Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Amazon One Concerns, VANS: Musicians Wanted, New Facebook CMO brings Credibility as the Election Nears and More of the Latest Marketing News!

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

In this episode, Host Ryan Alford and Producer Reiley Clark, break down the biggest marketing and business news this week... Here we GO!Amazon One: Pros and Cons of the new palm reader that will hold your credit card informationVANS: Musicians WantedNew Facebook CMO: What does this mean for their credibility?Crocs in the Pandemic: Crocs saw a 52.4% digital commerce growth following their Free Pair for Health Care initiativeCallaway and Kevin Nealon: FIX YOUR SLICE!Follow our host here! | To stay updated on all things radical, follow us on Instagram @the.rad.cast 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. 

You're listening to the latest Radcast News Update. Here's Ryan and Riley. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to another episode of the Radcast. It is our weekly news segment. Sort of weekly. You know, hey, we do it as often as we can because sometimes, you know, work comes in. Sometimes, hey, sometimes we have two or three episodes in a week, you know, occasionally. But yeah, it is the week. It's today, October 1st, actually. I know. Can you believe it's October?

I know. I'm in shock. So, Riley Clark, good to have you on, as always. Thank you. I appreciate it. It is. It is. It's cool.

It's cool brisk here in Greenville, South Carolina. I was coming in today, took my son to school this morning, and he is fighting the jacket thing. He's four years old, and he does not want to wear a coat yet. He still thinks it's 80, because it ends up being 80 by the afternoon here. Right, right, right. But nonetheless, it was a little cool in the low 50s, I would say. But nonetheless, a beautiful morning. Very beautiful.

So we are well into the e-commerce series, huh? Yes, we are. We're five episodes in? Yeah. We have our new episode that will be coming out on Tuesday, and that's with Kalila Wright. That is the founder and CEO of Mass in a Bottle. We recorded her earlier this week. How did you feel like that went?

Really cool. Really both inspiring. So we got there, we, we checked the boxes. We're getting both the radical box and the econ box with Kalila. Uh, really inspiring, really smart. Um, you know, just, it's interesting, you know, she started missing a bottle. I don't want to give too much away, but it's a t-shirt and apparel company. She's expanding past the t-shirts, but really interesting, which you'll hear more about. But, you know, I've often wondered, like, there's so many people starting t-shirt companies, doing all this stuff, how you

differentiate yourself. She found a really unique spin within the bottle and the messages. I mean, it's super simple. Oh, yeah. But she's obviously a good writer, talented. The messages are really cool. And they cover a lot of gamut, both empowering African-American girls and businesswomen to any entrepreneur, really. And so she's got a good thing going, and I really enjoyed the sit-down. Oh, yeah. When I was listening to you guys record it and everything, I was just like, oh, you just feel inspired.

You're just like, oh, you just want to wear a T-shirt and go out and do your thing. Yeah, she's just real, too. Her son was there. She's doing everything that everyone else, us with kids. Oh, yeah. Myself with e-learning at home. Her son was doing homework or actually in the middle of school day. In the class, yeah.

Yeah, but then she was real. She was authentic, yeah. Very authentic. So that one will come out Tuesday at noon, but definitely excited for that one uh and then we have a couple more guests coming up but we won't get everything away yet so you know stay tuned stay tuned it's been good and you know there's things around the agency have been good and busy and we're actually knee-deep in several e-commerce sites so it's been like a kind of

interesting like hearing some tidbits here and there, applying them to some real world things, and we're launching two or three major e-com sites in the next week. That's so exciting. Cool. Well, now here's Riley with the news. Here is the Radcast News. So Amazon One is something that the company launched on tuesday of this week and it's something it's a contact list uh you know way to identify your credit card with your personal with your palm right but it's when you go into one of those amazon amazon go stores and essentially

you're supposed to walk into the store, put your palm on the reader, register your credit card that way, and then essentially you don't have to keep swiping your credit card or whatever. Just read your palm and that kind of thing. Initial takeaways? You know, it's interesting. First, the world was going to be led by eye scans. Well, I guess it started with fingerprint scanning.

Fingerprint scanning was how, you know, you open your laptop, you do anything. Like everything's going to be fingerprinted. Right. Then it was eye scans. You're going to use your eye and like you're going to scan your eye or whatever. Or facial recognition. Facial. Then you have facial recognition, full facial recognition with like the iPhone and other thing.

