The Best One Yet - “Ford’s midwestern modesty... problem” — New York Times pivots. Oatly hits $2B. Ford resurrects Bronco.

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

After 24 years, Ford just brought back the Bronco — but Midwestern modesty can’t win in a Tesla hype world. The New York Times is replacing lost ad revenue with a new plan: Repackage its reporting into great TV and podcasts. And oat milk pioneer Oatly hits a $2B valuation thanks to a fundraise with big-time investors who fully mainstream-ify it.Learn 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. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Wednesday, July 15th. Nick, have you filled out Form 8-879? But Jack, did you cut out the voucher 3852 or did you E file? What's your six-digit E-fin number, which you got like seven years ago on page two and three? It's on page four. They moved it from page six, and now it's part one, Jack. Snackers, today is tax day. It's three months later than usual, but today is the day. So make sure you get that in. So we decided to make this our best. snacks daily we've ever done for you. For our first story, 24 years after killing the Ford Bronco, Ford has brought it back. For its problem, though, it's got too much Midwestern modesty to get noticed in a world of Tesla hype. For our second story, the New York Times has slowly lost all of its advertising revenue. So it's repackaging its newspaper into video and audio, and now its stock is at an all-time high. Our third and final story is the unicorn of the day. Oatley. The Alt Milk Company just hit a two billion. million dollar valuation. Snackers of Oprah, Howard Schultz, and Blackstone are involved, we should probably

cover it on snacks daily. But snackers, before we get into those three fantastic T-boy stories, wonderful mix jack. First in March, we didn't have any toilet paper. Then later in March, we didn't have any meat. Then in April, there was no hair-dye and no hair clippers. And then in May, there were no bicycles true story. We couldn't find anywhere. We're unicyclers now. We're talking the hoarder's almanac. And the latest phase of the hoarding almanac caused by the pandemic, money. Extremely meta. Literally coins. We are being nickel and dined by ourselves. There is officially a coin shortage, according to the Fed chairman, Jerry Powell. This quote from Jerry, fellow Snacker, by the way, the flow of funds through the economy has stopped. That sounds intense, Jack.

Snackers, your local coffee shop is not putting pennies in that cute little dish for taking and for leaving. Jack, you know that neighborhood farmer's market where you get your bok choy? They're only taken Venmo, Apple, PayPal, Square, cash money, or some other companies based in San Francisco. The bodega requires exact change now so that they don't become a super spreader via nickels and dimes. But the biggest development when it comes to the nationwide coin shortage, Kroger's. Jack, what's going on over there? Kroger has refused to give out physical change. They're only giving back bills to close out the transaction.

Is that even legal? Don't they have to give you your money? My big question, are they rounding up or are they rounding down? Because if the rounding up, I'll happily accept paper only. If they're rounding down, I'd like my two quarters, please. Kroger, if you know, you know, let's hit our three stories. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way.

The snacks about to hear ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so. You know, we're not recommending any securities. Nope. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security.

Right. Snacks is digestible, business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member Fenra slash SIPC. For our first story, Shotgun, Ford Motor Company just unveiled their new Ford Bronco. And it's kind of like their Zuck and Jeep. But the company Ford is just too modest. There is a whole lot of chassis in this story. Yes, yeah, baby.

Snackers, back in 1965, Ford unveiled the Broncos. to the world. The first two-door SUV. The kind of car that you get in and then have to do backseat gymnastics just to get into the second row of this thing. Jumping into the backseat of an SUV through the front door, not easy. No, you dislocate your elbow and then you put it back in place. You have to be double-joint to actually ride in it. So besides the two-door SUV, the second most famous thing about the Bronco, OJ Simpson, who got chased down like I-5 by the LAPD and his white Bronco. All right, so Ford's looking at their Bronco, they got two strikes on this thing. Then comes the minivan and like huge SUV trend that basically made the two-door SUV fall out of style.

So back in 1996, Ford killed the Ford Bronco, which we thought was for good. Moment of Silence for the Ford Bronco. Okay, we're ending the moment of silence because now the Bronco is back, baby. Ford announced yesterday two versions of the Bronco SUV from $29,000 to the low end, up to like $60,000 if you get like the six-dix changer. Not to be judgmental over here, but Jack and I were looking at this eye candy, and it's kind of a mix between Hummer and a Jeep and one of those freaky Toyota FJ cruisers that we've all seen. Which looks like an alien movie car. The key feature here, though, four doors or two doors, plus an NC-17 rated topless version. Kids aren't allowed to look at the topless version of the Ford Bronco.

No, you know, you got to get moms permission. Now, we thought about a SUV that lets you take the top off, and we thought to ourselves, that's kind of classic Jeep Wrangler, which you see at every. every beach town in America. Which means Ford could be classically zucking Jeep. And reminder, zucking is when a company copies another company's core product or feature and then does it better than that company. It's truly a zucking, though, if you can do it with an extra layer of smugness. So we're looking at Ford Motor Company.

