Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Weekly Marketing and Advertising News: Audi Denmark Cookieless Test; Federal Judge tosses out Facebook Antitrust suits; Bumble Dating App Cafe; Brand Equity Building

Episode Date: July 2, 2021

Welcome to this week’s episode on The Radcast! In this week’s news episode, Ryan and Josh catch up on the latest with Google Trends, JoeyJoeSean Partnership, and the Best of Tiktok.They also discuss the following headlines: Audi Denmark claims 70% conversion rate for cookieless test leveraging 'exclusion lists'Federal judge tosses out Facebook antitrust suits, citing failure to prove social giant's monopoly powerDating App Bumble Will Open its First Cafe in New York in JulyBuilding brand equity whiles sales are greatIf you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, let us know by visiting our website www.theradcast.com or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radical_results @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. 

It has to start somewhere. It has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now? You're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast News and Advertising Edition. I'm Ryan Alford. And I'm Josh Hill. Welcome to our show. It is Friday, July 2nd, 2021. We are in the future, folks. It's 2021 and it's almost July 4th. We're going out with a bang here this week. future, folks. It's 2021. And it's almost July 4th. We're going out with a bang here this week. Oh, yes. Dad joke number one.

Right off the bat. Ding! Let's start my tally. I know. What's up, Josh? You having a good week? Been a good week. Yeah.

Good, good. Any huge, exciting, special July 4thth plans big cookout with some friends okay yeah kind of what it is oh yeah you know throw some throw some old meat on the barbie oh old what was that dumb and dumber yeah yeah i'll get uh zuckerberg on here smoking these meats smoking these meats we have the meats we have smoking some meats out here i know july 4th fireworks there's no fireworks in greenville this year what the hell oh is that real yeah like they they like they're so much construction going on they're like they're afraid they're gonna light something on fire and then like the area that

normally does it has so much you know you can't have progress around here that makes sense you got babies crying you got kids upset like moms are going what are we gonna do there's no fireworks downtown i've already seen some memes about the uh the northwest with all that heat and dryness going on out there oh yeah they don't need fireworks yeah they're like this is this is a great um good thing there's no no explosion century holidays coming up. Yeah. I think they need to stay away from the fireworks. 117 degrees out there. Just bring up a YouTube video and watch that.

That would be enough. It's been a good week. I know we're going to start a new segment here in our upfront for these, looking at some of the Google trends of the week. I know these were yesterday's trends. Something caught my attention and I wanted to bring it to the forefront. If you're watching the video, you're going to

see the screen of what's trending. But a certain gentleman that used to play baseball for the New York Mets, I think it's Bobby Bonilla. Bobby Bonilla day was yesterday. Are you aware a little bit of this story? The cult nature of it? Mets. I think it's Bobby Bonilla. Bobby Bonilla Day was yesterday. And do you know this? Are you aware a little bit of this story? Kind of the cult nature of it?

Recently. It's a name that's popped up here and there throughout history for me. So for anyone listening that doesn't know this story, yeah, it was yesterday, so you're probably like, oh, I already heard this. Well, you're going to hear it again. So I'm going to condense it really quickly. Bobby Bonilla was a huge baseball player, millions of dollars huge contract well he went he declined

one year and the owner didn't really want to pay the remaining like six million bucks all at once but he told him and bobby made the the deal of a lifetime that he'd pay him 1.2-ish million for 25 years, starting 11 years in 2011. It was 2000 when this happened. And Bobby took that deal. It was only $6 million that he was owed, and he took that $25 million. And the owner of the Mets, who was investing with Bernie Madoff, Madoff with a lot of money he was the Ponzi schemer if you don't know who that is

stole everyone's money including the Mets owner who seemed to have enough for it to go around but nonetheless he thought he could invest over those 11 years and make more than the contract was worth well he was dead wrong kind of like Bernie Madoff and

he's been paying 1.2 million for over 25 years since 2011 we're in year like 10 of this he's got 15 more to go but they've it's become a cult following it's like there's bobby benita day at the ballpark there's been bobbleheads and everything else and ryan reynolds course, has struck a commercial with Mint. We won't go there. That's not part of our news. Ryan, we've given you enough props on this. You should come on the show.

