Five Interesting Things: Today’s Scan Hits
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today.
- Social media sites are continuing to pursue advertising as a way of increasing revenue. But what are social media’s obligations to the advertisers they attract? As companies and organizations continue to advertise both in general and to targeted audiences, the question of a safe space to advertise becomes a complex but important consideration.
- A recent article from McKinsey describes “the coming era of ‘on-demand’ marketing,” in which consumer’s brand experiences will be tightly integrated between the physical and digital worlds. The article includes a scenario illustrating consumer-marketing interactions in 2020.
- A flood of fake Asian-manufactured drugs are driving Africans back to traditional medicine.
- GLXY-13 is molecularly similar to the street drug ketamine (i.e. “Special K), but the compound has shown to be effective in relieving depression symptoms in only one hour, without the negative side effects of Ketamine or the SSRI family of anti-depressants. The drug is currently in phase 2 human clinical trials. There are over 20 other NDMA modulators similar to GLXY-13, offering a new research area for pharmaceutical research and development.
- Amazon has announced plans to expand its Amazon Fresh home grocery delivery service, with tests runs in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The service already runs in Amazon’s home city of Seattle. While there are already extant grocery delivery services, Amazon’s size, purchasing power, experience and existing customer base means that this could be a disruptive move not just for grocery delivery, but overall grocery retailing