The Best One Yet - 🧀 “1 Veltini with 2 olives” — Velveeta’s stunt strategy. Los Angeles’ savior stock. Walmart’s Spongebob halo.

Episode Date: August 17, 2022

Velveeta is the one Pandemic product that keeps on winning because the melty cheese pivoted from ads to stunts. Walmart’s earnings pulled up the entire stock market yesterday, but the real story is Walmart’s happy halo of MTV, Nickelodeon, and Star Trek. And Los Angeles is running out of water, but there’s hope in 6 salty stocks that could save Santa Monica.$KHC $WMT $GE $BIPFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, August 17th, and today's pod is just the best one yet. It's T-Boy. It's T-B-O-I. T-B-O-I. Day 8, by the way, of Bama Rush. Jack, according to the Kappa Sig, Delta E.

Gamma-Ki sorority, today's pod the best one yet. Lambda, Lambda. We'll pledge to that. Jack, what's our first story? Velvita is the one pandemic cheese product that keeps on winning. Velvita cheese is winning because it finally shut up. For our second story, California in the West, They're running out of water, but one sector of the economy could come to the rescue.

Six salty stocks could save Santa Monica. Our third and final story, Walmart, just reported that you haven't stopped buying things. That is good news. Possibly better news? Walmart has an obsession with MTV, Nickelodeon, and Star Trek. But yeties, before we hit that fantastic mix of stories. Just a wonderful mix for the middle of the week, Jack. It's the new Thursday.

It's the new Thursday. I can already smell the Block Island Seagert. Jack, I can already taste those Tuscan Tomatoes. But while Nick and I are on vacation, we're going to launch something. We are. We could wait until Jack and I are back from vacation, but the way Jack and I see it always be launching. So we're launching next week, one minute highlight vids of our stories. And Jack and I are whipping up our podcast takeaways into tiny adorable video clips.

And our goal here is simple, actually, keep growing the podcast on. And we want to expand to new Yeties, find fresh besties. We're going to harness the algorithms to do so. So Nick and I are putting these quick little videos, On TikTok and Instagram. Hoping to get new listeners here. On the podcast. Check them out. Let us know what you think next week.

Go to at T-BoyPod on Instagram and TikTok. Jack and I won't be there, but we'll be there. Yeah. And heads up, you've already heard our underwear startup story from this week. But now you'll see the underwear. Yeah, we added some visual pizzazz. Yeah, we added some aesthetic oomph. Because while we're on the beach doing nothing next week.

Jack, we may as well launch something. So Yetis, leave a comment, drop a DM. Feedback is a gift. Yeah, let us know if you stood up, sat down, and stood back up again. Follow us at T-BoyPod to check it out. Or let us know if you took a napuccino. At T-boy Pot on Instagram and TikTok. In the meantime, let's hit our three stories.

Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's a 50%. That's a fat tip. T-boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more.

So just start the show. For our first story, Velvita, the most controversial cheese in the world is sustaining its pandemic sales. Because Velvita stopped talking and started stunting. Basically, Velvita just shut up for a moment. Okay, first of all, Jack, the first processed food that we humans created. It's Velvita. Belvita, it's not a cheese. It's not a food.

It's a product. It's a cheese product. Actually, the lawyers made them put this on the package. Velveeta is a pasteurized recipe cheese product. Not cheese, it's a pasteurized recipe cheese product. Jack, it is literally like the only food you can lather. You know what I mean? But you never want to have a food where you use the same verb for sunscreen

as you do consuming the food. It's slather. Now, yet he's the story of Velveeta actually shockingly goes back to 1918. That's right. The year the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees, a Swiss cheese snob invented Velvita in upstate New York. Yeah, which then was acquired by Kraft Heinz,

the multi-billion dollar food company in 1927. And once Kraft got its hands on Velvita, they started marketing it as the greatest thing since sliced cheese. Because it was literally older than sliced cheese. And in every decade since then, Velveeta's sales have had a new level thanks to new marketing strategies. This is the fascinating thing. Velvita developed a new marketing campaign with every decade.

For example, Jack, 1940s, what was the campaign? It was a wartime necessity. because they were rationing real cheese. Jack, 1950s, what was the Velvita campaign? They marketed Velvita as a weight loss product because it had less fat than real cheese. And then in the 1970s, Jack, what was the Velvita marketing campaign? Made in USA.