We're going to get you on as a guest, Ryan Reynolds. But in all seriousness, Bobby Bonilla Day. Bobby Bonilla was trending in the top, like, 10 yesterday significantly. Yeah. It's, gosh, the things I would do for a contract like that. A deal. $1.2 million. they just kind of put it in savings form you know like it became as like you know instead of like some of these guys spending more than they should have even with financial advisors he uh signs the deal of a lifetime and it became like a savings account because he gets 1.2 and almost like living

on the dividends of yeah you know, much larger contracts. So gosh, this that's, that's, that's for you, Bobby. Oh, absolutely. Anyway,

I, I just, it makes me laugh, you know, like that the owner was, I don't know, arrogant enough to think that that was a done deal. So yeah,

the good, a good life lesson of the don't catch, catch your chickens before the eggs hatch. I don't know how to say it. That's exactly how you say it. Yes, yes. Look at us. Yes, yes.

I promised I was going to give Josh lots of awes today. And no distractions. Yeah, that's your cue to make an awe at home, wherever you're listening. Yes, yes, yes. So I know a bit of of news so we're radical and um we're we're doing a little partnership there's a if you go look them up especially on tiktok joey joe and sean s-e-a-n go look them up on tiktok thank me later hilarious dudes they're actually here at greenville little comedy troupe i know joe from college but i'm actually hiring these guys at the agency they're gonna help with writing and doing some skits to really kind of take our content to the

next level so i'm excited about that i might even make some guest appearances on the podcast josh so funny guys josh is probably funnier than you even realize so uh i i can't wait for the how this all kind of comes together when we get lots of funny people uh talking and so i don't know it's like trying to shake things up it just strikes me as the people that are making great content that are really talented in this day and age how do we partner and leverage that especially when our fucking name is radical yeah you know like it's starting to be as radical so let's be radical so i'm excited about that more to come more content they're gonna be coming on the radcast be doing like a weekly segment

i'm looking forward to that um josh did their humor strike you as funny oh yeah there's that was like it was kind of right down the path for you a little bit. Oh, for sure. There's a couple of moments, even just meeting with them, I was like holding back in the laughter. Yeah, they're funny. Lots of parody. So look them up.

Joey, Joe, and Sean coming on the Radcast team and the Radical team in any time now. So speaking of TikTok, anything hitting your radar this week? A few things. And I'm going to bring Ryan back in. Ryan Reynolds got on. And of course, his first fucking TikTok video gets four million likes. Not views, likes.

It's just huge. So he's just hitting base hits at this point. I know. But we had our own TikTokiktok blow up yes we did uh we had one featuring our wonderful graphic designer sawyer uh and one of our the recent trends so this is another trend of the um i don't even know who does this song but it's just like i'll be damned i'll be damned if i listen to the opinion of a man with an unwashed rear end. Keeping it clean.

Keeping it clean. But yeah, he's got 125,000 views. Got a few hundred followers from that. It's great. It is a case study. Okay, people. So I'm just going to say this. So I give our team latitude with time to create TikToks for the agency.

Most agencies suck at marketing themselves. We're marketers, so we market ourselves. So I tell the team, hey, come up with TikToks. Do all this stuff. We've got a lot of creative people, a lot of talented people, and they come up with videos. We've had some with tens, 5,000 views here and there. And you think, well, what's the point of that? Well, we had like three talented people apply to work here.

It's a recruiting tool. It's awareness for the agency. It's awareness for our team. It gives them a creative outlet. This is why you do it. And so if you're listening out there and you run a business, this is why you give your team latitude to do these things. And, you know, who knows what comes of it, but it adds value.

