Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Discovery+ Merges with HBO - Weekly Advertising News August 12, 2022

Episode Date: August 12, 2022

Welcome back to your weekly update on all things related to marketing and advertising! Sponsors:Branded Bills Old Glory collection Hoodies, flannels, beanies - perfect for fall and back to school! 20% off with code RADCAST20 Social HolidaysAugust 12 - World Elephant DayAugust 13 - Left handers dayAugust 15 - National relaxation dayAugust 16 - National tell a joke daySocial Media News: Sweetarts encourages amateur filmmakers on TikTokhttps://www.marketingdive.com/news/sweetarts-filmmakers-tiktok-festival-influencer-gomez/629015/ Instagram strongholds influencer marketing despite growing competitionhttps://www.marketingdive.com/news/instagram-rivalry-tiktok-influencer-marketing/628837/ Advertising News: Walmart reportedly seeks streaming partner to bolster Walmart+https://www.marketingdive.com/news/walmart-disney-comcast-paramount-peacock-streaming/629329/ Warner Bros. Discovery to combine streamers next summer, considers ad-supported offeringhttps://www.marketingdive.com/news/warner-bros-discovery-combined-hbo-max-discovery-FAST/628974/ Miller Lite rents out grills in latest summer stunthttps://www.marketingdive.com/news/miller-lite-rents-out-grills/629064/ NYT plans advertising expansion into non-news productshttps://www.axios.com/2022/08/09/new-york-times-advertising-expansion Run ads or place products in-show? Both are best, research findshttps://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2022/08/10/run-ads-or-place-products-in-show-both-are-best-research-finds If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, let us know by visiting our website www.theradcast.com. Check out www.theradicalformula.com. Like, Share and Subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RadicalHomeofTheRadcast or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radicalresults @the.rad.cast @christinaroseyasi @nick_weaver If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. Here is the Radcast News. It's Friday, August 12th, 2022. Weekly marketing, advertising, business news. What's up, Ray Harvey? How's it going? How's it going? Good, man. Good to have you in the chair. Absolutely. I'm definitely not Christina, but. That's for sure. No long hair, no funky glasses and you're a man. Just small differences. Yes. Had a good week. I did. I did.

How about yourself? It's been good. It's been busy. It has been busy. Thanks of, we've come out of the, we're headed into the fall on a wave of business here and just, you know, just keep riding it. I was about to say we're going to ride that wave. It's good. I'm, you know, like school starting back with the kids, like I'm ready for schedule a little, but.

at the same time not ready. Like I feel like I'm ready for it, but then like three weeks from now, I'm like, all right. Over it. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. You'll know that when your kids get a school age. Which is in January, supposedly.

Oh, yeah. They get that out the other day. Oh, yeah? Yeah, they have to apply in January for next fall. But nice. Neither here nor there. Yes. So it's been a good week at Radical.

Nick, you had a good week there, buddy? Yeah, it's pretty good. Very productive. Yeah. A few shoots. Yeah. few things here and there. Nick Weaver, the producer of the Radcast, for those that don't know.

I call out Nick all the time, you know, like, you know, I put them on the spot, you know, just randomly. So we'll give you a shout out. Wait, I am a shout out too, because that reel you posted the other day of the Ferris wheel. Pretty awesome. Oh, yeah. Breaking out the new FPV drone. Yeah. Nick Weaver, Nick underscore, Weaver underscore, you can check it out.

Go watch it because it's cool. Yeah. We practice what we preach around here at the radical agency. Hey, if you don't know, we're in Greenville, South Carolina. So if you're, we're hitting all the other lists. So you might as well put it on your trip as well because everyone else is coming here. Right. Cradle on every corner.

The best city ever. Gee Vegas, baby. I saw this. We put this on our small talk list. Olivia Newton John passed away. Yeah. You know, I've had vivid memories of like Greece, like growing up. Like it was even a little before my time.

I don't want to totally age myself. But I just remember watching it. Like it was like the first time I watched a musical and I was like, okay, that's kind of cool. You know, and lots of fond memories. Right. My mom absolutely loved Greece. So I grew up. I could tell you every line in the movie to this day.