They started pushing foreign sales of this American classic. But yet here is the problem. 1996, great year, we happened to hit peak processed cheese. Yeah, we were eating nine pounds a year. Here, us Americans of cheese. Yeah, back in 1996, your parents started worrying about arteries and abs and Atkins. And Velvita's marketing couldn't convince them to come back. Velvita tried to convince us that it's a convenient product.

No prep. It's so easy. It tried to tell us it's a cheaper product. It's so much less expensive than that artisanal guda. Nothing was working. Velvita wasn't selling. Until 2020, after 14 years of sliding sales. Suddenly, with the pandemic, Velvita sales jumped by 24% as Americans craved comfort foods. Comfort foods were in. You couldn't touch a doorknob because you were paranoid, but hey,

load us up on the trans fats, baby. But unlike Peloton, Zoom, Netflix, and other pandemic winners that have since come back down. What happened to Velvita? Velvita sales have remained at that really high level, according to CNN business. This is what Jack and I were fascinated by. Why? Haven't Velvita sales fallen while every other pandemic winners sales have fallen. It appears that Velvita sales are still up because they figured out how to be part of the conversation. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over Kraft Heinz? To get consumers' attention, Velvita stopped talking and started stunting. Yet he's for a century,

Velvita depended on talking, telling you its value in every ad and every commercial in between Gray's Anatomy reruns. But at a certain point, we just stopped listening to Velvita's marketing. And this was Velvita's insight. Marketing is a battle for attention. But Velvita, it's the same product that was a century ago. So that just wasn't worth our attention. That's why Velvita decided to stop doing the conventional marketing they've done for a century. Velvita pivoted the entire marketing budget over to stunts. They pivoted to stunts. For example, Jack, can you tell us about that lovely Velvita cheese martini? That's right. What they call an unapologetic, outrageously cheesy cocktail. Real product. They launched it. Not a gimmick. It sounds like a joke, but the Washington Post reviewed this

Velveeta cheese cocktail. Or Nick, how about the Velveeta cheese scented nail polish that they launched with the London beauty firm? Seems like a joke, but they sold out. They launched it with a legit beauty company. It sold out ASAP. Live in La Dolce Velveeta. Velvita was losing relevance to consumers because its marketing was all about talking. But Velveeta regained our attention by stunting. For our second story, Los Angeles, lovely city, but has always been running out of water, yet a new industry could save L.A. Six desalination stocks could save Santa Monica. Okay, Jack, let's just get right to it. Do you want the good news? You want the bad news?

Hit me off of the bad news. Okay, here's the bad news. The Colorado River, also a lovely river, is so dry, the federal government just declared an emergency situation. Yeah, the first ever tier two water shortage for Arizona and Nevada, which the river flows into. I don't know what's worse, tier three or tier one, but I don't like the tier two escalation in by any means. Yeah, so the feds are going to use the Hoover Dam and other dams to reduce the amount of water that flows to the southwestern states. It's going to affect 40 million Americans, affects farms, affects cities, politicians under pressure. It's not pretty out there.

This is bad news. Climate change and a 23-year-long drought in a river base. Jack, perfect moment for us to sprinkle on a little good news context. Please. California, come on down. Can you tell us the good news, please? California has been figuring out how to live in drought conditions for over a hundred years. Los Angeles, lovely weather. Fantastic weather.

It never rains. Jack and I were just recording a podcast there. We got tan while in the studio. Turns out, though, that never-raining part about Los Angeles, kind of an issue. Yeah. So back in 19. about the time when Valvita was getting invented, they built the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which was critical. It was a man-made river that flew across the state from like the border of Nevada all the way to Los Angeles.

Well, even that river has been running dry. So California has a brand new plan to fix their drought. And that plan is desalination. Desalination, which is science Latin speak for please take the salt out immediately. Yes. California is taken. ocean water and boiling or filtering it to turn it into fresh Desani-style drinkable water. California actually is 12 desalination plants with more proposed and under construction. If you're in Santa Monica right now, or if you're on the Catalina Island for that wine mixer. Take a sip because that's not Chardonnay, baby.

