Weekly Digest of Must-Read Articles (06.09)

Every week we read tons of articles, browse through a variety of editorials and long reads to find the 10 most interesting pieces you can’t miss on any occasion. This week you’ll find out how to build fractional attribution models for your retail brand. Learn why Facebook could soon start hiding the Like counter on News Feed posts. Get inspired by the campaigns that won cold at the 2019 Clios. Read all of this and more in our new weekly digest of 10 articles we’d like you to like.

I Tried to Limit My Screen Time. – The Atlantic

“First, there’s the compulsion of loading the app at all: of flicking its infinite scroll whenever I’m idle, even just briefly—at a stoplight, in front of the microwave, in the bathroom. Then there are the things I see there: the angry or bitter or stupid posts that make me angry or bitter or stupid in turn. And the things I share on the service, too: things I regret, or come close enough to posting to produce a phantom guilt that feels equally bad.” Read the article.

The Ultimate Guide to Sales Metrics: What to Track, How to Track It, & Why. – HubSpot

“While metrics are important in every aspect of any business, they’re especially critical in sales. Sales leaders can’t use their intuition to guide their decisions — not only are they dealing with a huge amount of information, but the risk of failure is high. That’s why successful companies obsessively measure everything about their go-to-market model, sales strategy, and salespeople.” Read the article.

Google Assistant’s Ambient Mode Turns Android Devices Into Smart Displays.  – The Verge

“Google is announcing a new feature for Google Assistant: Ambient Mode. On a few upcoming Android phones and tablets, this new mode will turn those devices into something like a Google Nest Hub (neé Google Home Hub) display when docked. It will show calendar info, weather, notifications, reminders, music controls, and smart home controls. Also like the Nest Hub smart display, it will automatically show a slideshow from your Google Photos account.” Read the article.

Explainer: How Retail Brands Are Building Fractional Attribution Models. – Digiday

“Attribution has been a sore spot for brands, especially those that are diversifying their marketing mixes, for years. There are many different methods to figure out attribution. One that’s increasingly popular is ‘fractional attribution.’ And for so-called DTC brands, which are now diversifying their ad spend beyond Facebook and Google, they’re more likely to allocate their marketing dollars based on a fractional attribution model instead of last-click or click-based attribution model.

But the switch isn’t just as simple as opening up a new tab in Google Analytics. Brands that use a fractional attribution model have to have a solid understanding of the purchasing journey of their typical customer, and how to structure tests when trying to figure out what new marketing models to add to the mix.” Read the article.

The Time Netflix Considered Selling Itself to Amazon for Peanuts. – The WSJ

“It was the summer of 1998. DVDs had been in the U.S. market for a little over a year, and Netflix, the e-commerce company Reed Hastings and I had co-founded to sell and rent them through the mail, had been live for just over two months. I was the company’s CEO, Reed its largest investor.

Netflix was still pretty small, but we had big dreams: We saw ourselves as an alternative to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. The bad news was that we weren’t making much money. And what little money we were making was coming almost entirely from DVD sales, not rentals. I feared that once others started selling DVDs, our margins would shrink to nothing.” Read the article.

Ranking 42 Countries by Ease of Doing Digital Business. – Harvard Business Review

“The World Bank’s annual Doing Business survey has been described by some as the “World Cup” or “Olympics” for governments competing to make their countries attractive to businesses. The ranking measures how easy it is to do business in a country by examining regulatory environments and is enormously influential: it has inspired more than 3,500 reforms across 190 economies; in 2017-18 alone, 128 economies undertook a record 314 reforms.” Read the article.

Now Facebook Says It May Remove Like Counts. – Techcrunch

“Facebook could soon start hiding the Like counter on News Feed posts to protect users’ from envy and dissuade them from self-censorship. Instagram is already testing this in 7 countries including Canada and Brazil, showing a post’s audience just a few names of mutual friends who’ve Liked it instead of the total number. The idea is to prevent users from destructively comparing themselves to others and possibly feeling inadequate if their posts don’t get as many Likes. It could also stop users from deleting posts they think aren’t getting enough Likes or not sharing in the first place.” Read the article.

Only 1 in 5 Organizations Effectively Personalize Content At-Scale. – ClickZ

“According to Seismic’s newly-released report, entitled The State of Enterprise Sales Enablement, 2019, providing a personalized customer experience is both the biggest challenge – and the biggest opportunity – for effective sales enablement. Currently, just one in five organizations effectively personalize their content at scale.” Read the article.

Google's 'Secret Web Tracking Pages' Explained. – BBC

“Google has been accused of using hidden webpages that are assigned to users to provide more information to advertisers about their every move online. The allegation has been added to a complaint lodged with the Irish Data Protection Commission. The tech firm insists it acts in accordance with EU privacy laws. It comes a day after Google was fined $170m (£138m) by a US watchdog for illegally capturing data from children and targeting them with adverts.” Read the article.

These Are the Campaigns That Won Gold at the 2019 Clios. – AdWeek

“Looking at the gold winners at this year’s Clio Awards, it’s clear that today’s most celebrated advertising often doesn’t sound like advertising at all. And for consumers exhausted by a lifelong, nonstop blitz of branded messaging, that’s probably a good thing.

The awards program this week announced 105 golds doled out by its 2019 jurors. Below, you can check out some of the top winners from the U.S. and around the world.” Read the article.