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<ul><li><keyword id="180259" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dentsu">dentsu</keyword>'s new story analysed responses from 1,361 <keyword id="6597439" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="CMOS">CMOs</keyword> across 12 markets on how they are navigating a new kind of recovery.</li><li>The report revealed that despite challenges, CMOs are reclaiming the strategic agenda with a particular focus on product development.</li><li>The biggest challenge facing CMOs is understanding which consumer behaviours will change permanently and which will fall away in the post-COVID environment.</li></ul>A new study of 1,361 CMOs across 12 markets, by global media, digital and creative communications agency dentsu, analyses how CMOs are navigating a new kind of recovery, revealing that, despite a challenging period, CMOs are reclaiming the strategic agenda with a particular focus on product development. More than 450 CMOs from Australia, China, India and Japan were surveyed. The study finds that the number one challenge facing CMOs is understanding which consumer behaviours will change permanently and which will fall away in the post-COVID environment. CMOs report that this is compounded by the difficulty of aligning the business around changing consumer needs quickly enough and falling consumer spend. The study raises concerns that half (49%) of CMOs concede they are basing their response to the coronavirus crisis on strategies that were pursued during previous recessions. Globally, just one in ten CMOs are looking at entirely new strategies. In Asia Pacific, nearly half (46%) in India are using ‘completely’ similar strategies to those pursued in previous recessions, compared to 17% global average. On the other hand, only 6% in China are doing so. It also found that despite the general advice that brands should not ‘go dark’ during times of recession, nearly two-thirds (62%) of CMOs recount that their marketing budgets are forecast to decline or remain flat over the coming 12 months. In Asia Pacific, Australia is the second highest market to predict marketing budget to decline (36%) and Japan is the third highest market anticipating that budget will stay flat (29% vs global average 22%). On the contrary, China is the second highest (56%) to predict budget increases in the coming year. Overall, the study recognises that a new style of marketing leadership is emerging. 'Frontier CMOs' are well placed to manage the recovery and are doing so by focusing on a handful of key strategies that set them apart from the rest: <ul><li>Hyper-empathy: Developing superior consumer intelligence</li><li>Hyper-agility: Rapid development of new messaging, products and services</li><li>Hyper-collaboration: Integration across all elements of the <keyword id="950079" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="marketing-mix">marketing mix</keyword></li><li>Hyper-consolidation: Building resilience across brands and through M&amp;A</li><li>Hyper-transparency: Ensuring purpose permeates all aspects of the business</li></ul> Frontier CMOs are also significantly more likely to be accountable for digital transformation than other CMOs, proving their value and impact to company boards as they navigate the future of their business and industry. <keyword id="1723885" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Wendy-Clark">Wendy Clark</keyword>, Global CEO of dentsu, said: “Exceptional times call for exceptional thinking. The COVID-19 global health crisis has yielded an incisive economic downturn that creates an unknown and largely unpredictable environment for CMOs to navigate. And our survey reveals there is a risk that CMOs are still using existing approaches to manage a challenge that is without precedent.” “However, we also see a new cadre of Frontier CMOs emerging who are leading their organizations into the unknown with confidence. These CMOs are putting consumer intelligence at the heart of their brands, matched by deep integration across all elements of the marketing mix and radical collaboration as a default across their business. Product development is firmly back on the agenda also, in order to deliver helpful consumer experiences and societal progress. These Frontier CMOs are reclaiming the strategic marketing agenda and, instead of buying into the idea that marketing’s role has somehow been denuded, they’re now leading their brands to recovery and growth.” Ashish Bhasin, Asia Pacific CEO of dentsu, added: “The pandemic has significantly accelerated a number of existing trends. What would have taken five years has now only taken five months; it has pushed and forced us to learn. Changes to the workplace such as remote working is an example. With every disruption comes its own sets of winners and losers. It is crucial for CMOs to keep up with the new skills required in today’s new world to ensure success in the discontinuity. We are right in the midst of a change and this is exciting.”

The Covid crisis has led to the emergence of 'Frontier CMOs' who are ensuring recovery by focusing on a few key strategies that set them apart from others: dentsu Report

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated PressPresident Donald Trump's administration has been criticized for separating parents caught entering the US illegally from their children as part of its "zero tolerance" policy.</div></div></div><ul><li>The Department of Homeland Security's press secretary, Tyler Houlton, criticized <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/american-airlines">American Airlines</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/frontier-airlines">Frontier Airlines</a>, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/united-airlines">United Airlines</a> on Wednesday.</li><li>Earlier, the airlines had told the United States government to refrain from flying migrant children separated from their families on their aircraft.</li><li>Houlton said the airlines did not understand US immigration laws and were making decisions based on "a false media narrative."</li></ul> Department of Homeland Security press secretary Tyler Houlton responded on Wednesday to <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/aal-stock">American Airlines</a>, Frontier Airlines, and <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/ual-stock">United Airlines</a> after the airlines said in separate statements they had told the United States government to refrain from flying migrant children separated from their families on their aircraft.Houlton criticized the airlines, saying they did not understand US immigration laws and were making decisions based on "a false media narrative."<div>"Despite being provided facts on this issue, these airlines clearly do not understand our immigration laws and the long-standing devastating loopholes that have caused the crisis at our southern border," Houlton <a href="https://twitter.com/SpoxDHS/status/1009502550427611137">said in a tweet</a>."Buckling to a false media narrative only exacerbates the problems at our border and puts more children at risk from traffickers. We wish the airlines would instead choose to be part of the solution," Houlton <a href="https://twitter.com/SpoxDHS/status/1009502653393621002">said in another tweet</a>.On Wednesday, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/american-airlines-not-transport-children-on-its-planes-2018-6">American</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/FlyFrontier/status/1009488027985596416">Frontier</a>, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/united-american-airlines-not-fly-separated-immigrant-children-on-its-planes-2018-6">United</a> said they had told the federal government they did not want it to transport children who had been separated from their families on their planes.American, Frontier, and United have not found evidence that the federal government had placed migrant children who were separated from their families on their aircraft, the airlines said.President Donald Trump's administration <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-senior-republicans-attacking-trump-family-separation-policy-2018-6">has been criticized</a> for separating parents caught entering the US illegally from their children as part of its "zero-tolerance" policy. Over 2,300 migrant children have been separated from their parents and placed in holding facilities as a result of the policy since early May.</div><div>On Wednesday, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-homeland-security-drafts-plan-to-end-family-separation-2018-6">Trump signed an executive order</a> ending the administration's practice of separating migrant families, but maintaining the "zero-tolerance" policy.</div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-cmo-marc-mathieu-samsung-cmo-2018-6">'We knew we needed to completely rebuild brand trust': Samsung CMO Marc Mathieu on Samsung's biggest ever brand crisis</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Homeland Security press secretary fired back at United and American Airlines after they told the US government not to fly children separated from their parents on their planes

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Lucy NicholsonA Southwest Airlines Boeing 737.</div></div></div><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/southwest-airlines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southwest Airlines</a> is holding a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/fare-sale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fare sale</a> with tickets for a little as $47 one-way and $96 round-trip.</li><li>The sale ends at 11:59 pm on Thursday, June 7.</li><li>Southwest's sale covers travel between late August and early December. </li></ul>Southwest Airlines is holding a flash sale this week with tickets going for as little as $47 one-way and $96 round-trip. Sales will last until midnight on Thursday.The Dallas, Texas-based low-cost carrier <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/southwest-selling-cheap-tickets-49-one-way-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">held a similar sale in May with fares going for a low as $49</a>.Once again, the sale covers several dozen of Southwest's most popular destinations including flights to and from Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS), Baltimore (BWI), Boston (BOS), Chicago (MDW), Dallas (DAL), Denver (DEN), Houston (HOU), Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX, SNA), New York (LGA, EWR), New Orleans (MSY), Washington D.C. (DCA), Phoenix (PHX), and many more.Standout deals include $47 one-way flights from Charlotte, North Carolina to Baltimore, Maryland, and Nashville, Tennessee. There are also $47 flights from Louisville, Kentucky to Baltimore and Chicago, Illinois. Return flights for these trips are priced at $49 which would make a round trip $96. Southwest is also offering an $89 flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Havana, Cuba along with a $95 return trip. However, there's some serious fine print associated with the sale. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Southwest</div></div></div>Discounted fares must be booked by Thursday, June 7 at 11:59 pm in the time zone from where your flight is set to originate. The sale covers domestic and international travel from August 21 through December 12, 2018. The sale covers travel into and out of San Juan, Puerto Rico from September 5 through December 6, 2018. Unfortunately, travel on August 31, September 3, and from November 16 through 27 are all excluded from the sale. All domestic flights on Fridays and Sundays are also out of the picture. Things are even more complicated if your trip involves either Florida or Nevada. Discounted flights to Florida and Nevada, as well as flights from Florida to Nevada, are only valid between Sundays and Wednesdays. While sale tickets for travel out of Florida and Nevada, as well as from Nevada to Florida, are valid from Tuesdays through Fridays. And there's more. If you're trying to fly into and out of San Juan, PR on the cheap, you better plan on making the trip between Monday and Thursday. Finally, Southwest sale restricts discounted international to only Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Southwest isn't the only airline discounting tickets. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-airlines-can-sell-cheap-tickets-stay-in-business-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JetBlue, Frontier, Spirit, WOW, Alaska, and Hawaiian have all held major fare sales</a> in recent weeks to kick off the summer travel season. With the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/plane-tickets-get-more-expensive-oil-prices-airlines-warn-2018-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">price of oil up roughly 57% over the past year</a>, it's unclear how much longer airlines will continue to offer such heavily discounted fares. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-chase-cmo-kristin-lemkau-interview-2018-5">THE KRISTIN LEMKAU INTERVIEW: JPMorgan Chase's CMO explains how she deals with disruption on two fronts at once, why she's moving some ad dollars back to TV, and why it matters what your credit card feels like</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Southwest is selling tickets for as cheap as $47 one-way until Thursday

