Artificial Intelligence and Creative Writing

I was blown away merely by the headline for this story.

Supposedly the "creative" jobs are safe from the coming robotic overlord dystopia (tongue in cheek of course).  Not any more.  Now AI can help write creative stories.

Wow.

Just.

Wow.

Read the full piece here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/technology/ai-is-beginning-to-assist-novelists.html

Happy ... Writing and Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS I have completed my first fiction book and self-published online so this one really grabbed my attention.

PPS One more. A.I. defeated a team of lawyers to create an error free contract in less time.
https://m.slashdot.org/story/347623

Journalism and Blockchain

If you don't have any idea what is happening in "Blockchain" you aren't alone.

Here is Wikipedia to help:

By storing data across its peer-to-peer network, the blockchain eliminates a number of risks that come with data being held centrally. The decentralized blockchain may use ad-hoc message passing and distributed networking.

Peer-to-peer blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability that computer crackers can exploit; likewise, it has no central point of failure.

And the full Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain

Here is a good little story about a huge publisher looking to blockchain tech for journalism.  Worth the read.

https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/10/10/forbes-fix-journalism-blockchain/

Here is a snippet from the story:

Publishing giant Forbes is joining a blockchain-based journalism network to begin experimenting with publishing its content using decentralized tech.

In an announcement yesterday, Forbes revealed it has teamed up with blockchain-powered journalism platform, Civil, in an effort to gain more trust with readers. As part of the collaboration, Forbes will also publish content on the blockchain.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0261 Storytelling

The highest achievement in brand management and advertising for a brand is to tell a story that relates the product to the people who might spend money on that product.

The art of storytelling.

As someone who has always loved storytelling in its many forms and has now joined that with my first book I am keenly aware of the power of the form.  Leveraging that for marketing is a masterful achievement.

Here is CMO.com with 6 brands that have done so:

https://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2018/6/29/6-brands-that-have-mastered-the-art-of-storytelling

Here is number 1 on their list:

Grey Goose
When most people think of Grey Goose, they think cocktails. But that’s not the only place where the global spirits connoisseur excels. Its content marketing efforts are vast, but the highlight is the brand’s video strategy, in which it shows that it is also a content creator.

In March, Grey Goose partnered with Academy Award-winning actor Jamie Foxx to launch “Off Script,” a nine-part digital series in which he has one-on-one conversations with Hollywood darlings, such as Jeremy Renner, Vince Vaughn, Denzel Washington, and Gabrielle Union.

I know what you are thinking.  Sure.  That works fine for the big players who can afford to hire an Academy-Award winning actor.  What about me?

Just tell a story and a compelling one that your audience cares about. That's all.  You can do it.  Be creative in the media you use but be consistent for your brand.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Games for Kids and Retail

I love games.

I've been playing games my whole life.

The basics, of course, but I was also riding the wave of the digital revolution.  The first ever electronic games such as 'Electronic Detective' or 'Stop Thief!' that married the classic board game with a digital helper.

Oh, there is a remake of that beloved classic if you care.  It is excellent.  Take a look here:
https://restorationgames.com/stopthief/

Hasbro has been rolling with the punches for a long time now and they aren't slowing down.  Read this piece to find out the newest version of Monopoly.  Hint, it resulted directly from customer feedback on the original.

https://www.clickz.com/hasbro-evolves-alongside-customers/214732/

This is pure Participation Age stuff folks.  Everyone is responding to the customer's input for a brand.  Are you?

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS  Did I mention I'm being published?  My game will be available soon.  :-) Don't worry though, I won't be marketing it in here.

Choose Your Own Adventure Goes Digital

Do you remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books?

Pick any theme you can think of.  Pirates.  Lost Treasure.  Dragons.  Princesses.

Pick up the book, start reading, and within a few pages you were asked to make a decision.  Something like this:
"If you choose to take the red brick path turn to page 23.
Take the blue brick path instead turn to page 37."

There were always paths to put you in a straight line to disaster, and you quickly learned through repetition which ones put you on that path, and only one "best" ending, with multiple endings.  Fun and immensely re-playable.  I used "play" because it was an interactive experience, not just a reading experience.

Fun fun!

So, Netflix is in the same game now.

Yeap.  Choose Your Own Adventure for movies and TV.

Super cool!  Don't you just love digital technology in the 21st Century?

