Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - The Week of February 16, 2024 Marketing and Business News: Google's AI now goes by a new name: Gemini

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

Welcome to the Radcast, your weekly source for the latest insights and discussions on marketing and business news. In this episode, we'll dive into the aftermath of the Super Bowl, analyzing the impact of its ads and examining standout commercial strategies. Additionally, we'll explore Mark Zuckerberg's comparison of MetaQuest 3 and Apple Vision Pro, Adidas's empowering new campaign, Coca-Cola's innovative product launches, and Google's rebranding of its AI efforts as Gemini. Stay tuned as we unpack these topics and more, offering valuable perspectives on the ever-evolving landscape of marketing and business. Let's dive in! Ryan’s Take on Superbowl Commercials (02:34) Discussion on the Super Bowl, including personal experiences and observations (02:34) Economic Impact Analysis: Estimated billions generated from ads, commerce, travel, etc. (03:03) Review of Super Bowl ads: Emphasis on lack of creativity and excessive use of celebrities (03:33) D. Highlight of Kanye West's commercial strategy and its effectiveness (05:52) E. Insight into effective storytelling in advertising, with emphasis on Google's commercial (09:11)  Surprise! Mark Zuckerberg thinks Quest 3 is better than Vision Pro (13:52)https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/13/surprise-mark-zuckerberg-thinks-quest-3-is-better-than-vision-pro/  Adidas tells athletes of all types: ‘You got this’ (19:08)https://www.retaildive.com/news/adidas-marketing-campaign-tells-athletes-you-got-this/707262/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202024-02-13%20Retail%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:59094%5D&utm_term=Retail%20Dive  Coke keeps innovation rolling with new permanent flavor, TikTok Shop exclusive (21:58)https://www.marketingdive.com/news/coca-cola-new-flavor-launch-spiced-TikTok-shop-exclusive/706760/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202024-02-08%20Marketing%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:58930%5D&utm_term=Marketing%20Dive  Google’s AI now goes by a new name: Gemini (26:50)https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/8/24065553/google-gemini-ios-android-app-duet-bard  Sponsor Vaycay: Premium Wellness Products Delivered Straight to You in the US Website: www.RolloffthePain.com Podcast: www.thevaycaypodcast.com 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.

The James Hardy Alliance helps take your reputation further with tools, training, and homeowner leads to help you stand out. Join forces with the number one brand of siding in North America. Visit jameshardy.com slash alliance. You're listening to The Radcast, a top 25 worldwide business podcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. What's up guys? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast.

It's Friday, February 16th, 2024. Our weekly marketing and business news of the week. What's up, Chris Hanson? What's up, my man? How are you? I'm doing well. Admittedly, we do pre-record these, and so I don't mind giving away our insider secrets.

I've got on my pinkish redness. This is my closest thing to feeling at least a little festive on technically. What record day is Valentine's Day. I've got more color than I normally have. I'm feeling extra colorful. You're looking like a Florida man coming down for vacation. Oh, yeah. I like a vacation.

Yeah. In the vacay lounge there in hot Miami. What's a temp in Miami today? 76 and sunny. Beautiful. It's nice here, though. I think we're in the 60s today. We're starting to warm up a little in Greenville.

It's funny in Greenville. It'll be 65 today and 38 on. on Saturday, probably. That's what happens in February. But... Get that back fuller weather. Yeah, we get four seasons in one month. We get all four seasons in the month of February.

But I hope everyone is doing fabulous wherever, whenever, however you are listening. We appreciate you for making us number one in marketing and business on Apple. And climbing the ranks on Spotify, I might add. We appreciate that. Keep listening. Keep telling your friends. Hey, friends don't let you. let friends not be listening to the radcast.

So that's how this works. If you enjoy it, tell somebody. We've got to spread the word. We're taking the BS out of business, baby. That's right, boy. I like that. Yes. Snapping necks and cash and checks.

What did you do? Did you watch any of the Super Bowl? You were out at dinner. You're like maybe the second half or something. I admittedly watched zero seconds of any Super Bowl. The first time in my life. Not planned, but you could say. I was at dinner.

Yeah. Your menu looked better than most. We'll leave it to that. Inside, inside joke. But yeah, good game, longest game in Super Bowl history, which means they probably sold more ads than history. We're equating that to commercial time and business. I did see this, the Super Bowl this year,

the amount of economic activity that it generated. not, I guess just worldwide, everything, not just like local activity, local commerce, but was $21 billion. I might have my number off by like one decimal or one point, but it was well in the double figured billions. Let's just say that. It doesn't matter if it's 10 billion or 21 billion. It's still billions.

The point is the impact of the Super Bowl from ads to hotels, to sponsors to travel, like every impact that it has. That's pretty insane. I mean, for one event. It's huge. Bub billions. That's why it's the Super Bowl, baby. It's gotten super expensive, too.

I heard CET and they cooled at the Yam just to go sit and like the nosebleed. You're like $6,000 or something like that. I saw that on Instagram, people interviewing on the street, to how much they paid. It was 5, 10, 12K. And I'm like, do that math for a second. And I don't want to pretend that the average middle class American is at the game. But what's the average salary in America?

42,000 something, 40? Maybe. Exactly what I saw when I saw these people saying this. Yeah. Let's say, give it, say 55. Yeah, 55. That's what's the way it's that high. Probably.

Yeah, household income maybe. But the, yeah, so you're dropping five to 10 grand on that. And let's be honest. No one in there is probably making that. They might be, or their uncle gave them a free ticket or something. But nonetheless, it's an expensive venture. And some people don't even have to pay to get shown, especially if your name's Taylor Swift.

47 times. Yeah, was it 47? That's what I heard. I heard there was a betting line in Vegas on how many times she would be shown. I knew there was. It ended up being 47? That sounds about right. That's what I was told yesterday.

It didn't feel like that many times. when like the cameras, but admittedly. You didn't feel you were overwhelmed. We had some friends over and so it was, it was, I was a little distracted other than bouncing back and forth with combo. But I will say this is real bowl commercials, as we talked about as we previewed last week, were about what I expected. Not creative, not pushing the envelope.

And we'll call them safe. That's the nicest term I can give them. I think most people in the industry and in general agreed with that. It was, I want to give credit where credit to do. This was one of the reviewers' terms, but I agreed with it. It was an arms race for celebrity mentions. It was just like, how many celebrities can we jam in here? It was not enough to have one celebrity.

You had to have 17. Did you see Kanye's commercial? I did. And 19 million sales. Because he said, this is the commercial because we dropped the whole ad budget. We used the whole ad budget on it. I thought that was. He typed, he spoke out the website and he had it on screen at the end.

And so if you're selling, and this is what I said. I talked about this last week. And I've talked to, I've written on this. If you have a direct to consumer product, which you can, and you have 100 million people watching. And you sell it worldwide, which he does. He's got the whole world where this market, not everyone, but in theory. Sure. He, so, for shipping and all that.

So if you have that logistics figured out and you have a mass. And this is niche, but it's mass because it does cross a lot of boundaries. People that wear those shoes. And $7 million to do $19 million in sales. And then the, here's what happened. Even if he did $19 million in sales and he spent $7 million in spot, I'm sure if there's other costs, different things. Let's just say for a second, and I'm sure he made profit on that,

but let's just say for a second it was break even. Do you know what happens when $19 million of his merchandise end up on people's feet and people see them and their friends have them? It will sell another $19 million in referrals and word of mouth. This is where the Super Bowl has power over a lot of other mediums if you have that. Now, it's a unique product from a unique character. we'll call him that personality. And I don't agree with his every approach at all.

I do admire his genius at times. And let's be honest, he clearly has some issues. But that aside, the marketing, thinking for purely marketing and product, it was pretty well played. I'd like to get validation on all that, but he did share some stuff that looked. Screenshots.

He used screenshots and stuff, and it looked real. They have to really be trying to parade if that fake aid if that wasn't real. So anyway, I will say this overall. It's just, I posted this on LinkedIn. A guy ping me about what I thought of the Super Bowl ads or whatever. And he has left the building. Experimentations left the building. It's, yeah, we can write a spot, would put celebrities in it,

which brings interest and it's borrowed interest. and hey, we know. No one less borrowed interest more than this guy. However, I'll say this. What do they say when everybody goes right? It is ripe for somebody to break through with some jam-up creative ideas on Super Bowls and in general with content

because it's getting stale and formulaic is what I'd call it. And I will say this. I thought this was the most effective. Everybody asked me what my favorite ad was. And I got an iPhone. I'm probably not going to buy the Google Pixel. But I will say let the brand, top of mind brand notion for me is called Javier in Frame. It was essentially the feature.

Javier was the voiceover, a guy that had bad vision near blindness. And the functionality of the phone allowed him to know when to take these selfies. It was very creative. It was a wonderful storytelling, had an emotional impact at the end, with a little bit of a left turn. And that is how you tell a story with emotion and build brand and sell product. So I think Google's had a masterclass. The only, one of the only brands that's had a masterclass in storytelling and branding the last couple of years.

They had another spot. A couple years with Google assistant with the old man who was recalling memories with, we didn't know it was his deceased wife, but turned out to be his deceased wife. And if you go watch that spot, do you better? have a Kleenex ready because it was similar in emotional impact. So I thought again, and look, everybody was saying you won't see the gurus talk about that spot probably in their top three. They're going to go the Duncan spot, which we'll get to, they'll talk about all the other

things and the things that won the ad meter. But let me tell you this. You go look at Javier and frame on Google on YouTube. 42 million plays. 25X, the closest competitor commercial that was on Sunday night. So 42 million people have gone and watched that spot since the Super Bowl, 25 times more than any other commercial played. That's because it has impact if people want to go watch it again.

And shared it. Yeah. So, you know, again, the Google phone's got a lot of challenges to overtake iPhone. with the whole ecosystem and all that. But I bet you they sold some. Yeah. Now the Dunkin spot. Look, I'm a dude.

I like Tom Brady. I like Matt Damon. I like Ben Affleck. I enjoyed the spot. It was fun. It was humorous. So it was a good spot. I'm not hating on it.

It was just, it was, I think they had 27 celebrities. I was more like adding up. How much did this cost? I want to know how much that spot cost. $7 million to run it. And the don't... How much of the talent was in? How much of the talent was in that?

It's got to be $20 million. I don't know. Because a lot of those celebrities aren't getting off the couch for high six-figure or seven-figure. So, interesting. But it was fun. You know, how effective it'll be, how many coffees will sell them. I don't know, a good brand. I like the Nike dunk shoes.

Nice touch. I don't know if you saw those. but have you seen a replay of that the Dunkings you need to go watch it I will the uh it's fun

and I don't know what it is it's hard not to like Tom Brady like even to hit Tom at the old Tom Tom there in the corner he's the only one that's I guess not technically the actor I know there were some musical artists

and they aren't they're acting actors either Ben and Matt Damon and some of those guys are in it and but Tom's you realize see this is what people don't realize you guys how tall tom is tall tom in the right corner like with sunglasses on i'm like all right i like tom i don't know he's hard not to like at least for me he's just i don't know what it is i'm likeable yeah and but it it was fun i enjoyed it i i want to not hold it against them that they had

an easy path they still had good writing it was good writing and but overall i i wasn't able to watch pay attention as much and then i replayed i watched the replay of i think all of them or whatever. They had a couple videos online and you could find them. But look, got to break through. Get some, something creative. It doesn't have to like offend people to be creative. Like that's where they were probably playing it safe because they, no one really wanted. We didn't want social backlash. You don't get social backlash for being creative. You get social backlash when you take a stand on something that 80% of America doesn't agree with or just don't be stupid. You can still be creative. So we'll see. We'll see.

see what happens. It was a historic Super Bowl as far as length in time and the final outcome. And hey, congrats to the Chiefs. Hail to the Chiefs or the Chefs. That's a good commercial, too, if you've seen that, stay for him. The guy was painting the end zone. He forgot the eye. Andy Reeves up to him, he goes, who are the chefs? That's fun. If you haven't seen it, But Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, aka Facebook, aka Instagram, aka WhatsApp, aka Quest, aka Snapchat? No, he didn't have Snapchat. We didn't require Snapchat.

