The Best One Yet - 🧙 “Franchisius Maximus” — Harry Potter’s recreations. Maersk’s pirate ship. United’s bespoke seat ads.

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

Harry Potter’s Broadway show is the highest-grossing non-musical in history — But Harry’s coming TV series is even bigger… because it’s okay to reinvent the wheel.The world’s biggest shipping company just made the biggest detour on Earth — Maersk is sailing 6K miles around Africa instead of through the Red Sea… and you’re gonna pay for it in your shopping cart.And United Airlines is stealing an idea from Zuck: Targeted ads — Prepare for a personalized ad for you in seat 17A (plus, we’ve got a plan to rebrand the targeted ad).$WBD $UAL $AMKBYSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, January 4th, and today's pod is the best one yet. Jack, this feels like a T-boy, man. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, can I admit something to you on the pod, please? Sure. I thought yesterday's pod was our best pod of the year.

Yeah? Today's pod's actually the best pod of the year. Okay. First story for today's show. What do we got, man? For our first story, Harry Potter just set a record on Broadway. Every boy is about to play. pull off the most biggest news in the media industry.

Harry Potter is reinventing the wheel, and that's okay. That's okay. For our second story, it's the biggest shipping company in the world, just announced the biggest detour in the world. Ladies, you're about to pay a lot more for shipping that stuff. And our third and final story is United Airlines. They just borrowed a strategy from Instagram. Targeted ads are coming to seat 17A.

But besties, before we hit that wonderful, mix of stories. Love the mix of stories today, Jack. This has happened to all of us. I'm excited to present you an opportunity to refinance your mortgage with me today in just 15 minutes. Can you spare just two minutes to save the children? Telemarketing calls, Yetis. They're the worst. One sec, Jack. I'm getting an unknown call from my area code. Yeah, hello? No, no, no, no, no, no. Sorry, Jack, all right, back to you. Back to you. Well, get this, Yeties. There's a new law to to protect Nick from what just happened to him.

And that new law is inspired by a Seinfeld episode. That's right. On January 1st of this year, just a few days ago, the Seinfeld bill went into effect in the state of New Jersey. Real law, real thing based on a real Seinfeld episode. It's based on the 1993 season three episode, The Pitch. Episode 43, Jerry answers the phone. Jack, can you set the scene for us over there?

Well, a telemarketer is calling Jerry right there in his apartment. So Jerry answered. the phone and he says, he says, I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you later? The telemarketer says he doesn't want to do that. So then Jerry says this. Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you at home. Well, now you know how I feel. Behold the new law. Telemarketers must now give you their name, their address, and the phone number of the company that they're calling for. Boom, all within 30 seconds of calling your line. So no more mystery recalling and messing with your heads.

Had no more lolligagging and pretending, yeah, this isn't a telemarketer call. If a telemarketer's calling someone in New Jersey, they have to get to the point right away. So you can hang up right away. Fantastic. New legislation. There's no precedent, baby. Now, I just got to say, hey, other 49, can we adopt the same law as New Jersey? Let's take this Seinfeld law nationwide. Surrendit now.

Yada, yada, yada. Let's hit our three stars. 15 years before this song Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm They had an idea to cause a cultural storm It's the best one yet But the best is an or nymphics 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 Start the show For our first story Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Just became the biggest non-musical In Broadway history But the Harry Potter business is doing something even bigger this year. They're reinventing the wheel. Can I whip out some numbers for you right here, man? Please do. Okay, Harry Potter came out 27 years ago, man.

Can we share an even scarier fact? Talk to me, Jack. You must be the only guy in the world who read the first six Harry Potter's and then didn't read the seventh. Jack, the book started getting really long and I started getting really old. They get such a cliffhanger after the sixth book.

No, it's no spoilers. This book is getting older than Dumbledore's pet. Phoenix right now. True. But just like a 27-year-old in the Muggle World, Harry Potter, Inc. is just entering its biggest money-making years. Harry Potter is in his money era because Harry Potter's Broadway play just set a show business record. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a non-musical, and it made $2.7 million in just one week. $2.7 million in one week last month. That is an all-time high for any play in the history of Broadway. A lot of people watch some Nifflers. over the New Year's.