Read more here:

https://www.wired.com/story/netflix-branching-narratives/

Happy ... Choosing,

J.W. Gant

App Marketing in 2017

Great little read that should help update your (and my) understanding of how to market mobile apps today.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

In the early days of apps, life used to be so simple. You built it, released it into the app store(s), spread the word about it and waited for the downloads to roll in. That was in the days when apps were novelty items and people were still amazed at the utility and functionality that could be coded into something they could keep on their homescreen and use whenever they wanted.

Fast forward a few years – nine to be exact – and things look somewhat different. While mobile phone OS fragmentation has eased somewhat, leaving iOS and Android as virtually the last men standing, the fact remains that there are more than 2m apps in Apple’s App Store, and another 2m+ in the Google Play store.

Here is the article:

http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/app-marketing-101

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Txt Message Fiction

Yes that is a thing and is there really anything wrong with that?

Hey, so long as folks are reading it is okay with me.

What is especially cool is the way this little startup used A/B or "split" testing to develop this form of fiction.  Cool read,

https://medium.com/@prernagupta/how-we-got-10-million-teens-to-read-fiction-on-their-phones-19a2a475084c

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Three years ago, I was living in a small surf town in Costa Rica and writing my first novel, when I had a panic attack.

The novel was a sci-fi fantasy trilogy for young adults, set in Silicon Valley a hundred years in the future. I’m a tech entrepreneur, so it’s not surprising I chose this theme.

But there was something unusual about this sci-fi story — my protagonist was a dark-skinned Indian girl, like me. And that was what caused me to panic.

Would anyone read a sci-fi story with a dark-skinned, female protagonist? How was I going to convince an agent to take a book like this seriously? Would a publisher be able to find an audience for my strange story? And, do teenagers even read?

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Twitter and the Fakes

Twitter is the streaming consciousness of the world. I'm convinced of it and follow a lot of what is going on very closely thanks to it.  We've seen its impact in strange ways and good ways.  The immediacy is amazing.  Simply no better way for mass communication of simple ideas.  Yet that immediacy can be an issue too.

What if some of the accounts on Twitter are fake accounts to help distribute a fake idea?

What if 48 million accounts are fake and whole waves of "news" can be faked, moving markets, pushing public opinion, and forcing action?

Scary.

Read on:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/10/nearly-48-million-twitter-accounts-could-be-bots-says-study.html

Here is a snippet from the piece:

A big chunk of those "likes," "retweets," and "followers" lighting up your Twitter account may not be coming from human hands. According to new research from the University of Southern California and Indiana University, up to 15 percent of Twitter accounts are in fact bots rather than people.

The research could be troubling news for Twitter, which has struggled to grow its user base in the face of growing competition from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and others.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

The Subscription Economy

Interesting read on the shift to steady revenue streams vs. one-time transactional revenue streams. Do you have a Netflix account?  Yeap.  Bet you used to rent from Blockbuster one movie at a time didn't you?

http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/subscription-economy-change-price-pay/307966/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Should a customer in New York pay a higher price than someone from Ohio for the same service? And should a doctor in Ohio pay a higher price than a New York taxi driver? Should a Mac user be steered to a pricier hotel when shopping online? Hint: It's already happening.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Reinventing Printed Publications

I recently subscribed, digitally, to the Washington Post and was struck by the mobile app experience on my iPad.  Had I known how good it was I probably would have subscribed sooner and that struck me.  Traditional media publications are reinventing themselves and some are having great success.  The Washington Post just posted a profitable quarter, hugely profitable, and announced the hiring of many dozens of journalists.

So maybe the traditional newspaper isn't dead yet. What I really love about this app is how it respected but updated the traditional newspaper browsing experience.  Just like reading a paper you merely continue "turning the page" to get deeper and deeper yet you have sections ready to grab as well.  Take a look:

Here is a little story on that mobile app:

http://www.talkingnewmedia.com/2015/07/14/first-look-at-the-new-the-washington-post-app-for-ios/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

...the new iOS app for The Washington Post cannot be expected to radically change the formula. What it can do, however, is play around with design and navigation, rethinking the way it wants to present its content.

