Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Weekly Marketing and Advertising News: Neutrogena Content Studio; Budweiser Special Beer; Airheads Skip Ad; Facebook Hotline; Google Vaccine Ad

Episode Date: April 22, 2021

Welcome to another weekly marketing and advertising news update from The Radcast! In this episode, host Ryan Alford and co-host Reiley Clark, dissect this week's marketing and advertising headlines.These are today's topics:Neutrogena's content studio.Budweiser special beer for Utah.Airheads digital video, playing on "skipping ads".Facebook is creating a mix of Clubhouse and Instagram Live - Hotline.Google's vaccine ad.If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and share the word if you love our podcast, so we can keep giving you the strategies to achieve radical marketing results! You can follow us on Instagram @the.rad.cast | @radical_results | @ryanalford | 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 the latest edition of the radcast it's friday april 9th and i come to you live from sunny las vegas i'm always joined by my co-host, Riley Clark, who's back in the warm and cozy Greenville, South Carolina studios. What's up, Riley? No, exactly. I was just about to say, you know, I think we're both getting the good end of the stick here with good and warm weather. But unfortunately, the bad end of the stick at the same time with horrible pollen. Yes, it is pollen infested here. yes it is i uh i feel like i should have a uh how it was going and how it really is like because if you if you saw my makeshift uh studio here on the porch of my hotel room in las vegas i've got an

ironing board that the laptop's on and uh it looks cool but uh it's nice to be in sunny vegas and uh excited to uh you know for everyone to hear everything we went through uh the other day with brad yeah i'm so intrigued so first you were on bradley's podcast dropping bombs podcast yeah so uh bradley on his podcast this week we recorded uh i don't know exactly when the episode is going to release. I think it's going to release pretty quickly though. We had some time to have some stuff we got on there. So it could release as early as next week. So, uh, we'll let everyone, we'll, we'll have details on the social channels on that,

but Brad was great. A really great host. His team was really cool. Uh, got a lot of content behind the scenes. But we just, we talked everything marketing in today. And, you know, some of my background and some tips and tricks and different things, trying to give people some actionable advice in marketing. And so it was really cool. So I might be able to work with Brad a little bit more down the road, talking about some collaborations and things like that.

But yeah, so we dropped some marketing bombs for sure. That's awesome. I bet that was like just this really cool experience. Because I mean, you went out to Vegas for this experience. I mean, that has to be awesome. What all have you done while you've been in Vegas? Because Nicole's with you too. Yeah.

So Nicole and I, you know, it was our anniversary last week. It was a good timing. So we had a little business and pleasure mixed in. So it's been nice to spend some time together. And last year, you know, COVID had just like started. It was our five year anniversary last year. We were going to go on like a seven day trip that kind of got derailed. And so we didn't, we've,

we've had trips and things like that, but this is our first kind of us get away probably 18 months, you know, with just the two of us outside of like one night here and there. So we've, uh, there's no real shows going on. We've been to like the pools and we've had really good dinner.

I've eaten steak the last two nights, which is my favorite. And, uh, We've had really good dinner. I've eaten steak the last two nights, which is my favorite. And we ate a place called STK Steak, which there's one in New York as well. It's a real trendy place. And that was good. The place is called the Strip House last night. We ate some sushi tonight. So I'm making everyone hungry whenever and however you're listening to the podcast.

I apologize ahead of time but there's uh we really always find a way to talk about food yes hey i you know i like to eat i'm a big boy you know yeah man's gotta eat yeah i'm huge i'm just kidding yeah right yeah yeah yeah no that's awesome that's awesome. That's awesome. But it's been a good week. The agency's had a good week. I've been, you know, working remotely, you know, and lots of new projects and things kicking off.

We're hiring like crazy. So I've been interviewing people and different things at the agency. And, you know, we've got the Greenville hustle event coming up on April 29th. It's Thursday. So if you're in the Greenville area, you need to get signed up for that. All the details are online at GBL hustle at GBL hustle on Instagram. Or if you just search for GBL hustle on the Googles, you will find us anywhere. We've got a website, GBL hustle.com.

