You have almost made it, it’s the week before Christmas, chance to have a few days off, indulge in a couple of bigger meals and see your loved ones.

In the penultimate Must-Reads of 2019, I have broken the newsletter down into 4 sections this week, Must Reads, Culture (it’s always the most popular by clicks), Marketing & Growth and Product.

Mariah shot a new version of the video and it came out…I wouldn’t normally share but I’m in the Christmas spirit.

😍 The Must-Reads Of The Week 😍

1. 😲5700-year-old chewing might have uncovered some incredible insights into humans

2. ☹️2010s was the decade the internet lost its joy

3. 👾How the must-have email client SuperHuman uses video game design to make work feel like gaming ~ Brianne Kimmel newsletter is great and well worth signing up to 

4. 🕵️‍♂️Dark Patterns: BBC investigate whether there are really 30 people looking or booked the same flight or holiday

5. 📣 Interesting way to think about: How to win (paid) speaking gigs

6. 🔦A detailed look into Star Wars and Disney’s rebalancing act (and why Marvel has travelled so much better)

7. 📉Why WeWork almost worked and why hyper Growth companies (that don’t make money are attractive)

8. 🗣Alexa start my car, why Amazon is desperate to get inside cars and be the voice assistant on the roadI have referenced this strategic move for a number of months, Amazon and Google are fighting it out to be your assistant and it will take place anywhere it can. It’s smart for Amazon to take the voice assistant fight to the road, IMHO Music and Podcasts might just be the winning link in this one.

9. 💡Why ‘the why’ (and the problem) is so important with generating good crowdsourced ideas

10. 📺Cosmo is teaming up with Netflix and Google to offer a watch party for You season 2 on Boxing DayWatch parties have often been something social networks have tried to introduce and reimagine, it will be interesting to see if the anticipated second season of You will be the moment watch parties hit the mainstream with some Marketing and a little FOMO around boxing day. I am pretty confident Netflix will be happy of the flywheel it will create for them and the show.  

11. 💸Gymshark’s Black Friday - taking you from their downtime (with Shopify being on site) to record-breaking units sold. Gives you a real insight into their operation and the scale they are operating at.

🤙 Culture

Google fired another employee who was helped to organise the walkout and the reason for her firing, using the internal chrome extension to push out the law by the extension. 👎

• Interesting conversation on LinkedIn on what makes a good boss

• Away is seeing more issues and looks like it could be just the beginning

• Pressures from being a great host and being part of the Airbnb economy produced this incredibly sad story of sleeping on a subway

🗣 Marketing & Growth

Instagram is in the process of rolling out its own influencer match making engine (“service”) between influencers and brands. Two things should happen, 1. less emphasis on Instagram advertising and more emphasis on a broader mix of channels and 2. Less focus on the number of followers and uploads and a focus on quality.  

• GrowthHackers released their annual report into the state of growth, maybe more representative of their audience but good takeaways on Growth team makeup and area’s of focus

• Facebook had another issue this week, 267 million phone numbers were stolen. → Facebook is going to advertise at the Super Bowl 🏈 - growth at all costs.. Facebook has been known for growth over everything, this week Buzzfeed’s shows this hasn’t changed and if anything it’s designed that way 

• Coca Cola has reintroduced the CMO role (with Operations added into the mix)

• Another look at why the CMO has a wider remit and is always in a state of flux → if you haven’t already read why the CMO role has evolved and why it’s not controlled by Marketing💯

• Coke also released a limited 1000 insiders club and sold out in 3 hours, scarcity and power of brand evident here

• TikTok and WWE have teamed up to offer official content and offer remixable content → Think TikTok is just a silly app, how about this explainer video, This type of content is blending well on TikTok, blocking out the haters.

• If you are one of the many people loving Spotify’s end of year review, you will no doubt love “The Decade Wrapped”, the new podcast about the last decades musicSpotify has really pushed the world of audio together, music is low investment, podcast requires more cognitive load, a way of blending together and mixing in the nostalgic element is going to ensure this receives promotion from Spotify and you the audience.

• Twitter’s humour has increased recently, asked about why Jack unfollowed Mark Zuckerberg on Twitter (imagine the disappointment) they replied with 🐐 - is this woke?

📲 Product

This week a new game popped up and got traction, it's a photo roulette app allowing 50 players that pick random photos from any phone and shows up for 5 seconds, no risk there is there 👀

• The future of Fintech video (from CBInsights conference)

• Why Amazon and Google basically giving away their smart speakers....”The true cost of smart speakers is our data, privacy, and loyalty.”

• 120 hour week’s were something Marissa Mayer was famous for at Yahoo and Google and now her labs are creating time-saving suites of apps - the advice always says, answer the problem you know you face 😉 

• App Annie data shows Facebook controls the top 4 most downloaded apps since 2010

🤔 Final Thought 🤔

With it being many people’s last day for the holiday break, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for reading Must Reads, I learnt a lot (19 lessons in fact), Christmas is often a time we reflect and clear our heads, I for one know I will enjoy cooking Christmas dinner, reading and listening to numerous audible books. Please enjoy your break, spend time with your loved ones and if you have any feedback or want to discuss more personally happily DM me on Twitter (they are open) or LinkedIn.

👏You Made It To The End 👏

Have a great weekend & 🎅 Merry Christmas 🎄

Danny Denhard - About Me: 19 years in Marketing, Product, Business Leadership and Growth. I recently presented RIP to the CMO role presentation and write this weekly Must Reads Newsletter.

Follow Me on Social ~ LinkedIn — Twitter — Read my Blog - Growth Mentorship

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Disclaimer: All views & recommendations are my own, until you click through on the stories.This week’s gif is of course from Giphy & Lead Image from Instagram.