The Best One Yet - 🍺 “The new #1 beer” — Modelo’s Millennial Magic. Mercedes’ AI car. Pixar’s missing magic.

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

The Bud Light Boycott just resulted in a new #1 US beer: Modelo Especial — This Mexican beer’s boom was drank by Millennials. Mercedes Benz just activated 900K of its cars with a voice AI copilot — So we think it’s the birth of the companionship economy. And Disney’s newest Pixar movie, Elemental, just flopped at the box office — But we think Pixar can get out of its slump thanks to its “Brain Trust.” $STZ $BUD $DIS $MGBYY Want merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.com Follow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypod And now watch us on Youtube ________________________________________________ 0:00 - Intro 1:11 - Netflix Pop up restaurant 3:30 - America's #1 Beer 7:23 - Mercedes + Chatgpt 12:54 - Pixar's Elemental 17:16 - Takeaways 17:49 - Best Fact Yet 19:28 - Shoutouts 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. Welcome back. It is Tuesday, T-Boy Tuesday, June 20th. And today's pod is the best one yet. Welcome back from the three-day weekend. And a happy four-day work week to you, my friend. Stocks are entering this week at their highest point in over a year. Stocks, you're looking fantastic. Keep doing what you're doing, baby. Can I keep doing what I'm doing baby? I love what you're doing. Why don't you keep rolling for a story? By the way, no baby yet? No baby yet. We still got some time, Jack. For the first. first time in a lifetime. We now have a new number one beer in America. You ready for it? Modelo Espacio. Yet is Modelo. It isn't just a Mexican beer. It's a millennial beer. For our second story, 900,000 cars from Mercedes-Benz can now activate ChatGPT as their co-pilot. We just found the first car that can have a conversation. And our third and final story is Disney's Pixar. That's the studio behind Toy Story Finding Nemo Inside Out. They just dropped the number.

another movie this past weekend. But here's the question everyone's wondering. Is Pixar on a losing streak? Does Disney have writers block? Did Pixar press pause? But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix. I mean, this is how you go into a great week, Jack. Yeties, we've talked before on this pod about the pivot to experiences.

Oh, the pivot to experiences. We millennials, we want less stuff, more stuff to do. So a lot of companies are pivoting to experience too, including Netflix. Get this. Netflix is opening a pop-up restaurant in Los Angeles. That's right. A restaurant by Netflix. Can we talk about this, Jack? Let's jump in T-Boy style. For two weeks, starting June 30th, you can bite into some Bridgeton. You can get a taste of some Tiger King.

Netflix must be figuring you can't lick your screen. But you can lick a plate. So this is a menu based on content. It's a prefix based on a plot. That's what it is. Now, it ain't no squid game calamari, though. Man, this ain't no stranger things egg a waffle, is it, Jack? Netflix's first restaurant is a chef's table. Literally.

This is a chef's table with chef's table. You like the show chef's table? Like, those are the chefs. Those are the chefs in this restaurant. They're the chefs from chefs' table. And like, maybe you like Great British Bake-Ot. Nadia, is she cooking the crumpets, Jack? I heard she's cooking the crumpets.

Is that Mary Barry I see in the kitchen? One sec. One sec. This is the first ever screen-to-table restaurant. And they're hoping your physical binge. Leads to digital binging. Yeti's Netflix stock, it's up 50% so far this year. Okay, actually, Netflix's stock is up 150% in the last year.

So Netflix is feeling pretty confident. Netflix is feeling actually a little cocky. What the heck, Reed Hastings, let's open a restaurant. Is this going to be free for Netflix subscribers or what? At least let us skip the intro and get right to the entree. And when I'm done with the dessert, don't immediately feed me the next meal. I kind of hate that. Although, we kind of love that.

No, I want to watch the credits and hear the music, man. What do we want to keep eating? Jack, let's hit our three stories. Fifteen 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 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. For our first story, we have got a new number one beer in America. But that beer is not American.

That beer is Modelo Especial. It's the top U.S. beer for a surprising reason. The number one beer in America, it's been Bud Light for as long as beer has been tracked in America, right, Jack? But Bud Light is being punished by a boycott because they did an influencer promotion

with a trans person. Bud Light went for inclusivity, but it got a boycott instead. And that led to some shocking news. For the first time in decades, we have a new number one beer in America. And that number one beer is not Miller Light

and it's not Coors Light. It's not Natalie. And it's not some crazy craft beer quadruple sourdough IPA that Nick can only have a couple sips up before sliding over the table to me to finish for him. I'm a lightweight. What can I say? I'm a lightweight, chap. He is such a lightweight.

