It’s late July which means back to school shopping and summer vacation. Whenever I return from a few days off it always feels like I’ve been gone for a month. After I catch up on work there is always a stack of new product launches, a list of acquisitions and an inbox full of thought provoking articles to review. We’ve put together a list of articles that will speed up the recovery process.

We begin with an interesting question: Is Pinterest the search engine of the future? I was surprised to learn that 97% of the top searches on Pinterest each month are non-branded. Its a great place for brands to be discovered. Here are two more interesting stats. More than 43 million people own smart speakers and early adopters use the devices primarily to control smart home technology. By 2020 more than 20 billion retail items will be connected. Will your brand be ready?

We have also included interviews with forward thinking industry leaders Jack Philbin and Nikki Mendonca. Nikki does not mince words in her interview!

Dig in and enjoy your vacation.

-Frank