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Lucio Gomes" title_caption="Hans Yang, VP of Operations at Luxe Valet." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54f0ee3c6da8111e5e4cae32-960/silicon-beach-surfers-3.png"></a>Lucio GomesHans Yang, VP of Operations at Luxe Valet.</div></div></div>There are lots of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-beach-photo-tour-2015-1">perks</a> to starting a company in Southern California, whether it's the warm weather, proximity to Hollywood, or reasonable distance from Silicon Valley.A group of about 300 people working in tech, investing, media, and entertainment in Los Angeles are making the most of one perk in particular: the Pacific Ocean.Calling themselves the <a href="http://www.siliconbeachsurfers.com/">Silicon Beach Surfers</a>, this group of entrepreneurial-minded folk meets several times a month to hang out, network, and shred some waves.The group ranges from rookies to expert surfers. They're always trying out different beaches, from Point Dume in Malibu to the Trestles near San Diego.Robert Lambert, founder of tech networking group <a href="http://siliconbeachla.com/">Silicon Beach LA</a>, started the surfing group with a few friends in 2012. "In many cities and industries, the business sports are still golf, tennis, and racquetball," Lambert said to Business Insider. "Here in L.A. the sport of choice is surfing, which is apparent when you realize how many of the more active and influential people in the L.A. tech and startup community surf."Lambert runs the Silicon Beach Surfers operation out of a surf shack in Manhattan Beach, not far from where many of the startups are based. He receives about 10 applications for membership each week and usually accepts three of that group. It costs $50 to apply, and each person has to go through a one-month trial. Once they're approved, membership costs $30 each month. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Courtesy of Silicon Beach Surfers" title_caption="The Silicon Beach Surfers headquarters has a live shot of the waves." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54f0ea2569bedd2877d7a41a-960/silicon-beach-surfers.jpg"></a>Courtesy of Silicon Beach SurfersThe Silicon Beach Surfers headquarters has a live shot of the waves.</div></div></div>Beyond how fun it is to do, surfing has become a way for people in the L.A. tech community to make important contacts. Lambert says the group includes employees from Omaze, Crowdfunder, Fullscreen, and Dreamworks, just to name a few."Surfing with the group has been really helpful, whether it's for information, advice or contacts," Hans Yang, VP of Operations for on-demand parking service <a href="http://luxevalet.com/">Luxe Valet</a>, said to Business Insider. "The contacts range from new entrepreneurs all the way to established investors ... And regardless of experience, I enjoy surfing with all of them."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Courtesy of Silicon Beach Surfers" title_caption="From left to right: Jess Kantor, associate director of marketing at Sundance; Ed Gibson, senior strategist at David &amp; Goliath; Aaron Godfred, video production manager at Omaze; Morris May, founder of Specular Theory; Mike Eidlin, founder of Bookbucket; Gretta Kruesi, sponsored kite boarder and artist; and Robert Lambert, founder of Silicon Beach LA and Silicon Beach Surfers. " class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54f0ee6feab8ea7578954418-960/silicon-beach-surfers-4.jpg"></a>Courtesy of Silicon Beach SurfersFrom left to right: Jess Kantor, associate director of marketing at Sundance; Ed Gibson, senior strategist at David &amp; Goliath; Aaron Godfred, video production manager at Omaze; Morris May, founder of Specular Theory; Mike Eidlin, founder of Bookbucket; Gretta Kruesi, sponsored kite boarder and artist; and Robert Lambert, founder of Silicon Beach LA and Silicon Beach Surfers. </div></div></div>Morris May, a special effects expert and founder of virtual reality company <a href="http://www.speculartheory.com/">Specular Theory</a>, has made several big hires based on contacts he made with the Silicon Beach Surfers. He appointed Ryan Pulliam as Specular Theory's CMO after meeting her surfing. Being introduced to Jessica Kantor, an associate director of marketing at the Sundance Institute, also ended up being huge for May's business."We were just hanging out at the surf house, and I told her I do VR. She said, 'I'm really interested in that,'" May told Business Insider. Kantor introduced May to Sundance's New Frontier team, who helped coordinate an exhibit of Specular Theory's work at the Sundance Film Festival in January."That ended up fueling an enormous amount of press for us," May said.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Courtesy of Silicon Beach Surfers" title_caption="The group surfs at Point Dume in Malibu. " class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54f0eee769bedd0005d7a41a-960/silicon-beach-surfers-5.jpg"></a>Courtesy of Silicon Beach SurfersThe group surfs at Point Dume in Malibu. </div></div></div>The Silicon Beach Surfers aren't all about work, though."It's not only business contacts, but people I genuinely enjoy spending time with," May said. "80% of the time it's just for fun."For Kantor, who didn't know many people when she moved to Los Angeles from New York two years ago, they've been a welcoming community for both work and play. "They've become my social group. We'll talk about the waves while we're on the sand," Kantor said. "Then once we're in the water we'll talk about work in between waves. I've found everyone to be super warm, and I'm so excited about lots of their projects." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

For tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Beach, surfing is the new golf

<div type="image" title="WWDC 2020" height="757" width="1009" msid="76572949" hostid="261"></div>Hello and welcome back to <keyword id="1083886" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="trending">Trending</keyword>, Business Insider's weekly look at the world of tech. I'm Alexei Oreskovic, Business Insider's West Coast Bureau Chief and Global Tech Editor. If you want to get Trending in your email inbox every Wednesday, <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/trending">just click here.</a><h2>This week: <keyword id="191843" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tim-Cook">Tim Cook</keyword> takes <keyword id="6354427" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="apple">Apple</keyword> to a new frontier</h2><div type="image" title="WWDC 2020" height="897" width="1196" msid="76572957" hostid="261"></div>Apple's leadership team reported for greenscreen duty on Monday as the iPhone-maker put on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-wwdc-2020-keynote-event-developers-conference-recap-2020-6">first-ever virtual edition of its developers' conference</a>. Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, and the rest of the gang were all there, doing their best impersonations of a QVC host, hamming it up for the camera and hard-selling all the latest features and innovations cooked up in Cupertino.Depending on who you ask, the virtual format was either an awkward infomercial or a much more efficient format that should become the norm. The event's headline news was the defenestration of Intel, with Apple confirming that it was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-silicon-new-chip-ios-ipad-apps-run-on-mac-2020-6">ripping Intel's microprocessors out of its Mac motherboards in coming years and replacing them with its own, home-grown silicon.</a><ul><li>The "news" wasn't really much of a surprise — Intel's stock even closed slightly higher by day's end, despite the big customer loss. </li><li>Of course, there were product announcements aplenty, from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-memoji-face-mask-ios-14-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-6">masked memojis</a> to Apple Watch's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-watch-hand-washing-detection-countdown-timer-new-feature-coronavirus-2020-6">handwashing helper</a>, which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-wwdc-2020-keynote-live-blog-ios-14-watchos-announcements-2020-6">you can read all about here.</a></li></ul>Apple also continued to beat the privacy drum, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ios-14-privacy-apps-tracking-you-2020-6">announcing new "food nutrition" labels for apps</a> that will show you all the personal data an app is tracking about you. <div type="image" title="WWDC 2020" height="793" width="1057" msid="76572965" hostid="261"></div><h2>But a big storyline took place off screen...</h2>Privacy is increasingly important to Apple as it competes with <keyword id="6355629" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="google">Google</keyword> for users and developers. But what Apple probably didn't expect as it was planning its WWDC announcements was that its nemesis, Google, would get a boost of goodwill without doing anything. That's because Apple's App Store was hit with a wave of negative news right before WWDC, including <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-two-eu-competition-investigations-2020-6">a pair of investigations by the EU</a> and a high-profile spat with the developer of a buzzy new email app called Hey. Apple's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-app-store-commissions-hey-email-2020-6">threats of blocking Hey from the App Store</a> made it look like the bad guy compared to Google and its hands-off treatment of app developers.Tim Cook didn't mention it during the WWDC broadcast, but on the same day Apple was putting on its big show, Apple <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-to-let-developers-challenge-app-store-rules-2020-6">separately announced big changes that ease up on its strict App Store rules</a>.The move appeased developers and Apple ultimately emerged without suffering too much damage. But with Apple trying to differentiate itself from Google based on its privacy policies, the episode was an unwelcome and unplanned script change on its big day — and it may not be the last time.<h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-google-executives-who-report-to-ceo-sundar-pichai-2020-6">The Sundar Squad</a></h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-google-executives-who-report-to-ceo-sundar-pichai-2020-6"><div type="image" title="google org chart 4x3" height="1500" width="2001" msid="76572973" hostid="261"></div></a>Earlier this month, Alphabet CEO <keyword id="164502" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sundar-Pichai">Sundar Pichai</keyword> made some <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-promotes-prabhakar-raghavan-to-head-of-search-2020-6">changes to the senior leadership team at Google.</a> The management reorg comes as Google is navigating a pandemic that some analysts think could cause the company's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-may-see-first-ever-advertising-revenue-drop-2020-3">revenue to shrink for the first time</a>, as well as growing regulatory scrutiny and employee unrest. In other words, Pichai's team of direct reports have their work cut out for them. Check out Hugh Langley's profiles on the 15 execs that report directly to Pichai:<h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-google-executives-who-report-to-ceo-sundar-pichai-2020-6">Meet the 15 Google execs who report to CEO Sundar Pichai and are leading the internet company's most critical businesses</a></h3><h2 id="sound-bite-of-the-week:"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dashlane-cmo-joy-howard-facebook-advertisers-bankrolled-polarization-2020-6">Sound bite of the week:</a></h2>"We've been quiet for far too long as these platforms have amplified polarization within our society, and we've bankrolled it."— <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dashlane-cmo-joy-howard-facebook-advertisers-bankrolled-polarization-2020-6">Dashlane CMO Joy Howard tells Business Insider's Rob Price why the company joined the advertiser boycott of Facebook, alongside Patagonia, Talkspace, REI and others.</a><div type="image" title="joy howard dashlane" height="1276" width="1701" msid="76572983" hostid="261"></div><h2>Pic o' the week: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-user-terminal-ground-station-possible-pictures-2020-6">Elon Musk's secret farm in Wisconsin</a></h2>There's more to see in Wisconsin than cows and corn. As one sharp-eyed cheesehead noticed recently, Elon Musk appears to have planted a crop of futuristic space-based internet receivers in Wisconsin's fertile soil.The mysterious, bulbous devices — tucked among rows of grain corns in Merrillan, Wisconsin and discovered by a telephoto-toting Reddit user by the name of darkpenguin22 — appear to be the clearest images yet of ground antennas for the Starlink satellites. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-user-terminal-ground-station-possible-pictures-2020-6"><div type="image" title="5ef15489988ee3695d573c24" height="1667" width="2500" msid="76572993" hostid="261"></div></a>Starlink, of course, is the fleet of internet-beaming satellites being shot into orbit by Musk's SpaceX company. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-user-terminal-ground-station-possible-pictures-2020-6">Dave Mosher's got the full story here.</a><h2>Recommended Readings:</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-employees-toxic-workplace-black-fired-ben-silbermann-2020-6">Former Pinterest employees describe a traumatic workplace where managers humiliate employees until they cry, Black people feel alienated, and the toxic culture 'eats away at your soul'</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tom-siebel-c3ai-160-million-revenue-ipo-plans-2020-6">C3.ai CEO Tom Siebel says that his hot AI startup did $160 million in revenue last year, but won't go public until the economy is fully recovered</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/braintrust-startup-lets-companies-build-remote-engineering-teams-2020-6">This startup lets techies fleeing Silicon Valley work on remote engineering projects for big companies, and it's already being used by Nestle, TaskRabbit and NASA</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-how-marc-andreessen-schedule-avoid-burnout-micromanaging-2020-6">Legendary venture capitalist Marc Andreessen schedules every part of his day, including when he sleeps, to avoid becoming a burned-out micromanager</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-head-of-news-division-xana-oneill-left-company-sources-2020-6">The executive producer leading news at Snapchat has left the company</a><h2>Not necessarily in tech:</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crossfit-workplace-toxic-culture-women-insiders-2020-6">A 'frat party' workplace, a tweet that led to the CEO's resignation, and a culture that demeans women: Insiders say this is the reality of working for the cult-following gym CrossFit</a>Et voila, that's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and remember, if you like this newsletter, <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/trending">tell your friends and colleagues they can sign up here to receive it</a>. — Alexei

