The Best One Yet - 🏅 “Fashion Olympics” — Louis Vuitton’s Olympic strategy. Southwest’s capitalist pivot. ChatGPT’s Google-killer.

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

The Olympics start tonight, but LVMH already won gold… because Louis Vuitton planned the whole event.Southwest Airlines is no longer the people’s airline… because 50 years of free seating is over.ChatGPT just launched a Google-killer… behold, “SearchGPT.”$LVMUY $LUV $GOOGOlympics trivia question: What state is sending the most athletes on Team USA to the Paris summer games? What about the 2022 winter games? Please provide your guesses in the following format:Summer gamesOverall:Per capita:Winter gamesOverall:Per capita:Subscribe to our Saturday Newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletter  Watch us on YouTube Submit Facts & Shoutouts Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn (Nick) & LinkedIn (Jack)About Us: From the creators of Robinhood Snacks Daily, The Best One Yet (TBOY) is the daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. 20 minutes on the 3 business, economics, and finance stories you need, with fresh takes you can pretend you came up with — Pairs perfectly with your morning oatmeal ritual. Hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday, the real Friday, July 26. And today's pod, this episode, this is the best one yet. This is it, T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh, but not a T-boy for stocks right now, is it, Jack? What do we got going on? The S&P 500 fell again yesterday. It's now down 5% in the past couple of weeks. Can you whip up some context for us, please, Jack? Tech stocks are down. Basically, investors are like, what's the deal with your AI investments? They haven't generated any profits, only losses. Don't worry, Eddie's.

In the meantime, Jack and I whipped up a fantastic mix of stories. Three stories for the pod. What do we got, Jack? For our first story, the Summer Olympics start tonight in Paris, and LVMH is actually in every single competition. So Jack and I will tell you why France's biggest luxury company has planned the Olympic wedding. For our second story, Southwest Airlines is no longer the people's airline. No.

They're Wall Street's airline. Because after 50 years, free seating is finished. And our third and final story is Chad GPT. They just announced a new product that is a straight up Google killer. Behold, search GPT. Search GPT. Coming soon to a browser near you. Uh-oh.

But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, what a mix to go into a weekend with. Love the flow right now, Jack. As we mentioned, the Olympics begin tonight. and one of the most popular events is always the 100 meter dash. 100 meter dash, who will be the fastest human on earth? You know what I'm more interested next? What, Jack?

Who's going to be the slowest on earth? Because Yet is the coolest race to watch is actually the slowest race to watch. We're not talking about the Olympic races. We're talking about the snail races. Get this. England just hosted the annual World Snail Racing Championships. It's a giant race among Garland. garden snails. Yeah, the old WSRC. We look forward to it every year, don't we, Jack? It's great.

They've been doing this since the 1960s. There's a 13 and a half inch race course and 20 snails compete to go that 13 inches fastest. And Jack, let's get slimy over here. The world record held by a snail. What is it, man? It did this 13 inches in two minutes flat back in 2003. Uh-huh. And the winning snail was moving at 0.006 miles per hour. Who's seen the They have a huge shell in the back and those two antennas coming out of the tap. You know what we're talking about. It would actually take six days for that snail to travel one mile at that speed. You thought the tortoise was slow? Look at these guys. But Jack and I should point out, with the snail acts in speed, it makes up for in strength.

True. Because a snail's body is nearly 100% muscle. We need to pee check these snails, Jack. No, unfortunately, muscle doesn't move so well without legs. Still, those gastropods, they got some guts getting up. out there on the track. These crawlers, they do have courage. So Yeti's all eyes tonight are on the Paris Olympic athletes. But the coolest race is the slowest race. Jack, let's get that snail a gold medal. Get that snail a gold snail shell. Oh, come on up to the podium. It's going to take a while, Jack. And that's kind of disgusting. Yeah, let's in our three stories.

Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is enormous. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea 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. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, one brand has put their entire luxury reputation on the line to make Paris the most fashionable Olympics ever, it's LVMH. France's most famous luxury company

has turned this into the Fashion Olympics, and they're doing it for a particular reason. Yetis, tonight, 94 boats will float down the River Sen, carrying 11,000 athletes from 206 different nations. This is the first ever opening ceremony that doesn't take place in a stadium. Yeah, it's actually part of the romantic branding of these Paris Olympic Games.

You know I'm going to Paris in a couple weeks. I can't wait to see this romantic river. You're going to Paris? I keep forgetting about that. But yet, it's a funny thing. This is also a savvy business move, isn't it, Jack? It's another example of Paris keeping the budget down. The whole cost of this Olympics is only $10 billion, which is a quarter of the price of the Beijing Olympics from 2008. Paris Olympics are the cheapest Olympics in decades. But Paris is also the city of love, oh fashion, oh French kissing, Jack. This is part of France's brand and part of the reason they're so popular among tourists.

And one company was hired by the city of Paris to ensure the world gets that specific impression. That one company is LVMH. LVMH. Louis Vuitton, Moray, and a C. They would add another letter, but you couldn't afford that, could you? It's a publicly traded company with a whole bunch of luxury brands. It's worth $360 billion on the stock market, and it's led and owned by the world's richest man. If Jack and I were to put LVMH in athletic terms, it's like an all-star team of luxury.

They got Christian Dior, they got Givanchi, Fendi, Tiffany's, you name it, they probably own it. It's France's most valuable company. And they're called the creative partner of these Olympic games. Or is Jack and I like to think of them, the Olympic Wedding Planner? Yeah. Because there's 15 global brands who are sponsors of these games. They get logos and signs all over all the events. Coca-Cola is actually the biggest sponsor.

the Olympics, they're dropping $100 million to sponsor these games with ads. But LVMH isn't getting any of those signs or logos or billboards, even though they're paying more than Coca-Cola. That's right, LVMH is dropping $160 million on these games. Now, Yeti's, in good writing, you show, don't tell. Yeah, Jack and I like to say show don't tell. That's how you write well. So does every English teacher. That's where we got it. Well, instead of telling what their brand is in an advertisement or a billboard, LVMH is showing what their brand is this Olympics. For example, Louis Vuitton's brand created the trunk that carries the Olympic torch, styled like their classic $10,000 Louis Vuitton's suitcase.

Their jewelry company, Show May, designed the medals that the athletes are fighting to win, and each one includes a little tiny piece of the iron from the Eiffel Tower. Oh, and funny thing, if you do win one of those medals, Jack just mentioned, you'll be popping free champagne courtesy of Moe and Chandon owned by LVMH. LVMH designed the opening ceremony outfits of Team France. Oh, and LVMH owns Sephora, which did a two-month relay of the Olympic torch. If a French kiss happens on the podium? Yeah, Jack.

Senty Beauty's lipstick is probably going to be between those tonsils. But, Nick, why is LVMH pulling all the stops to showcase France's Frenchness so much? I don't know, Jack. I'm still on the wait list for a burst. working back. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy is over? At LVMH. LVMH is turning this into the Fashion Olympics as an olive branch to France. Now, Eddie, you would think that the French are proud of their most successful, most valuable company, Louis Vuitton, O, NSE. Not exactly, though. No, not exactly. The CEO, Bernard Arnaud, he's the richest person in the world, and that's made him

the target of lots of public criticism. And so LVMH really took a huge risk here, spending the most money, $160 million, partly to win goodwill from the people. And so far, it seems to be working. The protest-loving French people haven't been protesting these games in Paris so far. And these opening ceremonies go smoothly tonight, it'll be thanks in part to LVMH's big strategic wedding planning. That could boost public opinion, maybe even thwart off politicians' next attempt for a wealth tax targeting LVMH. Elvimage is thinking the next time that the French meet to discuss taxes, they remember how cool those Louis Vuitton medals looked. For LVMH, this is a gift, an olive branch, to France. They're not doing the free champagne to impress the world, they're doing it to impress the French.

