Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Weekly News 7.31

Episode Date: July 31, 2020

Host, Ryan Alford, and Producer, Reiley Clark, sit down to discuss a few business, marketing, and pop culture highlights from the week.Here's the link we talk about on this episode,  https://youtu.be/SC5fqPdV-eE 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. 

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. It's Radcast Day here at Radical. It's a lovely hot day outside, and depending on when you're listening to this, I hope you're having an excellent day. Doing a little news segment here. I am excited to be joined by our new producer of the show, Riley Clark. Welcome, Riley. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Glad to be here. I am excited to be joined by our new producer of the show, Riley Clark. Welcome, Riley. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Glad to be here. And I'm glad we're doing this new segment, too. I think it's going to be really good. I know. So we're going to get to that. I want Riley

to talk about herself a little bit. But before we get to that, Riley, we're going to start doing these kind of news segments, talking about the latest in marketing and business and just stuff that we find interesting. I know we're going to talk a little bit more about where we're headed with the Radcast, but what the hell were you doing before you came here? That's a million-dollar question. Well, COVID hit. No, I'm just kidding. Before we drug you in. Right.

Yeah, no. So I moved down from West Virginia. And then I had graduated from West Virginia University last year. And I did an AmeriCorps service year for a year. And then, you know, COVID messed up a lot of plans and, uh, great, very, very, very grateful though, because obviously I found this job and I mean, you know, I love the fact that I can say I'm a producer and so that's obviously excellent. So thanks. Yes. You were made for this. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So, um, but it's awesome. I like where the Radcast is going right now. So, um, as far as, you know, what the Radcast is doing, we have this whole series on esports right now. I think that's obviously excellent. The feedback's been great. It's been fun for the Radcast as far as we have our own Instagram account now, which is great, at the.rad.cast. You should go follow it if you haven't already.

And what else is new? Oh, we have a website now. So that's exciting. We're going to be starting to put all of our posts on the website. And all the podcast episodes from the past will be on there. And I think that'll be good uh too for us um that's

the radcast.com yes so if you want to follow along the best place to find all our episodes yeah um obviously most people are probably subscribing on itunes that's like or you know apple the biggest place but if you want to go directly to an episode or get maybe a little bit more content the raderadcast.com. So excited about that. We're getting all growns up here. You're making this official. I know, I know, I know.

I love the fact that there's all these things that are going on now and all the filming and stuff we're doing for the Radcast too. The videos have been so cool for the Radcast. I'm excited for more of those to come out. Yeah, and then all the secrets that I have in my head for where the Radcast is going. We can't give them all out. Exactly.

Can't give them all out. Can't give away all our secrets before we have to tease them one at a time so we don't run out of ideas. I know. Don't worry. I won't run out of ideas. That's good. Yeah.

I'm not getting fired anytime soon. We're excited to have you here. I'm excited to have another voice on the show. There's something that I think I have a deeper voice. like the the burly deep guy voice and having you know both the insight and perspective and maybe a a lighter tone uh i'm excited for and having someone to kind of just back and forth with on the news and different things and with guests and oh yeah just providing you know a different perspective and so i'm really excited you're here yeah me too thanks cool. Cool. So welcome, Riley. You'll be seeing lots more from her, from the Radcast, where we're going with the programming. So excited for that. Follow along on Instagram.

Probably be the biggest place. We've got Facebook, too, and all the normal channels. Probably have some LinkedIn action at some point. You'll see the posts that are on like my profile and your profile right right um but you know just tons of content yeah it's going to be great i think yeah trying to keep it you know like learn you know keep it like we're doing like we're trying to both inform you know marketers or want about marketing and different aspects of it but really through the lens of like the that are important, like esports. And we're going to talk about some of the news there.

And if you're following along on any of the programming, just how big that ecosystem is has just been mind-blowing. Yeah, and then even the next couple guests we have coming up, we have Inamar Benedi, who's the CEO and co-founder for one of the huge in-gaming advertisement company. And then we have, we're getting the finalized details for Matt Arden,

who I'm personally excited about just because I want to know you are too with your buddy, Scott Cole. Another shout out, Scott. Just kidding. But yeah, Matt's the head of content and media at NBA 2K League. So that's obviously exciting to have him come on. And then Tuesday, our next episode drops at noon with Sean Barry,

the CEO and founder of Metro Sports. So that's obviously super exciting to have his episode. We have a lot of big names. We are. It's cool. I mean, any time you're getting e- getting emails like we've had the last couple days from multiple addresses that are at NBA.com. Oh, yeah.

You know. No, you feel good about yourself a little bit. No, it's good. It's good. We're excited to have Matt on, talk NBA 2K League, all the content, all the growth they're having. I mean, they were on ESPN2 last night again uh practically every week not every week but and you know again super excited for where that's headed and lots more to come i know i know but this new segment

is going to be good i'm excited for this cool yeah we'll tee up our first article yes absolutely so um one of the first things we're going to talk about today um is the fact that one of the um leagues in la uh phase clan signed up with verizon as their exclusive 5g partner yes so phase clan you know if you're listening and you're you're kind of getting your if you've been listening to the esports segment and kind of getting your head around it, maybe some people listening are knee-deep in it. They already know who we're talking about. We've pulled in, you know, now our listeners, you know, probably pulled in some esports aficionados now as well as new people.

