The Best One Yet - 🏈 “The Super Bowl Pod” — Kendrick’s $0 Halftime Show. Wilson’s football monopoly. The Curse of the Commercial.

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

Dirty secret of the Super Bowl halftime show… The show costs $50M, but the performer gets paid $0.Wilson makes all of the NFL’s football’s… and their factory in Ohio is freaky.The Curse of the Super Bowl Commercial is real… and it’s coming for AI.Plus, one basketball coach trademarked the term “Three-peat”... and could make millions if the Chiefs win.$AAPL $AS $SPOTWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Monopoly 🎩. Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“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.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.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 Friday the real Friday. February 7th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. Here's the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. The people have spoken. We got more comments on Spotify than we ever had before.

I know. It was awesome to see. So, we found the three most fascinating business stories on the Super Bowl. So besties grab some wet wipes for those buffalo wings and then send this episode to your buddy who you're watching the game with this weekend. Ben, grab some placers for the celery that's going to get stuck in your teeth

because you're going to be talking about these takeaways the whole game. In the meantime, Jack, should we break and get to the takeaways? What do you think? Ready? Break! Three stories for today's show. What do we got?

For our first story, a 30-second Super Bowl commercial just hit a record high price of $8 million. But when it comes to tech trends, the Super Bowl ad is actually a curse. For our second, story. There's a wild secret about the Super Bowl halftime show. The performer is paid nothing. That's right. Tendrick Lamar will make $0 at the halftime show, so we found the ROI.

And our third and final story. For 70 years, one factory in Ohio has made every single football that the NFL uses. It's Wilson. Wilson is a publicly traded pure play ball business, and Jack and I went deep in the ball pit. But yet is, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic. Cut. A fantastic mix of stories. Love the mix. Nick, to celebrate a touchdown,

is Travis Kelsey going to get down on one knee and propose to Taylor Swift? I don't know. I didn't tell me. But you can actually bet on that along with four other Taylor Swift bets this weekend. It's going to be a wild weekend. Yet he's this Sunday.

It's Philadelphia versus Kansas City. Who is going to win the Eagles or the Chiefs? The answer? None of them. Nope. Because the real winner of this Super Bowl is a retired basketball coach from upstate New York. Get this.

Pat Riley, the former NBA basketball coach, could make millions on this football game. Not because he's betting on the game. It's because of an investment. Jack, could you sprinkle on some more context for us, please? In 1989, Pat Riley's L.A. Lakers had just won two straight NBA championship. So his new goal was to win a third straight NBA championship. But before the season tipped off, Pat called his lawyer. Because Coach Riley registered the trademark for three Pete. Three Pete, as in three and repeat, because he wanted to win three championships in a row.

What we're saying is that Pat Riley, this coach, owns the rights to three Pete in any context. So now, if your high school wins their third straight hockey championship and sells three Pete t-shirts, you got to pay Pat Riley. If your daughter is the top cookie seller in Girl Scouts and gets a three-peep badge, you got to pay Pat Riley. And if the Kansas City Chiefs win their third straight Super Bowl in a row, they're probably going to sell three-peet merch. But they're going to have to pay Coach Riley an estimated $1 million in royalties. So, Yetis, we bet you Pat Riley is rooting for Pat Mahomes this Sunday. Because he wants to repeat as many three-peteas as he can repeat.

Pat Riley's tricky trademark is the real Super Bowl winner. If you know, you know, Jack, let's hit our three-three-peat stories. Don't sue us, Pat! It's 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 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, Super Bowl commercials are a reflection of the tech zeitgeist. But they could also be a curse.