Right. And then now it's the palm and all and i get that the goal is to be contactless so you know fingerprints not necessarily contactless and i would have thought the eyeball scan would be a contactless the face is definitely contactless and now the palm um it's how many how fast are these grocery stores going to open how many more are there other than like new york and one or two other cities they're not even there yet so this feels like hey great we've got covid going on we don't need to be touching every surface right fully supportive but can we get one universal biometric scan is it the face is it the eye is it the palm

if it's going to be the palm, great. Let's make it the palm. Then everything. But let's make it universal. Like, I'm doing the elbow scan today. And I'm like, I don't know. I mean, I get what you're saying. Samsung's going to have the elbow.

Apple's going to have the face. Amazon's the palm. It's like, all right. That's exactly one of the things that's kind of a concern with this, is that it's going to create user exactly one of the things that's kind of a concern with this is that it's going to create user education for how to then register your palm with your credit card using the palm making sure everything's correct there but my thing does this not low-key creep you out in the sense that it's more data that they're collecting on you it's like you know

that that's the privacy concern is like there's the privacy concern. It's like, where are we going? There's a privacy concern. The other concern is where is this technology going to take us? Because some people were saying that Amazon was even trying to take this eventually into you go into a stadium, read your poem, and then you go into the game. Like, is this going to become our way of, like, you know, identifying before you go into a place? do you think it could go that way

maybe are we getting into like movies and we're headed in look it's headed that direction yeah like all these uh orwell books i mean it's all coming true i know like big brother it is i mean and so we're giving up a lot of privacy for the sake of information. And, you know, we talked about ads. We talked about ads last week on platforms, everything we give away to not have to see ads. Or to actually to have ads, we accept ads in favor of content and other things. Here we're giving up another layer of privacy for, you know, COVID is the excuse, you know, but it's really, you know, that's what. And look, no one's saying COVID is not real, but it's being leveraged in any way possible to press forward these kind of initiatives that are one way or another for people to collect another form of personal identifying information about yourself.

Yeah. And so, you know, let's just streamline it. Make it one thing, though. I don't want it to be seven things. Right. And, you know, don't turn me into a robot. So as long as I don't do that, I'm okay with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I guess we'll see where it goes. It's something I'll be following up, and I'll put it in the episode notes as well just to see kind of where it's going to be going. But that was definitely an interesting one. Our next topic, Musicians Wanted. This is a virtual concert that's hosting, Vans is hosting. And the goal is to get regional musicians to be noticed, which I think is a really nice initiative, especially when a lot of concerts were obviously shut down. So this is a nice way,

I think, to create more engagement for the musicians. But I do think it's interesting as far as branding goes for Vans, because typically, at least from what I've always grown up around, it's very skater heavy, very, well, skater heavy. And now I feel like they're bringing in more of a musical musician kind of artist audience. What do you think about that? You know, I think Vans as a brand over time has transited just the skater. It's certainly that is the core. That's the original, whether that's skate or BMX or biking or whatever. I think it plays into the brand promise of off the wall. That's kind of their, I think, overarching statement. And so I think this plays into the segment nice because when you think

about skating or surfing or BMX and all those things, music is hand in hand. Oh, yeah. It's like, you know, you hear, I almost hear it when I watch like a skate video, I hear a soundtrack in my head. Absolutely. When I watch a surf video, I hear it. So it feels like a natural progression for them. And look, they're an iconic brand now. Like I am not actively, I did skate when I was younger, but like I'm none of these things now. You're not shutting it out there these things now but i still have a

i have a pair of vans you know like i don't wear them every day but they're right they're in the arsenal and you know like the very limited you know arsenal in the closet um and so they've transcended those sports with just the brand and just kind of the notion of, you know, casual sportswear, I guess, you know, the walking around gear, as I call it. Yeah. But the music play makes a ton of sense for me. It's great that they're using innovation to bring it together with COVID going on. You can't get people together doing the virtual side of it.

