Right About Now with Ryan Alford - The Week of March 29 | Deep Fakes Are Spreading Putting Creator And Brand Safety At Risk

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

TakeawaysGoogle is losing ground to Instagram and TikTok in local search, particularly among Gen Z users.Amazon has partnered with Mr. Beast for a reality competition series on Prime Video.Snapchat has launched sponsored AR filters as a new ad option.The rise of deepfakes poses risks to creator and brand safety.Women's basketball is gaining popularity, as evidenced by the sellout of ad inventory for the Women's Final Four and Championship games.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Discussion of Recent Events07:45 Google Losing Ground to Instagram and TikTok in Local Search15:39 Amazon Partners with Mr. Beast for Reality Competition Series23:13 Deepfakes and Brand Safety28:20 Women's Final Four and Championship Games Sell Out Ad Inventory31:20 Promotion of MacFox Bikes33:17 Conclusion and Closing Remarks 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. 

This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? It starts Right About Now. Right About Now. What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It's our weekly marketing and business news here in the week of March 29th, 2024.

Joined by my good friend, Chris Hansen. What's up brother? What's up my man how are you today i am fabuloso just uh thing about the good old days of the notorious big and diddy puff daddy puff daddy he's gonna get a new nickname i think it doesn't look good. We are business news. We can talk about whatever. It's business news.

It might be a little pop culture-y, but dang. Your house getting raided by the feds, both of them at the same time. It ain't looking good. No. They don't do that shit unless there's probable, highly probable cause. And is it that money just does weird shit to people? I don't even know what to say besides I fully agree. It does weird shit to people.

You get like these insatiable tastes. Like they just think, okay, all right, this normal stuff doesn't interest me anymore. I got so much money. Why not try this? Like it is this godlike behavior in some ways. And I don't have an answer for it. And it's, I don't know.

They run out of the cars, the guys, the girls, whatever your choice is, gambling, even drugs. I'm not supporting any of this. I'm just saying like they get bored with that. So they just start, okay, let's start sex trafficking. What the hell? It's crazy. It's sad. I'm not making light of it. It's not a joke, but it's, it's more just the strangeness of it all. Yeah. I don't even, and I don't know all the details. I'm not here to report on every finding, but it was just an odd scene seeing two luxury homes in private neighborhoods with the feds going through it. Where did it go south?

Like where, what was the first decision down this path? Because I'm a firm believer in guilty, or excuse me, it does seem that way sometimes, guilty until proven innocent until proven guilty but all i'm saying is i don't think it's one thing with these political chases we can all talk about that but in general i don't think the fed wants the attention of raiding a celebrity's place unless they got a hell of a lot of evidence that they should be yeah yeah and the truth comes to light eventually so i'm interested to see what this develops into

yeah who knows but that caught my eye just had not to and i hope everyone's brackets if you're in ncaa madness march madness your brackets aren't busted. I'm in the middle of the pack. Let's just say that. I think I watched just enough basketball that I think it probably hurts me in filling out the bracket. Oh, yeah, it's definitely got to be. I think the less sometimes the better. You care just enough for it to sting a little bit.

Yeah, and it's like, oh, I definitely know that St. Bonaventure is going to get beat by Long Beach State or whatever. And I don know that St. Bonaventure is going to get beat by Long Beach State or whatever. And I don't think St. Bonaventure is in it this year. But justify it because I know just enough. It would probably be better if I just truly guessed. But that aside, the Clemson Tigers are 2-0 and in the Sweet 16, baby. Yes, this is Clemson basketball.

First time in eight years. Sweet16 bound. I will say this, watching them all year, they have the dudes. They totally have the dudes to make this kind of run. It's been a little inconsistent in the regular season, but they're bringing it on. Now they got Arizona.

They actually technically played. If you're listening on this on a Friday, they played last night. We do record this a little early. I don't know yet. And you will know listening if I'm still happy or sad. Isn't that a weird, the weird thing of place shifting. If you're listening, Ryan's in a okay mood. I don't really get in a bad mood.