And that Super Bowl curse could be coming to AI. All right, Jack, favorite Super Bowl commercial right now on 3. go. What do you got? The e-trade babies. Yeah, that was a good. Seeing that little baby talk about balancing his portfolio, it gets me every time. I'm a sucker for those M&Ms that talk. Any kind of answer clarifies candy,

you know? Yeah. You put eyelashes on a twizzler and I'm going to be laughing for three weeks. But the red M&M kind of bullies the yellow Eminem is a little misunderstood, but Yeties, the tickets to this year's Super Bowl, their prices are down 60%. They're just aren't enough Eagles fans to compensate for Chiefs

fatigue. But viewership, at home at this year's Super Bowl will be at an all-time high. An expected 117 million people are expected to watch the game, which makes it the biggest advertising opportunity in the world. And since brands spend so much money on the ads, they post the Super Bowl commercials early on YouTube two weeks in advance. So we already know what you can expect. First, if you enjoy when Harry met Sally or The Fast and the Furious,

those commercials are coming your way. Second, if you're a Boston boy, Duncan will serve up a couple of Affleck brothers for you again this year. Hey, Dahlene, two pumps for Ben. And if you like a good conspiracy theory, Uber paid Matthew McConaughey to share a doozy in their Uber Eats commercial. But yet he's, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Every year, the best-funded new technology treats the Super Bowl like a mainstream coming out party. Three years ago, we called it the Bitcoin Bowl. Yeah, we did. Because Coinbase, FtX, and Crypto.com each ran Super Bowl ads. But months later, Sam Bankman-Freed was charged with fraud and crypto prices plummeted.

Two years ago, we called it the Super Betting Bowl, because it was the first Super Bowl to take place in a state with legalized sports betting. But MGM, Draft Kings, and Fandul each had ads, but they've all just done okay since then. And then one year ago, Timo and the electric cars, that was the focus of Super Bowl commercials. But one year after Timo and electric cars were in the Super Bowl, Timo has tariffs. It's terrified, literally. and electric car sales slowed big time last year. So, Bestie's added all up, and it appears there may be a curse of the Super Bowl commercial. When your tech industry finally has a Super Bowl commercial, finally.

The next year, your industry's not doing that well. Well, funny timing, because, yeah, who did we just discover is doing a surprise commercial at the Super Bowl? Open AI. That's right, AI. The leader of artificial intelligence is doing their first commercial on Sunday, and Google is doing an AI commercial as well. So Sam Altman might be facing a little bit of AI voodoo when it comes to the Super Bowl commercials.

Sam Altman could pop the AI bubble if there is one. Super Bowl curse may hit AI. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone watching commercials? The only thing all of America still does together is watch the NFL. Yeties, this is wild. But despite cable TV being half of what it was 15 years ago,

Super Bowl ads are more valuable than ever. sold a dozen 30-second ads for this year's Super Bowl for $8 million each. That's up 15% from last year's record. In fact, one Fox exec told Variety, uh, the only place where you can aggregate legitimate scale with one commercial is the Super Bowl. Now, let's translate what that Fox VP means. Yeah, what does that mean, Jack? The NFL owns 72 of the top 100 television broadcasts of last year. The only live TV that America watches together is the NFL debates. and Thanksgiving parade. Outside of those things, we're all siloed in personalized podcasts, YouTube videos, and social media feeds. Oh, and another reason Super Bowl commercials are more

valuable than ever? Well, actually three more reasons. First, the ads are unskippable. Yeah, you can't pay five bucks extra a month to not watch the ads. Second, the Super Bowl is relatively apolitical. Unlike X, meta, or many other advertising spaces. And finally, Super Bowl commercials are the only ads that people actually want to see. Because advertisers actually bring their A-game. Yet he's the only thing all of America still does together is watch the NFL. And that is why more than ever, the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl of advertising. For our second story, the Super Bowl halftime show costs $50 million to produce,

but Kendrick Lamar will get paid minimum wage. These are the crazy economics of the biggest concert on Earth. And he's funny thing, but the only thing, more watched than the Super Bowl? What is it, Jack? The Super Bowl halftime show. Yeah. It's a game within a game, and it's the game that's going to get your mom out of those Koso Chia.