For our second story, Southwest Airlines just got rid of their ultimate feature. Free for all seating. Southwest is going from a communist airline to a capitalist airline. and we'll tell you why they're doing it. The great wall of airplanes has come down, Jack. Tear down this Southwest wall. It's called the steel privacy curtain of first class. It's a funny thing.

When Jack was at business school in Michigan, and when I was at Business School at Warden, every business school did the same exact case study on one specific company. They really did. Southwest Airlines, which was founded by Herb Keller. Southwest Airlines, it was really the, the first disruptor in the American economy, the first airline disruptor. We covered Ryanair last week.

Ryanair was actually inspired by Southwest. Yeah, because Southwest was the first airline to fly to smaller secondary airports in order to keep prices low. And customers loved it. In fact, their ticker symbol is LUV, love. Their logo has a heart on it. Southwest. It has the most passionate customer base at 30,000 feet. It's like the Trader Joe's Airlines. It's fun, distinctive, it's affordable, and still good. And Jack, what was the consistently top feature ranked over at Southwest Airlines? Free seating. For 50 years, they never gave you a seat assignment like all the other airlines did. It was like Southwest differentiator. You had to find your own seat on the airplane. It turned the seat search into an experience and a little scary, honestly, sometimes. It was a journey. Jack, it's kind of like how

IKEA lets you build your own furniture. Southwest, it is like you get on the flight however the heck you want. But in recent years, Southwest has been on the struggle bus. Yeah, Southwest stock, it is now half the price it was five years ago. Plus, an activist investor recently bought up 10% of the company stock, and he's demanding changes to the company ASAP, which leads to this ASAP news. After 50 years, Southwest is ditching its most distinctive feature. They're now going to start assigning seating like all the other airlines. No more free-for-all.

I got 34B. I got something in C. I mean, people must have been, like, fighting each other not to sit in the middle, right? I mean, I haven't gone through it, but I feel like there would be wounds, Jack. There'd be wounds. I have gone through it, and I don't remember what happened. I think it sounds like you got hit by some luggage. It sounds like you got hit.

Honestly, when Jack and I heard this news yet, he said, it sounds like a classic pros before Co's move, doesn't it, Jack? Southwest is putting profits before customers by doing this. Yeah, because assigned seating lets Southwest charge for premium seats. And that's exactly what they said yesterday they're going to start doing. Get this. One third of Southwest seats will now cost more because of extended leg room. Yeah, two thirds of the seats will be assigned and free.

One third of the seats will be paid upgrades. Yeah, it's basically a new first class at Southwest Airlines. It's basically first class, which means Southwest ain't the people's airline anymore. The way we see it, Southwest has gone from a communist seating strategy to a capitalist seating strategy with like a hierarchy. Naturally, Wall Street loved that transformation. They loved that capitalism move. The stock jumped 6% because Southwest has a new revenue source now. Also, Southwest said they're going to add red-eye flights,

and don't worry, your second bag is still free. You can still check two bags for free. That's one more thing about Southwest. That's the same as it always was. So, Jag, what's the takeaway for our newly capitalist buddies over at Southwest Airlines? Southwest is siding with the quiet majority. Yeti's wild stat. It turns out 80% of Southwest customers actually hated unassigned seating.

Southwest did a study, and they determined that free seating, the way it's always been, is first of all, way slower to board than assigned seating is, and it's also more stressful. Yeah, Jack got hit with a bag by another passenger. He doesn't even remember it. Now, despite 80% of people wanting it to go away, Southwest has kept. the old unassigned seating method because the 20% minority who liked it were so loud. So Southwest kept doing something that was bad for the customers because the 80% majority was quiet. And we don't have to tell you how loud a loud customer of an airline can be.

Honestly, that's why assigned seating is a good thing at the end of the day. It's what the majority wanted, what they really wanted. Paid seat upgrades, that's a different story. but 80% of people wanted a signed seating and now they're getting it. So, Bastie, sit down, stand up, and then buckle up again, because it's easy to only focus on the loud minority. But it's worth hearing from the quieter majority. Now a quick word from our sponsor.