I just be in an okay mood if we lose. But if I'm just like, woohoo, you'll know when you listen to this episode. Ryan's in a okay mood. I don't really get in a bad mood. I just be in an okay mood if we lose. But if I'm just like, woohoo, you'll know when you listen to this episode. Go Tigers. They're doing well. Hopefully your bracket's not busted. And hopefully all the marketers that are spending money around the game are seeing the fruits of their labors. Definitely seeing a lot of the same commercials.

And AT&T is sort of everywhere. They're always a big sponsor. So I'm seeing them all over the place. I know you're not a huge sports guy, Chris, but did you watch a single March Madness game even accidentally? Accidentally. I've, like in the gym, I've seen them on the TVs. But in my own home,

I have put on zero minutes. And it's not because I'm not interested. I did March Madness when I was younger. Now, like you mentioned, I had no knowledge. I just ran them. Yeah, you're probably the one winning the bracket challenges too, probably. I wish.

I wasn't that lucky. But it was my way of getting into it with my college buddies would jump in and play i'd love to see the in per in productivity meter how much how unproduct unproductivity or whatever however you say that unproductive meter for american workers last thursday and friday they said it was going to be $17 billion worth over the whole tournament. So I wonder if we're on target for that. Hopefully you were massively unproductive last Thursday and Friday. Or you learned to multitask.

Keep an eye on the games and still write that report. I was doing a little bit of both, especially on Friday. I was actually here on a call with Kai and Sawyer at my house, like trying to get some stuff done. They're trying to keep my attention while I'm like half a guy. Clemson was playing. I'm like, could you repeat that? I just watched Clemson miss a shot.

What? What just happened? And they think I'm yelling at them. When it was Clemson, my boys are going, did you see that, dad? I'm like, yeah, I saw it. Wait, what are we talking about? Yeah. So I was doing both.

Multitasking is reality. So hopefully your brackets aren't busted. And if they are, then just sit back and enjoy the games for what they are. You can still get into little DraftKings. Get a little side bets going, a little side action. Or our friends at ESPNBet. I think they're doing all right. They're everywhere now, too.

First article today comes to us from Marketing Dive, a regular on our articles list. Google loses in local search to Instagram, TikTok, and others amongst Gen Z for search functionality and where people are going to search. Insights into how Google remains popular for local search among older generations while Instagram and TikTok are preferred among Gen Z, showcasing shifting brand preferences among different age groups.

Recent findings from SOCI nod to what many have long suspected, that Google's dominance in search may be under threat. Though search remained the company's largest segment in Q4, the latest findings echo other reports, including leaked internal research from Google indicating that Gen Z users are increasingly looking to social for search. Not surprising, but telling nonetheless. So essentially in layman's terms, and I think most people get this, what we're talking about, like when people go to look for,

I don't know, McDonald's menu, something near me or information to look up that they would traditionally have used Google search. A lot of the Gen Zers are using social media, i.e. Instagram and TikTok quite a bit. Do you, are you using social for search, Chris? We're talking about it. I do now more for local stuff like food like restaurants especially if i'm going to a spot i've never been to and i want to check like the vibe or like what the dress code is what people are wearing and i think people used to do this with facebook more

yeah like local stuff but yeah for businesses local businesses i'm about 50 50 yep now it's it's both a behavioral thing it's interesting and obviously for a business google makes let's just say a lot of money from they made 48 billion dollars in search last year. Search ads, a billion, the big ones. That's a lot of damn money. And so you've got the infrastructure and you have people and expenses and costs to ladder back up to what it takes to run that. And so it's a big deal when user behavior starts changing because those Gen Zers get older and they have legacy habits that carry on. Eventually, generations come and go and or amount of use, thus driving the ad traffic and the volume of people using these services, which command the dollars from ads, it's a big deal when these trends are happening.

