Sunday Shuffle v. 4

Happy Sunday, marketeers! Welcome once again to the Sunday Shuffle. For many, including myself, Labor Day weekend isn't just a holiday—it's a time of reflection, perhaps even more so than New Year's. It's an opportunity to pause, look back, and recalibrate our priorities for the year's final stretch. And what a year it's been! Today, we'll explore the volatile tech labor market and its ripple effects on us and our teams. We'll also look at Google's big week! So, let's shuffle on!

Inside this week's Shuffle:

• The "Labor Day" Lightning Round
• Framework of the Week
• Google's Big Week
• Top headlines

The Labor Lightning Round

• Over 233K tech jobs across ~1K tech companies have been axed this year according to Layoffs.fyi . Retail, consumer, hardware and HCIT hit hardest.
• Why, you ask? In a word: Uncertainty. A looming recession, higher interest rates, over-exuberant hiring during Covid, and the impact of AI on the future workforce. Pew says some roles are more exposed than others due to AI.
• Making matters worse, tech fundraising is down dramatically , from $317.B last year to $164.8B in first 6-months of 2023. Concerns over raising funding is forcing businesses to cut costs and stretch out their cash runway.
• Marketing has certainly given its pound of flesh, with budgets being reduced in favor of profitable growth. More worrying, according to Gartner, 71% of CMOs believe they lack sufficient budget to execute their strategy in 2023.

Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” – Henry Ford.

Framework of the Week: Marketing Team Builder

... but alas ... not all hope is lost! I'm highly optimistic about the future for marketeers. Even with low unemployment rates, there's a wealth of skilled marketers ready for hire. It's an ideal time to top-grade your team, invest in their development, and scout new skills and talent for the upcoming year. To support this, I've crafted a simple framework to evaluate your current team or one you're considering leading. Click here for access >>

Google's Big Week

Last week, Google Cloud hosted thousands of customers and partners at their annual Cloud Next '23 event in San Francisco. Not surprisingly, AI took centerstage with a slew of announcements around how the company is applying generative AI to their cloud portfolio, boldly and responsibly.

Highlights:

• Duet AI for Google Workspace now officially GA and available for free trial.
• Google's DeepMind is testing SynthID, an invisible watermark to identify AI-generated images and combat disinformation.
• Google Maps launched three new APIs designed to boost sustainability.
• Google Docs announced Proofread , a new set of AI-powered features that offers suggestions for better wording, grammar, clarity, and conciseness.

Takeaway:

It feels like Google is throwing the proverbial AI spaghetti against the wall and waiting to see what sticks. It is an all out arms race in B2B AI. But at least it's all under the capstone of being more useful and responsible, which has consistently been Sundar's mantra in all his communications.

In Other News

• Apparently Elon Musk wants to turn X into a YouTube competitor and will pay creators 10% more. Check out this interesting piece on how the most valuable content you can create on X (Twitter) right now is video.
• After cutting 10% of its workforce, Salesforce reported a strong quarter. Revenues were up 22% year on year and the company said a bunch of new features will be announced at Dreamforce starting Sept. 12 in San Fran.
• Taylor Orford , an OgilvyUK creative, wrote this piece in AdAge about how GenZ stereotypes are failing us and what we need to do better to authentically connect with this influential audience.
• Carilu Dietrich posted this 2-part blog on VC-backed CMO compensation ranges on her very cool blog, Hypergrowth Leadership .
• LinkedIn published their B2B Marketing Benchmark report, citing optimism that 2 out of 3 senior B2B marketing leaders feel budgets will increase in '24.
• The annual SaaStr 2023 event is this week at the San Mateo County Events Center. It's a stacked agenda! Sadly I can't make it as I'd love to see DataDog CMO, Alex Rosemblat present "More Deals with Less Budget."
• There's still time to squeeze one more book into your summer. Check out McKinsey's 2023 Summer Reading List for ideas.

Before you go!

If you like what you see:

• Please LIKE, COMMENT or SHARE with your network to keep the discussion going all week. These are just my thoughts - so feel free to add your your own thoughts, comments and opinions!
• LMK if you want to include anything in future Shuffles. Just email me at [email protected] .

For those of you in the US or Canada, I wish you a Happy Labor Day tomorrow. To all others, Go Forth & Shuffle!