Brands are spending more money than ever on influencer marketing, and it's poised to go even higher in the next two years. But are they getting their money's worth?
In some cases, influencer marketing has devolved into a transactional numbers game. It's time to change that, recognizing the universal truth that drives interaction.
The Paul Harvey effect; HAL knew what he was doing; Alexa sure talks a good game with shopping; Cox Automotive gets serious about mobility; the intersection of content and digital transformation; customer-centricity is a culture, not a catchphrase; J.C. Penney is returning to its roots; the 2018 Retail Forecast for footwear; Facebook is making some Page changes; Twitter debates its role in Big Tech and society; the psychological hold tech companies have on us; Spotify tests ad skipping; Google is spying on you, perhaps without your consent; NYC cancels its ride; the only thing shared with the sharing economy was false hope; using marketing data to power other efforts; being seen in a positive light and exuding more kindness; plus the podcast pick of the week and more in the Now With Less Audio edition of The Full Monty for the week of August 13, 2018.
The Full Monty exposes you to virtually everything you need in business intelligence at the top of 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.
Thank you so much for your feedback last week. It made me realize that, despite being on vacation, this is a service that's valued by so many of you. So, here we are. I'm tanned, I'm rested, and I'm ready. How about you?
The moral debate over which content to keep or ban rages on at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms. It's been covered by plenty of news sites and pundits, and there's nothing more to add here (other than the links in the Platform section below).
But I'd like to point out that I've rebooted The Full Monty as a show (the audio edition). It's now under five minutes long, and is designed to be something like a business version of Paul Harvey. Harvey, the inveterate radio man, had three daily broadcasts: the five- and 15-minute version of News and Comment, and The Rest of the Story. Google him – or simply click on that link above to get a quick sense of his style.
The Full Monty airs every Wednesday and is available across a wide variety of audio platforms; plus, you'll receive an update via email if you're on this list.
I'd be grateful to have you as a listener, and even more grateful if you gave me feedback on what you hear. Stand by for the next episode of The Full Monty, and I'll see you on the internet.
The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and blockchain, mobility, and autonomous everything.
Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ
Your brain is an incomprehensibly complicated, elegant and beautiful work of art and engineering, the product of 4 billion years of chemical, physical and electrical computation on a massively parallel system known as the evolution of life on earth. From the WSJ: Should Artificial Intelligence Copy the Human Brain?Can it?
Only 2 percent of people who own an Alexa-enabled device have used it for shopping, and 90 percent of those who have used it for shopping in the past used it only once. Alexa sure talks a good game...
Automotive juggernaut Cox Automotive is bringing together its investments and solutions supporting the future of mobility into the newly-formed Mobility Services Group. Part of the announcement included the acquisition of Clutch Technologies.
Amazon announced open source Alexa Auto SDK, available on GitHub, to let automakers integrate Alexa into cars and infotainment systems. Can't wait to be driving and hear "I'm afraid I can't do that."
IIHS tested Level 2 autonomous vehicles and found that they're not all the same. Adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, and braking were tested; see how BMW, Volvo, Tesla, and Mercedes-Benz compare.
Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy
Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.
Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.
Times are seemingly good: low unemployment, spending is up, and earnings reports coming this week from Walmart, Macy's, Home Depot and other retailers. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the American economy, and there's no better indicator for how much people are shopping than the financial health of stores.
The most popular, searched-for brands, types of footwear, and retailers for the 2018 Retail Holiday Season. Discover the optimal weeks to begin your most aggressive marketing and advertising to maximize your ROI and sales impact. Download it now.
I'm doing something different in the middle of the newsletter.
Want to know what 500 marketers (budgets up to $10 million) believe and how those beliefs influence their behaviors when it comes to hiring and firing agencies just like yours?
And here's a must-read thread from an employee at Twitter, including this: "We are not a government. We do not need to be neutral. The feeling that we are making the tough, right call by remaining neutral is wrong. Our inaction is suppressing voices - disabling conversation."
The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.
Vɪᴅᴇᴏ
How big theaters are surviving big tech via Sara Fischer. Bottom line: they’re still on the leading end of distribution – they’re in control. And many of them have changed what they can about the experience: reclining seats, assigned seating, free refills on popcorn & soda, dining, alcohol...
An exclusive interview with Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify. He talks about Apple, Netflix, Facebook, and the future.
Program of the Week: Our pick this week is Bad Science. Each week they pair a comedian with a scientist, to break down the scientifically inaccurate elements of popular movies and TV shows. Warning: There will be spoilers. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.
Privacy / Security / Regulatory
Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more. So many stories in this section this week – more available in our Flipboard magazine.
Banks and retailers use technology to weed out automated attacks and suspicious transactions, but others are going significantly further, amassing tens of millions of profiles that can identify customers by how they touch, hold and tap their devices. Swipe left.
The New York City Councilvoted to cap ride-hailing services for at least a year, to help taxi drivers recover and limit the number of vehicles clogging city streets.
Related: we need more kindness in the world, more people who hold us up, not tear us down. Do me a favor and check out my friend Harry Cohen's movement: Be the Sun, Not the Salt – the heliotropic effect.
Do you like what you see here? Please subscribe to have trends on digital communications, marketing, technology and business delivered to your inbox each week.
Part of my focus lately is to re-energize my speaking practice. I'd be glad to speak to your organization or at your event. Feel free to contact me to discuss it.
When you spend so much time to get your messaging right, honing it to the perfect phrase that's repeatable and understandable, it can be a complete waste of time if employees treat customers in a way that negates it.
A century-old company provides a perfect example of how culture is communicated and demonstrate to and through every customer. And it serves as a reminder as to how far certain companies still need to go today.
What matters to the world's most successful company; judging your personality based on eye movements; voice is changing everything; the auto industry is extremely difficult to disrupt; the human side of digital transformation; CMOs are concerned with data breaches more than ever; avoiding fraud with influencers; as Amazon and Walmart battle, consumers win; Facebook and Instagram want to help you spend less time with them; the digital arms dealers of the modern age; MoviePass may be a passing fad; the manifesto for growth for podcasts; behind the scenes with a Twitter troll; Uber and Lyft try to make nice with NYC; the CDP craze; too much STEM and not enough humanities could be damaging; plus the podcast pick of the week and more in the Secret Weapon edition of The Full Monty for the week of August 6, 2018.
The Full Monty exposes you to virtually everything you need in business intelligence at the top of 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.
Hey – one quick thing: the newsletter may be on hiatus next week. This is a busy one for me, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to gather the links to do what I do.
I'll determine a course of direction based on YOUR feedback, and I'll know if you do one of two things:
There was lots of celebration in the tech industry last week, as Apple's earnings announcement coincided with its stock valuation of more than $1 trillion, making it the first company ever to reach that milestone.
You'd think there was celebration in Cupertino as well. Interestingly, Apple CEO Tim Cook calmly reminded employees not to be distracted. He thanked them for their service and honored them as the reason Apple is so successful.
"While we have much to be proud of in this achievement, it’s not the most important measure of our success. Financial returns are simply the result of Apple’s innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values."
More thoughts on the importance of a simple message and the secret weapon in every successful company's arsenal in Episode 41 of The Full Monty podcast, airing this Wednesday. If you'd like to follow along with the rest of this commentary, please be sure to subscribe on the player of your choice.
The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and blockchain, mobility, and autonomous everything.
Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ
Tractable is using A.I. to assess damage from auto accidents, which could help speed up insurance payouts. The London-based company developed technology that can identify car damage using only images, to determine which parts need to be repaired and automate the appraisal process.
Tech's next biggest thing: "hearables" – the voice assistants that are baked into your phone and increasingly finding a way into your home. Google, Amazon, and Apple all have high-priority projects that are tied to voice technology.
Decreased price versus inflation, low margins, better vehicles, and other reasons make the auto industry extremely difficult to disrupt. Even if you are Elon Musk.
Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.
Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ
While everyone stresses over the technology behind marketing, let's not forget about the human element: "not focusing enough on the human side of digital transformation and [instead focusing on] tech-enabled marketing" is a major oversight. Couldn't agree more.
