Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Weekly News Update 12.18.20: The Golden M Haircut; What will happen with 2021 Super Bowl Ads?; Uber Vouchers; American Standard has the Perfect Way to Flush 2020 Away

Episode Date: December 18, 2020

Happy Friday and welcome to another weekly news update with your host Ryan Alford and co-host Reiley Clark.In this episode, Ryan and Reiley break down the best marketing news headlines from the week:McDonald's virtual barbershop in Sweden is bringing back the classic 90's haircut with a twist.The Super Bowl will look a little different in 2021, so what does this mean for the ads we'll see during commercials?Uber has a way for you to receive discounts for Uber Eats and Uber. Welcome, Uber Vouchers to the stage.American Standard creates a toilet paper roll that will make you want several. What's the radical factor? - Listen to this episode see what makes this roll worth flushing!Enjoyed this episode? Then share it on Instagram and tag us @the.rad.cast | Do you want to hear more from our host? - Give him a follow @ryanalford on Instagram. | The Radcast is a product of @radical_results | #theradcast 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.

It has to start somewhere. It has to start sometime. What better placed in here. What better time than now? You're listening to the latest Radcast News Update. Here's Ryan and Riley. Hey guys. What's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast News holiday edition number. I don't know what. My days are running together three. Riley, what day is? Is it episode or three of the news? in the holiday of December? I think this is our third. Yeah, this is our third one. Okay, whatever it is. But always joined by the lovely Riley Clark, the producer and content.

Thank you, thank you. Extraordinary. I'm running out of adjectives for Riley, but good to have you, Riley. Thank you, thank you. Appreciate it. Glad to be here. So what's shaking over there? You know, we're in the new podcast studio, which I'm really enjoying.

We've got dynamic camera angles going. We've got a warm, cozy fire keeping us. Absolutely. Keep us nice and toast. I'm feeling it like on my shoulder, like it's subconscious. I know it's just a digital video going there. Absolutely. No, it's a little warm, little good here today.

Yeah, it makes up for the cold kind of outside that's kind of going on today. You know, it's kind of a chilly day. It does a little dreary cold for the winter months here in South Carolina. You know, we don't have many, many days that are as kind of blistery as I would call it. No, I agree. I agree. Yeah, but I like what you've done with the podcast studios. Thank you.

Yeah. Looking good. Feeling better. I'm feeling loose and, you know, I mean, if I could dance in this chair, I'd be dancing in it. That's where we're out. I'm so glad. I'm so glad. That's where we're out.

Yes. Yes. Oh, yeah. That's good. So cool. How's the week been? How's we getting geared up for the holidays? Lots of Christmas shopping on those kind of things.

Yeah, lots of stuff going on. It's funny. You get all the stuff for your family. And you've like mentally been preparing getting stuff for your family. And then you realize, okay. I actually have less than a week now to really get everything together. So this is your news flash. You want to talk about news, you know.

Literally. If you listen to this on the day it releases, you have T minus one week. So T minus one week to get it all done and get it all in. My wife's freaking out. We have a few more things to buy the boys. And, you know, a wife's getting like one large gift. And so I always play, you know, like, do I need to get her like a few small things? It's like one big thing.

So it's like, you know, it's always that dilemma of, you know, I think we all think about someone, did we get enough? The consumerism in this, you know? Yeah. Or like you want it to be like, like, was this meaningful? Like, was this good? Like, did this like really, you know, hit all the things that they really, you know, want, need, you know?

But, yeah. She knows what she's getting, so she'll be happy. That's what's important. Yeah, exactly. So we'll see. And, but what are like, do you have holiday traditions or foods or things? What's, what's like any go-to, like my dad always makes, we call it TV snacks, but it's like checks mix. Let's call it what it is.

But that's like, hmm, any go-to foods or traditions for you? I feel like I have a, I love sweet potato casserole. And my mom makes like the best sweet potato casserole. And it's just like, I mean, she's southern. She's very, she was a southern cooker. So it has all the sugar that you know you probably shouldn't be consuming, but you want it. It's a holidays. And, you know, the marshmallows that are glazed just perfectly on top.

Like nothing about it is too watery. Only half the calories count. No, right, right? Around the holidays. It doesn't matter. Exactly. Exactly. But, but yeah, so that's kind of just what's been going on there.

And I love, I do, I hate to say it, but you love the turkey or the ham. And then it's almost like a Thanksgiving part two in some ways. But then you have the cranberry salt. Like just all the, oh, I just love it. And I love the pies. The pies and the cakes that can come from Christmas. It's just, oh, spot on. If you're listening, you should be getting hungry by now.

I'm over here. You know, we record these right around lunchtime. So it's making me hungry. You might be blistering through this episode, like, fast as possible to get to some like leftover sandwich or something. It's just not as exciting, but nonetheless. Yeah, I think half the calories count during the holidays. Oh, absolutely.

