Artificial Intelligence (AI) is so important a topic these days, and accounts for so much coverage, I’m giving it its own category in the Friday Wrap starting this week. I extract items for the Wrap from my link blog, which you’re welcome to follow. To make sure you never miss an issue, subscribe to my weekly email briefing.

News

Look out Slack. Microsoft unleashes Teams—Microsoft has announced its Slack killer, Microsoft Teams. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calls it a “chat-based workspace” within Office 365, designed to bring teams together for conversation and collaboration. It also unifies Office apps like Word and Powerpoint, Skype, and other Microsoft tools in a single piece of software that work on a variety of devices. Teams also has threaded conversations, something Slack lacks. Slack has bots; so does Teams, and they’re based on Microsoft’s Bot Framework. The takeaway: By most accounts, Slack’s leaders should be very worried. Read more

Need evidence that Slack is worried?—In response to Microsoft’s launch of Microsoft Teams, Slack bought a full-page ad in the New York Times that welcomed its competitor to the enterprise messaging space and offering some “friendly advice.” The takeaway: The open letter seems panicky to me and (as the TNW article points out, it seems Slack didn’t see Teams coming). Slack should also be worried about Facebook Workplace. If you think an independent company that cornered the early market is sure to maintain its hold just by being first, I have one word for you: Meerkat. Read more

But should Slack be worried?—According to ZDNet’s Ed Bott, there’s a huge difference between Microsoft Teams and Slack despite superficial similarities. Slack, he says, is a product while Teams is a Feature of Office 365, which also includes email, Skype, Office apps, and a terabyte of OneDrive for Business storage. Another difference: Slack enables contractors and other outsiders to participate in a team (without paying for a license for outside collaborators).  The takeaway: Bott believes the markets for Slack and Teams are different. That sounds right, for the most part; smaller companies using Slack as a collaboration tool may not have the need to pay more for a suite of tools they don’t really need. On the other hand, all those companies using Slack and Office 365 may just dump Slack in favor of the integrated suite of tools they’re already paying for that now includes a collaboration package. Read more

The perils of election-themed marketing—Starbucks no doubt thought it was creating a campaign that would resonate with everyone on both sides of the American political spectrum. But its green “unity” cup has provoked harsh responses, ranging from accusations of “political brainwashing” and “spreading liberal bias” to threats of a boycott. Starbucks always comes out with a seasonal cup as the holidays approach, and some are upset this one isn’t more overtly Christmas-themed. According to CEO Howard Schultz, the cup was designed as “a reminder of our shared values and the need to be good to each other.” The takeaway: Even if you think your message is noble and appealing to everyone, a divisive political season is bound to produce negative reactions to anything with an election theme. Steer clear. Read more

New YouTube creator tools aim to make it more social—YouTube has introduced new features designed to improve the ease with which creators can build community and recognize their most ardent fans. Creators can “pin” comments to the top of a thread and a comment from the channel owner gets special visual treatment to make it stand out. Creators can also “heart” comments from fans. The takeaway: Anything to improve the cesspool of YouTube comments is welcome, but i especially like giving more control of the community to the channel owner/creator. Businesses that have used YouTube as storage for videos can think about nurturing a fan base. Read more

Live video streaming comes to Kickstarter—Using Facebook Live, Twitter Periscope, or YouTube Live, brands and individuals can live-stream video to anybody about anything. The strength of live-streaming is getting a boost, though, from Kickstarter, which is a more focused venture. Kickstarter Live lets backers and creators interact via live-streaming video. Early testers of the service used it for everything from live product demonstrations to cooking classes. According to TNW, “If potential backers can see a product being used in real-time, they may be more confident that they’ll actually get something for their money.” The intimacy of real-time video can also strengthen the connection between creators and backers. The takeaway: Every company will soon need to assess whether real-time video has a place not just in their strategies for Facebook, Twitter, and the like, but even on their owned properties. Read more

Vine founders release live video app—Like we need another one? Hype is an iOS-only app (so far) from the founders of Vine (those guys whom Twitter didn’t bother to notify they were shutting down) that will go head-to-head with Twitter’s Periscope (not to mention Facebook Live). It’s not just another clone, though. Hype lets users “share a variety of multimedia content into the live broadcast—so, for example, a streamer using Hype can include cameras or videos from their device’s camera roll, blending their live content with stuff they made earlier.” They can also add music and emojis, and they can use video as the background for their video. The takeaway: The features sound nifty, but building audiences that already exist for Periscope (on Twitter) and Facebook Live (on Facebook) will be hard. I expect to see some brands try it out as a way to offer more visually rich broadcasts. ReEad more