So Google is probably quite aware and not pleased with this because they've been unable to crack the social code. As we all know, the Google Plus, all the other things they've tried to do to get into social game have crashed and burned in a lot a lot of cases and so with social behavior driving search for these younger audiences this is something that's it's gonna be interesting to watch

how this plays out and it's interesting to note, like you said, search has always been more of a text thing. I get the text to describe what I'm looking for. And what you just described was the need for visual reinforcement. Okay, I want to see the place. I want to see the food. I want to make sure I'm dressing the right way. So the visual nature of search changing is also a fascinating part of this. And I think it's more authentic. I'm not looking at restaurant approved photography, right? I'm

looking at individual people like Yelp in a way, right? Organic. Even their reviews. Yeah, exactly. organic. Even their reviews. Yeah, exactly. So it feels more credible and it's part of their own user behavior. And that's an interesting note there, the authenticity and credibility. That's something I'd want. If in fact, that is a common refrain and consumers are starting to doubt or question the trust of the search, that's a real damn scary, slippery slope because that's a whole nother issue. If you're thinking it's too guided and not authentic and organic, that's even another big insight to think about. And okay, we're all about value here. Learning lesson. If you're a business, you need to be using social SEO in how your products, services, and everything that you do so that you show up in these search results.

You need to leverage influencers that can help you with that, that have a bigger following, that can also help you with those search results by them having keywords in your brand mentioned in their posts. Because if you're a local business and you sell a lot to this segment, you need to be there and you need to be findable. and I don't think that the vast majority of businesses are leaning into this enough and it's probably going to be at their own peril because you're going to have the ones that are going to be ahead of you and it's great we can sit here and say we want the organic content to rise above. But if you're a brand, do you want to at least help steer the conversation towards what you really offer, what you stand for, what you do? The answer is yes. So you need to be in this game. And that's where it seems so self-serving when I own a marketing digital ad agency, Radical. Call us if you need us.

Shameless plug. But in all seriousness, yeah, you need to continue to do social. You need to do all this. And sometimes I think brands and people, I'm not talking about Nikes. I'm talking about medium, small to medium businesses. Do we really need to be doing that? Is this just, what's the point? Let's check the box.

This is consumer behavior. These are tactics that people are doing to go look for something that they want to buy. And that's always been the power of searches. You have hand raisers. I am looking for a cheeseburger, the best one in Miami. I'm hungry right now. I want to buy. I want to give you money.

I'm raising my hand. And I'm with my search behavior. That's called intent. That's called triggers that you need to know. And so that's the power here. So when you're bemoaning that post you've got to create or checking a box with some shitty video that does nothing, think about it through the lens of commerce and the fact that these consumers are buying and searching it on these channels. A lot to think about.

And a lot for Google to get their shit together. I don't know. I don't know how you can, I don't know how they turned the title of this one. It's, I don't have an app. I don't have a platform catered to that. No.

And I don't know if Gemini is going to get it done. It might help Gemini. I just want to find a way to work that in every episode. Gemini. The A-I for Google. Next, coming to us from eMarketer.com. If you're not an eMarketer, you're not a marketer. Amazon poaches Mr. Beast to generate a hit for Prime Video.

Interesting. Amazon signed a deal with James Donaldson, also known as Mr. Beast. It sounds weird saying his real name. I like Mr. Beast better. Me too. To produce a reality competition series for Prime Video. The company announced Tuesday the show will be titled Beast Games and feature over 1,000 contestants

competing for a $5 million prize. Big prize. Mr. Bruce, excuse me. Mr. Beast's name is synonymous with YouTube. He has the second most subscribed to channel on YouTube and has leveraged his audience to launch several CPG businesses. He frequently produces reality competition styled videos like the one styled after Squid Game with cash prizes.

This is interesting. Have you watched many Mr. Beast videos? Like 10. Yeah. Have you seen the s shtick put them on what is it called mr beast like i'm saying the shtick oh yeah the premise of you know he does these ridiculous challenges and yeah with all his friends interesting it reminds me of game shows yeah from the 90s just youtube version yeah yeah he's obviously got a formula for what keeps people

watching they can't, you know, you put, he gets his friends and they all have to put their hand on a car. And if they take their hand off, they lose, they keep it on, they win the car.

