The Best One Yet - 💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

Moana 2 set a Thanksgiving movie record… Here’s Moana’s 4-part strategy to melt Frozen.Aldi is the fastest-growing grocery store in America… because of an Ikea philosophy.Music ringtones for phones are making a comeback… and Soulja Boy made $20M on it.📸 Plus, the Polaroid camera was invented by a 3-year-old (sort of)... and that untold origin story of Polaroid is the next episode of our new show The Best Idea Yet. Click here to listen: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks “The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.Giving Tuesday: Here’s where we’re givin’...Covenant House: https://www.covenanthouse.org/ Children’s Aid Society: https://www.childrensaidnyc.org/about $DIS $WMT $AMZN—-----------------------------------------------------GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, December 3rd. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. But first, a happy national Rocky Balboa Day to all those who celebrate. Rocky Fest is happening in Philadelphia right now where all the city of Brotherly Love is giving thanks to their fictional native son. Apparently all the schools in Rittenhouse Square have the day off, Jack. Not too shabby. If I can change and you can change, everyone can change. We got three fantastic stories for you, Dad Jack. Three stories, what have we got on the pod, man? For our first story, Moana, too, just had the biggest Thanksgiving weekend of movie history by a nautical mile. So we'll tell you how Moana strategically beat Frozen. For our second story, it's the fastest growing grocery chain in the country.

It's not Trader Joe's Costco or Airwant. It's Aldi. It's Aldi. The Aldi became number one by using a German philosophy. And our third and final story. Remember when people used to set their phones ringtone to their favorite music? Well, that's having a major comeback right now. Ringtones, they are back because people don't buy products, people buy memories.

But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories and try to get Nick to do another language accent thing. I don't really giant. I just do the Rocky one. I like the German one too. Yeah, I tried to do both. Jack. Yeties, yesterday we asked you our weekly trivia question. Who is the number one inventor that Steve Jobs looked up to? Who was Steve Jobs' role model? What product did Steve Jobs idolize? The answer is the Polaroid camera. The Polaroid and Edwin Land, the inventor of that Polaroid camera.

Yeties, we just dropped the seventh episode of our weekly show, The Best Idea Yet. The Untold Origin Stories of the products you're obsessed with. And this week's episode is the Polaroid camera. Because Polaroid packed an entire dark room into a single handheld camera. We'll tell you in this wild episode how Edwin Land got the idea for the Polaroid camera after a conversation with his daughter, who was three years old. And how Edwin Land took the first selfie ever like a hundred years ago. With a Polaroid camera. And how no matter what Outcast says, you should never, ever, ever, ever, shake it like a Polaroid picture. So landed today, after the this episode, check out our new deep dive show, The Best Idea Yet. Jack and I drop the link in

this episode description. Because the Polaroid camera is the best idea yet. But Jack, today's T-boy, is a fantastic show. We got three wonderful stories. How about we hit the pod, man? Andrea! Let's do it, yeah. We got it. Thank you, guys. 15 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 a norm. Jack Nick, that's a 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, Moana 2 just broke every Thanksgiving box office record, and she did it by a mile with a smile.

Crazy thing, though, Moana 1 is having a better year than Moana 2. That is crazy. We'll explain why. Yes, we will. Yetis, this one goes out to all the dads out there whose Spotify Raft is about to be topped by a Moana soundtrack. A lot of Disney show tunes on that top five list, plus baby Baluga.

If you know, you know. But Moana 2, it just set a movie theater record. Jack, what kind of a prize are we talking about here? Best five-day Thanksgiving weekend ever was set by Moana 2 this past weekend. Get this, Yiddies, from Wednesday to Sunday to Sunday. Sunday, this Disney sequel brought in $225 million at the U.S. box office Maui-Wawe. The previous number one Thanksgiving weekend was Frozen 2 back in 2019. And overseas, Moana 2, it was the top movie in every country except for China.

If you add in Wicked and Gladiator 2, then Moana Gladiwiki weekend was officially bigger than Barbenheimer weekend. You're welcome. You're welcome. The ocean chose me, too. I think I know why it was banned in China, Jack, but if I say it on the pot, I think we'll get banned in China. Now, Yeties, here's what Jack and I found wild about this story. While Moana 2 is winning at the box office, Moana 1 is still winning on streaming.

