Fool Me Once — April 1, 2019

Fake news fakes out April Fools' Day; personalizing your drive-thru preferences; ethics needs advisory boards; the future of newsrooms looks bleak; retail requires physical and online together; the latest social network; Facebook's commitment to stopping hate speech; YouTube ignored similar requests; beware TV networks; Spotify to surpass Pandora users; Huawei's engineering is a terrible security hole; the EU's new copyright rules are vapid; Uber tried to stop Lyft every way it could; Airbnb is bigger than Hilton; capturing data for business impact; how coffee led to the downfall of an empire; and more in the Fool Me Once edition of The Full Monty for the week of April 1, 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.

Announcements

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

As you know, April 1st officially marked April Fools' Day. In the last decade or so, brands have stepped up their efforts to fool customers and the public with pranks that range from the subtle to the outrageous.

Thanks to the advent of online scams and the inability by even the most intelligent people to detect fake news, we've seen a bit of a retraction of activity. Many people have expressed disdain or dread at the date, even vowing to remain off of social media for the day. In the U.K., government officials even asked media outlets to refrain from publishing traditional spoof stories on April 1.

This is nothing new for humans. We've been gullible from the beginning, wanting to believe those who approach us earnestly for help. But fool us too many times, and we become immune to such requests. This is the moral of Aesop's classic The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

Have we become the Internet who cried wolf?

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: "Stańczyk during a ball at the court of Queen Bona in the face of the loss of Smolensk" by Jan Matejko depicts Stańczyk, the court jester during Poland's height. Besides his work as a court jester, he has been described as an eloquent, witty, and intelligent man who used satire to comment on the nation's past, present, and future. His usual mirth is gone, as he is deep in thought following the news that Poland lost the city of Smolensk to the Grand Duchy of Muscovy (Russia).

Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

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

The Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest society of computing professionals, announced that Drs. Hinton, LeCun and Bengio had won this year’s Turing Award for their work on neural networks. (New York Times)
McDonald's is acquiring personalization company Dynamic Yield, in an effort to customize its drive-thru menus. The menu diplays will change based on the weather, traffic, and time of day and can be customized based on what you've ordered before. (TechCrunch, Vox) McDonald's going high-tech is part of what it needs to remain competitive; how franchisees respond will determine whether this is a viable plan.
Nvidia's latest A.I. software turns doodles into landscapes. This is the beginning of what A.I. could do to art. (The Verge)
Google has assembled an external advisory board to monitor whether Google violates its own ethical principles. The group is mostly academics. (The Verge) This is a step in the right direction regarding Big Tech's problems with ethics.
The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to A.I. in Marketing is a free online resource (no download needed) with 100 articles, videos, courses, books, vendors, use cases, and events to dramatically accelerate your artificial intelligence education. (Marketing A.I. Institute)
It's ecosystems, not inventions that change the world. (Digital Tonto) A good reminder that innovation comes in steps.

Aᴜᴛᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴜs / Mᴏʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

When it comes to autonomous vehicles, what's the acceptable death rate? Vision Zero in Sweden has an idea, and it involves makers of vehicles and roadways taking responsibility. (Automotive News) It's an interesting concept, given that vehicles are a leading cause of death today, and that safety should be paramount to any vehicle developer. Having consequences connected with actions is an important concept.
Manhattan is implementing congestion pricing, the first such city in the U.S. to charge a premium for vehicles in particularly busy areas of the city. The proceeds would help to underwrite subway repairs. (New York Times)

Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

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

Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ

Paid media have always driven conversations about brands. But now there's a shift in which paid media are responsible for the most word of mouth in 2018. (Marketing Charts)
Amazon is launching mobile ads for video, threatening Facebook and Google. (Denver Post)
Adobe is rethinking the customer experience and showcases how brands and experts are transforming customer experience management. (Adobe)

Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

The Plain Dealer is laying off about a third of its unionized newsroom staff. A Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor statistics from 2008 to 2017 found overall newsroom employment dropped nationally by 23 percent and in newspaper newsrooms employment dropped by 45 percent. More than 2,400 media jobs have been eliminated so far this year, according to Business Insider. (Cleveland.com) The future of the news industry is in jeopardy, largely due to online offerings. Please support your local news organizations.
If you'd like to see a CEO self-immolate on social media, look no further than Elon Musk. (Agility PR) While he's incredibly engaged with customers, he also damages his company by ignoring legal and regulatory requirements for publicly-listed companies.