But FaZe Clan is like, if not the largest, I'm sure someone from FaZe Clan will message me later to say that they are definitively, but one of the most respected and largest professional esports organizations. What does that mean? It means they organize leagues and games and players around those games and kind of put together teams to play everything from this game to that. A lot of the games in reality are shooter games, whether that's first person, third person.

And the biggest game in esports right now that's growing and having the most buzz is called Valorant, and I know they're big in that. But it's big news for Verizon. Having worked with Verizon a long time, they're not afraid to put money where there's growth. And if you follow the money with them, it's typically where things are going. And it just shows the numbers aren't out there.

But the fact that they're an exclusive provider, the 5G exclusive provider, playing up the content aspects, 5G exclusive provider, playing up the content aspects. It's big news with just the fact that I don't want to say, look, esports and gaming has been respected and understood as its growth. This is not in some nascent stage. But again, that kind of name with just an organization within esports just kind of puts the icing on the cake for how big this really is. Oh, absolutely. Because I think the other thing is so many companies like Verizon are coming into the esports space. And it's not that they haven't been already there, but I think they're making bigger moves like this, for example. I mean, that's like you're putting your name with a league.

like this, for example, I mean, that's like you're putting your name with a league. I mean, you know, and I think there's a lot more attachment that's going to come through bigger names like, you know, Verizon, which, I mean, I'm excited to see, especially when they start partnering up with more leagues and getting their hands in more tournaments and the competitions. That's going to be interesting to see, too. It's going to be interesting to see too. It's going to be interesting. You've got the teams, you've got the players, how that sponsorship kind of comes to life. You can see probably the aspects of signage and logo placement and all that, but how much they'll be able to use the influencers of the gamers themselves,

how much content is generated out of that. I'm sure there will be. I'm sure there will be stories told as the gamers are maybe streaming or doing other things over 5G with Verizon, not to give you all the ideas, you know. Yeah, right. But I'm sure someone up at both Verizon and FaZe Clan are partnering on the 103,000 different ways with which to kind of bring this partnership to life.

But it would be pretty fascinating. I am curious, as we kind of talked a little bit pre-episode, like the reality of you've got the 5G network and how fast it is, and I don't think we've reached a point where it's going to replace a LAN for gaming over that. But my mind just does go into the curiosity of, is 5G getting to a place where it might could push the data needed for these guys to stream on it? Is it reliable enough for that? I don't think that's what this partnership is about immediately.

I mean, these gamers, every lag or every second matters for the game. It's like once they get behind, they're getting shot behind a wall. Well, and that's the other thing. I mean, I've read things before where players will get so frustrated in a competition or whatever, and they'll be like,

I didn't have good Wi-Fi. How is that my problem when they're competing? And then they just get booted out of the game because there's too much going on there, which is why I think that 5G networking will be really nice for them when they start, you know, hosting competitions or things like that. And the last thing I'll say is, you know, people might wonder, OK, what does this mean for Verizon? Look, you have obviously gamers, I think the average age of an e-sports player is like 23 or 24 or something like that.

But the game, it's a way to, for them to get their brand in front of a younger audience to start seating the brand name. And then it's in a very fluent e-sports audience. You know, people think, it's video gamers that are lazy or whatever.

There's a lot of IT professionals making good money that play a lot of games. And so this is in a very affluent market. And so Verizon isn't just throwing money in a market that isn't going to see them dollars down the road. They're seeding their brand in an up-and-coming ecosystem that should pay dividends for them down the road as being, again, a brand that's involved in things that are growing and important to the youth of now. And it is one of those things that seems to be, you know, 20 years ago,

I felt like I kind of outgrew games on some level. But now I think if I was a kid, you might not outgrow it. You might not have as much time, especially if you're balancing school, sports, other things, activities you might have. But it's something that's going to stick with you. So you've got a long fuse here. And I think Verizon's seeing that. And so it'll be interesting where that goes. Oh, for sure.