Its present looks great. Its future looks good, but its stock looks horrible. Snackers, Ford has an incredible profit puppy. The SUVs and the pickup trucks made two and a half. billion dollars in operating profit last year. Ford has also made big investments in future profit puppies by forming an international partnership with Volkswagen for self-driving and electric. Plus, it's killed off its non-profit puppy puppies. It doesn't even make coups or sedans anymore because they could never make a profit off those little cars. The Ford Taurus, the Ford Focus,

the Ford Fusion, they're done. No more new ones. You're going to see them next time. They're like going to be used versions that are your Uber. All these moves sound very profit-friendly for the present, the future, and for the RIP. And yet, Ford's stock is close to an 11-year low. 11-year low. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Ford? Ford is too modest. It's that simple. Elon Musk over at Tesla, he does big product unveils that are futuristic, ambitious, and like involve stage music. The thing about Elon's product unveils, they're provocative and they get the people going. You're talking about Tesla because Tesla's talking about Tesla. Now, Ford, on the other hand, waits until it's a hundred

100% sure it can deliver this product. It doesn't want to overhype. It doesn't want to set expectations too high. Ford's like calling up Papa Henry just to get permission to unveil a car. The latest models that Ford has announced show this perfectly. Ford's electric Mustang inspired SUV announced in November. It's going to be available this fall. Let me one up, you, Nick. The Ford Bronco was announced yesterday. It's available in just a few months. Ford announces things when they're like maximum one year out. Tesla announces things when they're, you know, infinity years out. Unfortunately for Ford, that Midwestern humbleness has made its brand feel less exciting than it actually is. For our second story, the New York Times has replaced lost

ad revenue with TV shows. And the New York Times' stock is approaching a record high. It hasn't had since the pre-Facebook days. Jack, throw on the old Darwin beard. This is a story of survival, the fittest and adaptation and survival of the adapters. When deserts started not getting any rain, camels figured out how to survive without any rain. Jack, when predators got hungry, chameleons learn to change orange. When Zuck launched Facebook, the New York Times learned how to Hollywood. This sounds like a messed up Aesop's fable, Jack. The New York Times was a newspaper. Was. And now it's a multimedia company. Multi-Media. Because for over 100 years, they were a newspaper, And basically a crossword puzzle. That was like the one-two punch the New York Times had going on.

Right. And they survived in the force of Midtown Manhattan on robust advertising sales and subscriptions from millions of people. That's like the two biceps and media right there. And then of course, you do have the Sunday Times, Jack, which ran many good TV ads in like the 90s. True. And then a Sunday Times isn't a newspaper. It's a magazine. It's thick enough to be a weapon. But then the internet made news pretty much accessible to all for free. So advertisers moved all of their spending from newspapers. papers to news feeds. And snackers, you've seen the results of this. Media companies have been sadly laying off a whole bunch of staff for a while, and this recently hit the New York Times event. On June 23rd, the Times laid off 68 people, mostly those on the ad sales to you. But what fascinated Jack and I about this moment is that the New York Times is pivoting hard beyond text.

The Daily is another podcast put on by the New York Times. Check out Spotify's charts or Apple's charts. It's definitely in the top five. It's top five of both. And the latest news comes from Axios that they're jumping their toes into a little bit of video aggressively. The New York Times has sounded up for 10 scripted TV shows and three featured documentaries. We're talking, The New York Times Presents, which is a new show that'll be on FX, which used to be called The Weekly, but now it's going to be called Presents. Or another show called Father, Soldier's Son, a documentary on Netflix about military families in the U.S.

Or the 1619 project, which started as a chart-topping podcast series about slavery in America. now that's becoming a movie or a TV show produced by Lionsgate. And produced by Oprah. But wait, there is more. The minipod series by The New York Times, called The Jungle King, just got sold to Amazon to become its own series on streaming. And do you remember the modern love column in the New York Times? Jack, it's a weekly ritual to read that thing.

It's already become a show which got sold to Amazon Prime. Apparently the New York Times team has been spending all their time in L.A. schmoozing with the big shots at all the production, companies. Now, thanks to these innovative multimedia moves, New York Times stock is approaching the all-time highs that it reached back in 2004. 2004, cough, cough, the same year Facebook was created. The freshman Harvard Zuckerberg created Facebook. New York Times stock has been downhill since. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the Times? New York Times' core product isn't newspaper articles, it's stories. Reporters and journalists risk their lives to report

stories that matter. But people don't necessarily run a read a 3,000-word long-form article about it in today, 2020. So instead of forcing that story into a long-form article, the New York Times is realizing that it's more attractive in audio or video. It's pivoting its value proposition simply into a different vessel. Yeah, the core product is declining when served up in a text medium. But that core product thrives when repackaged as a video or as audio. For our third and final story. We got our unicorn of the day, Oatley, which just hit a $2 billion with a B dollar valuation. The 30-year-old startup, 30 with the 30,

is now officially mainstreamified. You can lay pretty low in Sweden for a long period of time as a startup. Now, Snackers, I want to clarify my overnight oatmeal recipe. In yesterday's pod, I said that it was oats and oatmeal that you just put into a fridge. It's not oats and oatmeal. I think you said the secret ingredient jack was oats. The real recipe is one couple of. votes, one cup of almond milk, let it sit in the fridge overnight, and then add the crunchy