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.

Wayfair will open its first full-service retail store in early fall at the Natick Mall in Natick, Massachusetts. Shopping there will be a "seamless, connected experience," and shoppers will be able to buy directly in-store or have items shipped to their home. (Retail Dive)
With the growth of online retail at an all-time high, it would seem that there's no future in brick-and-mortar stores. However, stores still matter in the digital age. (eMarketer) With ecommerce becoming so ubiquitous, physical retail matters more than ever.
Even direct-to-consumer companies are feeling the pinch. This VC thinks the DTC market is overcapitalized. (Dididay)

Platforms

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

There's a new social network that isn't new at all. The one with the best conversion rates and engagement. (New York Times) One might argue it's not that social either. But it's effective.
Almost one-fifth of an average email’s total opens occur within the first hour of sending. Opens slowly decrease after the first hour, to the point where a little more than half (51%) of emails are opened by the 7th hour after they have been delivered. (Marketing Charts)

Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ

Mark Zuckerberg wrote an op-ed piece calling for governments and regulators to help run his own company and the Internet. (Washington Post) Some may view this as Zuckerberg doing the right thing; others may view it as an act of desperation, knowing full well that it's beyond his (and thus anyone else's) capability. In other words, things are off the hook — which is appropriately, exactly what Zuck wants to get off of.
Facebook wants to create a new section dedicated to news. (Recode) Undoubtedly in response to the site being overrun by news, fake and otherwise.
Regardless of where one sits on the political spectrum, Facebook and YouTube get a lot of heat and Instagram is getting a pass. (Six Pixels of Separation)
The U.S. government charged Facebook with housing discrimination due to its ad targeting system. (The Verge)
Facebook is taking a strong stand against hate — specifically white nationalism. The network says that it will ban "praise, support, and representation" of white nationalism. (Facebook Newsroom)

This comes after a report following the New Zealand shootings that found that neo-Nazi groups were allowed to remain on Facebook because "they do not violate any community standards." (The Independent)

WhatsApp wants to track forwards to determine virality related to fake news. (TNW)

Tᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ

Twitter is trying to find a way of maintaining its standards while adding context to tweets from politicians and other figures that may be offensive but are important for public debate. (CNN Business) This could be a full-time job when it comes to certain politicians.

Oᴛʜᴇʀ

Is there a way forward for Snapchat? Here are a few suggestions. (Social Fresh)
YouTube executives were warned about the virality of conspiracy theories and other nonesense videos. They ignored such recommendations and opted for engagement, staff say. (Bloomberg) Because clicks = $, and that matters more to Big Tech than societal impacts.

Media

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

Vɪᴅᴇᴏ

Apple held its big media announcement last week with its Apple TV+ offering. Overall, it was well produced, but lacked details. (Axios) Yeah, but Oprah!
Another entry in The Amazon Diaries: TV networks should scare you more than Amazon. Why? They're in service to the advertisers, not the audience. (OneZero)
YouTube is not competing with Netflix and Amazon, as it cancels its plans for high-end series. (Bloomberg)