Well, I also think it's interesting just what, you know'll be interesting where that goes. Oh, for sure. Well, I also think it's interesting just what, you know, some of the other big tech companies are doing right now too. So, I mean, even like Amazon right now and Apple. What are the big ones right now? Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. Their hands in eSports right now is like, you know, you follow the money, right? But like the money's in e-sports right now is like, you know, it's, you know, you follow the money, right. But like the money's in e-sports and, you know, I hate, I mean, we talked about this, you know,

pre-episode and even on some episodes with some other people and the series, like, I hate to say it, but COVID, you know, when you have, when you're not able to do anything except for be at home, basically all day, you are pretty much left to be sitting on your couch and, you know, playing some sort of video game. Your recreation activities are limited. Absolutely. But these other, these companies are coming in realizing that, and then they're like, okay, great, we'll make more mobile platforms or more, you know, mobile friendly things. The way these tech companies are now coming in it's interesting that even with twitch um you know like facebook has 700 million uh engagement on gaming on facebook platform and like twitch what was it um you know like 19 million or something views a month too but it's it's crazy

that like you know facebook actually has seemingly more. I just don't think people realize the scope and size of it, like how much content and how much is streaming and how much involvement there is. I think everybody kind of sees what they see. But if anyone had any idea, the micro bits of data that are passed through these networks every month just for gaming and content from the

gaming right you know who knew that i didn't think you know like i guess in hindsight it makes sense like back in my days like playing lands in the zelda or something like there'd definitely be friends there that might would watch you play so there was definitely that yeah i can see that now but the notion that people would walk it watch it like a tv station or watch it like a sports show yeah never i never saw it getting probably because the technology wasn't there but right um the the convenience as i've hold up the smartphone if anyone's listening of having a smartphone where you can just you know throw on a video and watch and learn some you know cool moves for how to blow somebody's head off on the counter. Oh, yeah.

I mean, well, I mean, you know, you go on YouTube and you type, you know, you look up what you need. I mean, you know, it's like, how do I advance past this point in the game? Or, you know, whatever it is that you're trying to do, it's going to be on YouTube, which is just great. I mean, it historically focused on music and movies as entertainment. And now games, whether it's mobile games, whether it's from Candy Crush to Fortnite to whatever, it blows it away from a numbers game, both money, both time spent and all of that. It's finding its way into, if it's finding its way into Google, Verizon, Microsoft and others, then I think everyone else needs to take notice as well.

Like we've been saying, I feel like the entire series, if you're not in eSports now, you need to be. You need to get into this ecosystem because it's taking off. It's awesome growth. What's next? What's up next? Next, ooh. So did you ever think that farting would cause economic issues for Burger King?

You know, I did not. But I do know where we're headed with this. Yes. We want to talk about Mason Ramsey's music video. He's such a cute little kid, and he's just up there strumming his guitar and singing about cows farting and how this is affecting climate change. Let me say this. I know nothing about the science of methane gas and the fact that supposedly you know cows farting and burping uh cause like 30 percent of the methane gases yeah 33 percent it's crazy and i don't know if what burger king is doing with their lemongrass that they're now feeding the cows that that become whoppers, and whether it works.

But what I do know that works is this song in this video is amazing. Oh, gosh, yeah. It's catchy. It's brilliant. I have no idea what it is. It's at least a million dollars, probably, in production value. And the dancing in it. There are all those other little kids, and the little cows, and they're doing things with their mouths.

Oh, by the way, I misspoke. It's 9.9% of agricultural misspoke it's 9.9 percent of uh agricultural sector is 9.9 that seems more reasonable but still that's still a lot of it's still very high but i just you know felt like but again murder king turning what could be bad press which is you know global warming and methane and not just bad press but bad for the environment and turning it into something comical interesting and they're actually doing something about it again whether it's working or not i don't know but the the video and the idea from you know whatever agency did that or you know i know burger king's been stepping

out on the limb between the moldy whopper and other things and there's whether or not that did anything for them i don't know but i admired the the chance they took in doing it and the same with this is right you know it's there's a lot of ways to go at marketing and it's the the path of least resistance is not always the best path and so with great risk comes great reward sometimes and again don't know how this plays off but you need to go uh google burger king and methane gas song uh and and watch it because i'll try to include that link in somewhere yeah let's conclude that yeah yeah i'll include the link yeah so you can click on it you guys have to watch it yeah absolutely have to watch it it's quite catchy it's's, yes.

It's a cute video. And the kid's just cute, you know, singing, you know, didn't know him before, but. No, you didn't.

You didn't know about him from the Walmart Yoodle. He's a Yoodle kid from Walmart. I remember people talking about that, but I never got into it enough to know him like by name. And so, you know. Yeah. But brilliant.

Brilliant. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. Brilliant. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. Yeah, we'll include the video for sure. Is that our news for today? I think that's it for today. Cool. So three quick hitters.

Esports growing huge. Yeah. FaZe Clan, Verizon, lots of stuff out there. And finally, Burger King and methane gas and ways to do marketing and get attention. And turn negative press into not negative press. Exactly. We hope you enjoyed this kind of quick hitter session. I'm looking forward to future ones.

We'll blend in some pop culture, some marketing, and just whatever kind of segments we're on. Whatever else Riley cooks up. She's got the Radcast kitchen over there. Yes. And we'll take it wherever it goes. But Riley, excited to have you on. Yeah, thanks.

I'm excited to start doing this. This will be good. Cool. This is Ryan Alford and Riley Clark here on the Radcast. We'll see you next time. Follow along at theradcast.com or the.rad.cast on Instagram. You can find out more about our agency, Radical, at radical underscore results on Instagram. We'll see you next time.

See you next time.