You can learn more about the event. We've got my man, mountain man, Sims, Noah coming on, uh, to talk, do a little cooking demonstration, I believe, and tell his story. And, you know, I'm going to do a little talk and break down some marketing knowledge. So excited about that event. We're going to have video and audio and everything, I'm sure, from it. So if you aren't local in Greenville, we'll definitely be able to get more out of it. But it's going to be a nice night of community and collaboration and all the good stuff that comes with it. So we're excited about that event here in Greenville at our home, which is Camaraderie, which is the home of Radical and a nice little co-working space if you're ever looking for co-working in Greenville. We'll just plug all the businesses

today, Riley. I know, honestly. You just go on and tell them everything. Yes. So, but yeah. So, I think that's really it. Here's Riley with the news. Here is the Radcast News. That's really it. Here's Riley with the news. Here is the Radcast News. Yeah, so we have a couple topics today that are going to be really exciting. A lot of this is about collaboration and branding,

which I think is really cool that, you know, we're talking about our GVL Hustle community, but there's a couple topics in here today that really play on that idea of community content and how to really utilize, Ryan talks about this all the time, how to really utilize what consumer generated content. And so this is just something

that's gonna be a really cool conversation today. So first up is Neutrogena is opening up its first brand studio to create its own kind of content, which I think this is gonna be a really interesting thing to see developed. And I think a lot of other companies have been kind of getting on board with this as we've seen. What were your thoughts on this when you saw this come up? Well, you're going to see more and more of this. This is one another Mountain Dew has gotten in this. We saw that Old Spice doing similar things. You know, there's a few things at play. Number one, brands are bringing a lot of marketing in-house because of the volume and scope of content

they have to develop. I, you know, I'm on the fence on that. You know, being an agency, not just to be self-serving, I do think there's a place for us in development and helping brands and being outside of the bubble of the company to help ideate. But at the same time, it makes sense for brands to be doing this because of the volume of content that has to be created and the reality that a lot of stuff, you know, consumers are very ad exhausted, I'll say. And you're going to see things like Netflix and Disney and all these channels where there is no commercials.

So you're going to see brands develop longer form content where they're more the sponsor of it and they develop it. Like, you know, I saw that Neutrogena is developing a couple of movies or documentaries and things like that. And so you're going to see more and more of these types of things because brands got to find a way to get their impressions out there to be seen and heard while also being a more organic experience where it's not just heavy handed ad in your face, you know, as you're scrolling down your feed. So I think it's interesting. And I think you're going to see more and more of this from brands. So we're just scratching the surface, I think, on this play for brands. Oh, totally, totally. And I mean, I think you see more of it. I mean, we'll talk about this

a little bit later as well. But I mean, you're going to see more brands. Actually, let's just go ahead and talk about it. It's a couple of topics down, but that's okay. Hey, we make the rules. Yeah, exactly. And you know what the rules are? There are no rules. Exactly. So we'll talk about this ad because it makes total sense. So Airheads kind of did this. They played on this notion of like annoying ads. And, you know, anytime you're on YouTube or anything like that, you always want to go down and hit like the skip ad button. But Airheads created this ad that essentially plays on the like skipping the ad. And, you know, you see these construction workers and they're standing there and they're like, oh, great, another ad. And then it's like, oh, OK, do we do we hit it? And then you hit it and they're like just skipping rope. They're

jumping. They're like skipping and all these things. And I think it's fun, oh, OK, do we do we hit it? And then you hit it and they're like just skipping rope. They're jumping. They're like skipping and all these things. And I think it's fun that they're playing on like annoying ads, but also like the brand's overall message, just playing like it might be annoying, but you get the point. You're going to get airheads play. OK, it's funny. Like you're you're getting you're picking up what they're putting down. Yeah, no, it's totally in line with their brand. You know, a little mischievous,

a little off the wall. But look, I like brands that are self-aware, you know, and where you kind of acknowledge it's kind of like when you're watching the commercial and they go, they kind of wink at the camera. Like, you know, I like that. I think it's clever if done the right way. And look, everyone knows like what's going on with ads, you know? So like, let's just acknowledge it and the frustration. Cause I have, I remember personally, you know, I'm in the business, but sometimes I just want to watch the damn ESPN clip, you know, like I just want to see this guy get knocked out on UFC, the highlight clip. And I got to watch. I don't even mind watching the ads, but it's like a 30, 30 second ad.