Aᴜᴅɪᴏ

To BBC or not to BBC? The BBC claims that Google isn't directing people to BBC Sounds (its own podcast service) but to its own. And now BBC has blocked Google from accessing its site. Bottom line: Google Podcasts pulls directly from all podcast providers, giving them equal access to data and listeners. (Podnews) Really, BBC?
Anchor launched a new "analytics suite" for both Android and iOS mobile devices. (RAINnews)
According to a forecast on digital music listeners, Spotify will surpass Pandora in terms of users by 2021—one year sooner than predicted last year. (eMarketer)
Spotify acquired true crime studio Parcast to expand its own podcast content. (TechCrunch)
Google is auto transcribing podcasts and saving that metadata for search. (Android Police)
Program of the Week: This week's show is American History Tellers from Wondery. Every part of your life — the words you speak, the ideas you share — can be traced to our history, but how well do you really know the stories that made America? The events, the times and the people that shaped our nation.

If you don't already, please subscribe to The Full Monty podcast, 7 minutes of weekly business commentary, many times with a historical or literary twist. What's past is prologue.

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

SPONSOR

AMI's Account Executive Bootcamp

Interested in a sponsorship? As one of the leading marketing newsletters, you could be reaching thousands. Get in in touch!

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 U.K. slammed Huawei because its engineering is so bad that it has inadvertently left huge national security holes in its devices. (Bloomberg)
When Max Vest found hidden cameras in his Airbnb late at night, he dressed, grabbed his things, and headed for the door. One problem: the man allegedly recording him was in the next room. (The Atlantic)
The E.U. approved copyright rules over the objection of activists. New rules will require tech platforms to sign licensing agreements with authors, musicians, and news publishers if they want to post their content online. One component of the new law, called the “link tax,” would require sites like Google News to pay a fee when summarizing a story and linking to it. (Axios) They'll also have to proactively remove unlicensed copyrighted material from their platforms instead of waiting for complaints to roll in before acting. And you thought Brexit was a disaster?

Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

Uber tried to corner capital markets and squeeze out rivals with aggressive tactics. Despite this, Lyft survived and launched its IPO. (Wall Street Journal)
Uber slashed per-mile pay from 80 cents to 60 cents in Los Angeles County and parts of Orange County and now Uber and Lyft drivers there are planning to strike. (Los Angeles Times)
Showing no likelihood of slowing its dominance, Uber acquired Mideast ride-hailing company Careem for $3.1 billion. Key to this deal: Careem gets to keep its branding and app, which are highly valued in its home countries. (Associated Press)
More monthly subscription options are coming to Dallas, Las Vegas, New York, and San Diego, as Uber brings its Ride Pass service to these cities for $15 a month. (9to5Mac)
WeWork doubled its revenue in 2018. Unfortunately, it also doubled its losses. (Axios) So how does WeWork begin to break even or make money?
Consumers spent more on Airbnb than on Hilton last year, giving the home-sharing company a 20 percent share of the consumer lodging market. (Recode)

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.

Do you know if your social media marketing is working? Wondering how best to report on your efforts? Try 10 metrics to track when analyzing your social media marketing. (Social Media Examiner)
What you measure should reflect what the business needs and what your executives value. How to capture data to make business impact. (KDNuggets)
When it comes to data science, there's no reason we can't take a similar approach that we do for other areas of the business, such as a design thinking mindset for data science. (Towards Data Science)

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.

Kahve was a favorite drink of the Ottoman Empire’s ruling class. Little did they know it would one day hasten the empire’s demise. (1843) Time to switch to decaf.
The mass extinction of dinosaurs has long been a mystery. The fabled 'asteroid theory' has long been assumed, but one paleontologist may have finally unlocked the secret behind the day the dinosaurs died.
If procrastination isn’t about laziness, then what is it about? (New York Times) I'll let you know as soon as I do this other thing...
Millennials are killing everything! Or so the pundits would have you believe. Here are 12 industries that experts say Millennials are killing. (CB Insights)
This is nothing new. Generations have been at war for years. (Timeless Wisdom)

Top image credit: Stańczyk by Jan Matejko, 1862 (Wikimedia Commons - public domain)

Tuesday, April 2, 2019