It's fun. Look, everything's too serious. Like, let's fucking stop taking everything so damn serious. Like, let's have fun, people. That's why TikTok's blowing up. I know we've had a couple, like, new people on the team. We're like, all right, let's make a TikTok. And they're like, should we, like, have a meeting, some kind of formal discussion?

Should we shoot? No, we just hang. Calm down. Yeah. Calm down. This is not planned. We're not like that kind of workspace. We're like the cool workspace.

Yes, yes, yes. So check that out. Check out the Radical Company TikTok page for all of the greatest hits that are going on and sawyer's mullet yeah i don't think he had the mullet yet in the video did he yeah we he didn't yet that hair is something else we'll get it we'll get it back in there yes he might play a character himself yes anything else hitting your radar on tiktok a couple great great more sounds uh pay my bills by destiny child killing killing it love those and then one of my favorites is the like pitbull did a song a while ago and then he was like for everyone going through tough times remember i've been there

done that and everyone's like posting the most like obscure like really deep traumatic events in their lifetime and and he's just me pushing through this moment, just remembering that Pitbull's been there with me. Yeah, like playing all the fact that maybe he had tough times at one time, but really he's not having tough times anymore. But he's Mr.

Worldwide. What hasn't he experienced? This is true. Is Pitbull still popular? Or is he only popular in a parody instance? I want to say he's popular in a parody way, but I also still see him everywhere. So I don't think it... I think there comes a point where even if you are a meme, it doesn't matter. I hope I become a meme.

Don't you want to become a meme? I would love to. I'm okay with that. You've made it, I think. Oh, yeah. That's when you're like for sure a part of like history forever yes cool there's your latest on tiktok and we'll get started on the news so first number one audi claiming a 70 conversion rate this is

coming from ad age by the way find Find it on AdAge.com. You can find it a lot of places. I did see it multiple places, but AdAge picked it up, so I want to give them props. Audi claims 70% conversion rate for cookie-less testing, leveraging exclusion lists. So essentially here, you know, cookies are going away eventually eventually though google just announced they're extending another two years no one's quite ready it's like wait wait hey can we extend that one more hey you know like the the lobbyists in in washington shoved a few more hundreds i think or millions whatever it is uh in pockets to extend this because no one's quite ready for it uh but it

is interesting because this goes in line i've. This kind of struck me because it's some of the things that we are about to start testing or already are testing with this notion of contextual combined with first party, combined with behavioral, minus, which is where the exclusion list. Yeah. Customers that are showing behaviors that would show them not to be interested in whatever you're selling, in this case an Audi. Right. But who's not interested in an Audi? But, you know, it's got to be a small exclusion list. Yeah.

Just the ones that can't afford it, maybe. Right. But that was the only thing. They put a minor, like, affordability. That was the one factor, like, you know, whatever the income level was. Credit level. Probably have credit scores but uh thoughts on this yeah i think it it makes a lot of sense and um going for contextual stuff is something like we've been like really pushing for last few months especially yeah um and that's been really successful in what i've seen in our results but makes a lot of sense especially with the like

exclusion list I think a lot of people I mean everyone talks about that might be the sauce here yeah you know I think everyone's everyone talks about targeting audience targeting who are you going after I think a key thing is like you got to exclude people you're not going after one it saves you some ad money um because you got to keep them. But I think it really says a lot. I mean, people are really focusing on being all things to all people. It's like, no, you got to cut out some people. Well, it's kind of like negative keywords on pay-per-click campaigns. That's like people forget about that.

Oh, we're going to go after these keywords. No, you need to exclude some lists, some keywords too, because that will get the trash kind of out of the, out of the opportunity. Right. too, because that will get the trash kind of out of the opportunity. It's like finding a partner to date and you focus on all the good things and you just ignore the red flags. Yeah. She's cute. She's nice.

She cleans. But she's also a psychopath. Yeah. She stole my wallet. Yeah. She's so awesome. She's so good to me. Yeah. She emptied my so awesome. Like, she's so good to me. Yeah.