We've watched it so many times. But when she turned around with those leather pants, come on. Come on. I iconic and legendary. Okay. All that. to say, though, she will be missed for sure because, I mean, I'm only 31 and that's all I really know we're in. But she was a legend in her own right.

Oh, I know. I mean, you know, sometimes we joke and she was more than a one-hit wonder for sure. But, you know, we'd all die to have a one-hit wonder, you know? Right. And I don't know. I remember the leather pants. And I remember, you know, watching it first time. And I didn't know, I think, the first time I watched that there was going to be singing.

Right. So it was a movie, you know, and like at first, like, they break out into tune. I was like, what is this? You know, what's happening? Yeah. And I don't know if we've, you'll see a movie's here still in there. I guess it's kind of a lost art. Right.

Well, especially the iconic ones, right? I mean, the legends of their time. Yeah. That have, I think I read somewhere and maybe this is, maybe I'm thinking of a different movie, but I think when Greece first came out, it wasn't a hit. One of those, I don't remember well enough. I know you, you're right about one of those. movies that wasn't that became like iconic the fact that I don't know I'm not sure if it was

Grusional either way Olivia Newton John was an icon yes I was gonna say Saturday Night Fever they didn't think that was gonna be a hit but it turned out to be a right yeah yeah right that might have been it huge yeah so uh rip Olivia Newton John I don't know where John Travolta is he's he's kind of gotten a little weird over the years a little bit I did see a little tweet that he put out or something that was acknowledging her passing and saying something and like sincerely yours or Danny or something. I don't know, but you're right. I haven't heard of him or seen him in the past couple years.

Yeah. The Radcast, if you've been checking it out, I don't know if you're an old O-Town fan, throwing it back to the boy band days. We had a Ashley Parker Angel that was on the show this week from O-Town. He started a few side ventures and a new fitness company. He was fun on the show this week. So if you haven't checked that out, go check it out.

next week. Cosmo from Cosmo's Q. Speaking of Cosmo's Q, like I'm talking about samples from here to here to Vegas. Never ending. Never ending. Cosmo was very gracious sending us lots of barbecue rub, sauces and everything else. And, you know, I don't know what you thought, Nick. I thought he was really down to earth. It was probably one of the more laid back but fun episodes, you know,

it was just kind of like two dudes talking. Yeah, I really enjoyed that episode. Yeah, he was super down to earth. And I don't know, he was just really transparent about how he started the business, the ups and downs. And I don't know, he kind of, I think he, if you're one, like to be reminded of the American spirit and like what, you know, America's about. Like, I don't know. I guess Rags and Riches is right. But it's like great story and just a great success story.

Right. Yeah. We always hear about Rags to Ritches, but they love to go to the richest part first. Yeah. And just skip over the. rags. Tell us the whole story. And what Cosmo did. And, you know, he, some good, a good revenge story a bit too. Like when, uh, someone was a jerk to him at like a barbecue contest and he's like, okay. All right. I think that guy's using his rubs now. So look for that

next Tuesday, the 15th. And I'm really excited for you guys to hear this one. He's a great follow on Instagram. The captain, Kyle Creek. also known as sugar steak, S-G-R-S-T-K. I guess that. I was the first to guess that. Was that right your take? Am I overstating that? No, you definitely were the first.

And you have to listen and know exactly what all that means. But Kyle is an author of fucking history. You know, how can you not want to read a book that's fucking history, you know? And he was great. Super good follow. You need to follow him. And just he's a writer and, you know, instigator. Right.

And he's fun. So Kyle was awesome. So be on the lookout for that in a couple weeks. And we've got some other goodies up the sleeve. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag yet, but it's going to be fun. So be on the lookout for all our latest guest episodes. And speaking of being on the lookout, you need to be on lookout for this gear. Like if you're watching the episode, branded bills, brandedbills.

The official merchandise sponsor of the Radcast. I'm holding up one of their lovely Radcast hats here in the studio. If you're watching, if you're listening, then you need to go watch it or just go to Brandtibills.com. Insert Radcast 20. Get 20% off. Hats, T's hoodies. Hey, it's starting here in South Carolina, but somewhere I'm sort of starting to get cool soon.