Get this, Yeties. Moana 1, which is 8 years old at this point, was the top stream movie in all of streaming for both 2023 and 2024. We repeat, Moana 1, 8 years old, number 1. in streaming. New releases? No thanks. Mommy, I want to watch Moana again. Besties, according to the Wall Street Journal, Moana One, since it began on Disney Plus, has been streamed for one billion hours. That's the equivalent of one person watching the entire movie 775 million times. Or more realistically, it is the equivalent of every child in America under the age of 12 watching Moana 15 times. the reality of the situation. Although, Jack, I heard a rumor there's one girl in Fairfield County

who has watched Moana 430 times in one day. But only 3% was watching. The other 97% was messing with her sister and taking the Legos. Now, yet he's the reason. This is so shocking is that Moana one kind of was, didn't really work in theaters, did it, Jack? It unperformed at theaters when it debuted in 2016. It had a bad box office year. So it turns out, Moana is kind of like a fine Merlot. Moana has improved with age. So Jack and I wafted that movie's aroma up into our noses to whip up a takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Disney? The Moana Voyage is a full-on media lesson. And here are four reasons why. First, Yeti's musicals are in. Both Moana and Wicked are booming right now at the box office, while Gladiator 2 is kind of busting.

Second, typical princesses, they are out. Moana is a story of a Disney princess who doesn't fall in love. It's refreshing to see Moana sailing, not swooning. So Disney, they broke the expected plot, and it worked. Another lesson here? People will pay a premium for escapism. Turns out a tropical climate beats a frozen tundra seven out of seven days. Would you rather vacation in frozen, icy Arendale, or Moana's 72 in sunny Polynesia? two of those, please. Finally, this story proves that marketing matters. Because back in 2016, Moana

underwhelmed at the box office because it got no Disney marketing. Disney focused their spend that year on Jungle Book, Zootopia, and Finding Dory instead. But now, Moana's 2024 reboot, it thrived because Moana was treated like a star. I'm not a princess. I'm the daughter of the chief. And those four reasons are why the Moana Voyage is a full-on media lesson. For our second story, Aldi is a grocery chain beloved by frugal Germans. But now, it's the fastest growing grocery chain in America because they're using an idea from Sweden. But yet he's in order for us to tell the story of Aldi grocery stores, Jack, let's start with the Dark Night Rises. In that Batman movie, Bain explains something to Batman. What does he explain?

You think darkness is your ally? I was born in the dark. That is the wonderfully delivered great quote from Batman's Dark Night Rises, and it's the same thing with Aldi. Same kind of thing, except the grocery store wasn't born in the dark. They were born in inflation. That's right, because Aldi was founded by the Albrecht brothers back in 1946 post-war Germany. And Jack, what was the economic situation back then in Germany?

In 1946, inflation in Germany was 19,000 percent per month. Oh, yeah. You bought an avocado for like a dollar? It was going to be $19,000 or Deutsche Marks the next month. It was hyperinflation. It was out of control. So the Albrecht brothers started a discount grocery chain that now has 4,000 locations in Germany and 13,000 across the world. You probably have a roommate who's an Aldi addict.

You definitely have a roommate who's working out of wine. You know who you are. We know who you are. Fun fact, by the way, Aldi is actually cousins with Trader Joe's. Are they really? I didn't see that, Jack. One of the Albrecht brothers bought Trader Joe's in 1979. But today, Aldi is the fastest growing grocery chain in America, with 2,400 stores and 800 coming.

This year, foot traffic at Aldi's in the U.S. grow by 10 to 18% nationwide, according to Business Insider. No matter how much you resist, that Aldi addict roommate is going to drag you into one of their stores this year. And the reason for Aldi's success in America... It's a German philosophy, isn't it, Jack? Or is it a German stereotype? You speak German. It's Deutsche Sparsam Kite, which translates roughly to German frugality.

Yet is in this economy? Grocery prices are up 25% since the pandemic. But not at Aldi because of Deutsche Sparsamkite. That's right, because Aldi has strategically engineered its stores and its whole strategy around Das frugality of Deutsche Sparskingkite. You're not passing German, dude. But I'm in the class. Yeties. For example, Aldi stores are typically 10,000 square feet, about a quarter of the footprint of your typical grocery store.

So Aldi saves money on overhead. And Aldi stores carry a much smaller selection, like one or two options tops for any given product. You can have the Helmand's mayonnaise or the off-label mayonnaise. That's it. Also, Aldi uses a wholesale style in their retail stores. You want that Helmand's mayonnaise? Well, you're going to have to rip one out of the box that came with 20 because we didn't unpack it for you. it all up, Jack, and what is the financial result when it comes to Aldi's Deutsche Spartzenkite? According to the Motley Fool, a basket of 20 products that cost $65 at Aldi are 54 more dollars at Whole Foods.

