You've probably seen this happen several times
Gone out with friends or family to a restaurant and everyone spends time looking at the menu.
Suggestions fly back and forth on what's the 'best' dish available.
Then, most of the people around the table order exactly what they did the previous time!
So, why do we go about this elaborate routine of pretending to make decisions?
In a sense, we want the ability to choose. To be told we can have what we want.
Not necessarily to exercise that power but simply know that if we ever change our mind, the options are available.
Netflix has accepted that a section of their audience falls into this bracket.
They can use predictive algorithms and all the persuasive power of the range of titles available.
But some people like to watch just what is available on TV
In France, Netflix is offering a channel called Direct, accessible through browsers and streaming a fixed schedule of films through the day.
Much like TV has always been.
Right now, it's only in France. But if the experiment succeeds, you could see Netflix come full circle.
Because some people prefer having choices, not making decisions.
The Airpods stuck on tracks
They hang stylishly out of ears.
Slim, white and imitated by every wannabe brand.
Symbolising the clean break between wired and wireless worlds
The engineering and design ensured that it fits snugly into ears while wearers walk, jog, skip or jump.
Ever since launch, airpods have moved to the 'most wanted' list and become one of Apple's most successful products
In 2020, they are expected to earn the company over $20 billion.
The transition to wireless has been a smooth ride.
There's just one minor problem.
Subway passengers in Japan have lost airpods during rush hour exits which end up on the tracks below
Probably the only time the music is off synch
It's too dangerous to retrieve even though some people are crazy enough to try.
Lost and found departments are kept busy with passengers filing nearly a thousand complaints every year.
They're hard to pull out, given their small size
The rail company partnered with Panasonic to design a mini-vacuum to solve the problem.
Workers use it to suck the airpods off the tracks and return them to their rightful owners.
Opening up an opportunity for Panasonic to make money off an Apple product.
Strange how markets are created.
Wanted - Brand Safety Officer
In the years to come several companies will have one.
They will fulfil an increasingly important function.
The explosive growth of advertising across millions of points on the internet has created strange bedfellows.
Well-known brands were featured alongside terrorist videos. Or pornography.
And companies paid out billions of dollars because there was no way to track where the ads appeared in the chain of networks.
There was no separation between the trusted players and the ones that simply siphoned off ad dollars.
In 2016, the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) was set up. The objective - cut down ad fraud and create a set of standards across the ad supply chain.
Every month, TAG produces a Data Center IP List collected by partnering with qualified companies to trace the origin of malware IP addresses.
Certified ad companies and brands add these IP addresses to their ever-growing filter list to ensure that the brand ads never appear on these sites.
They are also clearly defining invalid traffic generated by bots and other unauthorised sources. In essence, creating safe channels for ad serving
The results are impressive. A reduction of nearly 90% in fraudulent traffic.
And that's what Brand Safety Officers will police.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please consider sharing it with friends. Or Tweeting the link. The more people we can get to tune in every week, the merrier. Thank you.
Do you make decisions easily?