Hoodies, flannels, beanies, everything for back to school. 20% off with Radcast 20. Go to the Radcast. dot com search for sponsors or just click on sponsors tab click on rat excuse me brand of bills and the radcast code is immediately plugged in and you get 20% off your entire order tell them that the radcast sent you brand of bills brandibills brandibills dot com got a few social holidays we're going to run through i know this one's important to you uh ray uh today uh your pet you just happen you know dumbo world elephant day all the elephants running around green bill yeah

Nick, are you an elephant lover? Yeah, I got one at home. You ride them or you just pet them? I just like to look at them. They're pretty big. Listen, I do have some friends. I think it was India somewhere. They went to ride the elephants.

They loved it. Really? Yeah. I don't know, man. Just keep that trunk of yourself. Yeah, or the tusks. Yeah, I'm just saying they're just giant animals. I don't want to be that close to them.

Yeah. I just feel like they can accidentally crush you. Right. Now you mean you to. Yeah. He's trying to like be friendly to you and like nudge you and like, you know, you fall over and you're squashed. You're squashed because he steps on your toe. But hey, all you elephant lovers out there go watch Dumbo and, you know, sing a little ditty. Tomorrow for all you creatives out there, left handers day.

Hey, you know, you're left hand. Yeah, I am. They left-handed. Now it all makes sense. It's all coming together. You know what's crazy to me, though, is historically, they, like, back in the times of the witch trials, used to, like, kill people for being left-handed.

How weird is that? Crazy. That was Nick. I don't know you got that. Hello, Nick. Can you do that again? Okay, all right. So left-hander's day.

You know, I give you a high-five with my left-hand tomorrow or fist-bump. But I will say this. I've dated left-handed women, and I've known and had a lot of friends that were left-handed. And the stigma of creative a little, airy-fairy is probably not fair, but a little like, I don't know, just different. wired differently. Yeah. I would say nine out of ten that I know are that way. Not, I don't want to, I'm not stereotype of them at all, but they typically are a little more free-spirited and a little more creative.

Makes sense. I know. And so. And just weird. Thanks. Those dang left-hand. Yeah. Hey, you deserve to be celebrated.

Yeah. Left-hand. Yeah. I will say this. I don't think I've ever met. left-handed type-a person. Like super type A. Like, not because

they're not organized or something, but just like, right. Hyper. I'm not, someone's going to DM me and go, I'm, I'm type A and I'm left-handed. I know they're out there. I'm just saying, me personally, I've probably known a hundred left-handed people my life. I can't remember one that was just like,

they were all just kind of creative and free spirits. Yeah. I'm just impressed that. You remember which hand they write with? I just, I pick up on that stuff. Because it's, you know, like, just like growing up,

like you're throwing the baseball or something. I'm like, whoa. You know, or football or. Right. I don't know. I was just tackling people.

So I didn't really. You know, it was more doing, throwing things. Or shooting basketball. You can see that immediately too. Fair enough. And I mean,

I'm definitely going to celebrate this on Monday, the 15th National Relaxation Day. I'm all for it. Can we make that every day, please. Is that boss relaxation? How can I relax if you guys relax?

Right. No. Yes. Nick, you're going to relax on Monday? Big time. You fit right in. On the 16th,

I expect everyone to tell me a joke. Tell a joke day. My jokes are terrible. I'm not going to tell you a joke. I've got a good one that I heard the other day. It's a little dirty.

And it would definitely fit on their ad cast, but it takes too long. Yeah, too much. Yeah. Are you a good joke teller, Nick? Well, y'all hear about that guy that fell off the cliff. He wrote a book.

No? You know what his name was? What? Eileen too far. Read my lips. No. I think that's... There you go.

There's those left-handers for you. Eileen. Okay, I want to stay away from that. All right. First article today comes to us from Sweet Tarts and TikTok. Sweet Tarts encourages amateur filmmakers on TikTok. Sweet Tarts is hosting a branded film festival on TikTok encouraging young filmmakers to submit their creations. What do you think?

I 100% absolutely love this and I'll tell you why. is because sweet tarts is sweet tarts. People that won't sweet tarts, go and buy them. But what they're focusing on is a brand attempt of growing it and saying, hey, we're going to grow it through the strengths of the people that enjoy sweet tarts. Yes. And so kind of going back to the human to human aspect, it's a giant brand that's realizing, hey, let's focus on what our consumers love, not necessarily on us.

I will say this about TikToks. I agree 100%. So I'll give you one of these. Yes. Me too. Tictox is one of those, you know, like, you think of candy as kids, right? Kids candy and all that. It's all like candy, too.

Tick-Tox is on that list, or excuse me, sweet tarts, not Tick-T-T-T-Tarts is on the list for me of kind of universal candy. Right. Like, I still like sweet-tarts, and I don't eat nearly as much candy as my kids do or I used to. Right. But you need me a little pack of sweet-tarts. I'm probably in for that. Right. You know.

You got a sweet tart? I'll take one of those. It's an iconic candy. Yeah. It's like if you don't like a sweet tart, I might have an issue with you. Right. What's wrong with you? You know?

Sweetarts you can pay us later. If you want to be a sponsor, let us know. Thus, you know, I think number one, the demo obviously makes a ton of sense being on, you know, TikTok and everything. But I do think the film side is just, you know, going a little older typically. You know, in the play here. Makes a lot of sense for the brand. It's a lot of fun. And I think it's, it'd be interesting to me.

You know, we talk all the time about brand demand. This is clearly like a brand play, right? Yeah. I mean, so if you're the chief marketing officer and you have all these pressures of sales and everything else, like I wonder how they tie certain things like this back to attribution. When I think part of it, too, is going to be, I mean, obviously it's a giant. user generated content. Yeah. Like pool.

Yeah. And so instead of paying influencers, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars, they have all this content now that they can say, hey, these are actual real-life consumers. Yep. It's true. But either way, if you're sweet-tarts,

you need mass appeal and mass branding. So it's a way to leverage the fast-growing trends that are on TikTok. Next article, Instagram, Strongholds position with influencers, despite growing competition. Instagram this year will maintain its spot as the number one platform for influencer marketing and growing amid growing competition, especially from TikTok. Got a little point of view on this. This comes to us from MarketingDive, MarketingDive.com. Does this surprise you at all?

It does. And my first thought is I can't wait to see next year. Because I feel like if TikTok hasn't overcome them next year, they're going to be super close. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's really all I have to say is. So we had a little pre-episode conversation, you know, and it, my point of view, and it's related and not related. Certainly, influencers are booming everywhere.

And certainly on TikTok, it's nonstop and all that. But for me, if I'm building a personal brand, the UI experience on Instagram is still more conducive to building it around the person and not just the content. Right. And that's not to say, look, if you've been paying attention, no one's pumped TikTok and what's happening on the platform any more than yours truly the host of the radcast. And I still believe that. But in my personal experience with who is starting to register. to me the person, the brand of the person and not just the content itself, the video. Instagram has more influence on me with my usage pattern and the UI.

The combination, because it's still pictures and videos and the UI of stories and other things, to me helps personal brands grow more around the person and the brand and not just the frenetic content. Makes sense. And I say this to say, if I'm Instagram and it sounds like they have after the whole Kardashian thing, I'm hitting the pause button on trying to be like TikTok and embracing your differences. Yep.

And while also acknowledging, obviously, video content and video content that's less produced and democratized and all those things is the rage. and recognizing that. You can recognize that and embrace it and empower it without throwing the baby out with bathwater. Yeah. And that being the core experience that you have on Instagram. Yeah. And I think one of the things, too, that is kind of overlooked with Instagram too, especially with influencers that they've had a longer runway.

Yeah. They've been able to build that community and engage with them faster or longer than TikTok has. I think that's 100% right. But there's something about the UI. Yeah. Absolutely. That look, and there's, and the algorithm on TikTok is like magic potion, lotion, whatever you want to call it.