You know? But she emptied my bank account that one time. But, you know, it was okay. I didn't have $700 in there, so I was okay with it. It's a life lesson and ad lesson. Remember your exclusions. Exclusionless people. Oh, yeah.

Exclude. Get some deal breakers in there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Number two. So, not surprising here but uh so facebook's been under scrutiny for the last few years and there's been a huge lawsuit this big lawsuit just to summarize we could talk about this for an hour but they've been called out for

essentially being a monopoly and they've had antitrust laws and everything's been trying to throw the book out and when the judge threw it out their stock price went through the roof like when this happened because i think a lot of people weren't expecting it to get thrown out but it did get thrown out and um and you know like i'm i believe in capitalism i'm a cat like you know i'm i'm independent probably as far as voting goes. I voted both sides in my 20 plus years of voting. So I wouldn't call myself one party or another as much as I just believe in capitalism. And it's kind of the lifeblood of America a bit.

And so I don't have a problem with Facebook growing, becoming what they are. Hey, everyone's got the same opportunity. it's who makes the most of it however at a certain point like i don't know when it's something gets so ingrained in the society and everything else that it might be too big i i don't have a firm absolute judgment on that other than just my own intuition goes maybe getting a bit big yeah we have a we have a habit of letting entities like this become the like too big to fail thing yes and that's when you just completely remove competition and everything is like working to keep them in power and it's just like that that's when it falls apart my problem with facebook goes back to just like personal freedoms and stuff it's like they have so much size and scale which they've

done and they've built and i admire from a capitalist standpoint but when they become the judge jury and censorship of anything and again i'm not being political here. I'm just talking like on anything. That's when I get to have a little bit of, or a lot of heartburn, you know, is like when they're censoring things, when they're dictating what's real news, what's fake news, what's absolute gospel and what's not. Because that's, and look, I'm not saying you shouldn't have some censorship and like, you don't want your kids seeing bad stuff. And all in all, criminality, of course, we need some censoring. Right.

But I think if you're paying attention, we're creeping into lots of realms now where some of that's happening and even that like a just like a more i guess a different look like you get your algorithm feeding you stuff that you either get mad about and react to or just the stuff that you like and so it's kind of only feeding you the extremes and so you get caught in this feedback loop of your own perspective so i mean really the easiest key for uh getting rid of this monopoly is just stop using it yes hey take a break don't say that too loud take a break here and there you make money off of uh facebook but it's a great stuff for just it's great for discovery great for like experiencing like new things finding new things but like yeah if it's if it's becoming your reality it's time to take a few that i agree with that is the problem is there's like, if it's if it's becoming your reality, it's time to take a few that I agree

with. And that is the problem is there's like, you know, it's why you have screen time and different things now. Like, take a break, people like, you know, it could be a source, but don't be the source of all things. Yeah. Let it be a tool. Yeah.

Unless you're just shopping for like everything that I have for sale in the marketplace. Then didn't use it as much as you want. Yeah. Yeah. That is your life now. Whenever I sell something on Marketplace, please use it as often as possible. But, you know, if I don't have anything for sale, then, you know, don't worry about it. That random yard lawnmower that I'm trying to get rid of from storage or whatever.

You know, I'm always on some random on Facebook marketplace if I'm selling something. I have a few cars on there. It's kind of nice. I've got to be careful what I ask for. I'm not saying let's get rid of Facebook. I'm just saying let's just make sure we get we all know who's driving the bus here.