Thank you for finishing my beers. Always, Nick. Always. But yet he's that new number one beer in America. It's Modello Espcial. Modelo Especial. It's a Mexican logger, baby. It comes in a can, comes in a bottle.

You've seen it. It's the gold wrapper that gives it away. You can't miss it. To remove the top, you got to remove a little gold. foil, too. And according to Nielsen, Madello became the top selling beer in America just last May. That's right. Modelo controlled 8.4% of the market in May compared to 7.3% for Bud Life. Now, Jack, we should sprinkle on some context here. Something that is Moe and Portante. Yeah. Last month, we had Cinco de Mayo. Right, right. That's Modelo's month, you know?

So, Madello really searched in May partially because of the holiday of Cinco de Mayo. It's like December with Mariah Carey's Christmas song. But here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. We dove in T-boy style, and there is more going on with Madella. Medello's March to Number One is actually a decade in the making story. And it's also hilariously ironic. Yes, because A.B. InBev, the company that owns Bud Light, used to own Madello Especial, too. But then they sold Madello's U.S. rights to a liquor company called Constellation Brands in 2013.

Back then, when Bud Light sold Madelo to its top rival, Madelella was not even in the top 10 for beers. Corona was the Mexican king. Corona was dominating Mexican beer sales. But in the past decade, while U.S. beer sales have been flatter declining, Mexican brands overall are booming. Yeah, Jack and I've been noticing this. We've been calling this the Great Serva Seurge.

Modelo aspecial sales have been growing by 17% in America the last four years. While Budlites have been declining the last four years, the Great Servaise a surge. In fact, Madelo Especial was on. pace to pass Bud Light by next year, even without the boycott. Even if Bud Light wasn't getting bought up right now, Madello was going to end up becoming number one. Which means Medello really is a specia. But seriously, if you know some limestocks, Jack and I have been curious about this. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Madela? Madelo has gone from Mexican beer to millennial beer. Yeties, our first thought here,

it must be the Hispanic market. The Hispanic market is the fastest growing demographic in the United States, so that must be driving Modello sales. And that is. And that is, our first thought, is definitely part of it. But the numbers show there's something else at play, too. Get this. Four years ago, 70% of Modelo's consumers were Hispanic. But Jack, what's that number today? Today, it's shifted to 50-50, 50% Hispanic, 50% non-Hispanic. And here's what that means. Most of Madello's growth isn't coming from the Hispanic community. It's coming from everyone else. And here's why. Bud Light, all the craft beers, even Corona. They're associated with older generations of Americans. Millennials, we're more likely to want a brand that's curated, that's foreign, something that tells a story.

Medello, it looks like, and even tastes like Budweiser, but it's a different brand and delivers a different message. And that's a different story. Medello Especial is now number one in America because it's gone from Mexican beer to millennial beer. For our second story, Mercedes and ChatGPT just partnered up for the first ever A-I car. And we're witnessing the birth of the companionship economy. Now, Yiddies, let's play a little word association here. Jack, here we go, here we go. When I say Mercedes, what do you picture?

I think huge SUV at a ski resort, at a valet at the hotel. You're not in a Mercedes unless you own a lot of sweaters. You've got to have sweaters on. But Mercedes is trying to make themselves full-on Silicon Valley. Yeah, they're doing less Connecticut suburb, more Silicon Valley. Like, less vineyard vines, more Patagonia fleeces. Here's the news. Mercedes-Benz just became.

the first car to add chat GPT inside. We're talking heated seats, antilock brakes, and an AI voice assistant sit in shotgun. Right now, almost a million Mercedes Benz drivers can activate chat GPT in their car. This may be you listening right now. Like, you could actually activate chat GPT in your Mercedes at this moment. All you have to do is say, hey Mercedes, I want to join the beta program. And then your car turns into an AI car. It starts talking to you.

Now, yet he's here's what Jack and I thought was really interesting about this story. This new feature, it isn't about commands, it's about conversation. We've been able to command cars for a while now. Yeah, like you can tell your Mercedes to turn down the volume or turn up the AC. Yeah, Alexa does that too. This new feature, it offers conversation with a voice-based AI. So here's how this is going to go down. Let's see you're driving to Philadelphia.