MasterCard releases Blockchain APIs—Blockchain is complex and extremely geeky, but here’s the thing: You WILL be communicating to your stakeholders about how it is changing your company’s or client’s business, so you might as well get up to speed. The impact of blockchain will be similar to the impact of the Internet: world-changing. By way of evidence, consider the both MasterCard and Visa are getting involved. Visa has released a B2B blockchain of its own, while MasterCard has developed a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) designed to as experiments for interact with its own internal blockchain to enter into smart contracts and settle payments. The company says more is to come. The takeaway: Go ahead. Unsubscribe from this newsletter because you think blockchain is so far outside the scope of PR and marketing that I’m just being ridiculous. But when blockchain rocks your world in a year or two (okay, maybe three), I want you to let me know so I can say I told you so. Read more

Trends

Brands ride Cubs’ coattails—I’m shocked—shocked, I tell you—to find that brands were quick to send out marketing messages when the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years. Some had a connection to the news, like Nike. A bunch of Chicago-based companies (United, Allstate, Motorola) had legitimate connections to the team. For other brands, though, it was one more example of why real-time marketing is quickly running its course. The takeaway: Will anybody decide to shop at Staples because they tweeted out a W formed from paper clips? Or ride the Long Island Railroad because they shared a picture of a train from 1908? If there’s a connection, fine, I suppose, go ahead and offer up congratulations. If not, your time is better spent on efforts that might convert to sales or leads. Confine your real-time efforts to public affairs issues. Read more

Google’s app store is getting a makeover—The overhaul of the Google Play store is noteworthy because of the rationale: It will accommodate Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, mobile payment options, and wearable devices. The takeaway: A more cohesive and comprehensive apps store will make it easier for Android users to find and install what they need to take advantage of newer and emerging smartphone capabilities. It should also serve as a warning to communicators and marketers that these capabilities are quickly becoming mainstream. Read more

Yogurt company gets customer support for employing refugees—I have been reporting here for years the research that reinforces the importance of companies standing up for societal causes. Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya was receiving death threats for his efforts to hire refugees for his upstate New York factory. Right-wing websites have called for boycotts. But customers are rallying to demonstrate support for Ulukaya. Brandwatch ran its sentiment analysis software and found mostly positive references, while some of the negative messages were intentionally crafted to drown out the truly hateful posts. The brand’s hashtags, such as #RefugeesWelcomne and #BuyChobani—have been trending. The issue could even be translating into sales increases (at least for the short term). The takeaway: The Edelman Trust Barometer makes it clear that customers don’t want companies to sit on the sidelines; they want companies to use their clout to affect social change. It’s personal for Ulukaya, an immigrant himself, and though he has been criticized for being too public with his views, it’s clear his customers appreciate his efforts. Last week I reported on a study that correlated Chobani-like behavior with improved sales. The Chobani case study seems to bear that out. Read more

Native advertising’s star continues to rise—Native advertising will make up 25% of advertising revenues for news media companies by 2018, more than doubling the 11% it accounts for now. The Native Advertising Institute and the International news Media Association surveyed 156 publishers worldwide to arrive at the figure. The study also found that 48% of newspaper media are selling native ad space and 39% more plan to make their space available for native ads. The takeaway: In the PESO model—paid/earned/social/owned—communicators in every discipline should explore the potential of native advertising as a means of expanding reach to the right audiences and building credibility. Be sure to explore the variety of types of native advertising to select those that will best suit your strategy. Read more

One class of native ads may be fading—You see them at the end of articles on all kinds of sites, lists of articles from around the web you may be interested in. They often have little in common with the story you just read or your interests. But they’re a cheap way for advertisers to reach large audiences for not so much money. Some publishers, though, are worried that these ads are turning off readers (especially when they take readers to dodgy websites), leading Slate and The New Yorker, among others, to remove them. Others could soon follow. The takeaway: The industry has a small window of time to get native advertising right, and these “promoted stories” widgets from companies like Outbrain are failing miserably. It didn’t have to be this way. Sharing truly relevant content would have made this category of native advertising desirable rather than a liability. Read more