Tim Cook's plan to take Apple to a new frontier veers off script

<ul><li>In our latest interview series, we talk to brands to understand how they are coping with the new normal and their strategies towards navigating these difficult times.</li><li><keyword id="178450" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Abhishek-Gupta">Abhishek Gupta</keyword>, CMO, <keyword id="636217" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Edelweiss-Tokio-Life">Edelweiss Tokio Life</keyword> helps us understand how the <keyword id="6512638" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="insurance-sector">insurance sector</keyword> has been impacted and how the brand prepared itself to face these uncertain times. </li><li>He also tells us about his priorities as a marketer during times of crisis and his learnings from the experience so far. </li></ul>The <keyword id="8829783" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus-pandemic">Coronavirus pandemic</keyword> and the resulting lockdown has disrupted the world. There has been a lot of interesting changes in <keyword id="139079" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Consumer-behaviour">consumer behaviour</keyword> over the past few months, especially in the insurance sector. Before the pandemic, buying insurance was largely dependent on face-to-face counsel from advisors and wasn’t really considered an absolutely necessary financial instrument. However, in the times since the outbreak, people have started recognizing the importance of insurance. People are recognising the importance of family and tilting towards safeguarding their aspirations. While the overall industry has witnessed a slowdown, agile brands have been able to adapt to the changing times and needs and been able to stay afloat. We recently spoke to Abhishek Gupta, CMO, Edelweiss Tokio Life to understand how the market has been impacted and how the brand prepared itself to face these uncertain times. He also tells us about his priorities as a marketer during times of crisis and how he’s tweaked the brand’s marketing strategy during the lockdown. Excerpts: Q) How has the lockdown period been for you so far? How have your consumers reacted? The initial transition from office to work-from-home (WFH), now seems like a distant memory, as we step into Lockdown 4.0. As an organisation and a brand, we did not have to make any extraordinary changes to move to a seamless WFH. We had digitally transformed our processes and operational capabilities in recent years, which to a large extent, has facilitated an easy transition for us. Following the initial impact in March, which is a business-critical month for insurance, we found our footing in April and have sustained it since. Our APE has grown nearly 60% year-on-year in April as we have been able to re-orient ourselves and respond to evolving expectations of our stakeholders. The lockdown experience has been disorienting for customers across sectors. We have proactively taken steps to counsel our customers and provide them access to authentic information. The pandemic has led to a significant shift in how customers perceive the insurance category. With risk to future cashflows and health uncertainties in focus, insurance has become far more important. Discretionary spending is at a standstill and customers are now looking at insurance as an avenue for long-term wealth creation to protect their dreams and aspirations. Q) Has there been any interesting consumer behaviour trend you've noticed in the past few weeks? Before the onset of Covid-19, insurance buying was largely dependent on face-to-face counsel from advisors and was not considered as a must-have financial instrument. The pandemic has changed both these paradigms. Given the magnitude of health risks we currently face, protection has become crucial and people are beginning to recognise that they need insurance to provide for their long-term goals. Also, the impact on current cashflows has elevated the importance of savings. So, customers are looking at insurance as a secure means for wealth accumulation and creation. The pandemic has also significantly affected people’s emotional quotient. People have become much more cognisant of their social responsibility and we are seeing simple acts of kindness across geographies. People are recognising the importance of family and increasingly all consumption behaviour is tilting towards safeguarding their aspirations. Self-reliance is slowly becoming a habit now, considering social distancing is likely to continue in the near future. Q) Insurance is one of the few sectors that hasn't been impacted due to the lockdown. Have you seen an increase in people buying life insurance policies? The overall sector has experienced a considerable slowdown since the first lockdown was announced. But companies that have been agile and reinvented themselves quickly, have managed to stay buoyant. There is certainly an increased interest to buy insurance and that is reflecting across the board – be it with insurance companies, aggregators or brokers. As mentioned before, our APE has recorded a nearly 60% year on year growth in April, which reflects increased customer interest. Q) While it would have been difficult for anyone to predict the current situation, how prepared were you as a brand to cope with the implications? How fast were you able to adapt to the new normal? Over the last 2 years, we have accelerated our spends on digital platforms because our customers are present there and it is undoubtedly the new-age frontier. This gradual shift has augured well for us and helped us adapt to this new normal with relative ease. We have been able to focus on finding the right messaging and communication for our customers, instead of reinventing the wheel. We have all been dazed by this unprecedented situation, and as a marketer that was our first area of focus in the initial period. It was crucial to offer the right counsel to our customers, and we made aggressive marketing efforts to support our salesforce on this front. Similarly, we as an organisation also setup a helpline to provide access to credible information, which in part helped manage concerns regarding this new normal. We have established an online property called Login Zindagi. We have conducted 4 Facebook Live sessions so far, earning us a reach of over 90,000, over 24,000 views and about 13,500 engagements. We are still experimenting with the format and are trying to work with more platforms. For instance, instead of doing an FB Live, we had people pre-register for our recent session and received a massive response with over 13,000 viewers logging in and more than 2,000 viewers asking questions. While Login Zindagi started off as a limited series event, we are considering building it into a long-term initiative. To adapt to the evolving changes in customer behaviour, we have kickstarted an initiative called DigiTools. It aims to make customer communication friendlier, personalised, and suitable for the current ecosystem, wherein information consumption on devices like mobiles has increased. It also facilitates our salesforce to interact with prospective customers, without taking away the ‘Do It Yourself’ or ‘self-reliance’ behaviour they have developed during this period. We are looking at building a long-term relationship with our customers, and initiatives like DigiTools will help us achieve that. Q) What are a few things that a marketer should keep in mind while coming up with marketing communications during times of crisis? As a marketer, here are the factors I consider in each communication that we create currently: a) Does my communication align with my brand values? This is a good rule to follow at all time, but, is especially important during such disruptions. With the emergence of moment marketing, it is very tempting to steer away from what your brand stands for to garner temporary brand impact. But, going back to basics will always give you clarity of thought. b) How can my communication be informative and mobilise people to support those in need? As a brand, we have a bigger responsibility right now to be socially responsible and be the conduit of authentic information for our stakeholders. c) Is the communication relevant for my stakeholders? Your key stakeholders, especially customers, must be the focal point of your communication. What you say now will stay with them for a long time. So, use this as an opportunity to strengthen their trust and confidence in your brand. d) Do I need to participate? This is a guiding principle that all marketers must use in the current scenario. You cannot risk being perceived as a brand trying to monetise a crisis. So, don’t speak up unless it is absolutely essential. Q) What have your key learnings been so far? Agility is paramount to facilitate quick problem-solving and easy innovation. We all need to have the foresight to recognise the merits and longevity of new-age platforms and stay ahead of the curve, in terms of adoption. Both these factors will help brands stay relevant in the long run. Q) Do you expect things to pick up in the second half of the year? Will consumer sentiments change, or will people continue to be careful about their spending? In the immediate future, I expect discretionary spending to take a backseat as customers will focus more on financial planning for future aspirations. While perception of term insurance has evolved in the recent years, I see customers proactively considering savings plans like guaranteed products, which offer a risk-averse wealth-creation model. In current times of reducing interest rates, wherein traditionally preferred savings instruments like FDs may offer significantly lower returns as compared to guaranteed products, insurance is likely to see a spurt in customer interest.