You can ask the AI about what restaurant you should go to. You're going to be like, hey, you got anything near Ridden House Square? It's going to be like, yeah, do you like Israeli food? I love Kuskous. Oh, I'll get your reservation. It's a half. Boom, that was your conversation. You can also say, hey, why is Philadelphia called the city of brotherly love, by the way?

And the car is going to pivot. It's going to start talking to you about the history of Philadelphia instead. But it's not just practical applications. You can have, like, existential conversations. All right, yet is here's where things get wild. Instead of passively listening to the radio, you can have a deep conversation about the meaning of life. I mean, Jack, you got a two-hour ride down to Philadelphia. You could start, like, sharing things about it.

your childhood, like the chat GPT becomes your therapist for the ride. So, Yetis, this is a robo passenger sitting right there in the car with you all the time. We're talking about AI that just called shotgun on your ride. Luke Skywalker had R2D too. Yes. You're going to have this AI copilot. Exactly. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies in artificial intelligence? We're witnessing the birth of the companionship economy. Yeties, Jack and I were talking over the weekend, and we realized we've never had a true companionship industry. at scale. Companionship hasn't been in industry because you get companionship from other people or from pets. Or if you get it from movies, podcasts, and books, those are like another form of companionship.

True. But those forms of companionship are one-way relationships. Right. You consume it and that's it. On the other hand, true companionship is a two-way relationship. You engage with each other and have meaningful conversations. Well, with artificial intelligence, we're seeing the potential to commercialize companionship at scale. And that could mitigate the growing loneliness crisis that we have across the world. For example, a Mercedes driver can get companionship while stuck on I-95. And a lonely 95-year-old can get companionship in life. So the way Jack and I see it, a huge opportunity for AI, it's the companionship economy.

For our third and final story, Pixar is Elemental. The movie just premiered in theaters over the weekend, and Disney hopes it'll break their losing streak. We believe Pixar will get out of its slump. Yes, we do. Because of its brain trust. Great term brain trust. But Jack, before we jump into that, did you take the Podson to see Elemental this weekend? Not yet. Not yet. We should describe it. Let's talk about this thing. Elemental is a love story based in a fictional element city. Yeah, it includes water, fire, land, air, and the residents all live together in harmony in this Pixar film. This is classic Pixar. It's an adorable lesson about tolerance and diversity for children to see. But because it's Pixar. They're also weaving in the adult jokes right over

the kids' heads. Yeah. Water's going to accuse air of passing wind. It's a great long. But yet is, there's a problem facing Pixar. We expect laughs and maybe some tears from this movie. Yes, we do. But we don't necessarily expect money from it. Yeah, because this latest Disney Pixar movie is only projected to bring in $45 million on opening weekend. To sprinkle on some box office context, That's not great. No, it's not. In fact, Jack and I were looking at it. The last four Pixar movies have really underperformed at the box office.

So analysts have been asking the question, has Pixar lost its magic? Has Pixar lost its mojo? Yeties, to understand Pixar and the slump they're currently in, we have to look at their history. Which is perfect because Jack, didn't you just finish a book on Pixar's history? Right after the Brooklyn Bridge book, I read the Pixar book. It's like a library going to do. on right now. What we got on the shelf, man. Pixar took the world by storm in

1995 when they made the first ever computer animated feature length film. And that film was Toy Story, and that film had an immediate impact. One year after the Lion King had plain old animation, Toy Story had next generation computer graphics.

Yeah, Jack, remember those like Mr. Potato Head graphics, those made the Lion King look ancient. And over the next decade, they made more and more franchise hits. Pixar whipped up finding Emo, Up, Cars, Incredibles, Inside Out. They were just hit after hit after hit. But today, critics point out that their last hit at Pixar was over five years ago.

Yeah, Jack, which hit was that, by the way? It was Toy Story 4, Nick. Poor, which, like, that's a sequel. It's a sequel sequel. That's a double sequel. That is not what you don't want to be based on your business off of. Woody and Buzz, they can't carry the company on their backs forever. Yeah, Rex is getting tired out there, man.

Now, Nick and I should point out, the pandemic has a lot to do with Pixar slump. That is a great point. And why is that, Jack? I watched Luca with Wilder. It's a great movie. I know. You've been telling me to watch it. It looks like a great movie.