Hold on to that snitch, Jack. That's the biggest financial win for Harry since Slytherin lost the House Cup. In fact, since this Broadway play debuted in 2016, they've sold 10 million tickets for $330 million of revenue. Yeties, Harry Potter is officially the biggest non-musical play ever. Hey, Romeo, you may want to take a class over at Madam Hooch's writing school. But Yeties, this is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Harry Potter's Broadway record isn't it?

even the biggest Harry Potter story right now. Harry Potter is also getting a TV show on HBO Max starting next year. Franchiseus Maximus. Yeah, this isn't just a TV show. It's a TV epic that starts next year. Because Yetis, this Harry Potter TV show is expected to be 80 hours of wizardry. That's right. It's going to be 10 seasons long. And with eight episodes per season, you're going to get 80 episodes of Harry Potter. This new Harry Potter TV show is going to take a decade to produce. The finale is going to be in 2035, Nick. By that point, millennials who read the books when they were kids are going to be retired.

Who's playing Hermione, Jack? Emma Watson's granddaughter, Nick. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Harry Potter? It's okay to reinvent the wheel if it's for a different kind of passenger. Yeties. Harry Potter is doing. 80 episodes, that seems like too much. It seems like a big risk. It seems like Harry Potter is just reinventing the wheel. After all, there's already seven books, 11 movies, and a Broadway show.

Now HBO Max is going to make 80 more episodes. Harry, you're recreating the wheel. You're doing a full eight episode series for each of the seven books plus more? They're recreating the books, just like the movies already have, but they're going to do it in eight full episodes per book. But besties, here's the key. Jack and I think, it's okay that they're spending so much money to recreate the Harry Potter wheel because it's for a different audience. The Harry Potter movies, they were designed for a mass audience, not Harry Potter Superfans. But this TV show is designed for super fans, not a mass audience, and there are a whole lot of super fans. Society always tells us it's a waste to recreate the wheel. But the way Jack and I

see it in business, we believe you can reinvent the wheel. If that wheel is for a different kind of passenger. For our second story, the largest shipping company in the world just announced the biggest detour in the world. Dron attacks from pirates on the Red Sea are about to affect the whole world shipping and the whole world shopping. Jack and I sometimes when we're telling business stories, we got to turn over to the maps, the physical maps. We figured out if you want to ship something from Asia to Europe or from Europe to Asia, you have to go through the Red Sea. The Red Sea. This is the important bottleneck on planet Earth. The strait of the Red Sea is only 16 miles wide.

That's it. But 30% of the world shipping containers pass through that street. Odds are that cute top you're wearing somehow came through the Red Sea. The Red Sea. It's located between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but it also borders nine separate Middle Eastern countries. And one of those Middle Eastern countries is Yemen, where rebels backed by Iran have drones and ships and a whole bunch of missiles. And on New Year's Eve, those Houthi rebels,

attacked a Mersk container ship by air and by sea like pirates. Okay, Yetis, this is shocking. While you were out celebrating on New Year's Eve, this situation got so intense that U.S. aircraft carriers had to intervene. Navy helicopters sank three of the ships that were attacking the Mersk vessel. Our Navy helicopters. Oh, and by the way, there's also a connection to Gaza here, isn't there, Jack? The rebels say they're attacking these ships as retaliation against Israel's military.

Even though the ship in question was not heading to Israel. But the United States has boats in the water leading a military effort to protect this crucial shipping way. But yet it is interesting thing about that ship. The ship that was attacked on New Year's Eve in the Red Sea was operated and owned by Mersk. Merck based in Denmark's 700 container vessels, they've got 100,000 employees. This is the biggest shipping company in the entire world that sells the biggest armada of shipping

vessels in the world. And here's the news about our buddies over at Mersk. Mersk announced this week that they will avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal indefinitely. Jack, could you sprinkle on some Magellan context for us over there? If they avoid the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, that means they have to take the biggest detour on the globe. A 6,000 mile detour around Africa. That's right. If you don't take the Red Sea, you have to go around Africa. Oh, and it's not just fuel.

It takes a whole bunch more time, too, doesn't. Isn't it, Jack? This detour is going to add two to four weeks for each of these giant ships carrying so much goods. Yeti's not using the Suez Canal is like not using the Panama Canal, but actually even worse. It's going to mean a lot more pit stops and a lot more time and a lot more money. Jack is like going from the Upper West Side to the Lower East Side through Brooklyn. I think through Vermont, actually. Yeah.