Right. It's scary. It's scary. And there's a million things going for TikTok, but I still think from a UI perspective, if I'm trying to curate a brand around myself and not just every frenetic piece of content. Right. You know, if I'm just purely wanting to get known for being an amazing content creator, TikTok is absolutely the place. But it's about the content and not the person necessarily.

I feel like when you're building a personal brand, yeah, I don't, I'm not doing content on social media to be known as a content creator. Right. I'm doing it to build my personal brand around me, my knowledge. based, my thought leadership, and not necessarily how great I can work the TikTok video editor. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

And so, and I think that's the differentiation is like, am I a great video editor on TikTok? And I'm known for that plus a little bit of the whatever I'm talking about. Or am I building it around me and my point of view and my thought leadership that's also interesting content. Right. Right. And I think there's a delineation there. When I think once TikTok's once they figure out the story situation, because to me, that's the biggest differentiators. With Instagram, you can see instantly for that 24 hour period, what's going on in their lives that they want to. And I know you can do live and all that kind of stuff. But once they figure that out, I think it'll at least balance the scales a little bit. I'll see some of this money start moving towards TikTok.

I would like to have seen if I'm Instagram. I would have doubled down on stories and how I make stories better and not fuck with the feed. Yep. Because stories could be your, right. You're, I'm a lot like TikTok or better, you know?

Right. But your feed remains the same. Your grid and all that. Everything that's made Instagram, Instagram. Right. Don't mess with that experience. Don't mess with the core experience. Stories could have been,

can still be the place where it's, a more natural. It was always been. It was, it was TikTok before TikTok was sliding and content. So lean into that and how you innovate there. And so what Instagram historically has always done is stolen from other platforms. I mean, they've taken it and tweaked it and said, oh, look, we have this now. Right. I mean, even as recently as like with the Be Real app, they now have the front facing camera on Instagram. Well, there's a, there's an old, you know, and it falls a lot of places. First to market or best to market. Right. Right.

You know. Yeah. And I think the reason TikTok, one of the reasons it blew up is because it was different enough. Not only our attention span is so short, but it was different enough and they didn't necessarily outright steal anything. It was different. Yeah. And then, lo and behold, Reels came along on Instagram and now they're kind of all the same. Exactly. But at some point, you're right, they have to embrace their differences because, again, none of those platforms, I don't see TikTok going away. I don't see Instagram going away. Facebook might die down a little bit, but I still don't see it going the way.

Facebook groups, Facebook Marketplace. Right. None of them are going to take the route of MySpace. No, I don't think so. Not yet. Be real. Yes, no. The verdict's still out.

Yeah, no. I think it works if you actually use it for what it's worked for. But what we're seeing now is a lot of engineered be reels or reels, whatever they call them. that's like that's not really your life. You're just actually waiting for the timer to go off to say, hey, take your picture. Let me be at the beach at this time. So if someone's listening, and I didn't ask you this pre-episode, so I'm putting you on the spot. So I'm going to kind of drag out the question.

This is an interview 101, by the way. When you're going to ask someone, you haven't prepped them for the question, you ask it and you extend the asking of the question. Because I'm going to ask Ray, like, who's a TikToker that someone should be paid? attention to it has hit your radar in a while. And so when you ask a question that someone's not ready for, you do what I'm doing right now, which is stall a little bit to give them time to answer and think about and process the answer. Yeah. Well, I think that, gosh, it's our marketer's favorite answer.

I think it depends. I think it depends on who that person is. If it's my 14-year-old nephew, it's the Mr. Beast of the world. Right. If it's my wife, it's the, gosh, her name's Deney. I can't remember her last name on TikTok, but she loves, she makes this prank calls to, like, nursing homes. If she can rent a grandma, like she loves it eats it up. For me, it's going to be whatever I want to eat this week.

