The boys take aim at Amazon's new social platform Spark (thumbs down), Google's news feed (thumbs up) and Facebook's addition of branded sub-groups (jury's still out). Rants and raves include building something instead of measuring, and the craze to focus on technology over strategy. This week's This Old Marketing example: Emily McDowell Cards.

This week's story links:

Amazon Lures Publishers to New Social Network by Paying Them to Post https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-lures-publishers-to-new-social-network-by-paying-them-to-post-1500482959?mod=djemCMOToday Google Aims to Reinvent How We Discover the News https://www.inc.com/alex-moazed/bgoogle-aims-to-reinvent-how-we-discover-the-new.html https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/19/the-anti-face/ Facebook Is Now Letting Brands and Media Companies Create Their Own Groups Within Pages http://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-is-now-letting-brands-and-media-companies-create-their-own-groups-within-pages/ SHOW SPONSOR - SMARTLING Download Going Global with Mobile App Content at http://cmi.media/pnr193 RANTS AND RAVES https://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/customer-experience/the-cx-tech-integration-challenge-we-bought-all-this-software-now-what-do-we-do-with-it/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/sizmek-to-acquire-fellow-ad-tech-company-rocket-fuel-for-125-5-million-1500379406

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2017/07/instead-of-the-easy-numbers.html

THIS OLD MARKETING - EMILY MCDOWELL

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2015/05/06/empathy_cards_by_emily_mcdowell_are_greeting_cards_designed_for_cancer_patients.html

FLASHBACK 43 - FINAL FLASHBACK SHOW