So Yeti's Merck is rerouting around the entire continent of Africa. The only return to the Red Sea after safety can be assured. Other shipping companies are doing the same thing, and you're going to feel it in your shopping cart. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy is over at Mersk? When geopolitics escalates, so do prices. Yadis, you'd think Merck's stock would be suffering right now? Wouldn't you? Like, shouldn't their stock be down?

You'd think so. But kind of perversely, it's up this week by 10%. News that Merck ship was attacked resulted in the stock price jumping. The reason? It's because shipping companies are going to use this. unrest in the Middle East as an excuse to raise prices. Yeah, rerouting those ships, 6,000 miles and two extra weeks. That's going to cost some cash. But Mersk will more than make up for it with higher prices that trickled down to all of us consumers. In fact, Jack and I checked the numbers, freight rates

for shipping have already doubled in the last week. It was the same kind of situation when the war in Ukraine began. Conflict there trickled into higher prices for a whole bunch of things for the whole world. Besties, the human cost to geopolitical unrest and war, it's devastating. But there's an economic cost, too. Because when geopolitics escalate, so do prices. For our third and final story, United Airlines is borrowing a strategy straight from Facebook. You're about to get targeted ads in the airplane seat right in front of you. Yeah, we just wrapped up the busiest quarter of travel in United States history, didn't we, man.

Odds are you or someone you know is still stuck on the top. Another 30 minutes. Oh my God. But Jack, you just flew across country in December, didn't you, man? I did. I was flying back from our T-Boy Live show, SFO through Newark to Vermont. Okay, so Yeties, then Jack noticed something that got us curious and it turned into this story.

Jack, you want to tell us more, please? I was sitting in seat 17. Hey, there was a window this time. Thank you, United. Congrats. And I was about to watch a movie because the Wi-Fi was spotty. But first, I had to watch. an ad. Okay, here's where things get interesting. Jack, can you describe the ad that you saw in your

seat 17A on that United Flight? It was an ad for Uber, and they showed like a go-getter dad grabbing a bunch of suitcases and preparing and arriving really early to the airport. Okay, so this was an Uber ad in your seat on the United Flight. Specifically for Uber Reserve, for all the airport dads out there that want to have everything set up to arrive on time. Jack, this doesn't sound just like an ad, Does it, man. It was literally for me. I had used Uber Reserve that morning, Nick. I'm that much of an airport to add.

Yetis, this was the perfect ad because this ad was clearly intended for a 35-year-old active father who happens. To be the best one, yeah. It was you. It was Jack. It felt like the ad was for me. So Jack and I jumped in T-boy style and we discovered this story from the Wall Street Journal. United Airlines is considering barring a strategy core to social media. They're considering targeted ads on airplanes.

Yeties, Nick and I have told you before, where there are eyeballs, there will eventually be ads. United Airlines flew 150 million eyeballs just last year. But we have to update that catchphrase. Where there are eyeballs and data, there will be targeted ads. Because Yeties, United Airlines, is considering using data from your ticket purchase to put specific ads into your seat. After all, they know your home address. what credit card you used, they know your name, they might know your age, they do know your age. Jack, they got a lot of data on you. For example, let's say you're a 42-year-old mom flying a

cabo with her kids for a little bit of vacation. You're going to start seeing an ad for baby swimwear targeted just for you. Or Jack, let's say you're a 67-year-old sales executive flying to Albuquerque for a conference. That literally United Screen is going to show a B2B software enterprise solution just for you. Maybe you're sitting in business class? Oh, we have a special caviar subscription just for you. What if you're sitting in row 87 by the back bathroom? We're not showing you a caviar subscription. No, you're not going to see that ad. Yeties, this begs the big question. Why is United Airlines borrowing an ad strategy from the tech industry? They're doing targeted ads because they can make more money that way. Besties, target ads, they're more effective at converting

to sales. If so facto, advertisers are willing to pay more for them. So United is going to suck Mark Zuckerberg. They're going to steal his idea for data-driven targeted ads. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at United? It's time to rebrand the targeted ad to the tailored ad. Yeah, these controversial opinion here, Jack and I were talking about, we like targeted ads. Like, we don't mind it. We enjoy seeing targeted ads, don't we, Jack?