"Digital transformation" is a misnomer. That makes it sound like it's all about systems. Intelligence transformation represents what needs to happen: continuous learning and evolving.
Christopher Penn's The End of Digital Marketing sounds like it might be one of those click-bait headlines that overstates a position. But the truth is, it's a practical look at what we're dealing with in marketing today.
Perhaps it's time to try a microinfluencer: marketers are taking more interest in microinfluencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers. It's not the size of the influencer; it's what they do for you and how they do it: authenticity and engagement.
Social platforms may come and go, but newsletters are immortal. And more certain. Thank you for subscribing to this one.
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 rivalry between Amazon and Walmart is fascinating to watch – and indicates the future of many industries, from cloud computing to streaming media to grocery delivery.
Want to know what 500 marketers (budgets up to $10 million) believe and how those beliefs influence their behaviors when it comes to hiring and firing agencies just like yours?
Some of the results are going to really surprise you.
If you're seeing this, maybe you'd like to see your company's name here too. Let us know.
Platforms
News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.
Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ
Facebook and Instagram realize how well they've designed their platforms. That's why they've announced tools to help you fight your addiction to them: a daily usage reminder, an activity dashboard, and a feature to mute notifications.
Facebook announced that it has identified a coordinated political influence campaign, with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity ahead of November’s midterm elections. Sadly, not fake news.
Twitter said that its smaller network (thanks to its housecleaning recently) is actually good news for advertisers. Why? Because it means access to a healthier, cleaned-up network, rather than paying for views or engagements generated by bots and others.
Two executives have been given promotions at Twitter, aimed at creating more engaging content. They'll work for sports partnerships and news partnerships within the company.
Oᴛʜᴇʀ
Kara Swisher has penned her first op-ed piece for The New York Times. The longtime and erstwhile editor of Recode indicated that the naive or unconcerned Silicon Valley companies are learning at our expense: “Facebook, as well as Twitter and Google’s YouTube, have become the digital arms dealers of the modern age.” Strong and accurate words.
Media
The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.
Amazon and Comcast are partnering to bring Amazon Prime videos to X1 customers. It means potentially fewer sales of Fire Sticks or similar devices, but getting viewers to pay for more content is great news for Amazon and getting them to avoid cutting the cord is great for Comcast.
Tom Webster is the VP of marketing for Edison Research and knows a thing or two particularly about audio media. Here's a long but worthwhile post about Podcasting's Next Frontier: a Manifesto for Growth. I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for manifestos.
Program of the Week: Our pick this week is 99 % Invisible, recommended by Tom Shea. It's about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.
Privacy / Security / Regulatory
Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more. So many stories in this section this week – more available in our Flipboard magazine.
Pʀɪᴠᴀᴄʏ / Sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ / Hᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ
As privacy and fake news issues mount, Facebook's security chief is leaving the company. Facebook claims that security is baked into everything now. But not having a centralized leader for it? Seems a little odd.
A Russian troll stole a professor's photo for a fake Twitter profile. The professor decided to message him and ask why he was chosen. Minutes later, he got a reply. A fascinating look at the underbelly of social media hacking.
John McAfee's "unhackable" crypto-wallet was hacked within a week.
Rᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛᴏʀʏ / Oɴ-Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ
Uber and Lyft are facing deeper regulatory crackdowns in New York City, so they've gone to some extraordinary lengths to try to ingratiate themselves with some of the city powers:
Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.
There is a crisis in the humanities, as the percentage of all U.S. college degrees in those disciplines trends down below 5%. Look no further than the Facebook crisis to understand that we need humanities and STEM majors to make platforms that serve humanity, not the other way around.
When you're known for one thing in the market, and you suddenly begin doing something else, your integrity is at stake, and the market may react negatively. Even if you're doing the right thing.
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What happens when the market knows you for one thing, and you don't deliver on that one thing? Or even worse, when you take your attention off of that one thing and instead focus on doing the right thing?
The answer is, of course, your stock tanks. Seems rather perverse. Perhaps a little integrity is needed upfront so investors know exactly what they're in for.