So it's compelling. It makes you want to watch. It's like, the car is a bright green Lamborghini. Yeah. There's, it's a formula, but it works.

And so they're bringing a similar type thing, Beast Games. Smart. Yeah. He's killing it. Yeah. So Amazon's on for old James Donaldson. JD. I'm going to start calling that from now on.

I like Mr. Beast better. I'm just going to see how many people know his real name. But it doesn't matter if they know his real name. But it doesn't matter if they know his real name. All they need to know is his bank account and it's big. You're making moves, man.

He's done a lot. He has. He seems like a good guy. He is. He seems like it. I don't know. I've never gotten a sentiment that felt

other than just being a little goofy. The whole, all of it's a little goofy to me. Yeah. Not because judging who am i to judge he's killing it but obviously has a target market yeah and my eight-year-old what's interesting is my eight-year-old watches it all the time but my 12 and 13 year olds don't watch it anymore you know it's so it's i don't know if that's telling of all kids or if it's just my household, which is interesting how young, excuse.

But Amazon picking up the opportunity to sign with, hey, borrowed interest here. That's what they're doing. That's what, hey, we talk about some of these principles. That's what Amazon's doing. You got someone that's already got all this cred, all you're doing these things on social media how do they borrow interest how they leverage that name into more eyeballs more viewers for what they're doing so smart move by them hopefully the production is good it'll be interesting how it compares to his youtube stuff in a more i have to think i don't

know not that he doesn't have the money now he does, but maybe more produced, higher produced. It'd be interesting if it translates. And this is interesting. Sometimes higher production value doesn't always make it better. True. We'll see.

And if you want to learn from me directly, join my newsletter, Ryan offer.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. Snap. This comes to us from socialmediatoday.com. Snap launches sponsored AR filters as a new ad option. Snapchat's launching filters as an ad option with brands now able to

sponsor ar filters in the app which users can then add to their post appeal of this that it will take less effort to enact a sponsored filter as opposed to a full ar experience with brands able to upload existing assets and create filters from a variety of existing snap templates you snapchat user used to be college i probably haven't used snapchat in like really used it like 70 years i like to see their user data because i don't even the people that used to use it in my circles i don't see them using it anymore. And I just see young kids. I think it's like this 15 to 20 year old thing.

I don't know. Maybe older than that. Some circles like my wife has it and it's weird. She'll like three times a week. Her and her friends will send them each other something on Snapchat, but it's not every day and it's not all communication so it's like this weird holdover on just certain things and i imagine that's a lot of it other than the core user base that they use it more they want those messages disappearing let's just call it

spade this is yeah that's all this is right. I just don't want to see mom and dad. I don't want mom and dad seeing that I've sent, we'll keep it on the clean side, like birds to my friends. Like they don't want to see that. Or video me cussing at the camera, which most apps have the disappearing option now. Like I don't want WhatsApp. You can do a one-time view photo or Instagram.

So. We'll see. I'd love for people to DM me if they're using Snapchat and they think this is worthwhile news. I almost hesitate to even talk about it. I hate to say it, but. I almost didn't bring this article up because I'm like, is Snapchat? I know I'm, look, I'm a 40-something-year-old man and I get it. Maybe I'm not like in the everyday target.

And we talk about a lot of Gen Z, a lot of other things with Google that's not just about the age group. I'm like, I don't know. There's a negative connotation now. If I ask someone for their Snapchat, say, dating-wise especially, it's not looked at at this point in my life. You think they look at it like, oh, wow, you think we're going to do some dirty things messaging each other? Oh, yeah, I know for a fact. They'll be like, don't ask me for my Snapchat. And if you do, it's a no.

