Monthly Archives: January 2017

by | Monday, January 9, 2017 · 4:12 pm

YouTube Rewind from 2016

videos

No year-end review of social trends in 2016 would be complete without reflecting on the last 12 months, and watching the top trending videos of 2016 on YouTube. Adding to the reflective spirit, YouTube’s year-end review includes the top trending views globally, top trending music videos, and the most popular videos across categories such as comedy, gaming, science, technology, beauty, fashion, sports, and more.

View these videos and consider the social trends that they started and the implications for marketing. Are these a preview of future trends, or have they already become passé? What will 2017 hold for us on social media and YouTube?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss YouTube’s appeal to viewers. Poll students: What do they watch, and why?
  2. Show Web site: https://www.youtube.com/user/theyearinreview
  3. Assign student teams to one of the categories of videos.
  4. Give each team 5 – 10 minutes to pick out what they consider to be the video that most influenced consumer trends in 2016.
  5. Next, have each team brainstorm on how to expand from the lifecycle of the trend.
  6. Debrief assignment by showing the top video from each category.

Source: YouTube

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by | Wednesday, January 4, 2017 · 7:51 am

Otto – The Self-Driving Truck Delivers

trucks

Face it. While not everyone is in favor of them, autonomous vehicles are definitely gaining a foothold in the market. They may evolve features and functions over the next few years, but they are certainly becoming part of the road.

One of the latest developments was the first commercial shipment using a self-driving vehicle this fall in Colorado. The cargo? More than 50,000 cans of Budweiser beer!

The trip was the result of a partnership between beer-maker Anheuser-Busch and Otto, a self-driving technology company owned by Uber. The project, with support from the State of Colorado, demonstrated a trip of 120 miles, from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, without a driver in the seat during the entire stretch of the highway. The autonomous driving system used cameras, radar, and sensors to guide the truck. Otto’s system controlled the steering, acceleration, braking, and navigation.

The importance of this use of autonomous driving has big implications for transit and safety; nearly 70% of products we buy are brought to market on long-haul trucks. While a human still has to load the truck and guide it through the city to a highway exit, once the truck is on the expressway the driver can relax in back until the destination exit is reached.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Show Otto’s Web site and view the video of the trip: https://ot.to/
  2. Discuss how to build and use a SWOT analysis grid: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (internal and external factors).
  3. Break students into teams. Have each team build a SWOT analysis grid for Otto’s truck self-driving technology, .
    1. Strengths: what is company good at?
    2. Weaknesses: what needs work?
    3. Opportunities: what is going on in marketplace?
    4. Threats: what should company be wary of?
  4. Based on the analysis, what are the issues and risks that might occur?
  5. Debrief by building SWOT analysis grid on the white board.

Source:  Wired, Tech Crunch, other news sources

 

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by | Monday, January 2, 2017 · 7:47 am

Waymo – Google’s Self-Driving Car Company

car

Google has taken its autonomous vehicle project to a new level and has created a subsidiary company named Waymo to continue to work on the technology and vehicles. Waymo’s mission is to make it safe and easy for people to get around. Since 2009, Google’s autonomous cars have been self-driven for more than two million miles, and have an additional one billion miles in simulations!

Recently, Waymo announced that last year it had successfully completed a 10-minute self-driving ride around the city of Austin, Texas (a state that does not require a driver behind the wheel) without a driver, steering wheel, or brake pedals. The rider was a legally blind man who has not been able to travel alone for years.

There is a great deal of attention on autonomous, semi-autonomous, and driver-assisted vehicles. Almost every major automotive company is investing in the technologies either directly or with partners. While there is still a lot of work to do on the vehicles, maps, and regulations, Boston Consulting Group estimates that this will become a $42 billion industry by 2025.

Even more important, the new technologies will help cut down on the more than one million traffic deaths that occur around the world each year. Now that’s a technology that benefits everyone on the road.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Show the video of the Austin ride:

https://www.wired.com/video/meet-the-blind-man-who-convinced-google-its-self-driving-car-is-finally-ready

  1. Bring up Waymo’s Web site for students:

https://waymo.com/

  1. In teams, have students review information about the company and technology. What are their opinions about the company and self-driving vehicles.
  2. Next, discuss the components of a situation analysis: company, general industry, trends, key competitors, technology, legal, etc.
  3. Have each team use laptops to do general research to answer the questions above. (ex: overview of industry, size, growth, new technologies, environmental impact, etc.)
  4. Debrief the exercise by compiling information on the white board. Does this give a good picture of the situation faced by Waymo?

Source:  Wired, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, other news sources

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