Research

Data is the new influencer—The power of data to influence the public is growing, according to the first-ever public opinion poll about public attitudes, knowledge, and behavior about data. The study, From Hill+Knowlton Strategies and Research+Data Insights finds that only a third of the public understands data even though most trust it. According to the study, 80% of the public want data to help them identify news sources to trust, 60% want it to help them figure out where to live, and 49% think it can help them pick the right candidate to support in an election. Eighty-eight percent say claims are more persuasive if they’re backed up by data. Among the 36% of Americans who are data-literate, only 6% are data-savvy. These are part of a new class of “data influencers,” having an impact on the attitudes and actions of those around them. The takeaway: Using data to support claims is becoming more important, but equally important is helping educate the public about data in general—kind of like the balancing act marketers are going to have to play with Artificial Intelligence. Read more

The truth about the Dark Web—Watch cyberthrillers and you can be excused for thinking the Dark Web is populated with child porn, drug dealers, and all manner of other illicit and criminal activity. The truth is, according to research from Terbium Labs, more than half of what occupies the Dark Web is perfectly legal. The Dark Web isn’t searchable by Google or other indexers and can’t be accessed with a normal Web browser; rather, you need to use the privacy-protecting browser Tor. According to the study’s authors, “Anonymity does not equate criminality, merely a desire for privacy. The takeaway: Among those using Tor are journalists, human-rights advocates, and political dissidents. Increasingly, companies will also have to account for the desire among many of their stakeholders for privacy. Read more

Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots

CNN Kik bot will keep young users updated on election night—Kik was the first messaging app to offer a centralized place to find chatbots and CNN wants to tap the app’s 13-to-17-year-old user base. The cable news network’s Kik bot will deliver real-time election results along with custom Clinton and Trump emojis, GIFs, smilies, and stickers featuring CNN talent including Anderson Cooper. The takeaway: The 13-to-17 set doesn’t sit in front of a TV watching news, but CNN wants to be their source anyway and sees a bot as a means to make that happen. It’s a strategy worth watching and, if that demographic is important to you, emulating. Read more

Yahoo aggregates its bots—Yep, Yahoo is still around and making some interesting moves as it awaits approval of its acquisition by Verizon. Among them: an app called Yahoo Bots for iOS and Android that serves as a central collection of its various virtual assistants, including Yahoo news, Yahoo Weather, Yahoo Finance, and Blitz (for fantasy football players). More could be added soon. The takeaway: Making it easier to find bots will accelerate their adoption. Microsoft is already launching a bot search engine. Read more

Case studies of marketers using AI are all about brand experience—Feel like a bowl of soup? Specifically, Campbell Soup? You can ask IBM’s Watson for recipes based on the weather where you live, the kinds of flavors you like, and even what groceries are in your fridge and pantry. Sesame Street is employing Watson to produce personalized learning for children. USAA customers can ask an AI-imbued personal assistant called Eva who, for now, can help navigate information but down the road will review and analyze customers’ financial information and make money management recommendations. BMW’s opt-in AI learns about you to help you navigate around traffic, find your parked car, or give you walking directions once you park. The takeaway: Last week I shared a survey of CMOs that found most believe AI will have a greater impact on marketing and communications than social media. These examples should help cement that idea for you. AI is, without question, the biggest thing on the communications horizon. Read more

Twitter enters the bot fray—Twitter is introducing bots companies can use to automate customer service inquiries. The bots will interact within the Direct Message part of Twitter to deliver automated welcome messages and quick replies to basic questions. “Quick replies let businesses prompt people with the ways to reply to a DM, whether by choosing from a list of options or prompting users to enter specific text values,” according to C|Net. The takeaway: Bots represent a technology with clear communication implications. With Microsoft and Facebook among those developing platforms for bot development, and now Twitter offering some basic bot functionality for brands, communicators should explore where bots will play a role in everything from media and investor relations to internal communications. Read more

IBM’s Watson now part of Staples mobile ordering—Mobile is a big part of the future of commerce, but it’s still often cumbersome. Office supply retailer Staples thinks AI can make it easier. By employing IBM’s Watson, customers will be able to “order anytime, anywhere, from any device they prefer, including by text message.” Watson will be able to answer questions and initiate actions like returns. Customers will also be able to speak their order into the phone, which Watson will process. The takeaway: AI will soon be at the heart of all such transactional processes, which will be as easy as Captain Kirk saying, “Computer…” Read more

New chatbots let marketers analyze campaigns—Among the variety of chatbots flooding the market, four are designed to help marketers monitor, analyze, and (in some cases) manage campaigns from within messaging apps like Slack and Facebook Messenger. Simple natural-language queries will allow marketers to conduct their analysis from within messaging without needing to log into the advertising platform. The takeaway: If you think of this category of chatbots as “virtual assistants,” you can start to see the possibility for the vast array of different tasks they can help you accomplish more easily than was possible before. Read more