Third on our list, the dating app Bumble is officially opening its first cafe. This has been talked about for two years in New York City. Bumble, the dating app, opens a cafe. I liked where they were going to go at first. I read the article and I'm like, the first plan was no soups or spaghettis because you're going to be going on dates and you don't want to get embarrassed and like yeah it's kind of funny to me at least i could troll that a little bit more now it's like you know we're going to be all things for all people and like like oh come on yeah it's just obviously like a pr move but

it's it's so funny to me because i don't i know it's going to be such a turnoff when someone's like oh you've been talking for a little bit on this app and like the other person's like oh let's let's finally go out and then you you're like uh where should i go where should i go uh how about the bumble that's what i'm understanding it's like i remember okay good story i lived in new york i had gotten divorced and was only there for a few months before i moved back to south carolina and i used the app there and you know went on a few dates and it always felt like you know you walk into bar like oh god there's like you know eight people here you know we're on match.com dates yeah it's a it's a little bit of the walk of shame i don't know like why you'd be shamed

everybody's dating everyone used this was nine ten years ago right everyone's used the app then um in new york well before anyone else everything in new york is mainstream before anywhere else and so it's like it wasn't like everybody was doing it so it was fine but it was more just like the you knew everybody was on it and that's how people met but walking in and knowing there were like five other match dates oh yeah and then people snickering like the bartender going oh match date yeah yeah you know so thus if you're on a bumble date yeah or whatever you do with bumble that you really want to go to the fucking bumble cafe gosh are you gonna wear a bumble t-shirt as far as possible from that you know like i don't want to go to the fucking bumble cafe gosh yeah like it just says hey let me have a t-shirt that says we're on a bumble date it just feels uncomfortable

yeah you can always tell like i've i've been on a few bumble dates myself and i've seen other people but you can you can always like see someone at a like bar and you can be like they're waiting on a bumble date there's gonna be like all these like waiting on a Bumble date. There's going to be all these 40, 50 year old men and women that are married trying to escape or something, hanging out at the Bumble Cafe. It's just the shadiest people in New York.

Can you go there without the app? Can you make a Bumble date while you're at the Bumble Cafe? Yeah, can you meet people there? Just have it, have GPS locked in, like, hey, I'm hanging out at the Bumble Cafe. Yeah, can you meet people there? Just have GPS locked in, like, hey, I'm hanging out at the Bumble Cafe. Are they checking your matches to make sure it's you?

Yeah, exactly. I have so many more questions I just thought of. I know. I just think it's contrary, but I don't know. This is what I think about it. Yeah. Do not

choose the Bumble Cafe. I'm going to let that one go all the way down. No Bumble Cafe for me. I don't get it from a business perspective. Other than branding, okay, I get it. But like we talked about, New York, how many fucking restaurants do they have?

A million restaurants. They've got every concept ever. If this doesn't flame out in two years or less call me shocked yeah called the demise of clubhouse for the fucking record and it's already demising and which may or may not be a word but its demise is imminent yeah and call this what you want that That's what I'm going to think about that. Gosh. I'm getting on the soapbox on this one. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, you struck me in the in the you know, like this this this could have been in our

like, you know, bad idea episode. Yeah. I mean, you're God, it's so bad because like. Just being in New York City, like compared to a lot of other countries like New York City is like our our only actual city in America. You have all of those places, places that have been there for over

100 years, and you go, yeah, I don't want to go to any of those spots. Let's go to the Bumble Cafe. Yes. Yes. Thank you for that, Josh. You're so right. We'll see what happens. And last on our list, this is not a news article.

This is a little bit of, hey, we're on Soapbox Friday here a little bit. I'm going to get on my soapbox a bit. Not even the soapbox. And I want to get your perspective on this, Josh. So we're in kind of a start of a boom a bit with the economy, with people getting back out. Everyone's excited. There's money in the market, money being spent. A lot of our clients, a lot of potential clients, a lot of just brands in general, life's good right now. Sales are going up, money's in the market,

things are happening. But here's what I'm going to do. I do want to give a point of view on this. So it gets real easy, I think, to think, well, we could pull back on marketing and maybe spend a little less on marketing because sales are great. And this is not self-serving. It may come across that way because we do own an ad agency. But it's actually, I want to go a different angle. It's less about, oh, don't pull back on marketing. We need your marketing. a different angle. It's less about, oh, don't pull back on marketing. We need your marketing.