So I think it's a smart play for the brand. I agree. I'll put a link, again, to the musician wanted in case any of our listeners are like, oh, okay, I kind of want to enter into this. The winner, I like all the different kind of prizes you're going to get. The winner will get $2,500 of music, video production, and promotion. Share the stage with Anderson at House of Vans. And then, of course course it's pending COVID

you'll be featured on Vans Spotify audio ads Vans musicians wanted customized Fender guitar and a drum kit and then there's top finalists so if you don't win you know there's other things you're going to get a bunch of we'll link all those but I think I really like this initiative and I you know as far as I, I hope we can all see the concert because I miss going to things like that. So I like the virtual concert. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. Looks like they're going to have the top five,

do like a virtual concert. Probably each band or musician, however it plays out, I could see it being both, you know, individual solo talent or, you know, full band, maybe, you know, entering, uh, how that kind of comes together. Like a few of these, like I thought I watched the ACM awards, the country music. I thought it was produced really nicely. Uh, a few weeks ago, it was all virtual. Like they played at different, uh, locations and things like that, the different bands. different bands so you know it'd be interesting in a non-professional environment i guess they're going to professionally produce it and maybe send crews out you know for the top five or something probably

but it seems like it takes a lot of coordination to make to kind of pull these things off and not feel a little janky yeah you know so i mean Yeah. So, I mean, some of that organic stuff's great, but, you know, I don't know what the consumer expectations are for this kind of production value. That's fair. That's fair, yeah. So we'll see. But it makes tons of sense for the brand.

Oh, yeah. That's for sure. Oh, for sure, for sure. New CMO at Facebook, and I think this is really cool in terms of Facebook really needing to get some better credibility out there. Especially, I like it in the sense it's very smart for them to do this right before the election. Because obviously we know four years ago there was propaganda pretty much everywhere both ways. ago, there was propaganda pretty much everywhere, both ways. And it was, you know, Facebook got a lot of, I mean, a lot of people were upset with Facebook for, you know, not misinformation. And

so I think this having this new CMO, Alex Schultz, who originally was vice president of product growth and analytics now to be the CMO. What are your thoughts on that as well? I think if, you know, he's been with the company for a couple years. This is a promotion for him. You know, he is a smart guy. I think that if he can, the biggest thing, the biggest opportunity I see for Facebook is they've been very, I'll call it product technology focused with, you know,

as I was telling someone the other day, you know, it's just gotten so complex, the app and everything you could do from marketplace to groups to shopping to, you know, every time they add something, I can only imagine the complexity they go through because all things all have to talk to each other. And now they've had Instagram for how many years? So that and Messenger now finally talking to each other. So they've been very product feature focused. You see some brand messages. for how many years. So that and Messenger now finally talking to each other.

So they've been very product feature focused. You see some brand messages. I do see their TV ads here and there now. I see video that's more branded. But it'll be interesting if Alex can start to tell more of those brand stories and to soften the kind of backlash that's been out there for them in a meaningful way. So blending both the product, the innovation with that brand story and starting to promote more of the good. Because, I mean, look, it's an amazing platform that does a lot of good.

There's no question. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, this isn't the hate on Facebook. No, I know that and but but they've you know whether deserving or not i think a lot of it's been deserved um have taken a hit especially with larger brands that we caught them and other things like that um i just don't know if one hire is gonna to make this happen. It's got to start from the top, and it's got to be –

I think they've been in this growth at all cost modes in some ways with ads and technology and all those things. And can they slow the ship a little bit while staying ahead of TikTok and other competitors that are biting at their ankles while improving their brand, you know, persona and how they're viewed? And that's going to become that's going to be more than a than a message. They're going to have to kind of put their money where their mouth is with getting misinformation off the platform and, you know, taking a stand and not being seen as just, you know, I think a lot of it too, they get seen as, you know, maybe supporting one side or the other sometimes too. And so we'll see. It's not an easy

task with as bloated as the number of people that are on the platform. But, you know, good hire. I like Alex. I like what he's done, and I think he's a smart guy, so we'll see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely be following up with that one as well. Our next topic, I love this topic because this is about, you know, Crocs coming into the pandemic space, and they initially were following the initial play of COVID in March.