When I'm just wanting to watch a 15 second clip is a pain in the ass. Like it needs to be a 10 second ad. I can deal with 10 seconds, you know, but anyway, and I've tried to, you try to move the bar across, just jump ahead of it. And you usually could do it. You usually could do it you usually could do it and uh you know again being an industry i'm thankful maybe you can't anymore but at the same time uh at the same time it's true people do that they're like how can i get ahead of this thing you know

so i think it was fun yeah super fun super just smart creative you know like using and we talk a lot about creative and i think you know even with the the, and we talk a lot about creative. And I think, you know, even with the episode we had this past week with some rot, like you talk about the use of creative and, you know, neuro and marketing and how data is going to be pulled together. And you even talked about the art of creative, but also the science that's needed to create these good ads. And this was just, I think, a smart thing to think about what's happening with the culture of ads. Everyone's annoyed with them. Okay. What do we do about it? You know, so yeah, exactly. And both Neutrogena and Airheads on different ends of the spectrum, but sort of playing in the same themes though, strategically with, you know, just the

acknowledgement of what's happening in the industry. Totally, totally, which I think appropriately leads us to, which, you know, another topic today, Budweiser, it's really close to where you're at right now in Vegas, just I think north of you or to the east, I honestly don't really remember right now with my geography. But anyway, Utah, Utah, Utah, yes. Yeah, Utah is number is apparently the number one state to have bought like their biggest beer purchase is Budweiser beer. So Budweiser, I think this is super smart. Again, they created these special cans kind of playing on Utah culture, which I guess they are known for, I'm going to have to ask my sister. She lives out there. So I'm going to have to ask her, like, you apparently scream profanities and you say these profanities, but it's not actually like, you know, you know, WTF. It's like, what the frick? You know, you're like, it's interesting. So, but, but Budweiser created these cans that essentially are trying to get you to

scream these, you know, absurd profanities on top of the mountain, you know, whatever. And it's just fun. Like, this is such a fun thing, but it's hitting their top of the mountain, you know, whatever. And it's just fun. Like, this is such a fun thing, but it's hitting their audience, like in Utah, but it's also engaging with the rest of the brand. Like, oh my gosh, that's so cool. Like maybe one time Budweiser will feature something we're doing on it because we're huge consumers of Budweiser, you know, it just generates that kind of thought. And I think it's really interesting. They did it. They did that. No, it's cool and look i mean it plays into the reality of like the consumer mindset like everyone it's been a rough year right

and everybody's a little frustrated so like go take your frustrations out you know and so doing it in a social way and leveraging it in an ad campaign is clever. Look, Budweiser is always coming up with some of the funniest shit like, and just, you know, they got a great team. So I liked it. And my Anna,

my man, Sean Whalen is, he was from Utah. I happen to have his hat on today. Lions. The Radcast today brought to you by Lions, not sheep. Yeah.

But anyway, he's in Utah. So I saw the Utah thing and made me think of Sean, but I do love it. It's fun. And look, I want to get, I want to find one and go yell here on the top of my 60 second floor of the cosmopolitan here in Las Vegas. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah, no, just crack it open. No, that's so fun. I love this. I want to find it too. And just be like, Oh my gosh, you know, send it to my sister or something fun. But I love this. And yeah, it definitely engages appropriately. And I think ultimately, it's going to hit their wider audience anyway, because it's just it's intentional targeting to your consumers who doesn't love that who doesn't love being called out in the best way possible, you know? Yeah, exactly. And then our next topic today.

So Facebook is generating this. It's essentially kind of like a Clubhouse and Instagram Live combined, which totally plays, and you talk about this all the time as well, playing on this notion of real-time content and conversation and they're developing this it's going to be super cool to see you know the stages of it what you know what were your thoughts when you saw this um i definitely think it plays on clubhouse

and instagram live pretty well so yeah it's called hotline uh you know you know the hotline it's kind of what's so funny is what's old is new again. It's like hotline is an old radio term. Like, you know, get on the hotline. And now, you know, Clubhouse is essentially AM radio, you know, on steroids. It felt a little early 2000s to me. I was like, ah.