That's what we say? No, for sure. But what about you? Do you have a favorite food? Yeah, like, my dad makes the checks mix. One of my moms this weekend. Okay. We do the, you know, before Christmas, we kind of a mom.

She's in Columbia, South Carolina. Or thereabouts, right outside of it on Lake Murray area. Oh, nice area. And, yeah, and so we go down there, and she, it's normally a mix. back. Like, we don't have, sometimes it's similar to the Thanksgiving. Sometimes it's a random casserole that she's testing out. Right, right, right, right.

She always cooks. She's a great cook, so it's always something delicious. But, you know, we're not, like, dead pan set on, like, exactly this one dish for Christmas. I got that. The turkey and dressing and all that's Thanksgiving. It's pretty set. Right. But the Christmas meal is usually just something good and, you know.

Yeah. Then with my dad, we typically have done, like, a primer. rib or something else. Oh, yeah. Yum. Yeah. That sounds awesome. Yeah.

We've done that last few years. What about, do you all have anything else like going on? Do you feel like you have something that's like, like, like this notable thing that's either about to get you crazy hype for New Year's or something that's like, okay, like this is about to happen and I just can't wait for it, you know? You know, like, you know, honestly not, we don't have an event this year that's like somewhere or something that may be like driving that. Right.

I will say, like, you know, I'm taking, you know, a few days off around, you know, probably a week total around the holidays, either before, after Christmas or around New Year's. And so I'm looking forward to just a little bit of, you know, and Nicole's going to be off and we'll have the boys. And, you know, strangely enough with everything going on and other things, I'm kind of just looking forward to just some nothingness. And it's all kind of like chilling and I guess watching some really bad bowl games or, you know, something like that with how this year is going. That's funny. And then I'm excited. Clemson plays Notre Dame this Saturday. You may listen to this and the game's already over by now.

A lot of people listen to it past. But Clemson, Notre Dame for the ACC championship to go to college football playoff. I went to Clemson. So huge college football guy. I'm glad they got through the season. with COVID and everything. So I'm pulling for the Tigers this weekend. I'll be in bombs, you know, eating my face off,

but watching the Clemson every day and game. I'll be honest, I haven't even followed WVU as much as I wish I should have this year. You didn't miss much. You did not. You did not. You know, what are they, like four and three or something? Half their games have been canceled? I mean, tusha.

Right. Like, I'm not going to. That's not their fault. I'm not really knocking West Virginia as much as just some of the realities. of the season. No, I know, I know, I know. It was just funny. But I feel like, I wish I would have caught up more on WVU. And I feel like their basketball team's actually been doing really well this year, though. Yeah, they're doing it. Yeah, they are. Started off well. Yeah, yeah. But all that to say, I know that's not, you know, necessarily, completely related to what we're

talking about. But I'll do better next year. Yeah, but cool. Well, here's Riley with the news. Here is the Radcast News. Okay, guys, our news topics for today, the first one we're going to get into is McDonald's in Sweden, decided to bring back officially the Golden M haircut. And we know we're talking about here. We're talking about Leonardo to young Leo, which, you know, heartthrob, Leo still is for the Rack Committee Series. You know, between him and Brad Pitt with that, you know, blonde kind of shaped haircut. I mean, they're really, they're trying to bring that back. And McDonald's, Sweden is doing a virtual barbershop deal where, you know, you can come in, get your golden M haircut, but I like how this is bringing in.

I mean, obviously we talk about this all the time. This is a marketing podcast, but it's like, you know, what is this doing for the brand of McDonald's? I think it's doing more than just like, oh, this is funny. They're bringing back, you know, this golden M hair. I think this is a cool, a cool thing for McDonald's to be doing. This falls into the realm of we have more money than we know what to do with in our marketing efforts.

Like, don't get me wrong. I think it's fun and it's great social content. They're doing it in Sweden. I'm not poo-pooing the idea. I like it. But it's like, you know, some brands that are out there, they're just trying to find the one idea to make hay with. And Donald's has like a hundred things going on.

Exactly. Like, because it's a, you know, it's a worldwide brand. And, you know, so the golden arch is the golden in here. And I know it was a thing. I'm well aware of it. And actually like both of those guys, Caprio and Brad Pitt, good actors and good looking guys. Yeah.

Hey, call a spade a spade. They're studs. But it's just, I don't know, like some of these things, I just look at it with a little bit of a slanted eye. I liked, you know, in some of the other news, I liked more of the play on the no-shaven November. They gave away, you know, the McRibbs just relaunched, and they gave away, like, the first, I don't know, 100,000 people came in and shaved or something like that. So I like that for viral content. Absolutely. Maybe that related to me more, but it's cool.