Sit down, stand up, and ring us up again. That's a serious price differential. And it begs the question, how does Aldi keep their prices nearly half as low as Amazon-owned Whole Foods? Well, Deutsche Sparksengite. might go further than real estate and packaging. It goes into our takeaway. So Jack Vutz does takeaway for our buddies over at Aldi. Aldi's success is thanks to the IKEA principle. Yeti's IKEA, the Swedish furniture company,

became a huge success thanks to its one profitable innovation. Don't assemble the furniture. The founder of IKEA realized that he could save costs if he shipped the furniture to customers in parts that the customers themselves could assemble. Well, it's the same philosophy when it comes to Aldi. They pass the savings onto you in exchange for you, basically assembling the groceries.

For example, they will never bag your groceries at Aldi. In fact, you have to bring your own bags to Aldi's. And like we mentioned, you have full crates exposed at Aldi. You have to unbox the soap. Their staff doesn't do it. And if you want to use a shopping cart at Aldi's, you must put a quarter. to unlock the shopping cart, and you only get your quarter back if you return the shopping cart

to the stall. In fact, Jack, did you see the aisle of shame at Aldi? You see what this is? I didn't. The middle of the Aldi stores is a special aisle that is just random and unorganized, but it's full of deals. It's probably stuff that got returned. Right. That they didn't want to use human labor to put back on the shelves. They didn't want to spend the money on the labor to put back. So you do the labor, you get the savings. It's the IKEA principle. It is. It is. It's the It's an exchange of labor for deals. Your labor to get the deals. And in this economy, that's a deal that you're taking.

And that's why Aldi is now the fastest growing grocery in America. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, music ring tones for your phone are having a resurgence. This throwback phone trend from the 2000s is driven by a shocking and unshocking age group. Oh, Yetis, let's set the scene. The Sopranos had just had their controversial series finale. Rihanna's uncontroversial umbrella had hit number one on the charts. And everyone and you yourself were devouring cupcakes at an unhealthy but healthy pace.

And then your pocket vibrates and you hear this noise. Yeties, it's the year 2007, the year that ringtones peaked. Literally, the year that ringtone revoked. revenues peaked. We were in college, and just about everyone picked music for their ringtone. That was this thing. Some ripped the music illegally on Kazah, Limewater, or BitTorrents. Others paid for their ringtones through a streaming company. And that was 2007. So, Jack, what kind of numbers was the ringtone industry putting up? At its peak, paid musical ringtones brought in $1.6 billion in revenue, according to the Record Industry Association of America.

In fact, ringtones were bigger than digital albums. Because you were paying $3.99 a month. month for access to custom Jessica Simpson ringtones. My sister's sidekick was always going off with a new Spice Girls song, and we all kind of loved it. Ringtones were a major part of the music industry back then. Soldier Boy says that he made $20 million on ringtone sales. Oh, and you just mentioned Jessica Simpson, she had millions of dollars made by doing ringtones with different people's names for when different people called you. Her record label loved it. Nick Lachey didn't. But despite all that success, the music ringtone, it died for one key reason. Smartphone notifications. Yeah, killed it. And Robocalls, they mean that we all silence our phones. And if you're unmuted, you could use the standardized

iPhone ring, which happened to come out in the year 2007 when ringtones peaked. That's why ringtone music revenue has fallen by 99% since 2007. But here's the news. You hear that? The ringtone industry is having a resurgence. And it sounds like a lot. And it sounds like a lot. lot of money. Get this, besties. The ringtone app for Android, it has 50 million downloads. Jack, just sprinkle on some context, please. That's more downloads than Series XM or title. And the top four ringtone apps, they together bring in $21 million a year in revenue, which has quadrupled since 2018, according to Sherwood. Side note, the country where ringtones are the most popular, it's actually India. India is 93% of the paid music ringtone market, but the United States is number

two. Now, if you think about it, Jack, it makes a lot of sense. Like custom ringtones, that is a cool way to audially express yourself. And you can set your phone to be silent for everything except calls. New feature, which solves the notification pinging issue. Right. You could turn volume on for your ringtone again. Because old music ringtones were a really efficient way to get the majority of people in your office to dislike you. Oh, it's fireworks by Katie Perry again. Thanks, wrong for finance. So, Bessies, if you're on the subway right now and you hear this, that's the sound of an industry rebound. So Jack, I think I'm getting a call and the call is our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the ringtone industry?