Marketing in the times of Covid-19: Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">SpiritA Spirit Airlines Airbus A320.</div></div></div><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/airlines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Airlines</a> are holding flash sales with heavily discounted tickets in an effort to entice travelers to fly this summer.</li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/low-cost-airline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Low-cost carriers</a> have been the most aggressive in their discounting.</li><li>These airlines are able to offer these incredibly cheap tickets as part of their revenue management strategy and as a result of their low-cost business model. </li></ul>With the summer <keyword id="6354692" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Travel">travel</keyword> season kicking into high gear, airlines are flooding the market cheap tickets that will entice travelers to fly. For many, these deals are simply too good to pass up. I mean, it's hard to say no to a $69 flight to Europe or a $35 plane ticket to Disney World.Over the past few weeks, low-cost airlines like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/jetblue" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JetBlue</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/southwest-airlines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southwest</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/spirit-airlines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spirit</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/wow-air" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WOW</a>, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/frontier-airlines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Frontier</a> have all launched large-scale fare sales. Even full-service mainline carriers like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/alaska-airlines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alaska</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/hawaiian-airlines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hawaiian</a> have joined in on the action.But it's the low-cost carriers that have made the bulk of the headlines with eye-popping sale prices.So the question must be asked. How do they do it?After all, at these price points, airlines, even the low-cost guys, would struggle to pay for fuel let alone airport fees, taxes, salaries, and planes.According to Atmosphere Research Group travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, it comes down to the dark art of airlines revenue management, a business model not dependent upon ticket prices, and a keen eye for cost control. Revenue management is a term few outside the airline industry spend much time thinking about. (And no, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/revenue-management-flight-upgrade-hack-works-for-vip-passengers-2018-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mentioning revenue management to customer service agents won't get you an upgrade</a>.)<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">JetBlueJetBlue's new Airbus A320 interior.</div></div></div>But, for airlines, revenue management algorithms can play a major role in deciding the type of fares it can offer on flights. These algorithms are quite good at predicting and influencing consumer behavior to maximize the airlines' financial productivity. Airlines aren't charities, so when they post these sale prices, there's financial gain to be had."Let's remember one thing, which is these prices are just numbers," Harteveldt said. "Airlines all use revenue management software and strategies to generate as much income as they can and the ticket prices are just one part of the picture."<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/norwegian-air" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Norwegian Air</a>, an airline famous for its sub-$100 trans-Atlantic fares, does not do much in terms of traditional advertising. Instead, it uses fare sales as a substitute. And these sales are certainly an effective way to get people in the door. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP</div></div></div>For instance, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wow-air-sale-for-69-flights-from-us-to-europe-2018-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WOW Air recently held a sale on flights from the more than a dozen cities</a> in the US to Iceland. The price? Just $69. However, with only 1,480 seats available at that price point, they go very quickly. Once they're gone, prices go up.However, even after the sale tickets are gone, WOW is banking on the fact that its normal fares are enticing enough to get you to buy regardless. And then there's the fine print at the bottom of every sale announcement. These tickets tend to be for flights during less popular times, which means airlines are simply filling up seats that may have otherwise been left unsold. In addition, discount one-way tickets may be required to be purchased as part of a pricier round-trip. There's also the fact these airlines operate using a business model that is less dependent on ticket revenue."No low-cost airline these days can survive on ticket sales alone," Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr told Business Insider. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Cardinal arrows/Shutterstock</div></div></div>For budget carriers, the ticket, in many instances, is a loss leader. It's a means to get consumers in the door to spend money on everything from checked luggage and hotel reservations to beer and movies. "A key point of the budget airlines is that the ticket is only one part of their revenue picture," Harteveldt said. "The ticket is just the milk at the back of the grocery store."In its most recent earnings presentation, Irish budget giant Ryanair reported that ancillary revenue now accounts for a whopping 30% of its total income. In fact, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wow-air-ceo-airlines-will-soon-pay-you-to-fly-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WOW Air founder and CEO Skuli Mogensen believes</a> there will come a point where ancillary revenue becomes so important that airlines may actually pay passengers to fly. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">WOW AirWOW Air CEO Skuli Mogensen.</div></div></div>Finally, there's the low-cost carrier's keen eye for cost control. These airlines can offer rock bottom prices because they operate with lower overhead than their full-service competitors. According to Harteveldt, this includes less generous pay and benefits for employees as well as the use of third-party staffing agencies instead of directly hiring workers. In addition, low-cost airlines tend to save costs on airport fees by using secondary airports that are further away from city centers and offer less connectivity. For instance, Norwegian's most affordable flights between Europe and New York City operate from Stewart International Airport, which is more than 60 miles north of Manhattan. The airline does fly from JFK International, but those flights are generally more expensive. "The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey doesn't have to convince people to come to JFK, but it will have to work to get people to Stewart," Harteveldt added.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Norwegian AirA Norwegian Air Boeing 787-8.</div></div></div>As a result, authorities use lower airport fees as an enticement for airlines to launch new service from these airports. However, one place modern low-cost carriers aren't skimping is the planes. Traditionally, the budget airlines have used cheap second or third-hand planes to keep costs low. But these days, with operational efficiency and fuel economy at such a premium, budget airlines have been ordering new planes in bulk. In fact, major low-cost carriers in the US, Europe, and Asia tend to actually have younger fleets than their full-service rivals. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-chase-cmo-kristin-lemkau-interview-2018-5">THE KRISTIN LEMKAU INTERVIEW: JPMorgan Chase's CMO explains how she deals with disruption on two fronts at once, why she's moving some ad dollars back to TV, and why it matters what your credit card feels like</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

How JetBlue, Southwest, WOW and other airlines can sell insanely cheap tickets and stay in business

