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- Must Reads 253
Good Morning Must Readers, this week's themes are:
Partnerships 🤝 - how big companies are leveraging more brands (& personalities) to validate and sell more
AI 🤖 - Humans review bots work, why this is going to be future for a long time coming
Brand 🥤 and rebranding - how brands are shuffling their pack to improve performance
Hacks 💻 - How a DNA company hack has been kept quiet but the impact is so high
Emojis ⛑️ - the new emojis is due to come out
👋 As a reminder: I’m a coach and advisor. I'm coaching a CMO, I'm helping to guide a company into direct-to-consumer offerings & advising two startups. Recently I worked with a COO on strategy and culture and just finishing up coaching an exec team on how to improve their company's performance and their workplace culture. >> Let’s work together hit reply or email me [email protected]
>> Ten Ways Hybrid Work Hasn't Worked 🏢- Hint it's bad decisions and misunderstanding what the office is and is not. If you’re not going to be deliberate in making the office environment better, then you’re already losing.
>> Shady Religious Fined 💵 - Usually we blame corporations for obscuring money but frequently it can be religious organisations, on this occurrence, it was the Mormon church hiding their $32 billion investment portfolio in shell companies.
>> Read my take with Marketing Beat about why cult brand lilt being rebranded isn’t a surprise but an opportunity 👇
>> The New Hoops To Jump Through 🤨 - Interviews are getting longer, with more rounds and quirk and it's not always a good change. Many companies are struggling to hire and from my recent coaching, I've uncovered it is often it's because of poor processes, unsure of what you actually want and understanding asking the candidate to do more isn't going to uncover the perfect candidate! > Related read - Not hiring? Coach...improve with interview training & practise internally
>> Airbnb x D'amelio 🪩 - When Airbnb do partnerships they go big and this partnership with the D'Amelio sisters (Hulu has likely been part of this to promote their hulu/Disney+ show) proves they know the audience they need to grow into. Airbnb had their most profitable year last year but their advertising to find hosts demonstrates their fear of hosts leaving when many hosts struggle to make money from the system.
>> Mercedes & Google "Supercomputer" 🚘 - Partnerships are now being used as an additional validation factor as well as a sales factor. Google and Apple are fighting out to be the OS for cars (alongside Apple's ambition in creating an apple car) and it looks like Google is winning out entry-level or the higher-end manufacturers. So, the question moving forward, would Google integrated into your car help you invest in a super car with a supercomputer (I'm not sure Google maps with turn-by-turn navigation, Google Assistant and integrated YouTube would be enough)
>> How Raters Are Keeping AI In Check 💪 - I have 3000 words draft written about the future of search and why chat isn't going to for the short or mid future and this article lands the message in a TLDR way, each training model for AI needs humans to keep it in check, unfortunately, raters are being paid minimum wage and it's commonplace for silicon valley giants. > Related Read: Coca-Cola joining the AI hype train
>> The Future Of Sponsorship In 🇺🇸 Sports 🥅 - Cultural differences in sports are clear to see but the globalisation and copying each other's playbooks have really accelerated in the last few years. This is a good look at how American sports is looking to premier league teams for sponsorship inspiration especially the front of the shirt which brings in millions in revenue each season.
>> DNA Database Leak 🧬 - When a database of DNA results and history is breached it shows you anything that is hackable and the implications of a hack like this could be far more worrying than just name and surname or payment details which was the message from the company who's old forgotten database was hacked. Companies must do better!
>> How To Become The Best Podcast Guest 🎙️ - here’s the secret, becoming a good podcast guest is work especially when you’re representing yourself and the business. Here’s a really good q&a on how to improve and get great at being a guest.
>> Cool Tools - (1) Duplicate word finder (2) Artifact // download through my link (this the new news app from Instagram founders, it's based on your preferences and interactions)
🚀 Must Reads takes over 3 hours per week to read, watch, listen & then create for you. Help Must Reads grow by forwarding or copying and pasting mustreads.beehiiv.com/p/253 into your group chat or Slack or Teams ✅
>> Show Your Passion (Steve Jobs To Pepsi CEO)
>> High-End Vending Machines 🇯🇵 - I have two regrets in my career, (1) never releasing a cookbook and (2) not releasing a campaign around a vending machine. In Japan, vending machines are super powerful (coke sells 70% of its sales through vending machines) in Japan. So much so you can get Wagu Steaks in the latest upmarket versions
>> The Aging Artwork 🖼️ - this TikTok highlights the incredible artwork by Spanish painter Sergi Cadenas, the painting ages the subject in front of your eyes
Thanks & have a great weekend,
Danny Denhard (Are we connected on Linkedin?)