For our third and final story, Google Search is facing its first major direct threat in 20 years. Chat Chipit just launched a Google Monopoly Buster. called Search GPT. Now, Jack, in the last 20 years, you and I, we have seen some alternatives to Google emerge out of nowhere, haven't we, man? We've seen a few.

We've seen Duck. Dock Go. We've seen Microsoft's Bing. The kids are searching first on TikTok these days, getting their information from videos. Yeah, we did a story on it. Remember, 40% of Gen Z uses Instagram or TikTok as their number one source for internet search. But still, Google's monopoly is undented.

They control 90% of the world's online search. That is an insane monopoly. It is. Just ask Jeeves about Alta Vista, and they'll tell you what happened. The last time I read about Bing was when I googled what is Bing. But yet is here's the shocker that hit us Thursday night. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is launching Google's biggest threat yet. OpenAI is launching Search GPT. OpenAI is just testing their new search engine now, and there's a wait list to start. for this thing. And they say eventually they're going to merge this search engine with their chatbot, chat GPT. But our first thought, um, isn't this a threat to Google, Jack? Yeah, search GPT, pretty clearly

a competition for Google search. Well, Wall Street thinks it's a threat to Google. Google. Google stock fell two percent yesterday on news that Open AI is directly competing with it in online search. Jack, can you sprinkle on more context to Google dropping two percent as a stock? Well, since Google is worth $2 trillion, a 2% market share reduction is $40 billion of erased value. All because OpenAI is launching a search bond. So Wall Street thinks search GPT is potentially better than Google. And we do too for two reasons. Two specific reasons. First, why we think chat GPD search is better than Google, more reliable results. Less misinformation because OpenAI pays for real news. Google search? It scrapes like anything published on the internet so google search can serve up misinformation but search gpt is going to

source their information from news organizations they've signed deals with including the wall street journal the atlantic and business insider our second thought chat gpt search engine will be more user-friendly when it can this ai is going to read the web for you and then serve up the one answer that you were looking for oh instead of like those google lists of never ever ever ending links like i'm feeling lucky Can I just press them feeling lucky now? Instead of links, you're going to see AI summaries. We should point out the latest AI enhanced Google. It does do that last part.

It does have summaries for you at the top of Google. It does have AI summaries. But I guess Chapchipit's version is going to have more summaries. And we'll probably be cleaner and crisper. So Jack can finally get the answer to his big question. What is the ideal hot fudge to ice cream ratio? Which we all know is two to one. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over?

GPT, the search engine. To get to new technology, you need to build a bridge first. Yet these, funny thing we thought about search GPT, it may be a Google killer, but it's an inferior version of chat GPT. The reason chat GPT is so powerful is because it lets you stop searching on the web and lets a chatbot find the information for you. But here's the problem. Chatbots are unfamiliar.

Like the other day, I was showing my dad how to use a chatbot for the first time. And it's not obvious. It's not intuitive. You have to get used to it. Many of us don't know how to use an AI chatbot. On the other hand, we all know how to use a search engine. We've been Googling for two decades now. So we think that's why chat cheptie is building a search engine. That's not that much different than their chatbot. Because it needs to build a bridge between our search engine past and our chatbot future. Because to get to new technology, sometimes you need to build a bridge first. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to head to the weekend. LVMH is basically wedding planning these Olympic games with luxury sprinkled all across

Paris. LVMH is making this the Fashion Olympics as an olive branch to France. For our second story, Southwest Airlines is now going to start doing assigned seating and paid extra legroom seating. After 50 years, Southwest is finally listening to the quiet majority. And our third and final story is OpenAI. They're launching Search GPT, a search engine to take on Google Heavis. on. Because to get to new tech, sometimes you have to build a bridge first. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, beep, beep, Ford stock fell 17% yesterday, bringing Ford shares down to a one-year low. The key issue in the earnings report, warranty costs. It wiped out nearly a billion dollars of

would-be profits. Yeah, quality control jack. It's an unsexy business, but it's an important part of any business. And second, America's GDP numbers just came in. Our economy grew a robust 2.8% last quarter. Let's bring up a little context. Yetis, our economy is growing twice as fast as the other G7 developed economies each. But the big question, will a faster economy mean the Fed keeps interest rates high, or are we ready to finally bring it down? And finally, Chipotle just announced their earnings, no comment on the portion sizes. Revenues jumped 18%. the stock jumped 10% and your portion size. Again, no comment on whether it went up or down.