Mark Zuckerberg thinks the Quest 3 is better than the Vision Pro. These are AR, VR, VR, headset. Mark Zuckerberg compared MetaQuest 3 and Apple Vision Pro headsets, stating that Quest 3 is a superior product, despite being less expensive. Zuckerberg believes the Quest 3 offers better value and overall performance. He highlighted the comfort wider field of view and combination of hand tracking and physical controls

as advantages over Vision Pro. Additionally, he mentioned meta's rich library of content and established presence in the mixed reality market compared to Apple's late entry. He owns a company, so what else is he going to say? But I have read a lot of reviews on these. I'm going to get one of these things. We already have the meta-quest two at home.

The kids play with it. I've never, it's just a gaming thing. The Quest 3 is further along because it has a color overlay where you can actually turn it on and see in front of you, the cameras. And so you're actually, it's closer to what the Vision Pro is with that mixed reality and or AR experience so that you can walk around with a non because who doesn't want to walk around with a big headset on your head.

But the, so I want to try one of these. But I just think until these things get smaller, less obtuse, I think it's going to be a struggle for it to be more than mainstream. And the Vision Pro, everyone is mesmerized by the quality of it and the potential of it, but they all take the same thing. It's, I'm not sure what it replaced. I'm not sure it improves anything. It was just an enhanced experience on some levels.

And I'm not sure who wants. You have multiple desktops up. I really want eight desktops up, what you can see. It's like, how much can you digest? I'm trying to do the opposite. Yeah. Trying to detach a little bit more. What was the 70s in the 90s?

Like, Nintendo had a big red one. Do you remember that? It was only a tripod and you would stick your face into it. Yeah. I think it was just that was what 20 years ago oh that was way 30 40 30 years ago probably yeah and we're still kind of you would have think that we would have progressed quicker but I think you said this recently once it becomes a contact lens or an implant or something that's a bit more seamless yes sunglasses maybe I saw a video of a kid getting pulled over in a cyber truck or in Apple And the cops, like, what are you doing? You can't drive with that thing. But it does raise questions.

Like, you're going to see people doing that. Is that, is there a lot? It's not. Because you can see out it. What's the difference? But you're not seeing the real world. You're seeing potentially what, five millisecond behind lag of the real world. I don't know if it's like, what's the lag?

Eventually, they're going to merge it into your windshield. Like my windshield now that projects the speed limit. Is it going to be like? If you really like pause from. a second and a lot of people think about thinking. Like, the car is going to drive itself and you're going to have that on and you're going to have these experiences. You're going to have, outdoor boards can go away because the AR can layer it on to what

you're seeing. You're not to take up real estate anymore. And what it does is the irony for me is this is such an expensive expensive niche product. It's at the wrong end of the spectrum. because the people that have a shitty house that would like to go somewhere nice, they need this so they can put this on and go to a better place, like the virtual reality. But it's so expensive, they can't afford it. And then the people that can't afford it don't have such a bad environment to begin with.

So I think that delta and that dichotomy will change over time. But in premise, it's escape. It's escapism. Like, it's, that's what this is. And you need it. It'll be, you can see a world where people don't ever leave their closet. It's the fucking Matrix. We're coming to the Matrix, don't we?

Is this just where we're ending up, like one way or the other? Yeah, there's a movie that talks about this. Ready Player One. Ready Player One. Yeah. Literally what we're turning. into. Go watch it. There it is.

And if you want to learn from me directly, join my newsletter. Ryanofford.com backslash newsletter. Sign up. I give daily advice on marketing, personal branding, podcasting, life. Give that a shout. Join that. It's free. It's daily. Just like this show, give away our best advice.