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Hollis Johnson / Business InsiderThe microbiome testing company uBiome has come under scrutiny after an FBI raid.</div></div></div>Hello!When the three founders of the "microbial-genomics" startup <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/ubiome">uBiome</a> began collecting human poop, they kept it in an erstwhile storage closet, inside secondhand freezers from a discount-lab-supply website. It was a far cry from a state-of-the-art facility.So starts Erin Brodwin's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ubiome-poop-testing-startup-inside-story-what-happened-timeline-2019-5">inside story on uBiome</a>, a startup that convinced Silicon Valley it was worth $600 million before the FBI came knocking. Hers is a great report on how a citizen science project became a clinical-testing company with big-name backers, and the corners some say it cut along the way. You can read the full story <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ubiome-poop-testing-startup-inside-story-what-happened-timeline-2019-5">here</a>. Erin's story is a reminder of the risks when the Silicon Valley tech ethos of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/health-science-startups-dupe-investors-public-theranos-2019-5">"move fast and break things" runs into the healthcare principal of "do no harm."</a>Erin worked on another story, with colleague Shana Lebowitz, on the VC's ultimate guide to sniffing out risky healthcare startups - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/avoid-next-theranos-healthcare-startups-venture-capital-guidelines-2019-6">and not getting tricked into backing them</a>. Emma Court had a story on the four slides from Mary Meeker's Internet Trends reports that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mary-meeker-internet-trends-report-on-digital-health-telemedicine-2019-6">should be a warning for tech companies that want to disrupt healthcare</a>. And you can read our recent series on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/technology-transforming-future-of-healthcare-intro-2019-4">how technology is reshaping healthcare here</a>. Separately, if you missed our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWR72OlAubs&amp;t=2566s">IGNITION: Transforming Finance</a> event on Monday, you can catch up on what you missed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-goldman-sachs-morgan-stanley-execs-talk-tech-2019-6">here</a>. You can also check out a few clips from the event:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/executives-from-jpmorgan-and-bnymellon-discuss-keys-to-partnership">WATCH: Executives from JPMorgan and BNY Mellon tell fintech founders the best ways to partner with large banks</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/executives-from-morgan-stanley-citi-and-barclays-talk-about-tech-2019-6">WATCH: Executives from Morgan Stanley, Citi, and Barclays explain how they encourage innovation within big, unwieldy banks</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-marcus-executive-speaks-on-apple-card-2019-6">WATCH: A Goldman Sachs Marcus exec explains why Apple is the perfect partner for their new credit card</a></li></ul>We'll be hosting more events like it, focused on specific industries, across the US in the coming months. If you have any ideas for live events you'd like to see or feedback from our event on Monday, contact me at mturner@businessinsider.com.-- Matt<h2>Quote of the week</h2>"Unicorns are amazingly deflationary vehicles. They're deflating rents, they're deflating driver salaries, they're deflating all kinds of things." - Famed short-seller Jim Chanos explains <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jim-chanos-silicon-valley-unicorns-suppressing-inflation-federal-reserve-role-2019-6">how Silicon Valley unicorns have pushed prices lower</a>. <h2>In conversation</h2><ul><li>Alex Nicoll and Dan DeFrancesco talked to Monzo CEO Tom Blomfield about the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-neobank-monzo-announces-its-us-launch-with-inperson-events-2019-6">UK digital-only bank's decision to launch in the US</a>.</li><li>Meghan Morris talked to Clare Flynn Levy, the founder of Essentia Analytics, which gives traders as much performance feedback as athletes so they can make better decisions. She explained why it can be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/clare-flynn-levys-essentia-helps-traders-overcome-behavioral-biases-2019-4">hard to convince some veteran traders to look in the mirror</a>.</li><li>Rosalie Chan talked to RapidAPI founder and CEO Iddo Gino about how he turned a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rapidapi-m12-microsoft-andreessen-horowitz-25-million-2019-6">tool he made for newbie programmers into a product used by over a million developers</a>.</li><li>Megan Hernbroth talked to Scott Tierney, cofounder and former partner of CapitalG (formerly Google Capital), about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/capitalg-founder-scott-tierney-valo-ventures-2019-6">his $175 million fund for his venture firm</a>, Valo Ventures.</li><li>Shona Ghosh talked to Markus Villig, founder and CEO of Bolt, a major European Uber rival backed by Daimler and China's Didi Chuxing. He said the company <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-rival-taxify-relaunches-in-london-as-bolt-says-it-is-sometimes-profitable-2019-6">has profitable quarters because it doesn't set cash on fire</a>.</li><li>Lucia Moses talked to Andrew Morse, the executive vice president and general manager of CNN Digital Worldwide, about its decision to pull its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/warnermedias-cnn-is-pulling-anderson-cooper-news-show-off-facebook-2019-6">high-performing Anderson Cooper news show off Facebook Watch</a>. </li><li>Emma Court talked to Dr. Sheila Gujrathi, CEO and cofounder of $1 billion biotech Gossamer Bio, about the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-ceos-advice-from-sheila-gujrathi-ceo-of-gossamer-bio-2019-6">three jobs that prepared her to be a first-time CEO</a>.</li><li>Tanya Dua talked to The Hershey Company's CMO Jill Baski about the company's decision to launch its own in-house ad agency. She said overhead costs are down 25%, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-hersheys-in-house-agency-c-sweet-2019-6">output is up fivefold, and there's been over $4 million saved in agency fees</a>.</li></ul><h2>Finance and Investing</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rob-casper-jpmorgan-data-head-profile-managing-financial-account-info-2019-5">Meet the JPMorgan banker with no technical expertise who's now in charge of one of the biggest data projects on Wall Street</a>Rob Casper stands up and takes a piece of laminated paper from behind his desk. Standing in his 39th floor office in JPMorgan's glass-walled midtown Manhattan headquarters, the bank's chief data officer wants to make a point.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-funds-open-source-platforms-2019-5">Hedge-fund managers are overwhelmed by data, and they're turning to an unlikely source: random people on the internet</a>Hedge funds are sifting through so much data that they might just turn to random people online to help with it.<section><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/merrill-lynch-winning-millionaire-customers-after-comp-overhaul-2019-6">Merrill Lynch's 'thundering herd' of advisers are winning over troves of new millionaires, and the growth is coming from a surprising place</a>The wealth management division at Bank of America Merrill Lynch had an explosive year in 2018, and 2019 is off to a torrid pace as well, adding thousands of new millionaire clients.</section><h2>Tech, Media, Telecoms</h2><section><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-salesforces-6-month-courting-process-of-tableau-2019-6">Inside Salesforce's $15.7 billion takeover of Tableau, which came together at Marc Benioff's San Francisco mansion and almost died last week amid wild market swings</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/salesforce">Salesforce's</a> $15.7 billion <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-to-acquire-tableau-2019-6">acquisition of Tableau</a>, announced Monday, started with a text, came together over a meeting in a San Francisco mansion, and very nearly fell apart multiple times.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peloton-ipo-business-model-analysis-investors-bullish-2019-6">Peloton, the $4 billion fitness startup with a cult-like following is about to IPO. Insiders reveal why it's business is set to explode. </a>Michael Duda knew from the first time he met John Foley that he wanted to make a bet on Foley's fitness equipment startup, Peloton.<section><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gary-vaynerchuk-discusses-taking-on-the-agency-holding-companies-2019-6">VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk says his bootstrapped digital media company is generating more than $130 million and is coming for WPP and Omnicom - with no 'meaningful competitor' in sight</a>As the advertising establishment heads to Cannes for the annual, rosé-soaked ritual of making deals and collecting awards on the French Riviera, Gary Vaynerchuk wants the marketing world to know there's a new type of agency holding company in town.</section></section><h2>Healthcare, Retail, Transportation</h2><section><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/northwell-healths-michael-dowling-on-the-future-of-the-hospital-2019-5">The biggest health system in New York used to make 80% of its revenue from hospitals. A decade later, that's down to half.</a> Out the window of Northwell Health's New Hyde Park, New York, offices sits an expansive <a href="https://theislandnow.com/featured/lockheed-martin/">1.4-million-square-foot</a> building.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/first-vc-psychedelics-field-trip-ventures-canada-2019-6">Investors just launched the first VC dedicated exclusively to psychedelics, which they call the 'next wave' after the cannabis boom</a>As the legalization of medical cannabis has swept the globe, it's also paved the way for another new health frontier: psychedelic medicine.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/careem-pitch-deck-from-7-years-before-uber-acquisition-2019-6">Here's the pitch deck Careem used to secure its first round of venture capital, which led its first investors to a 100x return when Uber bought the company this year</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/uber">Uber</a> has struggled to attain the same dominance in the tricky region of the Middle East that it's built in places like the United States.</section> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/executives-from-morgan-stanley-citi-and-barclays-talk-about-tech-2019-6">WATCH: Executives from Morgan Stanley, Citi, and Barclays explain how they encourage innovation within big, unwieldy banks</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

The inside story at uBiome, disrupting Wall Street from within, and Peloton's prospects

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The cannabis bubble, propped up by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-cannabis-companies-pursue-reverse-takeovers-2018-11">a thriving market for reverse takeovers</a> on the Canadian Securities Exchange, has burst. </li><li>Business Insider spoke with over a dozen top CEOs and execs about the industry's prospects. They said that while the shakeout is here - and some companies will likely fail - the business will turn around.</li><li>The current period of low valuations provides an opportunity for savvy investors to put money to work, and for stronger companies to buy up their rivals, executives said.</li><li>Click here for more <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime">BI Prime stories</a>, and subscribe to our weekly cannabis newsletter, <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/cultivated">Cultivated</a>.</li></ul>2019 was the year that the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/cannabis">nascent legal cannabis industry</a> crashed directly into the floor. A year that began with a flurry of multibillion-dollar deal announcements, companies going public, and shareholders getting rich on paper ended with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pax-eaze-weedmaps-hexo-canntrust-layoffs-job-cuts-in-cannabis-2019-10">thousands of layoffs</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-medmen-pharmacann-blowup-is-a-disaster-for-cannabis-ma-2019-10">deals canceled or reduced in scope</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-canopy-growth-ceo-bruce-lintons-talks-about-new-ventures-2019-9">CEOs fired</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cannabis-investing-slump-stocks-fall-layoffs-fewer-deals-2019-11">capital-markets turmoil</a>. "Dot-com", as in the crash that ended the tech boom of the 1990's, has become a common refrain in countless conversations with industry insiders. "I think it's exactly what happened to tech as far back as the eighties and nineties," Green Growth Brands CEO Peter Horvath told Business Insider in an interview last week.In other words, over a dozen cannabis CEOs and C-suite execs Business Insider spoke for this story said that there wasn't a shakeout coming - the shakeout is <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tilray-stock-price-falls-below-ipo-price-first-time-ever-2019-12-1028776841">already here</a>. For the companies that survive, this era of crashing stock prices will be seen as a small blip on the path to global domination, they said. They said that while some companies will fail, the current period of low valuations provides an opportunity for savvy investors to put money to work, and for stronger companies to buy up their rivals.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cannabis-investing-slump-stocks-fall-layoffs-fewer-deals-2019-11">Layoffs, cratering stocks, and blown-up deals: 11 experts take us inside the cannabis industry's meltdown and tell us where the industry goes from here</a>Curaleaf, a cannabis cultivator and retailer, was forced to reprice <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/curaleaf-acquires-cura-partners-in-949-million-transaction-2019-5">a near-billion dollar deal to acquire the Select Brand</a> of cannabis products from Cura Partners, and its other marquee deal, an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/curaleaf-is-acquiring-grassroots-cannabis-for-875-million-2019-7">acquisition of Grassroots Cannabis</a>, is expected to close "early next year," CEO Joe Lusardi said. The company's stock changed hands for more than $11 a share earlier this year, though it's now trading for half that, around $5.35Still, Lusardi said that 2019 "was the best year in company history."In an interview on the sidelines of MJBizCon in Las Vegas, he pointed out that more people are coming into stores and buying cannabis legally every day in the US and around the world, and said the US is "on an amazing growth trajectory."He blamed the company's stock gyrations on the fact that Curaleaf, like other companies that cultivate and sell THC-containing products in the US, trades in Canada, and is being weighed down by disappointing financial results across the sector.Lusardi said he expects to see even more consolidation among smaller players in the industry, in a push to survive a tough market. "I think you will likely see companies banding together because in this case, being big and having scale is helpful and you can spread your costs over a bigger operating base and be more efficient," says Lusardi. And while Lusardi said the past few years were focused on making acquisitions, securing licenses, and building out infrastructure, "2020 we'll be focused on building a proper CPG [consumer packaged goods] business."<h2>A classic tale of irrational exuberance</h2>To Green Growth Brands CMO Jann Parish, cannabis in 2019 is a classic tale of market exuberance, pegged to the attractive story of taking what was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/latest-cannabis-business-news-2019-6">once a demonized, illegal drug</a> and leveraging the wheels of capitalism to turn it into an upscale consumer product."I think that there was a kind of irrational exuberance when the business of cannabis became relatively more mainstream and you saw the markets open up," Parish said.Steve White, the CEO of Harvest Health &amp; Recreation, said there's a "mismatch" between the fundamentals of his business and share prices in the wider cannabis industry because many big investors can't own shares in cannabis firms."Large institutional investors can't play US cannabis," White said on the sidelines of MJBizCon in Las Vegas last week. "You're going to have an imperfect market determining the price of shares when you have an artificial constraint on demand. It's a simple supply-and-demand question."While White sees the M&amp;A among cannabis companies slowing next year, he says there will be an opportunity for companies to scoop up distressed assets in the industry."It's hard because when your share price is down, you can't use stock as currency the same way you could," White said. "The flip side of that coin is you'll find some distressed assets that are available and I think people will take advantage of those opportunities to the extent they can." <h2>Shareholders and investors have gone from unbridled excitement to wanting to see concrete results, execs say </h2>Cannabis, by nature, is a capital intensive business. So once analysts and shareholders started looking at companies to actually generate returns, and not just spend money to acquire licenses and build out cultivation facilities, operators found themselves in trouble, Horvath said. "The narrative has moved from, 'Who can accumulate the most assets,' to 'Who can make the most money,'" he said. More than one executive brought up, in some form or another, the <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/gartner-hype-cycle">Gartner Hype Cycle</a> of emerging technologies, and pointed out that we've slid well past the "peak" into what's known as the "trough of disillusionment," where a slew of negative press, supply chain issues, and capital constraints weighs on share prices in any new industry, whether its software or cannabis.From here, things are only going to get better, Green Thumb Industries CEO Ben Kovler told Business Insider in an interview last week in Las Vegas.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/some-financial-advisers-allowing-clients-cannabis-shares-if-they-ask-2019-10">Some cannabis stocks now have the green light from US wealth managers like Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo. We have details on firms' policies.</a>"Companies that are focused on their stock price are focused on the wrong things. We view this as a long term game," Kovler said. "Next year, it's all about execution, execution, execution." In terms of capital markets, Kovler said he's not surprised at what he's seeing. "If we can continue to put up good numbers, the stock price will ultimately find the right level, but we can't worry about where it goes now or the next month - or the next three or six months." Andy Grossman, a hedge fund veteran and Green Thumb Industries' head of capital markets, sees a slew of missteps on his competition's part. "The companies around us are running out of cash," Grossman said. "They're doing deals - they don't have cash for them. So you're seeing deals break, you're seeing things get cut. We operate very differently and we have to pay attention to it."<h2>'There's pain to come', but the market will get more efficient in 2020</h2>When asked about his predictions for cannabis in 2020, Kush Bottles CEO Nick Kovacevich said there will be a shakeout on the private side as well."There's a ton of companies and the majority of them are raising money and they need money," Kovacevich told Business Insider on the sidelines of MJBizCon in Las Vegas. "And there's just simply not enough active cannabis investors to support the sheer amount of capital needed."What will happen, says Kovacevich, is that some companies will be forced to shut down, benefiting the stronger companies that remain, he said.To Chris Walsh, the incoming CEO of Marijuana Business Daily - an industry intelligence platform that hosts the MJBiz conference and has an editorial department as well - the long term outlook for cannabis is great."But there's pain to come," he said. "To survive, you're going to need a good source of funding, a realistic understanding of the market, and set reasonable growth targets."That being said, Walsh sees lots of companies that will "end up being victims of circumstance" and lots of room for distressed asset sales. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-have-poured-2-billion-into-cannabis-but-investors-are-still-wary-2019-10">Venture funds have poured close to $2 billion into cannabis startups this year. But top investors are starting to get wary as headwinds mount.</a>Tim Leslie, the CEO of cannabis information site Leafly, said he isn't worried about the cannabis market. Leslie, who took over as Leafly's CEO earlier this year, was forced to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cannabis-site-leafly-freezing-hiring-limiting-travel-internal-memo-2019-10">pare back expenses at the company</a> but said that things are on the right track for 2020."I think coming into 2020, you'll actually see more investment dollars," says Leslie. "Investors will take losses for tax purposes, but they'll come in with a clean slate. And valuations - many of which were too high to begin with - will fall."Reduced valuations, at least in the private market, might provide a new entry point for venture capital investors, Leslie said.The same can be said for the public markets, said Beth Stavola, the chief strategy officer of iAnthus Capital, a New York City-based cannabis company. "If you have the capital, and you haven't lost your shirt in the markets yet, it's a screaming opportunity right now," Stavola said. "I just think that there's a lot of scared money right now, but those that are actually going out there and deploying capital are going to make a ton of money for their investors."<ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-barry-saik-taking-over-cannabis-startup-green-bits-ceo-2019-12">A cannabis startup backed by Tiger Global just swapped its longtime CEO for a tech-industry veteran. We got the first interview with the new exec.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/canopy-rivers-ceo-narbe-alexandrian-key-cannabis-trends-in-2020-2019-12">A VC who runs a $200 million cannabis fund told us why China is the next big frontier for cannabis and hemp</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/constellation-brands-cfo-david-klein-becomes-canopy-growth-ceo-2019-12">The world's largest cannabis company has a new CEO, and Wall Street is betting it's a sign that Canopy Growth's investors aren't willing to wait for results to improve</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/traders-piling-into-bets-against-aurora-tilray-hexo-canopy-growth-2019-11">Wall Street stock traders are piling into bets against cannabis stocks, even as shares have plummeted</a></li></ul> <a href="/intelligence/digital-health?IR=T&amp;itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_subscription&amp;itm_content=health&amp;itm_campaign=digital-health"></a>Featured Digital Health Articles: - <a href="/telehealth-industry-explained">Telehealth Industry: Benefits, Services &amp; Examples</a> - <a href="/value-based-care-pay-for-performance-healthcare-model">Value-Based Care Model: Pay-for-Performance Healthcare</a> - <a href="/senior-care-market-trends">Senior Care &amp; Assisted Living Market Trends</a> - <a href="/wearable-technology-healthcare-medical-devices">Smart Medical Devices: Wearable Tech in Healthcare</a> - <a href="/artificial-intelligence-healthcare">AI in Healthcare</a> - <a href="/remote-patient-monitoring-industry-explained">Remote Patient Monitoring Industry: Devices &amp; Market Trends</a>