If you want to sell the future, wrap it in the past. So Yeti's ringtones are having a moment. It must be Gen Z, right? Like all the young kids are discovering something. something new. It must be kids, teens, under 20 doing all this. Get this, Yetis. The average age of a ringtone customer is 34 years old. 34. And that's interesting because that's the same group that had the music ringtone back when it peaked in 2007. In 2007, millennials were 17. It was probably the age they got their first phone like when Nick and I did. That means ringtones today are being driven by the same demographic that bought them 20 years ago. Same customer just older. customer just 20 years later. So it's not

teenagers buying it for some Y2K aesthetic, it's the exact same millennials buying them a second time. The resurgence of music ringtones is a reminder that people don't buy products. They buy memories. Basties, if you want to sell the future, wrap it in the past. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways

for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Moana 2 brought in nearly $400 million worldwide over Thanksgiving weekend. A record number. Moana's Voyage is a media lesson. Musicals, not in love princesses, and marketing. For our second store, it's Aldi. Aldi is America's fastest growing grocery chain,

with 2,400 locations and 800 more coming. It's all thanks to Deutsche Spatzingkait, which is aligned with the old IKEA principle. To be clear, it's Deutsche Sparsam Kite. We have German listeners, Nick. Gazuntite, Jack, Gazentite. And finally, music ringtones for your phone are having a major resurgence.

Music ringtones are back, because if you want to sell the future, wrap it in the past. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the Australian government has officially banned social media for kids under 16. This happened over Thanksgiving break. You might have missed it, but it's a big deal. Australia is now the first country in the world with legislation banning Instagram, Reddit, TikTok for a specific age group. It's unclear how this ban will be enforced, but it's not. it was passed by an overwhelming majority in Australia's Congress.

And second, Intel's CEO, Pat Gesslinger, is shockingly resigning from the head of America's biggest chipmaker. Gesslinger joined Intel at the age of 18 with just an associate's degree. That's it, and he rose all the way up to CEO, but his five-year turnaround plan is failing. So he's out at Intel after just three years, and two co-CEOs are taking over in the interim. And finally, on Sunday, December 1st, we had the busiest travel day in American airport history. 3.09 million people passed through a TSA checkpoint on Sunday, which is the most ever. Now, Jack, why is that stat wild?

Just three days earlier was the least busy day of the year for U.S. airports. That's right. On Thanksgiving Day, just 1.55 million people passed through TSA, which was the lowest number of the entire year. I gotta say, one and a half million people flying on Thanksgiving. Sounds like a lot. That's a lot of people. Now, time for the best fact. Yeah, this one whipped up by Jack and me because it is officially Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday, the one shopping day, not about spending on things, about spending on causes. Now, what you didn't know is that this concept actually began only in 2012 with an idea hatched at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. In the first year, $10 million was donated. But last year, $3 billion. million dollars was donated. So Giving Tuesday has grown 300x in the 12 years since it's been around.

So Jack and I were talking about it before the show. We both do give on Giving Tuesday. We were like, we should just share things we give to because everyone could be given. My favorite cause is the Covenant House, which provide shelter to homeless youth. When I was a kid, I actually did my first donation to an organization called the Children's Aid Society up in Harlem and I did the same one again this year. Love that. Covenant House, by the way, takes care of kids who pass through the foster system. But don't have anywhere to go. It's a great cause, both of them. So, Yetis, after a week of shoppy, shoppy till you dropy-droppy,

it's giving Tuesday to givey-giv-to-y-giv-t. We dropped links to Covenant House and Children's Aid Society in the show notes. Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, you are looking fantastic for Tea Boy. Wait, one second, one second. I'm getting a call. I'm getting a call. Is that Soldier Boy again?

It's Soldier Boy. And Soldier Boy is saying that everyone should go and listen to the best idea yet. other weekly show. You gotta listen right now. If you know, you know, we dropped a link in the episode description. Listen to the Polaride story. The latest episode is on the Polaroid. Jack and I, we'll see you there. And before we go, a happy belated birthday to Kate Brink, the queen of carrot cake, who's from straight out of Boston, just outside Boston. Happy birthday to Abby Mayor, the hostess with, and I can attest, the mostus. She's living in the presidio of San Francisco. Hannah Hollingsworth, the Panther of the Outer Sunset in San Francisco, celebrating a birthday.

Happy anniversary to Hariananju in San Mateo, California. Congratulations, guys, and Devin McLaughlin, L. Dev Meister, is celebrating a birthday up on the Upper East Side. Happy birthday to Anthony Whitlow in Albany, New York. And Apurva Adipali over in Bangalore, India may have, statistically speaking, a music ringtone on which they're celebrating the birthday. And happy 50th birthday to Punitha, Aurora, in Shakope, Minnesota. An OG Bestie, if you know, you know. And a shout out to Jessica Sanchez, Arnav Sharma, and Nick Goodner for correctly guessing our TBIY trivia in the Spotify comments and on Instagram.

And the answer to that trivia, Steve Jobs' big business role model? The answer was Polaroid. And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a team. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock in Intel, Disney, and Amazon. and Nick and I both own stock in Spotify. Dude, I love your rock.

It's like mildly concussed. It's like you need like a little bit of Philadelphia, a little bit of Italian, and a little bit of stage two concussion. I don't think that offends anyone. Look, I've had a couple concussions.