Here is a great story on how the New Yorker is reinventing itself:

https://www.poynter.org/2017/how-the-new-yorker-brought-the-soul-of-the-magazine-to-the-web/447007/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

...The New Yorker has undergone a massive digital remaking. It's established a separate web operation that's unchained writers and editors from the time-intensive print edition. It's colonized platforms like podcasts, YouTube, mobile applications, Instagram and Snapchat. And it's built a digital staff of about 40 people, hiring several full-time journalists tasked with writing primarily for the website.

The north star for this transformation: Breathing the soul of the 92-year-old magazine onto the internet without compromising its essence.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

New J.R.R. Tolkien

Time for something completely different.

I've been a fan of the books written by J.R.R. Tolkien since the late '70's and have read the entire 'Lord of the Rings' books just about once for every year I've been on this earth.

Guess that makes me a huge fan.

Yes, I enjoyed the movies a ton as well.

Time for a wonderful new book.

A collection of sketches, drawings, and maps by Tolkien himself that helps show the evolution of Middle Earth.  Simply wonderful, and to be available in time for the holidays.  Pick one up for a family member or friend who is a fan.

http://www.wired.com/2015/10/see-jrr-tolkien-lord-of-the-rings-middle-earth-illustrations-for-first-time/#slide-1

Here is a snippet from the piece:

HOW DID J.R.R. Tolkien create The Lord of the Rings? The simple answer is that he wrote it. He sat down in a chair in 1937 and spent more than a dozen years working on what remains a masterwork of fantasy literature and a genius stroke of immersive worldbuilding.

The more complicated answer is that in addition to writing the story, he drew it. The many maps and sketches he made while drafting The Lord of the Rings informed his storytelling, allowing him to test narrative ideas and illustrate scenes he needed to capture in words. For Tolkien, the art of writing and the art of drawing were inextricably intertwined.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS  I probably sign my name as I do because of Tolkien.

Starbucks Crafts Deeper Engagement and Loyalty

Two stories about the digital activities of Starbucks are worth your time.  Combined they paint a picture of Starbucks continuing to enhance loyalty and engagement with its most loyal customers.

First up is a new loyalty points capability integrated with Lyft, the Uber ride competitor.  Possibly coming as a part of this, according to the article, is a "lyft" for Starbucks employees who need a ride to work.  Mostly though it allows Lyft users to earn Starbucks loyalty points.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/starbucks-partners-with-lyft-on-shared-loyalty-program/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Creating an opportunity for customers to earn points for food and beverages by simply using the Lyft ride service, coffee-giant Starbucks has entered into a multi-year partnership with Uber’s main competitor, Lyft. Using the My Starbucks Rewards program as the core centerpiece of the loyalty program, anyone that takes a Lyft car to a destination can earn those reward points according to the announcement on the Starbucks Newsroom.

Next is news of Starbucks integration with the New York Times, offering articles within the Starbucks app.  I only use the app for mobile payment to the point where I often forget I have a reward.  Efforts such as this one are meant to get people to use the Starbucks app and use it more often.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/starbucks-boosts-mobile-loyalty-program-with-new-york-times-content

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Starbucks is expanding its partnership with The New York Times to bring top daily articles to its mobile application users and reward loyalty members with points when they purchase print and digital subscriptions, reflecting the growing importance of top-notch content for merchants on mobile.

While the beverage giant has previously tapped The New York Times to bring free content to its customers, this marks the first time Starbucks is integrating the partnership with its loyalty program, which currently boasts 10 million members.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Changing Landscape in News Publications

Do you remember Time Magazine?  I bet there is an age test associated with legacy media such as that.  Think a 20 year old reads Time Magazine?  I find it unlikely and so do the executives over there.

According to a story at AdAge.com the revenues at Time, Inc. are now 20% digital and growing.  The world is changing.  Here is the story:

http://adage.com/article/media/a-time-s-ad-revenue-digital/298501/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Time Inc., the nation's largest magazine publisher, now generates 20% of its ad revenue through digital sales, the company said today.

The company sold $73 million worth of digital ads in the first quarter, up 1% over the quarter a year earlier, Time Inc. executives told Wall Street investors as it reported its most recent results. The increase would be 20% if you exclude digital ad sales in the first quarter of 2014 from CNNMoney.com, which until last June was home to the digital content for Time Inc.'s Fortune and Money magazines, and Grupo Editorial Expansión, a group of Mexican magazines that Time Inc. sold last June.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant