Healthcare is no game, but try telling insurance carriers that. Phillip gets manipulated into buying a denim jacket, innovation in fitness and fashion, Adobe "reinvents" fintech, and the guys go deep (real deep) on healthcare and insurance.
"LOL, jean jackets are still a thing"
- Phillip got a new jean jacket
- Moral of the story: even when you know what's happening to you, even when you know you're being manipulated but digital marketing, you still buy the product.
- Brian suggests the inception theory of jean jacket marketing (perhaps Phillip watched Stranger Things 2?).
- Pricing elasticity on an individual basis as an untapped area of potential
Minority Report Policing in Dubai
- Dubai International Airport plans a new face scanning virtual aquarium.
- They are legitimately there to just track your face and scan you and make sure you're not a terrorist of some kind.
A prediction: at some point facial scanning is going to drive advertising to you.
Amazon's Inadvertent Market Contraction?
- Microsoft partners are getting lifts in azure deployments ever since Amazon acquired Whole Foods. It seems that retail is really shaken up about Amazon kind of owning the world.
- Keep an eye on it: Amazon needs large brands and enterprise partners to continue using AWS: a large exodus might cause business contraction.
- Something to keep an eye on: maybe the contraction in this space may have a negative effect overall on amazon's business because Amazon needs the large enterprise partners and brands to still use AWS. They can't all jump ship for Azure.
Amazon's Athleisure Adventures
- Amazon is in talks with two manufactures to create its own sportswear brand.
- Both Taiwanese companies already make clothing for the Gap, Uniqlo, Kohl's, Lululemon, Nike, and Under Armour.
- Brian predicts "make" will be more important than "brand." See episode 8 for reference.
- Brian and Phillip meet Michael from Best Made Company, an upscale lifestyle clothing and gear company recently acquired by silicon valley startup, Bolt Threads to pilot a new type of spider silk.
- We no longer need a consumer marketing campaign for people to accept nylon or to buy more cotton (Phillip reminisces about "the touch, the feel of cotton.")
- Shout out to Kniterate, and Bolt Threads, to potentially disrupting the textile industry.
Apple's New Retail Stores: If It Works, Double Down
- Apple's new Town Square store just opened in Chicago.
- Shocker: it's just a big giant Apple store.
- Retail spaces are more than just about purchasing at this point: this is Starbucks 2.0.
- A new discovery: the Apple store and the play area at the mall are the exact same thing, we just don't call the play area a town hall.
- Mark it: Brian saliently wins Phillip over to his Apple optimism at 27:47: why wouldn't Apple invest in this more? Why not? Go ahead and make it bigger, make it nicer.
Adobe and Banks Team up to "Reinvent" fintech
- Adobe is working with banks to merge physical branches with digital experiences.
- Brian's having a hard time getting excited for Adobe teaming up with banks to merge physical branches with digital experiences.
- Adobe's "sensei" uses artificial intelligence to automatically reformat content on a bank's website to fit a screen inside the bank.
- It sounds a lot like they just used AI to build a responsive webpage. What's new?
- One interesting point: using a customer's geographic location to trigger a notification on a smartphone once they enter a branch: bank geofencing.
Loyalty Programs and the FBI
- REI and the FBI worked together to catch a suspected airport bomber by using an REI bag they found in the woods and tracing the purchase back to the loyalty card of the suspected bomber.
- We finally found a real use for loyalty programs in this country.
Body Dataaaaa!
- John Hancock partners with Apple to offer $25 Apple Watches.
- The catch: you have to exercise regularly for 2 years with it, or pay it all back.
- Insurance getting involved in body devices might herald a move to the gamification of healthcare.
- A move to "push" healthcare rather than "pull." Push customers to healthy living rather than wait for them to come to the doctor.
- Potential hazards: what if your provider has access to your purchase data? Do you really want them to see how often you ate at Taco Bell last month?
- Brian goes a "little bit future" and suggests free preventative care for every American to save the country a ton of money.
- Silicon Valley has the chance to make healthcare a game and transform its role.
- We have legitimate technology that can help save your life.
- In fact, it helped save James T. Green's life.
Puerto Rico and Tesla Grid Update
- Tesla is continuing to invest in Puerto Rico.
- can Tesla adopt their work on a larger scale?
- Is it smart for Puerto Rico to privatize their energy grid with Tesla's help?
- Should we allow the privitization of a fundamental human need in 2017?
- Tesla's and Google's work in Puerto Rico is a silver lining in an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Cryptocurrency
- Russia considering it's own cryptocurrency, which goes against the fundamental tenant of cryptocurrency: decentralization.
- Bubble watch: Bitcoin is approaching 6,000 to 1 US dollars.
- Mastercard announces its own blockchain service. A reversal of their previous anti-Bitcoin position.
- Cryptocurrency Domain squatting: everyone is trying to stake lay claim to a name or brand while other markets go crazy.
- Bitcoin is still the wild west
The Hack Back Bill
- A new bill introduced in the House of Representatives let's people hack back.
- It's called the AC/DC act. Metal.
- Legislation as a defense of people who have to do something technically illegal to stop viruses and malware, perhaps?
- An attempt of the the government to get a handle on new threats in a digital world.
Snapchat Vandalized in AR
- Snapchat partnered with Jeff Koons to add AR elements to his artwork.
- It was vandalized.
- But was it really? Someone used a separate app, recreated the exact model, and added virtual spraypaint vandalism.
- Brian, breaking with his usual optimism, thinks we're seeing a new norm: subversive acts built on AR in different spaces, layered one on top of the other. Lenses uon lenses, with little to no regulation or enforcement.
- That bleak note leads us to the SEC announcing investigations into blockchain.