No, the first halftime show actually happened in 1967, which I think was Super Bowl one. It believed it was Jack, and it featured a jazz trumpeter who played Miles Davis and midfield. Things changed in 1993, when the Super Bowl halftime show had its first megastar, Michael Jackson. And he moonwalked his way into A-List stardom. First time he'd ever been seen by a billion people on Earth. Ever since, it's been only A-list artists who perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. And those artists typically demand seven-figure paydays to perform anywhere. But here's what we thought was insane.

For the Super Bowl, they're paid zero. They get paid nothing. We repeat, you know, Katie Perry with the Sharks, Rearie with the pregnancy reveal, to perform at the Super Bowl, they got paid. minimum wage. Yeah, it's actually minimum wage because they don't want to break minimum wage. Yeah, they got paid 15 bucks an hour. So besties, Jack and I were fascinated. We jumped in T-boy style and we discovered the economics of the Super Bowl halftime show. What do we got, Jack? This year, Kendrake Lamar is getting paid nothing. It may even cost him money to be the Super Bowl halftime performer. All right, we'll explain. Here's how it goes down.

Apple Music actually pays $50 million to be the sponsor of the halftime show. And the NFL keeps 30 million dollars of that. It's sponsorship revenue. It's pure profit for the league. Now, the artist actually gets $15 million out of that $50 million deal. But with one big catch. All that $15 million that the artist gets, it's for the production budget. True. It can only be to pay for the concert. Yeah. The artist has to pay for the backup dancers, the balloons, the set, the fireworks, even the rehearsals. And the left shark, if they bring another left shark into the performance. The artist has to pay 3,000 part-time workers from security to marketing. Yeah, Riri, she had to spend on that. In fact, when the weekend performed in the Super Bowl in

2021, he was over budget. True. So he actually had to pay $7 million out of his own pocket to pay for his halftime show. Sit down, stand up, and write the checks again because the weekend performed at the Super Bowl, but ended up $7 million poor. So here's the obvious question. Why is Kendrick Lamar doing this show for free. Is he that determined to make Drake like have a harder time up north than Canada? Sounds like Kendrick's doing a disc track on himself. I'm not like us.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies watching the halftime show? This is the ultimate unpaid gig worth doing. Yeties, the Super Bowl halftime show is 12 minutes long. We did the math, and that is equal to 24 Super Bowl commercials, a value of $150 million. And that extremely valuable exposure boosts these musicians' entire businesses. Get this, Usher announced his concert tour right after the last Super Bowl,

and prices searched 40% because of his performance. Justin Timberlake's music streams jumped 500% after his recent Super Bowl halftime show. Oh, we love this one. Riri added 3 million Instagram followers after her Super Bowl performance. That is very valuable. Oh, and searches for her beauty brand, Fenty Beauty, surged 800% after the gig. Now, for Kendrick Lamar, this is perfect timing. It is.

Because last week, he announced his next concert, which begins in April. Tickets are on sale right now. Oh, plus, he's doing a movie with the South Park guys, Kendrick and South Park. All of this extra attention from the Super Bowl halftime show, it's going to drive demand for his future productions. So, Besties, Kendrick's free performance is actually an investment to market his entire business. Kendrick will get paid $0 for the halftime show, but he gets the biggest financial return of his life. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Ohio is home to the one factory that's made every single NFL football since 1955.

The pigskin the players hold this Sunday is a lesson on what customers value. Yeties, Da Vinci created the Mona Lisa. Beyonce created Halo and Eli Manning created a spiraling football. A perfectly thrown spiral is the magnum opus of American Jax. Isn't it, Nick? It's peak row art. You know this, but I actually taught Jack at a throw his first spiral. Oh, wait, I forgot.

No, no, you taught me. Okay. Do you see what I'm holding? I see what you're holding. This is an official NFL football. My dad got each of us brothers, one of these for Christmas. And it's the subject of today's story. But that football that Jack's holding, that masterpiece, is a will.