2019 was the year the cannabis bubble burst. We talked to more than a dozen top cannabis execs about what's next.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The adult industry is increasingly embracing AI for tasks like chatting and image generation.</li><li>Some startups even create chatbots and "digital twins" based on existing influencers.</li></ul>The adult industry has long been an early adopter of new technologies, from as early as the printing press in the 1400s to DVDs and the internet.In 2024, the adult industry is experimenting with and sometimes embracing AI. Superstars in the space like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adult-content-onlyfans-star-riley-reid-ai-chatbot-fans-2023-11">Riley Reid</a> have already created AI versions of themselves; subscription platforms like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-models-creators-see-success-on-onlyfans-challenger-fanvue-2023-11">Fanvue</a> have made AI-generated characters a centerpiece of their missions; and a crop of new startups promises to help adult-content creators generate their "digital twins.""We sincerely believe that the adult industry always drives all the technology," said Ana Levy, CMO of My.Club, one of the platforms that recently began offering users the possibility of creating an "AI twin." "This is the most responsive industry, the one that drives all the changes."With experimentation have come excitement and fear. AI could ease the burden on creators that comes with the constant need for fresh content and fan interaction, and many have been curious about the possibility of turning themselves into digital characters. But as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-onlyfans-became-outlet-source-help-loneliness-sadness-connection-sex-2024-1">fan relationships</a> have become central in adult content in the era of OnlyFans, some worry that relying on AI too much may alienate their audiences."I'm seeing so many of my fans get riled up and upset if they have the slightest little thought of 'Am I not talking to you for real?'" OnlyFans creator <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-neuroscientist-turned-onlyfans-creator-made-millions-in-year-2024-1">Isla Moon</a> said. "I'm slightly nervous about that."And for others, the idea that AI may eventually replace creators entirely is not too far-fetched."I think the people who spend the most on fan pages are the most lonely people and seek validation," OnlyFans creator Jada Sparks said. "And if they can get it from an AI, it's validation nonetheless."Business Insider spoke with industry insiders about the state of AI in the adult-content world and what the future may hold.<div type="image" title="Two side-by-side screenshots of emails sent by subscription company Fanvue to some users, offering free subscriptions to profiles." height="1600" width="2000" msid="109954043" hostid="261" sizebytes="107816"></div><h2 id="99a8dfb7-494e-4074-b166-f14c25a87002">AI for chatting and voice</h2>Exchanging messages and chatting with fans has become one of the fundamentals of the new style of adult content that's gained ground on OnlyFans and similar platforms.Some credit it with helping <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-onlyfans-became-outlet-source-help-loneliness-sadness-connection-sex-2024-1">lonely fans build relationships</a> that go beyond the sexual, while others warn that it may turn into a dangerous game, and further isolate people from the real world and real relationships.For the creators, it's certainly one of the most lucrative ways to monetize their online presence. But the volume of messages they receive can quickly get overwhelming, and many have long outsourced chatting to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/onlyfans-creator-made-6-million-strategies-for-success-2023-1">their own employees</a> or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/unruly-agency-managing-onlyfans-accounts-influencers-tana-mongeau-daisy-keech-2021-1">external agencies</a>. Now, AI can become an addition to this arsenal of chatting tools.Companies like ChatPersona and FlirtFlow have developed chatbots that can be used on OnlyFans to chat on behalf of creators. OnlyFans has taken a staunch anti-AI stance, though, so a human still has to press "send" on the messages (even if they don't write them).Creators could use these AI tools to replace existing "chatters," who have often been low-wage workers in countries like the Philippines, India, and Pakistan, <a target="_blank" href="https://fortune.com/2024/04/05/ai-is-coming-for-the-onlyfans-chat-industry/">Fortune</a> reported.Other companies, like MySentient.ai or Riley Reid's Clona, have developed the capabilities to create chatbots that can exchange messages with fans on behalf of the creators, using their style of conversation. Unlike ChatPersona or FlirtFlow, these chatbots live on separate platforms from their human counterparts and are clearly labeled as being generated with artificial intelligence.Riley Reid told BI that she hoped her AI version would be a way to "immortalize herself" and continue to monetize the fan base she'd created with her adult content even as she moves away from it. To chat with AI Riley, fans need to pay a subscription that costs $30 a month.MySentient has been investing in creating "sentient" AI chatbots based on people that range from adult creators like Amouranth to Jesus.Reese Leysen, the company's CEO, said MySentient approaches AI with a clear goal of trying to make the interactions positive and putting guardrails in place for its use from the get-go. He said users had been able to form positive connections with chatbots like Amouranth's."I know there's many concerns around this, but we have so far not seen one person say in our community, 'This is bad for me,'" Leysen said. "We've actually only seen the opposite, where people say, 'This has made me so much more secure. It has made me feel like I am perfectly capable of forging these kinds of relationships.'"While chatting with a creator — whether real or AI — can have a positive impact, some experts <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-onlyfans-became-outlet-source-help-loneliness-sadness-connection-sex-2024-1">previously told BI</a> that the type of relief chatting offers can be a temporary Band-Aid to real-life problems, and can become a kind of addiction."They don't know how to be intimate. They don't know how to grow. They literally didn't learn that," Robert Weiss, a certified sex-addiction specialist who focuses on digital intimacy, said of some of his clients.Fanvue, an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/onlyfans-rival-fanvue-bets-on-ai-content-creators-have-concerns-2024-2">OnlyFans competitor</a> that has taken an AI-first approach, has developed a variety of AI tools to help its creators. These range from AI message drafting and voice notes to a "creator coach," an AI chatbot that helps users understand their performance on the platform better and gives advice and support.Creators have also been experimenting with AI tools that can replicate their voices. One of the most well-known and utilized tools is ElevenLabs, an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elevenlabs-ai-voice-cloning-startup-confirms-unicorn-valuation-2024-1">AI darling</a> that's recently achieved unicorn status for its text-to-speech and dubbing capabilities.Isla Moon said she'd seen some fellow creators clone their voices and then task their employees with sending voice notes to subscribers, pretending they're genuine. She and a number of other creators BI spoke with said they worried about how the use of AI could impact their credibility and undermine audiences' trust in them."That's the part that stresses me out a lot," she said. "At what point are [the fans] going to not trust what I'm saying?"<div type="image" title="An AI-generated image of OnlyFans model and adult content creator Elaina St James in a yellow bikini in a field of sunflowers." height="549" width="731" msid="109954045" hostid="261" sizebytes="52826"></div><h2 id="3e9fc336-71d7-491b-b6a3-7958b3b75f68">Level up: AI 'digital twins'</h2>Some startups are going a step further from just offering chatbots or voice clones, and promise to create full-on "digital twins" — also referred to as "duplicates" or "döppelgangers" — for existing influencers, which also generate pictures.Some companies — like Eva AI, Foxy.ai, and My.Club — are fully leaning into the adult world. Eva and My.Club even had booths at AVN, the world's biggest adult entertainment expo, where they were inviting adult stars to duplicate themselves.Jessica Moore, a creator who generated her digital twin using My.Club, said the idea of making a digital twin excited her not only for money-making potential but also for the creative possibilities and the interactions her AI version could have with other AI-generated characters."You're able to interact with your friends, digital versions of them," she said. "I think that's probably where we will see the twin going. For me, I live in a small town in Canada. I don't have access to every creator. Having the ability to do that, I think, is going to be really cool."Some creators are also experimenting individually with different AI image generators like MidJourney or Stable Diffusion to create depictions of themselves in different settings.Elaina St James, for example, has started Twitter and Instagram <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/elaina_world?igsh=MXhwZnNuNXZ5YWNuag%3D%3D">accounts</a> dedicated to AI art of herself — primarily simple portraits of her in revealing outfits in a variety of settings."I can be really creative," St James said in a recent <a target="_blank" href="https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/chat-with-elaina/episode-12-ai-the-end-of-LBsaPCu5ibg/?t=2404">podcast</a> episode she hosted. "I can make myself, or I can make a younger, blonde, super curvy version of me. Or I can make somebody older than me … This can all be part of the Elaina-verse."<div type="image" title="AI-generated image of two girls wearing jean bottoms and white tops, standing in the middle of a mall." height="1920" width="2560" msid="109954046" hostid="261" sizebytes="382272"></div><h2 id="1b0b7e11-b48b-4b87-bb92-f2c45171434d">The next frontier: AI-generated influencers</h2>There's been quite some buzz in the news about AI-generated characters, like Spanish <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-influencer-aitana-clueless-agency-tech-spain-2023-11">Aitana</a>, who besides being popular on Instagram makes money from adult content.In recent months, crops of AI-generated influencers in racy outfits and curves that defy the laws of physics have emerged, and some of them have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. Some of the creators behind these characters previously told BI they chose to lean into adult content because of its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-influencers-social-media-make-money-get-instagram-followers-2024-2">higher monetization potential</a>.To create these characters, they use a variety of AI tools, including Unstable Diffusion, an AI <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-porn-generator-unstable-making-500k-images-day-ceo-says-2023-7">image generator</a> that focuses on NSFW content. Many of them publish this content behind a paywall on Fanvue.Some creators have gone as far as using deepfake technology to superimpose AI-generated faces to the bodies of real influencers or celebrities like Dua Lipa and Margot Robbie, a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.404media.co/email/d72b3844-9d62-4961-b52f-86ba9f237480/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter">404 Media</a> investigation recently found.A popular app that enables this kind of deepfakes is HelloFace. Three AI creators BI previously spoke to mentioned they had seen the app being used in their community, both in legitimate and unauthorized ways.A spokesperson for HelloFace told BI the company is working actively to limit these unauthorized uses of third-party videos, but the practice still appears to be running rampant.<div type="image" title="Influencer and OnlyFans creator Sophie Annaston sitting on a wooden bench among trees." height="1206" width="1608" msid="109954047" hostid="261" sizebytes="185422"></div><h2 id="dc73d61e-dc0c-4788-8515-5a02db0eb8cb">Some creators are still skeptical — and worry about deceiving their audiences</h2>Like with many technological advancements, the excitement and interest are balanced with a healthy level of skepticism.Sophie Annaston, who's built a presence on social media primarily with "try-on" videos, said she'd been avoiding AI entirely out of respect for her audience and concern for the potential outcomes."If this AI model is directly associated with me, I can't do that," she said. "My account is very much me. It's been managed by me, it sounds like me. I could never have anything being said on my behalf that I don't see and send myself."Others see the power of AI but also the issues it could create for the adult industry as a whole. Similarly to those in other media sectors, many are embracing AI to speed up processes and for efficiency, but not to replace the creative and human sides. But the pressure to constantly produce new work has led many to at least contemplate how AI could fit into their output."In order to ride the algorithm wave, anybody needs a certain amount of content," said Charles Lyle, who co-owns adult production company Blush Erotica with his wife. "We would use AI to replace what we have not shot ourselves. Just to fill the space of how much content we need to feed the beast. That's how we would use AI."