Adidas has a new campaign and tells athletes, of all types, you got this. Edithis has launched a new Global brand campaign centered around the theme of overcoming pressure in sports to enhance athletes enjoyment. The campaign features a 90-second video showcasing a mix of professional and amateur athletes, including endorsers like Pat Mahomes, Trinity Rodman, Lionel Messi, and others. Adidas collaborated with Neuro11, a group of sports neuroscientists to gain insights into how elite athletes

handle pressure with the aim of providing practical advice to athletes at all levels. You got this. So. Got this, bro. Just do it versus you got it. As I say, that's where we've come. Nike and everybody's kind of like, just do it, man. Do this.

Now it's, you got this, Bobby. You can do it. You can do it. You got on the back. You got this. We need support. We need support. The phrase that the neuroscientist decided it was most empowering.

Yeah. Is it the woke scientists or neuros? I'm kidding. Whatever. It's a random collapse. What do they do? Yeah. They didn't get into it.

Obviously, we're doing some summation here, but they're essentially helping understand, like, how the best athletes manage pressure and maybe looking at some of the brain activity and different things like that might could inform recommendations. to other people. And here, I'm going to give you some advice. Grow some discipline, create some good habits. That's what they do.

A little self-control. There you go. You got it. You got this. Oh, it is funny. Like, we're joking. Have a little bit of fun around, like, societal stereotypes and everything. But it is funny.

The just do it versus you got this. Seems a little soft. Yeah. Yeah, you got this. It's supportive. I get it. It's not that bad. Supportive is a great word.

Yes. It's supportive. I feel like just dude is more authentic. Yeah. Get after. Oh, it's way better. Get after it. Yeah.

Get after it. Whatever. I don't know. Adidas, Adidas, with a new global campaign that you'll be seeing everywhere. Coke keeps innovation rolling with a new permanent flavor. for a second, I'll admit, I read some of these articles and I thought it said peppermint flavor. I'm just going to, I was like, oh, no, it's permanent flavor. So a little thing there.

And these are TikTok shop exclusives. You cannot get these anywhere. You got to go shop on TikTok to get these coax. This comes from our friends at MarketingDive, MarketingDive.com. Coca-Cola introduces two innovative products to its lineup. Coca-Cola Spiced. A permanent edition featuring raspberry. This is permanent.

Permanent edition featuring raspberry and spiced flavors and happy tears. Zero sugar. A limited run soda inspired by Tears of Joy. Exclusively available on TikTok shop. These tears taste delicious. I was like, is it salty? I don't know. But when you're talking about it.

shit about somebody, you know, you go, oh, yeah, those tears taste delicious. There's something we're missing. I'm going to take after this and research the tears of joy. What is this? No, happy tears. No, tears of joy. It's inspired by tears of joy, but the name of it is happy tears. Zero sugar.

The launch reflects Coke's commitment to fast-paced innovation and staying relevant with Gen Z consumers. Spiced aims to capitalize on the trend of flage. flavored cola while happy tears leverages TikTok's e-commerce platform and the unboxing trend. Both products showcases Coke's agility in product development and marketing strategies tailored to digital platforms. They're coming out with a lot of flavors. I'll give them that. I haven't had one that I like Coke Zero and I like Cherry Coke Zero.

I've tried all the other ones. I'm dying to something different. And they all are just weird, fruity nastiness. I don't know. I love Coke. But I just can't get after the, maybe the tears of joy or happy tears, whatever, they're happy ending tears, whatever they are in the TikTok. I'm going to go get it.

I'm going to go hit the TikTok shop later on. Yeah, you're going to try. I don't know if raspberry spiced flavor sounds good either, but at the end of the day, let me tell you what, it's all PR. They're not going to sell, I guarantee if you go look at the numbers. They still sell 90 probably percent of their product makes is Coke classic. Maybe Diet Coke's got pretty damn popular. I bet it's 50% Coke, 30% Diet Coke, 10% Coke zero.

Yeah. And maybe three to five percent are all these other bullshit stuff. Maybe. This is how, this is all, this is product cycle, this is innovation to keep you in the PR cycle and the news cycle, like us talking about it. This is earned media from these things. And it shows, hey, they're trying to find something. They're trying to keep people interested. But the total available market of soda drinkers doesn't magically increase every day.