Like that's, that's what is. Recipes or even like, well, I guess recipes. I mean, cooking it or is it we're going to go eat? Like, I'm going to go here. But I also like, there's a lot of like fatherhood videos right now on my feed. That's the kind of stuff that in each. in each little niche, they have their own person. And so I think that's one of the differentiators, again, of TikTok is there's not one giant

Kim Kardashian influencer like there is on. I think you're proving my point earlier. What? He's not naming a name. And I'd name Kyle Creek, if you'd ask me, like, Instagram or, you know, Maria Luis. I mean, like, I can name, like, 10 people on Instagram right now in the last, like, month that have kind of hit my radar as the brand. but on TikTok I can't name a single one.

Now I think back and go, yeah, he's that girl or guy that's making good content, but I don't remember their name. I don't go explore them. And I'm sure they're out there, but when I think of those personal brands, it's the ones that have already been established. Yeah. Again, going back to your point earlier, is it harder? Sure.

But are they going to be only on TikTok? No, they're going to be on TikTok, Instagram. Who knows where else they'll be? We're no longer living in a world where it's a singular platform. form. You're going to have a vast majority of most of them. I use the analogy of TikTok to me is me at midnight when I'm, I never have a hard time sleeping.

So it's mainly like maybe just trying to fall asleep. I'm flipping channels like nonstop, you know, like I bounce in between 20 programs maybe, like hoping to find like daylight or something like something like juicy and and that's kind of TikTok for me. in Instagram, I spend more time on the posts or the person, typically. And I don't know if it's chicken or the egg because I've used Instagram longer.

I built my brand there first. Right. But there's something about that UI that makes me dig into the person and not just the individual channels. Right. It feels there's more intention to it. Yeah. Instead of just, I mean, last night was a great example. I had the TV on.

I was sitting on my couch. I was scrolling through TikTok with the TV on, just scrolling, swiping. Not scrolling, swiping. I'm like, what am I doing? Because, again, there's no intention to it. It's just trying to, it's being entertained to death. Vortex.

Right. Yeah. All right. Walmart reportedly seeks a streaming partner to bolster Walmart plus. How many plus is we're going to have? Disney Plus, Walmart Plus, ESPN Plus. Right. CNN Plus, which didn't make it.

Walmart recently met with the executives from Disney Comcast and Paramount about bringing a streaming service to its Walmart Plus membership program. I mean, let's just go to show you. I'm going to go on a tangent here for a second. I'm tangent central today. Back to the Me Too, like not at first to market, like, can, once someone does the plus sign, does everybody just give up and go, that's how we're going to do it to? Like, ESPN Plus, Disney, and the Plus, like, there's no other way. Like, everybody just does the same thing. And these brands are huge.

They have unlimited budgets. They have unlimited ability to hire someone like radical to come up with a creative way to name it. And it's just going to meet to it. Right. Plus, sign, done. Innovation. It's best. Listen, if it works, it works.

But obviously for some, it does not. That's my thinking about it. Anyway, Walmart plus, a sizable streaming integration would help. turn it into a service that more closely mirrors Amazon Prime and a destination for activities beyond shopping. Disney has a variety of options in the streaming space, including Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, Hulu Plus. Comcast operates Peacock and Paramount owns Paramount Plus. All the pluses. And none of them are PLUS.

I actually might like them better if they didn't all have a plus sign. Right. Yeah, ESPN minus. So, yeah, what do you think about Walmart here? Media company. I mean, stick to your lane. Yeah. Like when I think Walmart, we have a Walmart a mile from my house.

And I still use Walmart plus to deliver the two hour or less delivery when I don't have time to go pick something up. Right. You know what I'm not thinking about with Walmart is streaming. And to shift that mindset. It's another revenue stream, I guess. Yeah, I get it from that same point, but at the same. Focus on low prices every day. That's your tagline.

Right. You know. Well, and the irony of all the pluses out there, all the streaming started off at like a year or two ago, like $2.99 a month. And just yesterday, I got a email from Disney Plus saying, oh, we're increasing our prices. So that seems to be a disconnect between Walmart and all the rest of the streaming. Walmart is affordable. Walmart has low prices. All the other pluses out there are increasing.

increasing their prices. Yeah. I feel like I'd like to see a more innovative pivot towards the core brand value. So think about everyday low prices, everyday value, family value. What's the spinoff that goes down that lane? Right. And I'm not going to give them for your advice on this podcast anymore than we already are. And they probably aren't listening anyway.

