Happy Friday, how has your week been?

Here is the most demanded Xmas jumper this year…yes, Greggs sausage roll 🎅 jumper. I’ll let you make up your mind if it is Vegan or not…

This week has seen a number of changes, Nike move away from selling on Amazon to “focus on its own direct sales to consumers” (this is likely to happen on Instagram btw), Disney+ launch in 🇺🇸 to 10m subs in 2 days (in 🇬🇧 it’s not out until March), Motorola brought back the Razr (yes touch screen flip & it looks 🔥) and 6.4m views on the John Lewis Advert (don’t worry more info below)

Did you know in Japan 60%+ of Coca Cola is sold via vending machines…well vending machines have been making a come back and this is pretty smart by Kylie Jenner to place it in Las Vegas airport.

🆕 This Weeks Must Reads 🆕

1. 🔮2020 Vision: The future of social media

2. 💪The Rock talking about anxiety, depression and how he deals with it 

3. 🦸‍♂️Not so Super: The big four supermarkets are losing market share to Aldi, Lidl and Ocado —> This is how Tesco is shifting to a (Prime) subscription business to counter Amazon and smaller supermarkets taking more share

4. Instatok? Instagram is testing aka rolling out tiktok features My 💭: Instagram has become the testing ground for Facebook, why you might ask, it’s all about time spent and advertising spend, alongside serving the next best piece of content for you. Why Brazil? 🇧🇷 Is known for having a largely popular userbase and has adopted new features and networks quickly. Insta has a lot riding on its shoulders, especially understanding the remix culture that TikTok has produced. Zuck was found on Tiktok this week, following celebrities but big TikTok talent. I’d love for him to drop a video on reels I mean TikTok 😂

5. Tasty 😋 : Buzzfeed’s pioneer cookery brand tasty is launching 100% customisable cookbook 

6. Snap, crackle, flop 🤓? Snap has released their version 3 of their AR glasses, this time much more expensive. With Apple announcing their AR headset and glasses for 2022, My 💭: the head and eyes are still the next battlegrounds, some suggesting it will replace the phone. What do you think?—👏 Thanks, Paula for sending over this week’s number 5, 6 & 10 👏—

7. 🇬🇧🎅: £17m has already been spent in the UK on mince pies We have spend £6m on Christmas puddings already

8. 👏Busy is a choice, productive is a skill: Seth Godin dropping another knowledge bomb  

9. Travel Disruption 🛩: Skyscanner is depriortising meta search and going to become a travel marketplace 

10. A Whole Day Flying? 🇦🇺 airline Qantas completed a one-off research flight that carried about 50 people from London 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 to Sydney 🇦🇺 nonstop, clocking up two world records in the process - that’s a no thanks from me

11. Amazon Supermarket 🧀? Amazon going offline again with more food stores My 💭: The move into stores away from books and Whole Foods is a smart play for Amazon as a brand, whether their meals and prices can attract people from their Supermarket of choice (Walmart in 🇺🇸) only time and scale will tell.

12. 😴 Speaking of Amazon, here is an interesting article of what might keep (all of the Jeff’s) Jeff Bezos up at night

13. Up in Smoke🔥? After a rough year, Juul the vape company is reducing its workforce and reducing its spending (mostly from Advertising and Marketing) by $1b next year. My 💭: After losing its CMO and being called out for misleading users of the dangers of vaping, it’s interesting timing to make this shift, tobacco and vaping have always used questionable tactics and created smart advertising to promote, I hope we are starting to see the end of smoke-related products!

14. Good News vs Bad News 📰? Advertising is the new dot com bubble

15. New Social On The Block 🆕: Wikipedia founder released a news focused social network (a slightly better-looking forum) yesterday

16. Internet giants fighting over your 💸Apple led the way, now Facebook and Google are getting into the market..🔵Facebook improving consumer trust or just going after your money?  🕵️‍♂️Google is also reportedly going to offer banking accounts My 💭  for some all in android users this makes sense but as a company that has struggled to become a keep my credit and debit card on record, i’d be surprised if there is a mad rush for this away from fan boys and droids

17. Need organising 👣: Looking for a project or product management tool for a small team or side project? Or just want to organise your home life, Basecamp has come out with a free version. 

18. App Marketing 2020 📲: Here are 5 trends you will want to know about, especially PWA’s - Consumers spend 674 billion hours on mobile

19. Nostalgia 101 👟- Reebok hoping the 25-year logo will bring back the glory days, what do you think?

20. Mistake 🙀: Uber CEO made a big mistake in an interview with Axios this week

Next week I am speaking at the Disruptive Marketing Conference, my deck is called “RIP to The CMO”, it shouldn’t take you too long to work out if you aren’t a first-time reader of the newsletter on why it is called that. Here is one of the slides, I’ll know you will enjoy:

I will be sharing the presented deck, likely in next week’s newsletter. There is a much bigger essay coming…

Christmas 🎄 TV Ads Playlist Yes, I should apologise, you are no doubt sick of them already but here is a list of the 2019 Christmas Ads, Ikea is definitely winning from social sentiment, what is your favourite?

Quote that resonated with me this week

🎧 Podcast Of The Week 🎧 -

😟LinkedIn’s Hello Monday is a great pod series, this has been my favourite in recent time Struggling with anxiety or stress at work, don’t worry you are not the only person, even COO of Vice media (and was deputy chief of staff at the White House)

Have a great week and thanks for reading the Must Reads Newsletter.

Danny Denhard (Follow Me ~ LinkedIn — Twitter — Blog)

Disclaimer: All views are my own, until you click through on the stories.