There's only so many people that drink so much soda. So it's not like they're creating new market here. They might say they're going to get people that don't drink it on. And that might be happening with the Gen Z. Maybe they're like, I'm anti-coke, but I'm going to drink these funky flavors. but I need to see that date if that's really happening. It's more to stay top of mind with that market who's just going to buy a Coke zero or Diet Coke anyway, probably.

After they maybe buy one of these to do what I did and turn my nose up and go, this doesn't taste very good. But my son, who's 14, does collect all the bottles of the new flavors. So that's like his thing. Don't know why, but collectibles. People like collecting different things. So it's having that impact. But you know what?

He does that. But you know what he buys every time he goes back to actually get what he wants? Coke zero or Coke regular. It's one of the two. Yeah. He goes back and forth. When he thinks he's trying to save some calories, he's 14 and barely 100 pounds soaking wet. And it's like 4% body fat.

So when he's saving calories, about the Coke zero. I like it. And look, we don't feed them soda all day, but we'd let them have, you got to have a Coke. Especially if you're getting some McDonald's, bro. Oh, yeah. I know you guys. Hot cake. Hot cake Friday.

Hot cake Friday. Hot cake Friday. This is nine years running. Every Friday school for nine years in a row. McDonald's, you didn't call me, baby. This would be a story that you've wanted to tell. I agree. Because I want to hear it.

Google AI now goes by a new name, Gemini. Come to the main stage, Gemini. Sounds like American Gladiator. It does. It's gladiator. It's like, monkey bars, Gemini. Private dances in the back room with Jimini. Does sound like that as well.

Yeah. Google has rebranded its AI. efforts under the name Gemini. I got to say, I'm only going to ever say it that way. I'm going to, I'm going to patent that way of saying it. Encompassing its barred chat bot, duet AI features in Google workspace and the Gemini Ultra 1. This is like foreign language here. Gemini aims to serve as a conversational, motimodal assistant.

Come on, guys. Just call it way it is. readable to literally the average person, because I don't know what the hell that means. Yeah. The company is prioritizing Gemina over Google Assistant and integrating it into its Android ecosystem. Gemini, iOS presence is limited. Its features that will be accessible through the Google app. So it's similar to chatGBT.

It's going to be built into the functionality. It's essentially a more helpful chatbot is all this is. and I like the stuff that's just the writing and the naming and everything else is just maybe it's just me. Maybe it's fun to everyone else, but it just seems ridiculous. The naming department, everything else, Jim and I. It's the space. This sounds like either Spacey or I don't know. My mind goes to different places, but it's not.

I guess it's meant to be fun and light, which is kind of like the Google brand. But I do think, A lot of this stuff is making its way into more useful integrations with the devices and stuff, which is good to see. Everybody's not going to just go to the web browser and chat GPT and look up stuff. So some of the features and benefits and the access to this additional layer of technology is being built in. So I think you're going to see positive outcomes and use of this stuff as it gets more mainstream, which is good. Let's just make it easy, though, and call it what it is.

more helpful assistance and not a instead of motimodal. It's a motimodal assistant. There we have it. I think that's all the articles we can cover today. We had the Super Bowl news, the impact, the ads, and the overall economic impact is incredible.

Any last thoughts here, Chris, to end the week? You know what? To touch on the Super Bowl stuff, let's get some more creativity pumping again. Yeah. All the Radical Agency, if you need help with it. Exactly.

Hey, we don't just talk shit. We back it up, baby. Yeah. Radical.com. You can find us. You can find us. Theradcast.com. All of the highlight clips from today.

Search for Jim and I. You'll find all of it today. One of the keywords. Keywords from the episode. That's the secret code word. If you want to DM, me Jimina. I'll laugh at you. For Chris Hanson in Miami, I'm Ryan Alford. We'll see you next time on the Radcast. To listen or watch full episodes, visit us on the web at theradcast.com

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