They should be. They should be. But go down that lane. Where does that lead you? And instead of just, okay, we're in new media. We're going to do this data together content. And, you know, it's another revenue. It's fine.

But like, a little innovation. Right. You know, like, what's, I don't know, what's making people's lives easier that relates to affordability? You got a recession somewhat in place, maybe, coming. Don't know. We're not taking part in it, by the way. Right.

But still, like, I don't know, stay in your lane. Figure out something innovative down your lane. It's not just, I don't know. When I think even like when I think of Amazon, when I'm shopping or more so when Jenny Lynn, my wife is shopping on a daily basis now on Amazon, she's not thinking Amazon Prime, the streaming service. She's thinking Amazon Prime, how can I get this as quickly as possible? And so they're both Amazon Prime.

In fact, the app is called Amazon Prime that you go and watch streaming on. Yeah. But there's nothing I watch less and I pay for Amazon Prime. prime than anything on Amazon Prime. Right. Or the music. Right. I don't use it for music.

I mean, it comes with it, but I don't use any of it. I don't use anybody. I have both of them. I don't use any of the... I use Apple for subscription to music and Netflix and or YouTube TV, whatever is on that. Right. That's what we have for cable. Right.

So, I don't know. But we'll see. They're looking for a partner. If you're out there listening, team up with Walmart Plus. Warner Brothers Discovery is to combine streamers next summer considers ad-supported offering. Warner Brothers announced that it plans to combine HBO Max and Discovery Plus into a combined streaming offer under a single brand beginning in the U.S. next summer, per the company's first full earnings call since the two companies merged this year. Yeah. That's a smart move.

Yeah. I will say Discovery Plus is probably the most under the radar best streaming app out there. It is good. I agree. A lot of content on that that you probably watched and you didn't realize you watched and it's there. Yep. Yeah. I agree.

Between that and probably YouTube Live or YouTube TV is what we watch the most in our house. Yeah. Discovery Plus. I mean, look, if these companies come together, then you need to streamline it. Like keeping them despair it makes no sense at all. Right. So, you know, and how many more pluses do we need? All right, I like this.

Miller Light rents out grills and latest summer stunt. It grill share stations in New York and Chicago. Consumers can reserve a Miller-like grill and spatula. I don't want to share any spatulas, but apron, folding beach chair or the umbrella and a $25 gift card. Some people lick those things. Either by signing up online or scanning a QR code. Consumers can then unlock and roll their grill to a nearby spot. This is fun.

It is fun, but you touched on the first thought that I had is, I don't know what this. Right, what this person before me cooked the grill on or grilled out. I don't know what's, I mean, I'm sure they'll have new spatulas every time. But keep your germs away from me, please. I have to agree here. Like, when I first, like, if I'm Miller Light and I'm looking for brand extensions and I'm looking for activations, this makes sense on the surface. but I am a little bit of a grill phobia person myself too. Like when I've gone to parks like back in the day and I go like the public grill,

that runs from mine. I'm just like, I know no one lick the grill or like, it's not necessarily even germs. Right. But it's like what funky concoction was cooked on your last. And it's going to flavor my hamburger. Yep.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Like, uh, I liked the, uh, I liked the,

uh, the beer, beer infused charcoal. Yeah. I mean, that would be smart. They already did it. Yeah.

It was awesome. Beer coal. Beer coal. Hey. I mean, I like the folding beach chair, though. Like, that idea works. Yeah.

Sharon Beach chairs and umbrellas, that's fine. Right. The grills, though. Yeah, I don't know. New York Times plans

advertising expansion into non-news products. Over the past 10 years, the Times has pivoted strategy. to focus on subscriptions. Now that it's reached critical mass, it sees an opportunity to build more ad products that cater to those users.

