranking what it owns. (The New York Times) No, the Marie Kondo effect hasn't reached museums, but they all have limited space, and bequests and gifts make it difficult to manage. They have to make some hard decisions.
“I regard it as a criminal waste of time to go through the slow and painful ordeal of ascertaining things for one’s self if these same things have already been ascertained and made available by others.”
—Thomas Edison
Top image credit: The Adoration of the Golden Calf by Gerrit de Wet, first half of the 17th century (Wikimedia Commons - public domain)
For the extremely ambitious, too much is never enough. The battle on the field of commerce is a game to be won at all costs, crushing the competition at every turn.
Occasionally, the business world is met on the battlefield by a general who is a titan of industry. Who knows more about his industry than anyone else, including the loopholes and hidden opportunities that are exploitable.
John D. Rockefeller was just such a man. And a century later, so is Mark Zuckerberg. Is Facebook on a collision course with regulatory and anti-trust authorities?
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