No, it's not. Half the water you're drinking in those places is desalinized water that used to be on the beach. We repeat, if you're on the Sanamonica boardwalk, if you look over to the right, you're drinking Like that's, you're drinking that. You're drinking, that's been desalinated. It's not just the West Coast. Florida and Rhode Island, they have major desalination plants too. And they don't even have a caledalination.

Now, some people we should say are opposed to this whole desalination thing because the plants can mess with their sunset view on the beach. But if the coast can drink the ocean, then the rest of the country has some more water to drink too. Yeah, sounds like a good plan. Waiter, hold the salt. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the desalination stocks? Prevent or adapt? We are trying both. Okay, Yetis, Jack and I jumped in Teaboy style, desalination is actually investable.

Like, there are half a dozen public stocks desalinating our oceans right now. General Electric is one of them. They provide the equipment. Classic. And Poseidon water, that's another. They're building the plants. In fact, Poseidon is already desalinated in 10% of San Diego's water. Now, the focus of climate change stories is typically about how to reduce the amount of carbon that we have met.

Exactly. How to prevent climate change. But there's an entire part of the economy. focusing on adapting to climate change. For example, Jack and I have told you about the air conditioner companies, which are the duct tape of climate change. They help us adapt to climate change, not prevent it. Desalination companies, that could save California.

Because an entire segment of the economy is focusing on adapting to climate change. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Okay, so Jack and I both worked in finance for a while. And we know the six-monitor Bloomberg jockey with charge. numbers, balances, and more charts. They got coffees in both hands while they're executing some complex trade on a soybean future. Well, we're not trying to impress with our mission control trading center. Just give us an app, please.

Robin Hood, with its mobile first and intuitive design, it lets you trade with just a few quick taps on their app. And even if things still don't seem easy, Robin Hood has your back 24-7 with its live and robust customer support. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-boy and choose your free stop. That's robinood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involved for us.

By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood. For our third and final story, Walmart just jumped 6% because people still want low prices always. But the real story here is that Walmart is binging on MTV, Comedy Central, and Paw Patrol. Yeah, Jack, hold the pumpkin spice. Walmart looking like a young Manning brother, put the whole Team on its back yesterday. Walmart was the leader of the stock market yesterday. Walmart was up 6% because it added $20 billion the stock did in market cap in just one day. Walmart added more value in one day than two lifts are worth.

And that's because sales rose last quarter by 8% and profits jumps despite this inflationary environment. Besties, if Earth's biggest grocery and store retailer says that you're still spending money, then we're not in a recession. It was good news that Walmart had such a good quarter. But here's what Jack and I find fascinating about this story. The real Walmart news wasn't in Isle 6. It was on your screen. The real news was about the pixels, not the potatoes. Walmart, we're talking Walmart here, like home of the $2 tube sock six pack.

It is pulled off. Get this, a Walmart streaming video deal. That's right. A new two-year deal is going to give any member of Walmart plus, all seven of them, Free access to Paramount Plus streaming. Okay, this was the other shocker. Paramount Plus streaming, you don't think of it that much. They got 43 million American streaming.

Paramount Plus. Yeah, it's sneakily the fourth biggest video streamer because Paramount Plus is basically everything you watch when you were homesick from school. Yeah, you look at the Paramount Plus lineup. It's basically like Y2K vibes. You got MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon. Okay, here we go. Jack, what more are we talking?

You got South Park, Paw Patrol, and Star. track. Jack, we got Clarissa explains it all, Alex Mack and some real world road wheels challenge. Does it come with all that and Keenan and Kel? Jack, if you say Rugrats or Doug, I'm signing up right now. Well, now we're just listing Nickelodeon shows for our challenge. Yeties, Walmart doesn't just love Rocco's modern life. Walmart is happy that their grocery sales keep rising. They're satisfied if that happens. I'll tell you that Walmart would be even happier if you signed up for Walmart Plus. Because Walmart Plus, that's a lot of, that's a profit puppy. Walmart Plus is Walmart's defense against the dark Amazon Prime Arts. Walmart

Plus is a $98 a year subscription that gets you free shipping on Walmart orders over 35 bucks and a bunch of other perks too. And Jack, you can't call your subscription product plus unless you got a streaming product involved. So now it includes a streaming product too. That's the new perk. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in Bentonville, Arkansas over at Walmart? Entertainment is the holiest of brand halos. Yeties, Amazon's Prime has 200 million whopping members. Jack, how many members does Walmart Plus have? It's got 16 million.