See, that's an insight. They grow up. So, okay. If I were to meet a girl and be like, what's your Snapchat? She'd be like, ew. Kai and Sawyer, is Snapchat a thing? Do y'all have what chris just said is that true it's looked at like why are you asking me for my snapchat like like we're too old for that

yeah if you're 20 is it still highly popular not highly is it less popular than it was yes okay yeah we had a couple 25-ish year olds in here definitely okay the one thing that we think it is okay yeah we're sending nudes let's call us we've been dancing around it yes all right There we go. Confirmed. Moving on. Marketingbrew.com. I remember these guys. I hadn't seen them on our list in a while. This makes me want to have a beer. So I'm just going to drink some Marketing Brew. Deep fakes are spreading, putting creator and brand safety at risk. Creator Michael Jan says she was on her honeymoon when she learned that her likeness was being used to promote erectile dysfunction pills online. People had messaged me saying, hey, I saw this ad.

It didn't look like you, but it was you. It was me in my clothes in my bedroom, but I didn't do an ad there. bedroom but i didn't do an ad there that was jan said the ad which she briefly showed on her tiktok account was a deep fake and depicted jan's taking talking about her husband michael and his issues with ed the ad pulled visuals from a 33 minute visual 33 minute video about her divorce that she posted to youtube a year ago which she called by far the most personal thing I've ever shared. That along with the fact that the link in the ad directed to content that she described

as basically pornographic made the experience all the more violating, Jan's told us. This shit's going to happen. Yeah. You know, I have these weird fan accounts

that have been set up. You made it. Maybe they only have like 20 followers, but let's just, but I do have these fan accounts that have been set up. You made it. Maybe they only have like 20 followers, but let's just, but I do have these fan accounts that have popped up that I'm like, what the hell is this? I'm just waiting for something that I didn't do to be misconstrued. And it's, but this stuff is gonna happen. Like it's, and it's scary.

It's gonna become too easy. Yeah. It's, it's really gonna erode trust because here's the issue. Yes, the issue is something like this. Used her image and likeness. Portrayed her in an ad. So she didn't get paid for it and she would not have approved the content. But the other side of this coin is you're going to see the that's not me, that's

a deep fake, when it is real. And so you're not going to know what to trust. When is someone telling the truth, when is it not? And so that's a dangerous place we get into, is to not know when any of it's

real, fake, lie, whatnot. Because if you want to kill cells and kill the ability of a platform to have value, then kill all the trust. I think everybody has a little bit of a slight eye with certain things now anyway. But when this goes too far, then you just don't even know what the hell to believe and that's not a good place to be i think that's unfortunately where we've

gotten with some of the government stuff is it that true not true are you telling this truth or you're not telling us like what part of what you just said is truth and not truth. What percentage can I believe? Chris, you had any deep fakes on you yet? No, but I think about it. I think just, I'm concerned 10 years down the line. Someone can put up a video of you saying whatever, they type in that keyboard and it'll look like you in that. That definitely is frightening. And like you said more on a an international global scale of these

world leaders that's what is scary yeah and i think that hopefully the technology can catch up to where it can i don't know predict or spit out what's real what's not real I don't know, predict or spit out what's real, what's not real. I don't know. There's some code behind the video or something that can tell if it's like fabricated or generated versus created. Like the delineation, like this is true creation versus generation, generated like by computer. Maybe that's like the classification.

And I read this article like it was about we're at the 25 year anniversary of the Matrix, the movies. And what's interesting, it was talking about the character that had they were all aware. They become aware that they were part of this, but the character that wanted to get back in. He didn't want to live in the real world because of how bad it was, so he wanted to go back in the Matrix. He wanted to live, hey, I'll help you find Neo and all these guys if you put me back in the Matrix. in the matrix and it made me think like people want to live in this fake world or this thing like in their own comfort zone yeah it's a fascinating you've talked about that a little bit with the apple vision pro kind of yeah type thing are we gonna have people just choosing this alternate reality fake world and i I think we already have,

we do have people that are choosing that. Yeah. The gaming and all that. So we'll see where it goes, but I think the biggest thing is just be aware, check your sources, check them again. You see some government officials saying some weird shit.

