👻 Real Friends

Snapchat has rarely compared itself or called out a competitor in its many years (despite being Facebook & Instagram Free Product division), however in their newest campaign they have basically called out Insta and Twitter as they focus on “real friends” and one to one communication rather than spray and pray. Do you agree you should take aim at competitors or concentrate on your own product and sing about it?

🙂 I’d love some feedback, in this quick poll do you prefer longer (more stories) Must Reads? Or the shorter format like below? ==> Vote here <== 🙂

🤩 10 Must Reads 🤩

1. Uber cut their Marketing Team by 1/3 - with Marketing going under Policy and Comms, this is a sign of the future? Marketing being placed under a different department not directly a C-Suite Marketing Leader?

   1. 🎧 Spotify is a company known for winning, but they definitely lost in Video and hardware. What I found interesting was the companies listed who tried to acquire them including Microsoft, Google and Tencent.

   2. 🗞Investment into specific publications has risen recently, The Athletic, The Skift, Glossy have all exploded in popularity, here’s a good breakdown of why and why consumers are deciding to supporting publications - obviously it’s what they are connected to and topics they are interested in.

   3. 💄Birchbox is incredibly popular and here is a longread interview with co-founder and CEO discusses business and “why everyone needs me time” and what thats meant for their business and the beauty industry.

   4. 🦍 This is a fascinating article on debunking the myths that animals and humans are very different and non-primate animals show emotions too!

   5. 😏 NPS is an important business metric most companies live by, I for one think the measurement is broken and can be greatly improved. Here is a good post on why it’s broken.

   6. 🤳Instagram is never not in the news, fortunately there are some tag cleaners who protect and respect (deceased) users by cleaning up hashtags 

   7. 🗺 A detailed look at the new Apple Maps, With look around and collections competing features against Google Maps.

   8. 🆓 The real costs of free returns - is a great read and something we the consumers consider when ordering and returning items online.

   9. 🍽 Naming rights and sponsorship is BIG business, but the upsides are pretty great too. What do you think about the latest - Kraft Heinz is agreeing a 20 year naming rights for $57m deal. Why this is smart? You are mentioned numerous times every game, you are listed on maps and local guides, your brand is shown constantly across advertising of the games and support activities and you develop affinity with the supporter base.

🧠 Thread of the week 🧠

Modest Proposal is one of my favourite smart Twitter accounts, often shares big thinking pieces and reviews business books, this thread below is well worth a read if you are curious about Netflix and their journey. Here is the full Thread available on Threader

❓Question of the week ❓

Is real friends and AR filters enough to get people to love and use Snap? #idontagree

⏯ Video Of The Week ⏯

Simon Sinek is always one of the most clicked stories on Must Reads Newsletters, here is his London show he put on at the turn of the year. It got rave reviews and I can see why:

💡Hack of the week 💡

Did you know you can view any paywalled article on Medium by searching through Twitter and clicking through on the link? It’s an exclusive deal they have and gets around hitting your views limit.

🤔 Final Thought 🤔

Food Delivery: There has been a lot of discussion around food delivery and the food delivery space, Amazon looking to invest in Deliveroo, Uber Eats expanding services (but cutting Marketing team) and proposed Just Eat and takeaway.com merger has got a lot of attention. Deliveroo and Sainsburys are trialling delivering their food directly to your doorstep. Existing powerhouses like Dominos have really stepped up (this is a great explainer ⏯ video on what Dominos has done to win) and leveraged tech and location as their key driver. Food delivery is one of the most innovative verticals I have worked in, the level of insights and details they have is second to none. So the delivery space will be fascinating to watch: - With more mergers and acquisitions, if Amazon has access to the Deliveroo data it will be priceless for them (habit of ordering, food by location, number of orders and preference)- Lower priced options appear (quality unlikely to be hindered, if anything improve)- Continued increase in Ghost Restaurants and Virtual Kitchens to reduce friction on ordering and deliver specific foods - More experiments like McDonald’s takeaway only stores will pop up to compete with food on the go - Ocado steps up their service with M&S (Ocado’s service is second to none) and expand their data sets to improve their automated packing centres (this video is a great explainer) - Healthy food becomes available and quicker to your door (there is a real issue with healthy food being available and delivered quickly and conveniently) We all have “Prime Expectations” (where Amazon Prime is our anchoring bias and expect perfect delivery quickly, cheaply and effectively) with all services now and food is essential, especially when we are demanding restaurant experience from the comfort of our own homes.

Have a great weekend and as always Tweet, LinkedIn message or email me.

Thanks for reading, Danny Denhard - All views are my own.

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