How AI is shaking up OnlyFans and adult content creation

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-innovative-cmos"></a><ul><li>GE has embraced technology and platforms where its audience is, and that reinforce who it is as a company, says Linda Boff, its chief marketing officer and VP of learning and culture.</li><li>In an interview with Business Insider's Tanya Dua, Boff said that the brand has always leaned into innovation and technology that's core to its DNA, and is bullish on voice tech and AR.</li><li>GE has also evolved its stance on programmatic <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> and started to use programmatic tactics - something it has stayed away from until now, said Boff. </li><li>On the issue of brand safety, GE believes that it's on the same team as the platforms, but that there needs to be accountability, and that makes things challenging. </li></ul>Tanya Dua: So GE is an industrial tech brand, yet you've managed to completely change its marketing around, changing its image around. How have you managed to do that?Linda Boff: You know, I think in many ways it is by being this great industrial tech company that looks for ways to express ourselves through technology and through platforms that reinforce who we are. And what we've tried to do is rather than say how do we attack every new platform, we've said our stakeholders&#xa0;-&#xa0;and those might be employees, they might be customers, investors&#xa0;-&#xa0;share our love of science and technology. They share our love of innovation. And it kind of follows that they spend time on the types of platforms where we want our messages to be heard. So as a result, A, we've leaned into what we think is core DNA to us, innovation, technology. In a lovely way, the proliferation of those channels has been great for us because it's given us a variety of different avenues with which to communicate with those folks. And I would say secondly, we're a company that I believe is inherently interesting and we've embraced what that interestingness is around jet engines, around wind turbines, around power plants, and we've just found unexpected ways to talk about those things.Dua: So, you know, in a way you've been able to humanize all these technological functions that you deal with.Boff: I would like to believe that very much. And it's deliberate, Tanya. We firmly believe that people like to talk to people versus talk to some big faceless company. And the more we put a face on GE, and sometimes that face, or people themselves, but sometimes it's tone, right? It's the voice that we use. It's the images that we show. It's where we show up. It's how we talk about advanced materials and super materials and putting them on a sneaker to show that here's an accessible way to understand what we're doing. So the human side is, A, it's deliberate, very deliberate, and in some ways, it's almost a North star for us. If something we're doing feels too corporate, generally we'll turn away from it because it's not reinforcing the best of us and I don't think it makes us approachable. And I certainly, to what we just said, I don't think it makes us very interesting. So yes, humanity, we sometimes use the phrase "B-to-H, business to human."Dua: So obviously a lot of technology has kind of been a tool for you to be able to do that, whether that is flying drones across deserts, or I remember the "Emoji Science Lab" a couple years ago.Boff: I love your memory. We did the periodic, the chemistry periodic table in emojis. And it was early days for emojis. I'll tell you, sometimes I think my team is so remarkable, they're so creative. Sometimes we do things too early. You know, we've jumped on emojis before it even became as popular as it is today. But yes.Dua: Right, so when the stickers came around...Boff: Yes, new platforms, new expressions. Yeah by the time the stickers came around we were like oh yeah, been there done that.Dua: So what are some of the technologies that you're very bullish on now, as a brand, for your marketing and communication?Boff: Yeah, so on, hard to sit here and not talk about voice and audio. I have personally always been a great fan of voice. A zillion years ago, truly, a zillion years ago, I was a disc jockey. I love radio. I think there's a great intimacy to audio that I think we're seeing born out in the prevalence of podcasts, in the devices in our homes, be it Google Home or Alexa or what have you. So I think voice as a frontier is incredibly exciting. And for brands, how do you show up in voice? You don't have some of the tools that we're used to having, like visuals. You don't have, you know, in a sight sound and motion world you have auditory and yet, to me that's part of the challenge, is how do you tell that story? The flip side of that is the opportunity is the intimacy, the utility side. So if a brand can figure out what their utility is in audio, I think there's alchemy there. I think there's magic. So that one I'm really excited about. Look, I think like everybody, I'm incredibly intrigued with AR. It can't come fast enough but it doesn't really feel as though it's quite here now. And then, sometimes what's old is new again. So we've had great success with things like targeted newsletters that are simply serving the right message to the right audience. And feels kind of crazy to be sitting here in this wonderful high tech office talking to you about newsletters, and yet sometimes it's those tools used the right way that can actually reach the right folks.Dua: Yet one thing that you've chosen to sit out of&#xa0;-&#xa0;and for a long time now&#xa0;-&#xa0;is programmatic. It's supposed to account for over 86% of digital dollars spent by 2020 and GE has chose to sit out. Why is that?Boff: So we've chosen to sit out but we're also doing it our way. So let me unpack that for a second. So initially, the reason we chose to sit out was that so many of the media programs, the content programs, that I'm really proud to have done with any number of different publishers, have been highly customized, really bespoke, almost hand-stitched. Something I often say, I like to buy what isn't for sale. So that is usually crafting with a partner what that program is going to be. And that's in some ways the opposite of programmatic. You can't, you would never think of it in that way. Of late though, what we've started to do is think about some of the programmatic tactics, but apply them in our way. So I'll try to make it real for you. So when we're introducing something in GE power, an energy reservoir, and we wanna reach a certain audience, we're serving content, we're driving them to a website, we're pixelizing the website, we're learning about their behavior, and then we're nurturing those customers within our own stream. So rather than have the boomerang of now we're going to serve you ads in your feed for giant power plants&#xa0;-&#xa0;which, it is a particular audience that's looking for that&#xa0;-&#xa0;we try to drive customers through the funnel using behavioral tactics, using the right kind of content. So I'm still not gonna wear a tee shirt that says "I'm programmatic girl," but I think there are tactics there that are the right tactics, particularly when, as a marketer that markets to sometimes very finite customer pools where you wanna develop that relationship. So I don't know, my answer has evolved.Dua: So you've started taking baby steps?Boff: I think we've started taking baby steps our way. I'm still not interested in pray-and-spray. I'm still not interested in tonnage, for us. Every brand is different. What might not work for us might work beautifully for a consumer packaged goods company. But I think there are things that we can learn about targeting, about first party data, about how to nurture our customers. And there I have tremendous enthusiasm.Dua: So if I were to ask you to break down your budget?Boff: I would just say I can't do that.Dua: So maybe like five percent now is programmatic?Boff: That's a good question. So here's how I think about it. More and more, every day, is digital. And that's, I can't imagine anybody sitting across from you is gonna say much different than that, right? And it's something because of where audience behavior is. If everybody were spending all of their time watching a network we'd all be spending our money there, but we know that that is less and less the case with cord-cutters and binge programming, etc. So I would say, what percentage would I put on it? Small but growing, so under 10%. But you know, a year from now when we're sitting here, if we can find a way to drive great results and great brand so that we have both awareness, consideration, and ultimately, we're nurturing leads, that's pretty exciting.Dua: So are you trying to develop something like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-frustrated-youtube-brand-safety-ads-2017-12">what JP Morgan Chase did</a>? When they went back into YouTube they developed their own algorithm. So they did programmatic.Boff: They did, in their way.Dua: In their own way. So what is a tangible example of you guys doing that?Boff: Yeah, so I think, I would say they're probably further ahead than us in that regard. I have to give them a lot of credit and I love the experiment that they did where, what did they do? They sort of took down half, three-quarters, 80% of the (websites they advertise on programmatically), and the effectiveness remained the same. So for us, it's more about when we know who we want to reach, and we're pretty specific. There are 300 airlines. Now within the 300 airlines there are multiple different audiences that we want to talk to. That being said, if we can find a more effective and efficient way to put information in front of them, and do it without sacrificing the, what I think, modestly, is a real distinguished standout voice, that's something we'll want to do more of. And it can be very efficient. Now the question will be can it be effective as well as efficient? So the efficiency is there. We all know that, right? The numbers were there. And if we can drive more than just the brand awareness we'll do more of it.Dua: Cool, so another thing that you said before is...Boff: This is about repeating my words and seeing how well I'm doing with them.Dua: ...I'm trying to see how you've changed in the last six months that I've not spoken to you. So another thing you said was you never care about vanity metrics and you wouldn't miss seeing an impression ever again.Boff: That's still true.Dua: What are those metrics that you're actually concerned about, that you're watching closely, that you think serve as proxies for actually driving results?Boff: I very much still hold by that statement. I think impressions are just empty calories most of the time. So I think it's things like engaging in high value tasks. So what's a high value task for GE? If we're driving people to read a white paper, or sign up in a contact me form, or watch a video, those are really valuable for us. Those are tangible. They're hard hitting. Said in a much higher level way, it's engagement. So what bothers me about impressions is I literally, Tanya, have this image in my mind of something just bouncing off, right? There's no stickiness. There's no sort of sense of I want to be here, no sense of intent, whereas high value tasks, engaging in content. And again, I would say things, you and I have talked about this before, sharing, huge. If somebody chooses to share a piece of your content, boy is that valuable. If they take another step or a parallel step and they engage by reading, by asking for information, by saying you can contact me, by giving us their email address, that's pretty great stuff. I'll take that to the bank every day.Dua: So another thing that I really wanna know is where do you stand on issues of transparency and fraud, and particularly brand safety? This is, again, things you said very recently, but at the New Fronts you were on a panel with YouTube and you said that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/advertisers-falling-back-in-love-with-youtube-2018-4">there was a real partnership developing</a> in terms of brands and platforms working together to address the issue of brand safety. Yet this morning, there was yet another snafu with YouTube.Boff: Exactly.Dua: So where do you stand? What's your relationship with them like?Boff: Yeah, I very much believe that we need to be on the same team because in the end YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the brands, I think, have similar if not the same goals. We want to put quality content in front of real people who will consume that content and hopefully, if you're a brand, decide they like you, they wanna get to know you, they wanna transact with you, obviously depending on what the brand is. So I think we're on the same team. That's number one. And I want to work with these, all of them, all the ones we just talked about, to get to that place. I've talked about this before.&#xa0;Saftey's just a prickly one because the person on the other end, the viewer watching a YouTube video, somebody who's seeing something in their feed, are rarely distinguishing whether a brand chose to put something there or it got there by accident, programmatically or ad network or what have you. So the presumption, I believe, as somebody who always thinks about behavior, is that the person presumes you chose to put your content potentially in a compromised position if whoever, whatever today's example was.Dua: Yeah they don't care how you..Boff: They don't care how you get there. And look, it takes years, sometimes decades, to build a brand. It takes a very very short amount of time to turn the other direction. So I'm a steward of our brand. I will always sort of put my body, so to speak, in front of or in between goodness and badness because that's what we have. That's what we've built. So I think all the teams, Google, Facebook, Twitter, are trying very hard. I think their stomach falls when things like today happen. They're not having a good day when that happens. But we have to hold each other accountable, so we're on the same team, but at the same time when there's an accident, there's accountability, and that makes it, it makes it challenging. I don't think it's a reason not to be on the platforms. I think it's a reason to be thoughtful, to go into it with the best intent and with your eyes, being steely-eyed.Dua: So kind of nudging them from the inside?Boff: I think so, I think so. And I think these days there's a lot of nudging going on inside as well. I think they're kind of nudging each other. As I say, we all wanna get to a place of goodness, of transparency, of safety. I don't think they're bad actors saying "God, how can we screw the brands today, how can we put them in this dark place?" I don't think that's happening. So hopefully we all get better at this. There are more humans involved. There's more, we're asking for accountability and we have people on our side, which is back on the shoulders of the brands, to make sure that we're tracking it ourselves.&#xa0;Dua: Okay, let's put the spotlight back on you before we end.Boff: Yes, my dear.Dua: What do you think is the most powerful tool in a CMO's arsenal today and what do you think is the biggest marketing myth?Boff: Most powerful tool is talent. Nothing comes close. Having great people is everything. Biggest myth, I feel like data is a myth that is put out there as though it's the panacea. Because of course it isn't data. It's insights that lead to behavior that ultimately lead to purchase consideration. So I think when everybody throws out data performance without a sense of context, what does it really mean?<div><div itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/VideoObject"></div></div></hr>

GE's Linda Boff reveals how the brand remains true to its DNA, why ad impressions are vanity metrics, and why it's finally embracing programmatic advertising

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