I mean, you know, when you got the money, just spend it. I guess you're spending it when you have the money to spend it. I know, right? I can just imagine, like, how many ideas, like, they sit around, you know, between the agency, I'm sure they're working with internally. It's like, you know, how many ideas hit the board and how many they actually implement. I know. The scale of that, it's probably hard to even comprehend.

Right, right, right. No, I hear that. I hear that. the other topic we have for today is obviously about the Super Bowl it's coming up very quickly and I feel like and we were just talking about this you know whether it was WV or Clemson and obviously I haven't been keeping track of WVU so sorry guys but it's like when you think about what's even been happening with um just the course of NFL football this year I mean it's been very weird people can't even go to the stadium I mean all those other things games were canceled

whatever it's like I think a lot of market right now are kind of like, okay, are we actually going to have our Super Bowl moment this year or not? Because like, how does it even play in? Like, where is it going to come? And, you know, where are we putting our ads? And, you know, that's kind of just a big question that's kind of circulating right now, too. Yeah, it's like $5.5 million for 30 seconds. And I will say this, like, as much as linear TV, I think, is a bad buy a lot of the times now.

As far as, you know, the audience is just so distracted. very few millennials or Gen Z or like even my demographic, it's just not a lot of linear TV. Some kind of down on TV as a whole, the traditional commercial. However, the Super Bowl is that time and place in that moment where there's so much attention on it. You've got people over for parties. You've got stuff and people watching the commercials. So it's become an event. And so if $5.5 million on air to reach, how many of the people it is, it might,

actually be, uh, impression for impression. The, the best buy you can make if you can afford it. Right. And so it's been interesting to watch that I think they're almost all, they're 80% sold out of all spots by like November, December.

I think it started off a little slower than previous years, but now it's picked back up because people realize it. And you're going to have, I saw where, you know, Mr. We talked about Pringles and some of their brand play their, their, their Pringles is going to be on their stacking of the flavors. Okay. That'll be cool. Uh,

Budwiser's back. They've been in mainstay. They have, I think, exclusivity in the beer category. I don't know much they paid for that win, but it's got to be hundreds of millions of dollars. Are they bringing back the Clydesdales and the puppies? I wish that they would. No, they're not. Yes.

But I haven't seen any mention to exactly what they are. That was an iconic campaign. I love when those came on. And it's going to be interesting because of the dynamics of the game. Don't get me wrong. it's made for television.

If any of the NFL games are made for television, and they're all made for television, there's hundreds of camera angles and all that, but you've got the crowd and all that. The Super Bowl is so produced for TV, it might have less of the impact of the no crowd or no people there than you might realize, because, again, it's such a spectacle on television

with a halftime show and all those things. Oh, tush. And so I think they're going to probably even take it a step further with the whole, you know, knowing, I mean, you know, obviously, or they'll show crowd shots at the cardboard figures or not at Super Bowl. Maybe they'll become, you know, for Super Bowl, there'll be dynamic 3D versions of the cardboard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to say, like, have you noticed that even, you know, Kelly Clarkson Show, we have stuff like that, you know, on the office TVs or whatever, but they have the, it's like the virtual, it looks like, you know, like a screen or whatever, and it's just people that are basically coming in from Zoom or whatever.

think they would incorporate something like that at all or do you feel like that's just like completely not something that's probably going to happen maybe it's hard to say yeah i don't know but i did see um turbotax who's been doing some pretty creative stuff uh mars and m&m right right back uh well said that Toyota will be there but but olea skin care brand like oil of olai will not be coming back and neither will avocados from Mexico they've had some pretty creative spots they ended their streak so

I don't know if the avocado sales are down or it's just not worth the money not at my supermarket I'm obsessed with avocados I eat like two or three avocados a day I'm completely honest I love avocados I had them on my my coconut chicken tacos last night oh that sounds good

are you all cook you know I hate it it up. Oh. I mean, I made the tacos. Oh, but the, the coconut chicken was kind of like a pre-made from, you know,

Publix or something. Oh, I got you. Okay. Nicole bought it. Yeah, yeah. She was doing some shopping last night, so it was,

uh, fending for myself, but they were pretty tasty. I had avocado and all that on there. That sounds super good. As we get hungrier and hungry. I know. Now we're going to keep talking about food and all,

all the things about food now. But, but, but yeah, uh, well, we're going to continue on our food. Yes.