and fruity goodies when you're ready to serve the next morning. Jack Steel cuts them themselves with a blade he keeps like in the closet. Now, this company is based in Malmo, Sweden, Oatley is, and it's worth one-tenth of an IKEA. We're not going to say lift. Now, the concept for Oatley, they're trying to become the impossible foods of beverages. And that's because we've all experienced the era of dairy, and then the era of soy. And then there was was the era of almond, and then there's like a brief little era of hemp milk that people tried to make happen. Yeah, short little chapter of hemp milk, but Oatley uses Oat, because Oatts required less water than almonds to grow, and way more less earth than the cow to produce. Now, there is a slight

correlation and potential causation here with the rise of Oatley in alternative milks and the bankruptcy of big milk, specifically Dean Foods. If you chart Dean Foods as stock price across Oatley's sales, I'm pretty sure you're forming an X. Now, Oatley Snackers has laid a fascinating groundwork to become big plant. If you want to become big plant, you might want a big partnership. That's right. Big partnership, Jack, they got Starbucks. If you want to become big plant, you might want international distribution strategy.

They got that. They're in Europe and they're massively in China. And if you want to be big plant, you need product extensions outside of your core product. Boom, Oatley doesn't just have oat milk. They're also doing some fancier things like oat-based ice. screen. The results for Oatley, which by the way is being advertised like crazy in London when Nick and I were there in January. Insane. Their sales have quadrupled in the past year and even notched a profit before. The big threat though that Jack and I are seeing potentially these

guys is that big food comes around and launches its own oat-based milk brands to compete with them. Just like Nestle, Tyson, and Kroger did with their own plant-based meat brands. Literally the same playbook. But here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this news. The fundraising round of startups like Otley, a range of investors can sometimes reflect the company's ambitions. You want celebrity investors so that even the tabloids talk about your fundraiser. Well, guess who got in on this latest fundraising round for Oatley? Help me, Anakin, your only hope. Natalie Portman. Also, Jay-Z got involved. Word on the street is they both bathe in the stuff.

You also want strategic investors to help you distribute the product, and who better than Oprah, who can announce this to Weight Watchers Nation. Well, not too bad. You also have got Howard Schultz who just invested in Oatley, and he knows a couple people over at Starbucks. Another Wall Street big shot investor for IPO legitimacy is Blackstone, one of the biggest PE companies in the country. They decided to not use their money to just buy another building and instead invest in Oatley. Finally, yesterday we mentioned China has 1.5 billion people. You might want an investor who can help you expand to China. Enter China resources, a company that knows a guy in China.

guy in China can get Oatley's competitors censored in China. And let's just say that President Xi's tummy maybe doesn't prefer cow milk. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Oatley? Oatley's marketing is textbook resonance marketing. And resonance marketing is having a moment right now. Residence marketing is about connecting with your audience's values. Snackers, you want to resonate like a musical note straight into their audience ears. Oatley is. isn't advertising about its low price or its superior product or its wide availability to customers. No, only's highlighting sustainability for the world and the quality of ingredients for your own personal well-being. In a moment of activism and progressive trendiness, resonance marketing wins.

Jack, can you whip up the takeaways and try for the second day in a row to tell us your oatmeal recipe? The Ford Bronco is back, baby. No word yet on the Bronco, too. Now, Ford's modesty, though, it's hurting Ford's stock price. Second story, reading really long articles isn't as popular today as it was 50 years ago. So the New York Times is packing its journalism into TV shows, documentaries, and podcasts instead, and investors seem to like it. Third and final story, Oatley tastes like milk, but there's no cows involved and much less water to produce that almond.

Sustainability. That's what the residence marketing wants you to remember. Now, time for our snack fact today. This one sent in by a couple that snacks together, They're Carrie and Aden in lovely Austin, Texas. Turns out there are a thousand different types of bananas in this world. They're all yellow, but they're all bananas. It's pretty simple. Are they all yellow? I'm actually going to have to back, Jack.

I just, I feel like we're going to have to run a correction tomorrow now, Jack. But it's out there. It's out there. Now, the main type of banana is the Cavendish, which was first grown in the United Kingdom in 1830. Are we sure about that one? I feel like everything about this may be wrong. We're assuming there was a greenhouse involved. in that too. This last part, though, is a bonus snack fact. Bananas don't grow on trees. No, get this,

Snackers. Bananas are a, quote-unquote, extremely high herb. Extremely high herb sounds like the slogan of Aurora Cannabis. Now, before we have to lose you guys, Snackers, Nicoletta Boother from Jersey City, happy birthday. Karina from Atlanta, happy 27. And Snackers, Zachary Brown and lovely Debris, Florida, we want to wish you a happy birthday, too. Snackers, if you have a buddy who's not snacking, Ask them H-Y-H-Y-YS-D. We want to grow Snacks Nation, and they should be snacking, snacking, snacking. Have you had your snacks daily? We'll see you tomorrow.

If you know, you know. By the way, Snackers, this is Nick and Jack Owned Share of Spotify. I own shares of Square. Jack own shares of Blackstone and Volkswagen. I own shares of Apple. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc.

or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only, is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security, and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision.

Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA SIPC.