I think you're going to see a lot more of this across the board. I mean, Apple the other day announced they're having their own DSP. And so it's just situations like, I mean, what was the, I'm sure you guys talked about it, the car dealer or the car brand that has a subscription service now for heat seats. We've reached a point where, we're so individualized that we want individualized services for everything that let me pick and play and pick and pay what I want well that and these media companies you know like newspapers are dead

right and you've got community journals but with limited reach the limited ad ad dollars they can collect right so you've got subscription online so they're just they've got to have another revenue stream yep and you know everything's going to be ad supported yep because people don't really want to pay what it takes to get that content or that media or whatever it is. Right. Well, and I think so on the conversation of ads, I think people aren't as bothered by them as what we like to believe. I think on TikTok, like the newer media maybe,

I get annoyed at some ads that pop up. But if I'm on a news website, I don't really care or look at the ads that are there. They're just there, and I expect them to be there. And so I think there's not a world where we go ad free across the board. Mm-mm. Look what's going on with Netflix. I mean, the genie is going back in the bottle.

Right. Like literally, I never thought it would, but you can get the genie back in the bottle, clearly. Because Netflix is like they're going to go back to ads. Right. I don't know. I think they kind of had a little bit at the beginning, but quickly didn't. And now, you know, because their subscription numbers are dropping off and nobody wants to spend $20 a month.

Because all of these things, because, again, when you play for a lot of pluses, it adds up. Right. Yeah. Put intended. You know what I'm saying, Nick? There's no subtractions in there. It's all plus, plus, plus, $9, $9, $20.

Holy shit, I'm paying four times more than I was with cable. With cable. Yeah. You care for what you ask for. Right. I want no ads and I want to buy individual things. Well, here it is, folks. It's called a lot of money because that content is expensive to make and it doesn't just get done for free.

So Netflix going back to ads, I mean, that's going to be interesting. Like I just say from my perspective, I guess you're going to be able to watch it without ads if you keep paying. I assume ad plus ad free. Right. I don't know. I think some of mine are ad free that I have. But again, if there's a price difference there, I didn't choose it because it was ad free. I chose it just because it was probably the first one on the list, and I didn't feel like going through the rest of them.

Yeah. I'll say this, if you're out there listening. The only thing I do like about it is, you know, being a digital ad agency, you know, we push connected TV a lot. It is democratizing the availability and potential to get a high brand value placement. Yeah. Because, you know, a digital ad, as much as it doesn't annoy me, but it has an impact, no doubt. but not as impactful as a 15, 30-second, well-produced, well-created, thoughtful piece of content that you're typically stationary in front of a TV.

Right. You know, even if you're looking at your phone, they're getting just a deeper impression. It's just all impressions are not made equal. Right. You know? I get that. Yeah. And I think one of the things we're going to continue to see.

We're already seeing it. We've been seeing it for a couple years is that continued democratization of what you're saying. I mean, even look at the next Super Bowl, we're already seeing big brands starting to pull out from commercial ads because they know that that money can be spent elsewhere. And so going along what you're saying, it allows the mom and pop stores on the street to have a CTB placement. It might not be in the prime spot of the Super Bowl, but it might be on the same day on the same station and you can play it for not $30 million. Yeah, exactly. So we'll see. That's what we got today.

Final words there, Ray? Not really. No words of wisdom. No words of wisdom. I know. If you're out there and you're listening here on Friday, go celebrate World Elephant Day and glad hand your left-handers tomorrow. Right.

Don't get crushed by the elephants. Don't forget to relax on relaxation day. Yeah, this is true. You know, I just relax all week here. Tell them the Radcast. I told you it was okay. With your grill that you can rent. Yeah, in advance of Monday.

It's weird. I hear that Monday is a relaxing day. This should be a Sunday or Saturday. Yeah, that's poor planning. Yeah. Someone didn't think that out. You know? Yeah.

Great. No productivity at work on Monday. Thanks to this. Right. Well, we appreciate whoever you are, wherever you are, whenever you're listening. We couldn't do it without you. You know where to find us to radcast.com. Search for all of today's content, including TikTok, Instagram, and elephants.

I'm Ryan Alford on all the platforms for Ray Harvey, Nick Weaver. We'll see you next time. See you. On the Radcast. To listen to full episodes or to contact us, visit us on the web at theradcast.com or follow our host at Ryan Alford on Instagram. Thanks for tuning in.