Wilson football made in Ada, Ohio. Makes sense. It's made in Ohio. Yeah. Football was invented there. And the Hall of Fame is still in Ohio. But funny thing we noticed, all footballs are still born there, too. The population of Ada, Ohio, is only 5,000 people. But the one factory there produces 500,000 footballs each year. Yeah. And sends 27,000 of them to the National Football League.

Five percent of their revenue comes from the NFL, the most important football buyer in the world. And get this. The NFL actually requires. that all game balls that they use are made in the USA. Now, besties, Jack and I always thought it was called American football to differentiate it from soccer. But in reality, it's more than America situation. Yeah, it is, yeah. They call it American football as a statement of pride, not to clarify.

Yeah, in fact, just like the fashion or the car industries, interestingly, even the football industry has tiers. It has different levels. And the Duke, as it's known, the official NFL football is the top of the line. It costs $150 bucks. That's basically the snitch of the gridiron. And it's actually the same ball that has been played in every single 58 Super Bowls so far. But here's the fascinating part of this story.

The brand new factory in Aid Ohio, it's built in the age of automation. But the entire manufacturing process is extremely human. Yeah, the company that owns Wilson that makes all this that built this new factory, it's actually publicly traded. It's called Amher Sports, $16 billion. We covered the IPO. But the assembly line's shockingly old-fashioned. From the hand stitching of the scene,

on this football, which is incredibly cool, to the hand breaking in of the balls, which equipment managers on each NFL team do by hand. So the entire process of making the football is a human process. It's a craft. The only part that's not is the microchip, because since 2017, each ball has been implanted with a nickel-sized chip to detect with great accuracy the speed the ball is thrown and the distance the ball is wrong. And most interestingly, Jack, that chip in the ball is going to be used like a GPS device on the field, right? Someday, refs won't have to bring out the chains to measure our first down. Instead, the chip will instantly tell the refs whether the brotherly shove was successful or not.

Great. So AI is now coming for the chain guys on the football field, Jack. So besties, that ball you see on the field, it's more than just a ball. It's actually our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over at Wilson? The closer we get to automation, the greater we value the handmade. Yeties, Jack and I see huge value in the potential for AI and robotics. It can improve quality, lower costs, huge power. But the reason Wilson can charge $150 for the Duke is that this football is made by humans. There are no robots at this factory, Yeti's.

Hands of the people of the town of Ada, Ohio. That's what makes those Duke footballs. And consumers see value in that, and they'll pay a premium for it. It romanticizes the product. It's kind of like, you know, yeah, sure, AI could be. make a podcast perfectly tailored for you. But your connection to a podcast is to the host. That's what brings value. The fact that Jack said she-moo on the podcast the other day. Instead of Timu or She-in. A robot podcast host isn't going to do it. I'm a human being, okay?

And besties, you value your handmade vase at home way more than you value your factory-made bowl. That's why people will pay a premium. $150 for the Duke, the most expensive football on the market. The closer we get to automation, the greater we value. The Handmade. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? For our first story, it was the Super Bowl commercial curse. Prices are up 15% to a record $8 million this year, and artificial intelligence is making its debut.

Because the only thing Americans still do together is watch the NFL. For our second story, Apple is paying $50 million to sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show, but Kendrick Lamar sees zero. But this is the ultimate unpaid gig. worth doing. And our third and final story, the NFL football is still made at a factory in Ohio, a new factory with no robots. Because the closer we get to automation, the more we value the handmade. But yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today that has nothing to do with the super bowl. First, a federal judge delayed Trump's deadline for workers to respond to a buyout

offer. Quick reminder, in a vague and intimidating email, President Trump offered all all two million plus federal employees seven months paid severance if they resigned. But if they stay, the email warned, they might be fired. And if they're not fired, they'd face a totally different work environment. But a judge just said that none of that was by the books, so they're postponing the deadline to look into it. Second, Amazon just announced earnings, and this was historic for Jeff Bezos. For the first time ever, Amazon passed Walmart to be the number one company by quarterly

revenue. But Amazon also projects the lowest growth on record for this year, so the stock actually fell. And finally, Snapchat's founder, Evan Schiegel, has a new job title, and this is wild. VP of product at meta? It's a fake description. It's on his LinkedIn profile. It's really funny, though. If you go to the CEO of Snapchat's LinkedIn, he says he's a loving husband, father of four boys, and VP of product at meta. The CEO of Snapchat is making a job. because Meta's Mark Zuckerberg infamously steals any feature that Snapchat launches to their app. Never forget yet, he's Snapchat. It was the first ever zucking. Instagram stories is what Snapchat used to be.

Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by our defensive coach. At the end of Sunday Super Bowl, chances are the head coach is going to get a Gatorade shower. It began in the 1980s, actually with the great New York Giants. They were the first ones to dump and waste all whole bunch of Gatorade on the coach. Now, since 2019, you can actually bet on what color the Gatorade would be that gets dumped on the coach. It could be Arctic blue, fierce yellow, rager red. What like Rager Red is a Gatorade? I'm not going to lie. I made that one up, Jack. Well, the last two times the chief won the Super Bowl, Andy Reid got purple Gatorade dumped on it. So the big question this year, what color will the Gatorade dump be? Purple is the favorite

because Andy Reid apparently loves purple Gatorade. A pop in pink and slamming salmon. That's actually the last, the lowest chance odds on Gatorich. Okay, let's wrap this up. We have a poll on Spotify. Tell us what color you think it's going to be. Yeties, you look fantastic today. Jack, I'm so glad I taught you

how to really kind of make that spiral happen over there. Your form's great, by the way. I'm going to ignore that dig at my throwing form. But Nick, I just looked into it. Pat Riley, you know he has the trademark on three Pete? Yeah, Jack. Because he wanted to win. three in the row with the Lakers? Oh yeah, we can't say three-peat. He didn't win a third in the row.

You're kidding. So he owns the trademark to the three-peat, but he's never actually had a three-peat? That is preposterous. Pat, if you're listening and we know you are, you owe us an explanation. So besties, remember to send this to whoever you're watching the game with this weekend. My money's on the Chiefs. Well, not my money, but I'm rooting for the Chiefs. I'm a Giants fan. I can never root for the Eagles. And Jack and I will see you on Monday. And before we go, a happy birthday to our former roommate Ben Zorak, 37 years old, the Z-man. It travels with a ladies carry-on suitcase, but he's all Z-man. Looks good on him.

And Gotham Morgini in San Antonio, Texas has been listening for six straight years of T-boy. Fantastic to have you with us. Happy birthday, Gotham. Happy birthday to Al Patron in New York City, who's also finishing up her MBA program at NYU. And Kelsey Albertson and Ridgewood Queen's, happy birthday to the publishing dynamo. Happy birthday to Stephen Horwitz, who's celebrating down in Silver Spring, Maryland. And Victor S. is turning 13 years old down, and Katie, Texas, dad is an act of Marine.

Thanks for your service, dad. And Victor, happy birthday. Happy 16th birthday to Caroline Moore, who's swimming with the manatees to celebrate. And Sasha Gang and South Korea is sick, but recovering for the birthday. Happy 30th birthday to Hans Brownfish, who, get this, is eating a steak as big as his face to celebrate. Checks out. And Keeve Curlings turned 16 years old over. in Ulan Batar, Mongolia.

Happy birthday to Matt Friedman in New York City. Esquire. And Neil DeVay, he's got a bachelor party right now in Tulum. What a weekend for it, Neil. Congrats to Kristen Thackeray, who just sent in her final paper for that international relations degree. Jack, a lot of people told her this was not possible. And a big shout out to the Grext. A group text chain of nine epic Yetis who are celebrating 15 years of friendship in Menlo Pye.

If you know, you know, drop it in the chain. And Elena is prepping for her CFA in SF. Keep crushing the books, Elena. You got this. And congratulations to Lizzie Horvitz for relaunching Finch. Choosefinch.com. It's the destination to make sustainable purchases. She's back, baby.

This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Nick and I both on stock of Apple.