Now, some good news from Chipotle, avocado prices are stabilizing, but guacca is still extra. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me, specifically Jack, actually, because he got really excited about the other facts we were doing this week. You got a Jack. On Wednesday, remember we told you the state that has sent the most Olympians for Team USA over to Paris for these games?

Yeah, California has sent the most by far. I think it's three times the next closest state. It's over 100 athletes from California. But let's adjust it by population. Right, right, right. Per capita, Vermont is sending the most Olympians to Team USA of any state. But here's the insight we discovered as we jumped in T-Boy style to the numbers. Let's look back two years ago to the winter games.

What happened to that? Well, it turns out the state that sent the most athletes to the Winter Olympics was Colorado. They beat California and Minnesota by a hair. But can we adjust per capita again? Because when we adjust again, per capita, Vermont sent the most athletes to the Winter Olympics too. Are you hearing this, Yetis? Vermont sent the most athletes per capita for both the summer and winter games of all 50 states. That's right.

Jack's home state is number one, not just in cows, but in Olympics, summer or winter. I'm so facto, we're the most athletic state in the country. Ifso facto, I think Jack wants a gold medal right now. I think that's what he's rounding up to. If anyone wants to give him one. Ben and Jerry's is the breakfast of champions. Yeah, it is you look fantastic heading into the weekend. Remember to celebrate the wins.

And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our newsletter. We got a bunch of goodies going to your inbox tomorrow morning. We got a link in this episode description to the best newsletter yet. And remember, as you are augling those fantastic uniforms at the opening ceremony tonight, turn to your buddies and say, H-Y-H-T-B-O-I. Oh, God bless you, Jack. Have you had the best one? That is how we grow the show.

Jack's going to grab a tissue. We'll celebrate the wins, and we will both see on Monday. And before we go, a shout out to our fellow podcast host buddy, Josh Muchio, from the pitch pod, who just bought a 1973 Corvette after listening to our story, Jack. I think we inspired him. I think he bought the Corvette first, and then he listened to the story. I like pretending our podcast helped motivate the purchase. Nice job, Josh.

Congrats on that win. And a big shout out to Megan Bates of Akron, Ohio, who's doing her hometown proud going on a family road trip on those Ohio-made tires, which were invented in Ohio. And Brandon Wilson's got an eight-year wedding anniversary in Dayton, Ohio. A wonderful place to saw a brand anniversary, Jack. And congratulations to Savannah Westwood of Orlando, Florida, who just won an award for best dog walking service. Oh, Disney's got to sponsor her. And good luck to Kevin Brown and Manchester. Connecticut has got the social work exam coming up and is celebrating with a birthday.

And happy birthday to a Neil Raj in Chandler, Arizona. And Derek Bester has got an eighth birthday celebrating hard and lovely Harrison, New York. Happy birthday to Heidi Satcher and her son Jake in Florham Park, New Jersey, who are turning 56 and 26 years old. And Jack, Molly Griesen, a legendary eddy, is turning 35 in Alexandria, Virginia. But I remember her voice, Jack, because she once yelled to me, Hey, Nick in real life while walking down Pacific Avenue in San Francisco. Did you give her a cookie crisp?

Pretend to be me. You know I can't do it. Lucky Kris, Jack. Molly, have a wonderful birthday. Thanks for being a longtime Yeti and saying hi. And to anyone else, celebrate something today. Make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins.

This is Jack. I own stock of Ford and Nick and I both own stock of Chipotle. And we both own some ETFs of the S&P 500. I don't know what the difference is between a snail and a slug, by the way. I think it's the show. Yeah? A slug is a homeless snail. Is that right? Sorry, it's a snail experiencing homelessness.