Sure, a targeted ad means that Mark Zuckerberg knows our age, our gender, our location, and what we've recently browsed online. Yeah, that's kind of creepy. But targeted ads are better than the office. alternative, which is non-targeted ads. Yet, he's Jack and I would rather see an ad for new running sneakers than for an arthritis medication. We'd prefer something that's relevant to us than something that's completely unrelevant to us.

So here's what we think the problem is for targeted ads. The problem is the branding. Targeted ads need a rebranding. Nobody wants to be targeted. That sounds like a threat. So scary. Instead, call them custom ads or personalized ads. Or how about bespoke ads?

After all, TikTok has a for you page. for personalized content. Targeted ads are for you ads. So the way we see it, targeted ads are better ads. So let's rebrand them to tailored ads. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? As Harry Potter sets records on Broadway, they're creating a new Harry Potter TV series on Max.

It's okay to reinvent the wheel, as long as it's for a different passenger. For our second story, Mersk is rerouting at shipping vessels around Africa to avoid conflict in the Red Sea. When geopolitics escalate, so do our prices. And our third and final story is United Airlines. They're considering showing targeted ads

based on flyers' personal information. Targeted ads, they need a rebrand. Let's call them tailored ads. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, reusable cops can now be used on every Starbucks run because every Starbucks at every location

will now accept them. Huge news for thermos, junkies out there like me. Just top off the Stanley. Starbucks says they're leading a cultural movement away from single-use plastics. And second, Fidelity, which helped Elon buy Twitter, just mark down their value of Twitter again. Fidelity believes the company now called X is worth 72% less than what Elon paid for it. And finally, Jack and I have an update from the World Darts Championship. Yes, that is a real thing. The 16-year-old boy named Luke Littler just lost. in the finals after a Cinderella run.

Luke, it was a heck of a run. Congratulations, you still win $200,000 for finishing in second place and darts. Oh, by the way, congrats to the whoever beat that little boy. Kind of messed up, you just didn't let him win. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Justin Fetrell from lovely Denver, Colorado. Hey, Nick, Jack, do you know why Motel 6 got its name? In 1962, the cost of an original night's stay in a motel 6 was $6.

Whoever branded Motel 6 is not familiar with the concept of inflation. I think the effort to his motel inflation adjusted 1999. It's Motel $92 plus resort fee, plus accommodation fee, plus local food and tax fee. Minus the mini fridge. Motel plus these six other fees. Yeties, you look fantastic today. And if you have got the best fact yet, and if you want to get your voice on this pod,

Jack, how do you whip that thing up? We got a link in this episode description. You can submit your best fact yet with a video or a voice memo. Or go to t-boypod.com and drop your voicemail right there. Now, Jack and I got to jump on some planuary planning. We still got a little bit more planning to do, don't we, man? Yeah, we do. We do a little bit more planning.

We have the whole month of January. I think I'm adding to the plan. To plan. I was kidding. I was going to take you to the Harry Potter musical in April. Please do. I'm not stopping you. Oh, now I'm putting it on the plan.

Yeti's Jack and I. We'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy 30th birthday to Yeti, Adam Goldblum, from lovely White Plains, New York. Happy birthday to Charlie Gonzalez, who's doing logistics over in Chicago. And Richie Lair is turning 29 and got a new job at the Yale New Haven Hospital,

not too shabby. Huge happy birthday to Dan Howard in Grafton, Wisconsin, whose favorite color, get this, it's Slam and Salmon. And a happy belated birthday to Yeti Nadia Fernandez celebrating in Brockton, Massachusetts, just as I'd bother. And happy belated birthday to Will Shane in Oakland, California. And we got to drop a shout out for our bestie Danica, who is a crushing life as a yoga teacher in Elliot Maine. And she's got a special package headed her way in Slamming Salman. Just extend that Shavasana until it arrives.

It's worth the way. And to anyone else, celebrate something today, make it a T-Bor. Celebrate the wins. Harry Borter. Harry Baw. Harry Potter. Not Harry Bona. A-Bor.

Five points from House T-boy.