Yes, but no, I no, it's cool. You're going to see, I like to see how the stimulation of innovation happens when new things come out. Clubhouse comes out, which I said didn't feel that new

to me because of Gab, a video version of Clubhouse that I was on in 2014. You know, they ended up fading out. But, you know, these things are becoming more mainstream. I get notifications every day on Clubhouse that literally people that I never would have thought. You know, like when you think of like beta testing and like early entry, you know, I think everyone but but my mother is on a clubhouse now. Uh, but so,

so you're going to see these integrations. Like I haven't had time and I think it's still in beta, like to play with hotline, but it's this notion of being able to ask questions for experts. So it's that notion of kind of the blend of both Instagram live and clubhouse. And they kind of just doesn't matter that. And that's what it seems like. Cause you've got, cause what happens with Instagram live, if you think about it, you get on and you've got the feed of people that are watching, but not everyone can get in. You can only have what up to four people now with Instagram live. So it's still again, back to that stages notion. Instagram live still kind of a stage versus kind of that around the water cooler where anyone can talk that clubhouse is, you know,

so it's kind of that mashup because you can ask questions, but it definitely seems to have a better interface. I mean, I still freaking hate Clubhouse's interface. They've got a long way to go there. They're getting the user base, and I'm sure with all their funding they've generated, they'll be fine. But you're going to see these innovations continue to happen. And what you have to do as a brand and a company is, again, back to that 80-20 rule, but if you're seeing that your customer base are headed to these platforms, then you need to be experimenting with ways that you can get involved in it. And leveraging your people in different ways is kind of the brand stewards and experts.

And I could see really cool plays with this specifically for brands in a way to engage with their customers, even in a customer service potentially aspect. You know, so it's going to be interesting. And I love seeing all the innovation. I will ask you a question. I'm curious. Why do you feel like Facebook because Facebook owns Instagram? So like with Instagram Live, I'm thinking, why do you feel like this is going to be something that Facebook will implement on Instagram? They're just testing it in a different format for now, but it eventually will cross over into Instagram Live. Like, do you feel like it will have that appeal or no? will have that appeal or no? Well, here's the thing. I think we do this naturally because we now,

everyone knows that Facebook and Instagram are the same, you know, Facebook owns Instagram. That's exactly. And so I think, so I think thus we forget that they're two very different platforms. We lump them together.

True. But they have very different user bases and they have a very different engagement experience. Yes, over time, it's gotten closer. It's gotten closer. But still, with Instagram, I'm looking for snackable, quick images or videos. I'm not reading a ton of captions. I'm scrolling on whatever. Facebook has become more of the community hub.

And you spend, you know, people are writing five paragraphs about stuff. You're spending a little bit more engagement there. It's not just snackable. You've got long form video. You've got other things. You're kind of in the community. And so something like this makes sense for Facebook. And I think Instagram Live is the closest thing you'll probably see to this for, you know, why and how they'll be different so i think you know we kind of on the surface think well won't they just launch this on you know well maybe but i think they're they're still different platforms that have different engagement experiences no that's absolutely no you're right you're absolutely right um i think it'll be

interesting to follow and obviously we'll be following it here that's what we do okay um and then our last topic for today is i loved this i saw it first on tiktok actually which i felt like you would think was interesting so google put out their commercial it felt very similar to a superbowl commercial they did what is it two my time running together, but like two years ago or something, but it was the vaccine commercial. And essentially it's like playing this, you know, Google search bar and it's the word quarantine. And then, you know, the vaccine, and then it gets into this part. It's like, it's promoting, you know, getting the COVID vaccine. So that way, you know, now you're seeing things come open. And it was just this very emotionally charged video. And it's awesome. It was beautiful. I thought I loved it.