Topic here, as we, as we talk about vouchers from Uber. So I think this is super smart. And I know you have lots of thoughts about this, but let me tee it up a little bit. So Uber businesses, you know, they have Uber each. You know, they have obviously Uber itself driving service,

but they are creating a way to incorporate both the discounts on rides and discounts on food and just like bringing in businesses that can either participate in giving a voucher for more food or, you know, giving a voucher for a ride. and I think that's a really cool concept. Again, now you have tons of thoughts about it. Yeah, you can do branded plays with this so that you can brand the certificates

and things that you're doing. You can literally, and I think there's a lot of different angles for this. When you think about services and businesses where the customer has to either get rid of their car or they might need a second person or something, I think this could be huge. Think doctors offices maybe, things like that.

think dealerships. So if you're dealership and you have a service department to be able to offer your customers pick up, drop off those services in a branded way. I think it would be brilliant for literally every service dealership should have that. It's like, and again, obviously for a $20 oil change, you probably can't do it. But for anything over $100, $150 bucks, give your client a branded experience for how they get Uber, how they pick it up, but it's provided by you, sponsored by you, for the pickup and drop off. That's the biggest pain point for, like, service of vehicles is, you know, and the loaner programs

put such a stress on the dealerships because they don't have enough cars, the liability involved, all that stuff. You put it on Uber, but you brand it for yourself. It could be a differentiator, or at least it probably would come table stakes eventually. I know there's some dealers that do it or will offer it here and there, but I would be branding the hell out of it. No, absolutely. I think it's a super smart play, and I'm looking forward to using it. Yes. Big Uber Eats person, so looking forward to using that for sure. When weather gets bad, everybody has got to come to work because I'm going to Uber you here.

Okay. All right. No. I'm just kidding. Weather doesn't get that bad in South Carolina. I'm just kidding. We'll see. That's good. That's good. But I do like it. Great play by Uber, and I think we're going to get on top of it can really differentiate themselves. Absolutely. Um, our last topic for today. And this is, I just think it's hilarious. It's super smart. Um, American standard is, you know, flush the year away. And they have this toilet paper that has basically all the icons of things that have happened throughout the year that have been, you know, well, for lack of a

better word, let's just say a shit show. Like, we're talking about toilet paper. Let's just bring it all, like all the whole circle. Um, and you can just throw away the toilet paper. And it's just just hilarious. But there's a thing with it. I'm pretty sure if I remember correctly, there's like a way to enter in to be able to get the toilet paper. It's not a raffle. Yeah, a giveaway.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's super cool. Where they give their information and you get a chance to win a roll of the limited edition toilet paper. They're also giving away 450 rolls randomly selecting the winner in three drawings.

Right. I think this is brilliant. think what it added to it, and I didn't see this as part of it, you should be able to customize your own toilet paper for everything you want to flush away from this year. That's actually really funny. If you could come on and add personalization to it, put in your things, and then they send it to you. They can sell this on their store at e-commerce. Here's your idea. This is what you should. American Standard. Call us if you want to take these ideas a little further. Maybe they thought about it, they didn't have the infrastructure.

And it might have been an idea that came up like a week ago, but they wanted to implement it, which strikes me as possible. but I think it's a great brand play, hilarious, plays on the mindset. Absolutely. Good PR for the brand. We're talking about it, so it must be good PR. Obviously. If it's made our cut on the news, it's got to be good.

So a good play by American standard, but let's personalize it. And you want to think about it, this could be an ongoing thing. You know, what do you want to flush away in your life? Hey, that's actually a really good, like, whole campaign and of itself, to your point. I mean, like, you know, what else happened this year that, you know, you're like, I just want to forget about that. Or just ever like if you're wanting to, you know, bad habits to go away, like the, this could be a customization at all times. Absolutely. What are you trying to flush out of your life?

And every time you're used to bathroom, hey, we all use the bathroom all every day. You're reminded of what you're trying to get rid of. Absolutely. Uh-oh. American Standard. You might have to call us. I'm just kidding. Or there you go.

You just do it. Yeah. That one's free. Yeah. No, just kidding. Just kidding. But yeah, no, that's it for us today, news-wise. And by the time this releases, and we have our next episode, I mean, it's going to have, Christmas has already passed. So if you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, everyone else as well. For sure. Appreciate everyone that listens. And Merry Christmas, happy holidays. Whatever you celebrate. Celebrate it safely. Yes. And, you know, Merry Christmas to you, too. You know, we'll be together for another week.

I know. We'll see you to lose a little. But, you know, to everyone else. Happy holidays. Exactly. All right, guys, we'll see you next time on the Radcasts all along at theradcast.com. And we'll see you next time. Happy holidays.

See it. Yo, guys, what's up, Ryan Alford here? Thanks so much for listening. Really appreciate it. But do us a favor. If you've been enjoying the Radcast, you need to share the word with a friend or anyone else. We'd really appreciate it. And go leave us a review at Apple or Spotify.

Do us a solid. Tell more people. Leave us some reviews. And hey, here's the best news of all. If you want to work with me directly, you want to get your business kicking ass. And you want Radical or myself involved, you can text me directly at 864.

7293680. Don't wait another minute. Let's get your business going. 864-7293680. We'll see you next time.