Italy, fun, lovely story. But Luca went straight to Disney Plus because COVID prevented it from entering movie theater. And that prevented Luca from bringing in big box office money. But here's the thing, Yetis, Jack and I don't think Pixar's slump will last. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Disney's Pixar? How do you break out of a slump? You trust your process. You trust your process. Yeties, Pixar's first three movies, they all were hits and they're all by the same guy. His name was John Lasseter. He did Toy Story, then he did a bug's life, and then he did Toy Story too.

So here's what Pixar was thinking. To scale beyond that one guy, Pixar created the Brain Trust. The Brain Trust. That's Pixar's experienced a team of creatives. They meet regularly with all the new writers and all the new directors, about their movies. And here's the wild thing. With that brain trust, Pixar institutionalized their constructive and collaborative creativity. And we're confident Pixar will break out of this lump because they have that brain trust still today. They have that brain trust. They have that process. And honestly, Jack and I were thinking about this. Jack, we have a process too. Like this pod runs on a process. We have a template and we have a system that we use to build each and every

episode of the best one yet. We get creative within that template. But every day we start with a template for every single story. And thanks to that process, even if we're exhausted, we turn to our process and we trust that it will work. So that's what Jack and I are thinking. Pixar, they built a process. And now it's time to trust that process. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday?

Modelo Especial is the new number one beer in America. This Mexican beer is also now a millennial beer. For our second story, Mercedes is letting drivers activate voice-based chat GPT in their cars. That is, we are witnessing the birth of the companionship economy. And our third and final story is Pixar. Pixar hopes to break their losing streak with Elemental, which premiered on Friday. Jack, how do you break out of a slump?

You trust your process. You trust the process. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Raysa Diaz Quiano over at Columbia Business School in New York City. I don't know the answer to this one, by the way. But in 1999, there were two countries where Coca-Cquist. Coca-Cola was not the number one soda in that country. Only two countries on Earth where Coca-Cola was not number one.

And what are those two countries? I'm thinking what country has like a home soda. I like where you're thinking. I like, do you have, have you read a book on? I feel like you got a book you can work out on this one, Jack. I don't know. Is Dr. Pepper like a Canadian beer or something? Okay.

Where is interesting? I go to Canada, for one, randomly. I don't know, man. Brazil. I guess you're in the right hemisphere? The answer is Scotland and Peru. The only two countries in the 90s where Coca-Cola was not number one. Which begs the question, what was number one in those countries?

Oh my God, I'm so glad you asked Jack. In Peru, it was Inca Cola. And guess what happened to Inca Cola? It got bought by Coca-Cola. It got bought by Coca-Cola. And what about Scotland? I don't actually know. Follow up that fact yet.

Somebody's going to send it in. Oh, Wednesday's fact. We got a good one. What was the number one soda in Scotland in 1999? Yetis, help us out. Yetis, you look fantastic to kick off the four-day work week. Jack, the onesies are also looking fantastic. The fucking great on the website.

Google Gaga Grey. Yes. Slamming salmon pink. Oh, one more. And besty blue. Yeties, all babies are the best ones yet. Make it official at tiboypod.com. With the best onesie yet.

Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Claire Pitstick turning 15 down in Austin, Texas. And happy birthday to Robert Pecorina from New York. He's turning 40. And Camila is happy birthday all the way from Columbia. Happy birthday to Rob Brager in Richmond, Virginia.

And Joaquin Baez, happy birthday down in West and Florida. Happy birthday to Leo Lopez, celebrating with a big trip to San Diego. And Meg Patel is celebrating the birthday from 14,000 feet because he is going skydive. And happy birthday to Grace and. Fung, who's celebrating with a big old bowl of strawberries over in California. And J.J. DiO. Lavera is turning 25 down in lovely Los Angeles, legendary Yeti. And happy 37th birthday to Derek Pizzo in Fernandina Beach, Florida. And Taylor Simonian is open her small business wishbone boutique, Taylor.

Congratulations on kicking off the entrepreneurship. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney. and Netflix. Thank you so much for teeing me up to

to use the book. Dude, whip out the book. Although I was worried, you might go, which reminds me as something from the Brooklyn Bridge.

It's like, oh, we don't have time. You're like, no, no, no, no. No, no. So Robly takes these wires.