Itโs Friday, so Must Reads is hitting your inbox. ย
Over the last week, I have had three great virtual coffees from across three continents with friends of Must Reads. If you havenโt already itโs a good time to reach out and talk to connect or catch up with old colleagues or smart people.
I know youโre probably over having to zoom (is JOMO of Zoom a thing yet?) with work constantly, Iโve found FaceTime and Google hangouts and Google meets as very stable alternatives.ย
๐Hit of the weekย ๐:ย
Good news rarely gets cut through but the Office and Jack Ryan is reading good news on YouTube and has over 11million views
๐ The Must-Reads Of The Week ๐ย
This week's handpicked Must Reads newsletter is just over 800 words, about a 6 minutes read:
๐ A popular post from last week updated: If you are looking for alternative deliveries in ๐ฌ๐ง here is a great list of places you should order from ๐
๐ฆ How anxiety is affecting your purchasing (โurge to splurgeโ) or nudging you to buy
๐ผ Giphy has created a number of retro background for those video calls you are stuck on
๐ด Are you constantly tired (or more tired) at home while working? Hereโs why
๐ Podcast listening is down up to 20% but other providers say its up -
I shared how Spotify listening is down, as I believe podcasting is too, why? Less commuting, less driving, less training, more time at the larger screen.๐ How the virtual runway is stepping up in high fashion - Who knew The Sims have simfluencers.
Right now there is a huge opportunity to leverage alternative platforms and become creative๐ Beauty brands are fighting hard and using slack and zoom to collaborate
๐ฑ Is tab management and privacy the way Microsoft will beat Google Chrome? Quite possibly, Brave might have a thing or two to say about that
๐ Apple brought the great paid-for app DarkSky weather app
๐ฐ In no surprise, consumer spent a bucket load of money on apps
๐ Lessons from shutting down a startup in a large SaaS company
๐ฒ Snap stories coming to other apps on your home screen
This is a great growth tactic and a smart tie in for Snap and partnersโฏ YouTube is coming after TikTok and will have โShorts appโ by the end of the year
YouTube (brand and community moats) has millions of licensed songs and creators so letโs hope the app launch doesnโt hurt them too much๐ข Zoom released that they went from 10m daily users in January to 200m in March, Zoom has come under a lot of scrutiny about their flaws and bypasses, worth reading about it (Ben Thompson nailed it here), before thinking its the only solution.
๐ง Podcasts to listen to ๐ง
I havenโt had a podcast corner for a while so thought I would treat you with 4
Recode Decode: Kara Swisher & Gary Vee talk the current climate, where you should be creating content and the opportunity is right now
TED Work-Life: Adam Grant and Esther Perel talk about relationships at work, power in relationships & when the time is to walk away
FS Blog: The 5 levels of management with John Maxwell & why some people never get past level 1
Radio Fix: Friend of the newsletter Simon Andrews has a great newsletter and his podcast with Rory Sutherland is a must listen
๐ถ Here is my WFH playlist of diverse mixes from DJโs going live from their homes.
๐ฏ 5 Tips ๐ฏ
Here is a series of tips from friends of the newsletter and all-around smart people. This week is from Digital and eCommerce leader Simon Swan ๐
Take a step back from your marketing and assess what channels are delivering what?
Is your marketing strategy tied to the business vision
Pick up the phone and speak to 5 customers and ask them why they chose your company
Pick up the phone and speak to 2 customers who recently left your company and ask them why?
Go and arrange a WebEx/zoom with someone in your finance dept and ask what are the key business financial metrics that are important and how marketing can support?
โค๏ธYou Made It To The Endโค๏ธ
Thanks again for reading this weekโs Must Readโs.ย
Please go and have a good weekend! ย Take care of yourself, please.ย ย
Danny Denhardย - About Me: 19 years in Marketing, Product,ย Growthย and as a ย Crowdfunding business leader. You will want to see myย RIP to the CMO roleย presentation and I will be speaking at theย Festival Of Marketing,ย read my Q&A interview.ย Most importantly, I write this weeklyย Must Reads Newsletter.ย
๐จ I have limited availability for advisory or consultancy work ๐จ
Disclaimer: All views & recommendations are my own until you click through on the stories.
This weekโs gifs are fromย Giphy.