They came out with free pair for healthcare and they ended up donating $40 million worth of free shoes to healthcare. And this was awesome because when I, back in West Virginia, the couple I was living with, they're both in healthcare and he had, he was, he's a nurse and Croc sent him a free pair of shoes. And like, that was so cool, you know, and hecs sent him a free pair of shoes. And that was so cool, and he was sporting them around the house and everything. But I think it's great that this is something that they are doing because as a result,

I like how they were talking about by listening to customers on the onset of coronavirus, Crocs was unable to adapt 52.4% of growth in their e-commerce space. That's crazy. Yeah. You know, when I read that stat, though, I want to know what was their retail brick-and-mortar loss with the 52% increase. Touche. That's a good stat.

But what's been the impact of their brick-and-mortar store sales? They're sold everywhere, major retailers. So I'd love to know how that was all set. I'd love to see the total numbers. But with that said, it's a great cause in kind of the model of Tom's, who buy a pair, give a pair. It makes a lot of sense. And, look, it also makes sense for the brand. I'm sure they've seen

some growth because people are home. You want to be comfortable. If you can sit at a desk with just your shirt and tie on and have your gym shorts on below it, your shoes can most certainly be comfortable. So I think they've been in prime position to leverage that. And, you know, people were clamoring for this, and they delivered. And so, I mean, there's nothing to sneeze at, what, was it $40 million worth of shoes, at least the retail value? Even their cost is in the tens of millions, I'm sure. So put your money where your mouth is. And it makes a lot of sense.

And I know it's building brand loyalty. I know people want to do and buy from brands that do this. I do want to see, like, with more and more brands doing this, like, not because you shouldn't do it. You should do it because it's right. Right. But I am curious, what is the net-net? Brands doing this, like, not because you shouldn't do it. You should do it because it's right. Right. But I am curious, what is the net net? Is it more karma than business?

Or is it, and karma is good, too. Don't get me wrong. I believe in it. Right, right, right. You know. Well, it can be. Brand, it can be. It can be.

Yeah, the good kind. And so, you know, do good to do good. Absolutely. But is it endearing their customer base as much as you hoped or would assume that it is? Right. And I'd like to see measurement on that. You know, not because they shouldn't have done it. I'm not suggesting that, well, if they don't get the measurement, then they shouldn't have done it. But I still, my marketing analytical side is more like, okay, but what is this?

Is this creating? I'd love to see a survey from both avid and non-avid fans post six months after this if the brand affinity has gone up. That's just me from a marketing standpoint wanting to understand the outcomes of certain things. Oh, for sure, for sure. No, that'd be very interesting to follow up on as far as what that looks like. That's definitely something I can inquire about maybe and see what we can do here in the e-comm series. Last topic is our Callaway and Kevin Nealon tee up as well. Let me restart. So golf apparently during COVID,

which this makes sense. People have, you know, more, more golfers are going out during COVID. More people are getting interested in golfing during COVID, but at the same time, I guess more people are really struggling with this certain shot, the golf slice. And so there was a team effort with Callaway and Kevin Nealon as they are, you know, I guess showing the solution to not have this problem anymore. Yes. As a golfer who actually plays a fade, I call it a fade, a slices. But when I'm not playing well, it is very much a slice. If you're a right-handed golfer, this means your ball goes from left to right.

It happens when your hands get ahead of the club. You leave the club face open at impact, and it spins hard because you put kind of a side spin on it that makes it loop right. Instead of like when I'm playing well a little five to eight yard fade that kind of fades in a lot of the big hitters now are playing a fade on the tour uh mine will start going hard right if i'm not playing because i get my hands get ahead of the ball there's your golf uh lesson for the day of what happens with the slice but nonetheless it is it's what plagues most amateur golfers more than anything.

And I love this. Kevin's hilarious. And, you know, it's, again, leveraging a way to create content in unusual ways, surprising and delighting. There's been countless. there's been countless. There's been thousands. There's been millions of articles and videos by pros on how not to hit a slice. I mean, as a golfer, I've Googled it myself at some point. There's millions of articles or this is how you're not doing it. Every Golf Digest has an article on how not to do a slice.

So how do you take something that's been talked about a lot and make it more interesting you know for your fan base and so you bring in a comedian uh and you tell it through that story and that lens and make it funny and it's great content i love it yeah i'll link the there's an eight minute video that you know pokes fun at this but i will um i'll put that in the episode notes as well. And I think if you're listening and you're thinking about how to do content, how to do marketing and all those things, we often get paralyzed by thinking someone's already talked about this. Someone's already done this. I'm not going to do it.