But both of these want new members, but crucially, they don't want to lose their existing ones either. And that's where the entertainment perks come in. They keep you priming and they keep you plus. The perks of Amazon Prime and the perks of Walmart Plus, they're not about driving new revenues. No. They're about making you happy as a member. Because happy customers, they don't unsubscribe. And that is a brand halo.

That's why Amazon Prime comes with Prime Video, which has the new Lord of the Rings series this Labor Day. Yeah, and Amazon spent half a billion dollars to produce that series because it's not about making money. It's about making you happy. And it's also why Walmart is splurgeon to give you free MTV and free SpongeBob SquarePants. Because entertainment is the holiest of brand halos.

Jack, can you Ashton, Coocher, Keenan and Kel whip up the take for us over there. Velvita cheese sales are up big despite the waning of the pandemic. And because Velvita stopped talking and started stunting. Our second story, desalination companies are giving fresh water to parched America. Because our choices are prevent or adapt. Desalination is the adapt. For our third and final story, Walmart is adding free ad-supported Paramount Plus for Walmart Plus members. Because entertainment, it is the ultimate brand halo. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by,

UCFelik from lovely Miami, Florida. UC heard our story last week about Starbucks's great earnings. It was the best one yet at the time. How Starbucks's record revenue is driven by the iced coffee passion of Gen Z. Side note, UC and me too. We get really annoyed when you order an ice coffee from Starbucks because it is mostly ice in there. It's like 75% ice.

Well, you ordered water and then they sprinkle in a little coffee, I believe is how it goes. Frozen water with a little bit of coffee. But here's the best fact yet. The first iced coffee was. was actually documented 400 years ago. That's right. It was the Japanese city of Kyoto that first pioneered cold brew, aka iced coffee. The Japanese created the first documented style of ice and coffee in the 1600s.

It was not a passion fruit, passion refresher cocktail. Which also led to the first barista complaint, hey barista, there's too much ice in my latte. We heard even the Japanese in the 1600s complaint. Yetis, you look fantastic today. And remember, check out at T-Boy Pod, you're going to see our videos dropping next week. Yeah, we'd love your feedback. Feedback, it's a gift. Did you sit down, stand up, sit back down, or did you take a napuccino? Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. Before we go, a happy anniversary to a couple of OG Yetis, Jack and Alex, who had their third

wedding anniversary over in Vermont. Alex, you're a phenomenal wonder, wonder of my life, fantastic wife. It's been wonderful. I'll never forget the beautiful. I'll never forget the beautiful. beautiful ice cream truck at that wedding jacket. The ice cream scoop truck paled in comparison to Alex's dress. But you can't eat Alex's dress, Jack. And congrats to Eric Flores, who, after eight and a half years as a 911 dispatcher, just got a new gig. And a happy birthday to Yeti Don Wortley, turning 40 over in Seattle. And happy birthday to Brandon in Michigan.

And Teia, Houseman has a birthday over in Vancouver, Canada. Happy birthday to Nirav Aurora in Flower Mound, Texas. And Wayne Lindhart, happy birthday, Walbonne in Baltimore, Maryland. And happy 10-year anniversary of her 21st birthday to Addy Garg in Atlanta. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Netflix, and Nick and I both own stock of Pelton and Robin Hood. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Jack, rule number one about a kitchen renovation, tell your friends about your kitchen renovation.

We know the cabinet is. are expensive. Well, in the pandemic, a lot of companies renovated their businesses focusing on apps and digital. Robin Hood didn't have to. It was built digital from the start. Robin Hood's mobile first and intuitive design makes investing a little easier for every stage of your investing journey. Whether you want to trade options, ETFs, or stocks through Robinto Financial, or buy some Bitcoin on Robin Hood Crypto, you can do all that right on the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet to get started, go to Robinhood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash TBOI. Limitations apply.

Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood. We are not employees of Robin Hood. Wait, dude, I can be more clever here. Let me say a show we haven't said yet. Don't you help. Oh. I might need help.

I like your Nickelodeon theme. Yeah. Oh, SpongeBob scrap bands. Oh, perfect, dude, perfect.