Did you see it already? I saw it first on TikTok. Where did you see it first? I saw it got in my newsfeed. You know, I get all these news, like updates, like Google trends and different things like that i i got notification of it then i watched it on youtube or wherever i hit link to right right i think i saw the back end of it on tv the other night like after i'd seen it i think i there was a tv on it one of the bars or the restaurants were at and i swear i caught like

part of it it looked familiar it was a google at, and I swear I caught part of it. It looked familiar. It was a Google commercial, but I think it was the back end of it. Yeah, what did you think about it? You know, it's a powerful spot. You think about what Google is trying to say is they're part of the fabric of America, where, you know, how many times a day do you do a search for different things? And the consumer mindset, you know, going from, you know, it's kind of like going from fear to hope, you know, to, you know, the sentiment of America can be read through your Google searches, you know, like literally because, you know, you're searching.

Everybody's scared at the beginning. They're looking for vaccine. They're looking for impacts of COVID or symptoms of COVID. And now, you know, moving towards hopefully reopening and, you know, getting more people vaccinated and things like that and, you know, encouraging them, you know, the only thing, you know, I'm not, I'm not crazy about brands that are too heavy handed on personal choices, but, you know, I think universally, you know, we're everyone's trying to look out for the common good. I just, I think sometimes there's a fine look out for the common good. I just, I think sometimes there's a fine line of what the common good is. That's my only kind of trepidation. I'm not saying

it here that I don't agree with what they're trying to do, but I think there becomes a fine line, but it was a really, I thought the spot was really nice. It was a beautiful spot. And yeah, it definitely felt very similar to that commercial they did a couple of years ago, Yeah, it definitely felt very similar to that commercial they did a couple years ago. Even though this one I felt like hits everyone one way or another. And the other one I feel like just pulled at your heartstrings. I felt this one was more of the emotional connection because we're all living that. Like in some way or another, like we've all been living that quarantine experience. And so I think it I think it was a really cool spot too.

And just, I like how it pulled everyone together. It felt, you know, felt very united. And I just, I kind of really liked that idea of it. Yeah, I agree. You know, I just, my first feelings aside of just some of the you know, not because I don't agree

with like everyone helping one another get safe and things like that. But everyone's normal is different. Everyone's personal decisions are different. And you've had varying degrees of lockdowns and things like that. at. So, you know, let's, I just don't want to see any, uh, heavy handed forcing of what any one person's normal should be, or when it was personally okay for them to do something, you know, like, like, you know, walk outside of my house. You know, I just think there was a lot of fear mongering, you know, with this because it was serious and it deserves the attention that it

got. I'm not saying it didn't need to be taken serious, but it's feel like some of the fear mongering and I'm not Google. I'm not saying they're doing that here, but I don't know. That just starts to cross some lines for me, but we'll see. Everything's on the up and up. Yeah, exactly. And speaking of which, I mean, we said we'd follow up with stuff here. The Nike lawsuit. Have you been following this with Lil Nas X? I know there's been some updates this week. You know, I know Nike's starting to take maybe a little stronger stance, but I haven't seen every bit of it. Apparently they're at a cease and desist now.

And so, you know, but apparently, you know, mischief is like there are no other shoes made that was it so I'm I still think it's still going on hopefully over the weekend we'll get some more understanding of what's going on but like we said we do follow up here so at least we're following up with what we know yes

yeah I know but yeah and I do want to mention again we've got the updated theeradcast.com. So all of our content is available there. All the past episodes, all the past highlight clips, you can play and watch and learn. And, of course, use that search bar to find back topics. But hopefully you're listening to this at the home of the Radcast, which is theradcast.com. But as always, you can find us on all the normal places, IGTV, YouTube, Facebook, and any new platform being developed.

We will be there eventually. There's probably one. There's like seven of them being developed today behind the scenes you know someone someone just got funding for another one you know exactly exactly yeah and we'll let you know about them too exactly so you'll you know where to find the latest marketing and advertising news and that's right here at the radcast find us at the.rad.cast on Instagram as always. And Riley, I'm going to sign off to you here from Las Vegas. And no matter where you are, when you are, how you are, everyone, have a wonderful day.

And we'll see you next time. 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, if you want to get your business kicking ass, and you want Radical or myself involved, you can text me directly at 864-729-3680. Don't wait another minute. Let's get your business going. 864-729-3680. We'll see you next time.