It doesn't always have to be because you're a comedian or you can hire, you can afford to hire a professional comedian. But how can you make it more interesting? How can you tell it through your own lens that makes it a little different? And so obviously Callaway has a large budget and they can hire a comedian to do this. But there's, if we'll think out of the box a little bit we can tell the same stories in different ways that make it interesting to your audience and people might resonate more with a different perspective anyway i mean if you think about it how many different types of learning are there i mean even though someone might have said it before if you to your point if you put your perspective

on it i mean you could be touching so many more people that had no idea that they could you know take in that information that way and again callay's has a new set of clubs that supposedly helps people with that slice anyway. So common problem, creative, funny way of telling it, and they have the solution with new clubs. See, it's a winning formula. There you go. There you go. And then as far as this came out last week, what are your opinion on LinkedIn stories? I think it's a game changer for the platform. I posted on this. You know, part of the cynical side of me, and I think some of the reaction that's been online,

has been another, oh my God, another platform. You know, like, yeah, it's not another platform, but another medium. You know, I'm already doing Instagram. I'm doing Facebook. I'm doing TikTok, depending on who you are. And I'm doing LinkedIn content. Now I've got to do a LinkedIn story.

Oh my God. It is, it can be overwhelming. But when you put that to the side and you go, okay, what are some of the core challenges for LinkedIn of getting more interaction? People are still sitting on the fence because they don't know what to post and when to post it. And a post feels very overwhelming versus a story because you feel like you have to – it's going to live there forever. Stories are 24 hours. like you have to, it's going to live there forever. Stories are 24 hours. It still feels like you need to, even if people have gotten better about shooting videos, people still feel,

I think, that trepidation of a post. What am I going to say in the caption? What am I going to put in the video? What do I put in the image? Is this smart? Is it not smart? I think it's just overall analyzation. Number one, stories make that easier. Number two, it also allows us to get to know our connections a little better, a little closer. I think that's what stories has done for the other platforms because, you know, you can still, in that same vein, you can portray a certain image, a certain thing with just posts. Right. The story aspect, especially like if videos or people are getting on and talking more and a little more casually, you can get to know your connections on a deeper level.

Okay. And if you're a recruiter and you're going after a certain talent, you can go look at stories on the people. You get to know them a little better than maybe their post show. Or if you're someone that's looking for a job, you can showcase yourself better. I do think it's a game changer for the platform. I think it's positive from my side of it. I was going to say, have you had the positive responses to like your stories? Yeah. I mean, I get pretty good engagement, I guess. I don't know what great engagement is or isn't,

but yeah, I mean, I just, I mean, you know, I think we'll see as it goes on how it can go. I think initially there was a lot more fear of two of what do you put on the story that doesn't make it feel too social? You know what I mean? Because some people are like, okay, well, I don't want to – this is a funny example, but I don't want to go on the story and be like, yeah, I desperately need a job so you know i mean you know but it's like it's like do you share the same things that you would put on your instagram story you know but target it more towards business i think it's more like you know and and i haven't cracked this code definitively yet i've been you know repurposing some content that we use for instagram and other things but it makes you know most people even with covid and But it makes, you know, most people, even with COVID and

everything else are working, you know, yes, unemployment's high, but most people are still working a job from nine to five. And so you're, this is a natural outlet to show every day what you're doing at work, instead of the fun lifestyle story of the moment moment or, you know, I'm headed in so that like, I'm really working on this, you know, I'm knee deep in this document and you're filming yourself and, or, Hey, I'm looking at the, like it gives a natural way to show more of what really happens during work. Now you don't want to, you know, you know, and being someone who owns a business,

you don't want it like taking up your people's time too much. But theoretically, shooting a small video here and there, I'd rather them be promoting and talking about those stuff. I support it. And I think, again, showcasing what really happens during the workday. That's a good point. Is a natural opportunity for content. It could be a more authentic business perspective versus purely social or supposed to be funny or whatever it is. It can just be for your business. Exactly. Perfect.

Well, honestly, those are our topics today. Anything else you want to discuss, talk about, close out on? I think that's it. I think that's all for this edition of the Radcast. I think that's it. I think that's all for this edition of the Radcast. Follow along at theradcast.com or on Instagram at the.rad.cast. And we'll see you next time. See you next time. Have a great weekend.

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.