Microsoft introduces Concept Graph to aid AI learning—Artificial Intelligence enables tools like Siri and Amazon’s Echo to understand an inquiry regardless of how it is phrased. To aid AI in understanding what people mean, Microsoft has released Concept Graph, a database of words connected to concepts. Here’s the idea: People have an advantage over machines in that we already understand a broad range of concepts (e.g., dates, people, objects). We’re able to conceptualize the idea, say, that a hamburger is food or a shirt is apparel. The Concept Graph is designed to help machines understand sentences by providing them with “common-sense computing capabilities.” The database contains 5.4 million concepts. Concept Graph competes with Google’s Knowledge Graph, which contains 70 billion facts. The takeaway: Tools to aid in machine learning are being introduced at a steady clip, signaling a big imminent leap in AI’s functionality. Read more

Virtual and Augmented Reality

A VR e-commerce experience with no headset required—Wrap your mind around this, if you can. Hormel wants you to buy bacon in an immersive VR environment that require neither an app nor a headset. Just visit the site and you can hold the phone up to your eyes for a semi-immersive experience. It works better with a Cardboard headset; Hormel is even distributing a limited number of bacon-scented headsets. To make an actual purchase, you’ll just use your eyes to complete the transaction. The takeaway: I tried it on my laptop, which left something to be desired. When I get back to my office, I’ll pop my phone into my Cardboard goggles and see if it’s better. But admit it: You’re intrigued. And as for VR E-Commerce, expect to hear more about this concept. Read more

Conde Nast tests print-based AR—Conde Nast is the first brand to try HTC’s Vivepaper, a QR-like code printed on paper that triggers a VR headset to display virtual content on top of the paper. A camera built into HTC’s Vive headset sees and tracks your interaction with the page. The concept isn’t new. Companies like Metaio (recently acquired by Apple) did something similar with your phone: Open the app, scan the code on the printed page, and the page came to life with video, extended content, and more. With HTC’s technology, though, you are immersed in a virtual world that includes a slice of the real world: the document you’re holding. Vivepaper will also work for Android and iOS owners using mobile VR headsets like Cardboard. The takeaway: The potential is huge but I wonder how many people are going to scramble to get their headsets to take advantage of it. While some believe we’ll eventually all wear normal-sized glasses that deliver AR, VR, and Mixed Reality, I remain skeptical. These technologies will be big, but people will use them when they decide to take the time, not whenever they happen to see a code on a printed page. At most, they’ll put the publication aside for later and, if they remember, will try it out later. Or not. Read more

Mobile and Wearables

Most Internet access is mobile—It’s official. Mobile devices—smartphones and tablets—access the Internet more than desktops and laptops. StatCounter Global Stats said mobile devices accounted for 51.3% of global Internet usage in October vs. 48.7% for laptops and desktops. The takeaway: This should come as no surprise. We have clearly been headed down this road. But if you needed convincing before, this ought to do the trick. We are rapidly headed to a mobile-dominant communication and productivity environment. Your communication strategies must account for this irrevocable trend. Read more

More Internet use will be mobile next year—Fifty-one percent is nothing. By next year, 75% of Internet use will be driven by smartphones and tablets. That’s the projection from Zenith, a media buying agency (and a unit of Publicis Groupe SA). By the following year, mobile advertising spending will reach $134 billion (more than will be spent on newspaper, magazine, movie, and outdoor advertising combined). The takeaway: That ad projection is a startling wake-up call. And it doesn’t even account for advertising in VR and AR, which is undoubtedly coming sooner than we may think. Read more

Stock Exchange taps Snapchat to attract Millennials—The venerable New York Stock Exchange has found success with Snapchat at reaching Millennials. Banners promoting its account adorn its New York building and has created geofilters around activities. For example, when Yum Brands (which trades on the NYSE) spun off its China assets, the exchange created geofilters covering its own Wall Street building, in Times Square, and at Yum Brands headquarters, where a graphic overlaid videos and images from Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. The NYSE has worked with other companies to create filters for use on the day of their IPOs. Metrics reveal that the strategy has paid off, with huge numbers of people adding the exchange and the brands its content supports as Snapchat contacts. The takeaway: If you want to attract the attention of a younger demographic, you need to use the tools they’re using. They won’t visit your website just because your goal is to drive traffic. And if the 224-year-old financial institution can do it, so can your company. Read more

This week’s wrap image is a photo of Hyptiotes spider wrapping its prey in southern Greenville County, South Carolina, from David Hill’s Flickr account.