No, it's more the opportunity to start building brand when sales are great. Because pull back on your performance campaigns, because maybe this performance is happening as they are, but those equity building brand opportunities. You've been thinking about starting a podcast as a business. You've been thinking about ways to maybe sponsor a local sports team. You've been thinking about starting a podcast as a business. You've been thinking about ways to maybe sponsor a local sports team. You've been thinking about some outdoor board campaign. I'm going to cover the gamut here. This is the time to build brand because it's not always going to be great. And the more equity you can build and put in your brand now, while you've got a little extra cash or the sales are good, you can win the long game. Absolutely.

This is another thing to keep in mind. It's like most people, a lot of people get caught in the ruts of thinking of marketing as a fix. Things are going bad, better start doing some marketing, that'll fix it. It's not a band-aid. start doing some marketing that'll fix it it's not a band-aid um like yeah it can help but it's it's like taking medicine like when you should be just like be better and also yeah when things are good like um like this is your preventative maintenance i guess when things are good this is also going to be way easier too yes you it's going to be way harder when sales are not bad and it's going to take any gastronomies in the tank and people don't have as much money

right it's going to take way more money to invest in marketing to get the results that you could get when you're uh when things are great like you you're going to get more free money more response um and just it's like when you have when things are good that's when you already have attention yeah that's that's your time to say something that's it's absolutely right so if you've been thinking about a rebrand you've been thinking about uh you know ways with which to kind of grow your overall awareness now's the time the fish are biting. So don't stop throwing your line out there and don't start creating a halo around that pond. This is the time to start really doubling down because not only can you afford it because sales are good, but you want to play the long game with

your business. Yeah. If you're selling your business next year, sure. Pull, pull some money out and, you know, save some money, make the, make the, uh make the books look a little better. But 99% of companies are in it for the long haul. And so now is when you have, just like Josh said, attention is there, you have money in the market, you have the opportunity. Because another way to look at it is there's people buying, so get more of your competition share, you know, like, you know, because they might be being more conservative because that's the natural play here. You're actually going out of the norm. You're being radical by thinking about how do I double down when things are good instead of squirreling back? Well, I'm going to save for that rainy day. No, why don't you make this this heyday even bigger of a heyday

so that then you're well-positioned when things are slower. Because when things are slower, that brand halo, those things, that awareness, people knowing your name, being top of mind is so much more valuable because then you don't have to play the growth game of, I got to make people know about me. I've got to get my stuff out there because, you know, everything's, you know, so harder, you know, but like now's the time. Yeah.

Branding and awareness can always be built. You're not going to max that out. No, absolutely not. Until, I mean, even Apple and Nike, the biggest brands in the world, spend millions and millions of dollars. Obviously, that's within their budgets on these awareness drivers. They're doing it because they want to be top of mind. And top of mind is a fleeting position. It's a fight every day against the competition, no matter what you do. You're a chiropractor, you're a bank, you're a lawyer, you're a fabric company, whatever you are, You're a lawyer.

You're a fabric company. Whatever you are, awareness and top of mind is leading. So now's the time to stake a position. Coca-Cola hasn't slowed down. You shouldn't either. Exactly. That's it for this week. I hope everyone has a great July 4th.

Have some hot dogs. I am not in the hot dog eating contest this year. Maybe next year. I could eat three, I think. How many hot dogs could you eat, Josh? Five. Okay. Five. I'm going to put a safe number in there.

Five. Yeah. I can name that tune at five. Cool. Well, have a great holiday, Josh. And everyone out there, you know where to find us, theradcast.com. I'm at Ryan Off offered on all the channels. Josh chill on Instagram.

Go look him up. Go follow him. Go follow us. Go follow our YouTube channel, the radical company, YouTube channel, all the contents there, all the video highlights,

everything. We'll see you next time. Happy 4th of July on the radcast. To listen to full episodes or to contact us, visit us on the web at theradcast.com or follow our host at Ryan Alford on Instagram. Thanks for tuning in.