You might think maybe this is a deep fake. Exactly. Also from us from Marketing Brew, women's Final Four and Championship March Madness inventory is all sold out. Women's game's never been more popular. They sold out all the inventory. I did watch part of the women's game. I'm going to whiff on her name name but she plays for iowa really good female player gonna be the number one draft the girl can hit it from like half court she's like steph

curry as far as the way she can shoot and i'm feeling bad that i'm whiffing on her name but in the absence of going and searching for it at the moment you guys probably all know who you're all saying it in your name you're saying it and cursing me right now how could you not remember anyway it the game has gotten a little quicker a little faster a lot more i don't know drama and interesting and i think it's good especially for like the audiences out there look you got a lot of girls growing up wanting to be influenced by their players and i think it's good good that the female individual stars are starting to shine and have more opportunities to leverage. And they definitely have on social.

I see a lot of them like influencers and stuff that are these basketball players. Reese, who plays at LSU. And I think it goes to show you that the numbers, the viewership numbers are obviously aligning because they're selling out all this ad inventory. And I think it goes back to what it is, and we've talked about this. Live sports still drives people's interest. You've got all the streaming stuff and all these shows, a lot of garbage movies out. Some good movies, but a lot yeah a lot the compelling nature of live sport

drives interest and so i think that's why you see the ads being swooped up and clearly the numbers are there says google and home depot are among the new advertisers so the tournament has 87 total advertisers with an almost even split between new and returning. Seven new categories joined in as well, including bottled water and home insurance. So a lot of category increase and a lot of 50-50 split between new and existing. So be interesting how that plays out, how that's put across television, digital, all the properties that are there for the tournament.

Because you're seeing it's not just about TV anymore. You've got social channels, you've got social ads, you've got connected TV, streaming, the web presence, activations at the Final Four and in the stadium. So there's a lot

of places, a lot of things. And in Greenville, here where we're at, we do the studio, it had the SEC tournament, women's SEC tournament. And they said the economic impact was like several million dollars. So live sports, baby. Still driving it. You know what? I'm still driving.

That's my Mac Fox. That X2. Oh, yes. Electric peddler. Street bike. City cruiser. Ryan Offord approved. Double battery.

I'm telling you, 90 mile range. I don't know that I'm going to even get that in. Chris, I can barely get the battery bar to even break. Like, it's become almost a joke. Like I want to ride it long enough to get the first bar down. And it's 30 minutes later. It's still there. It has even lost a bar.

So it's the battery is incredible. It's the ultimate performance bike. It's got those fat tires. My brother-in-law came over Tyler. He got on it. He's like, Whoa, so he's got some power. I'm like like, whoa, this thing's got some power.

I'm like, shit, yeah, it's got some power. Balls Hog. That's what I named mine. That's right. My ex, too, has a name. Balls Hog. Because it looks like a little moped, motorcycle-type thing. But it goes up to 28 miles an hour. It's got that big

comfortable seat. And the good part is Ryan offered one 50, $150 off the X two or Ryan offered 100, a hundred dollars off the X one. I'm telling you, get you one. They're fun, man. It's great. It's just fun to ride. That's all I'll just say. I started pedaling. Cause I think I'm going to, I have every intent to want to pedal. But you got that throttle right there and it's pulling at me like, all right, let's get the scooter going and get the power. And the need for speed, the need for not sweating. And I joke, but it's a lot of fun to ride. That's all I'll say.

Get your phone on at macfoxbikes.com.'s all I'll say. Get your fun on. At MacFoxBikes.com. Tell them I sent you. Ask them some questions. Got a lot of FAQs. Got a good YouTube channel. You can learn all about it. Again, Ryan offered $150 on that X2. That's what you want.

You want that X2. Don't fuck with that X1. Not because it's not a nice bike. I'm just telling you, just step up. You want the dual battery. You want to go all in. Lean in. Lean in. Lean in. That X2.

150 off. Ryan offered 150. You'll thank me for it. Any final words today, my friend? Good luck in your brackets, boys. Good luck on your brackets, for sure. We appreciate everyone for making us number one on Apple Podcasts, wherever you are, however you are, whenever you're listening,

we appreciate you. You can find Chris and I on Instagram, Chris Broby Hanson, and at Ryan Alford, and of course, RyanIsRight.com. We'll see you next time on Right About Now. This has been Right About Now.