The Best One Yet - 🧙 “Wicked’s Green” — Wicked’s color strategy. Froot Loops’ dye drama. Europe’s startup bruise.

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Wicked’s opening weekend doubled Gladiator II… and it’s thanks to Wicked’s color strategy.Kellogg's Froot Loops just became a political debate… because of RFK Jr. and artificial flavor.Northvolt was Europe’s biggest startup ever… but it just went bankrupt.Plus, Butterball turkey is the biggest turkey seller in America… and the only one with a hotline.$K $KLG $MATWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show — The Best Idea Yet: 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.—-----------------------------------------------------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. Welcome back. It is Monday, November 25th. 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. And to all those enjoying the Thanksgiving nine-day weekend, stay in those sweatpants. We see you and we hear you and we got you. To those of you working like we are, it's just T-minus 72 hours until that turkey day. And Jack and I will be here with you the entire time. Jack, we got three fantastic stories for the show. What's on today's T-boy? For our first story, Wicked, crushed Gladiator 2 in their opening weekends at the box office. But it was all driven by a single color. Wicked green the color. For our second story, it's North Vault. North Volt was Europe's biggest startup ever. It had raised $15 billion. But this startup just went bankrupt, and that tells us all a whole lot about Europe.

And our third and final story is Kellogg's Fruit Loops. Fruit Loops. Nick, a billion bowls of Fruit Loops cereal have been sold. But, Jack, fruit loops just became the biggest debate in all of politics. It's a wild one. Tukin, Sam, you're about to get regulated. But yet is, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories for Thanksgiving Week.

I love the mix today, Jack. But, Nick, there's a lot of hotline phone numbers out there, aren't there? Yes, there are. There's 911 for emergencies. There's 1,800 flowers for flowers, and I'm pretty sure movie phone is still a thing, Jack. But the most critical hotline number is actually only open one day. year. And that number is the butterball turkey hotline number, isn't it? Jack. Get this yet. He's butterball. It's the largest turkey brand in America. Turns out one out of five birds is a

butterball bird. We're eating them. And for 42 years, the people at this poultry business have hosted a Thanksgiving turkey hotline. Yeah, 1-800 butterball. It's like 9-1-1-1-1-white meat. When your company's name is seven letters long, you make a 1-800 phone number out of it. It's actually mandatory. Just make it happen. But this 1-800 butterball, it's only open on Thanksgiving Day. Right. And they're ready to answer any turkey cooking question that you might have. Hello. Are you thawing the bird? Are you carving the bird? Oh, you tried to be a hero and fry the bird. Here's the wild part. They get 200,000 phone calls every Thanksgiving. Oh, and in case you're curious, si, si, si hable a Italian. 200,000 calls. Nick, that's half as many as a typical 9-1-1 day. Jack, add up the numbers. And that means that the Thanksgiving Butterball hot.

line is the second most called number in the country this Thursday. Only on Thanksgiving, but yes, it's the second most popular number in America. But funny thing, Yetty, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and we got the recordings from last year's Butterball phone calls. We got the highlights, man. Seriously, Butterball published, like, the best phone calls that they got. Get this, one person called Butterball to say their turkey was bidden by a raccoon. And they asked, can I still eat it? Another person called up Butterball and said that they were frozen turkey was 15 years old. But it's been frozen the whole time. So can I eat it? And you know, one dad tried to thaw the turkey in a warm bath while his kids were bathing. Interesting. And they said, hang up the phone and call 911, sir.

And social services. Yet he's 1,800 Butterball. They have your answers to your turkey questions. Unless the turkey is attacking you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then call 911. Yeah, then call 911. But to quote the Ghostbusters, what are you going to call Butterball? 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 cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 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. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

For our first story, the winner of Hollywood right now, it's Wicked. Wicked shows the huge strategic value of a signature color. All right, Jack, we've got Glickid, Wiki-Wiky-Wiki, which one do you want to go with, man? Gladiator and Wicked. Both of those movies debuted this past weekend. Oh, and then Moana, too, that hits theaters on Wednesday, so it's going to become a Glickad Wickey-O-Wana weekend kind of thing. And these three movies are the biggest draws for movie theaters since Barbenheimer.

Jack went and saw Gladiator 2 over the weekend, Jack, you still got a little popcorn schmutz on you, right? You missed a spot. One second. Movie theaters should really provide floss. Your people should take. talk to AMC's people, Jack, will make it happen. In the meantime, Yet he's opening weekend for Wicked. What kind of numbers are we seeing, Jack? Pretty wicked, Nick. Sales at the movie

theaters were the highest grossing ever for a movie based on a musical. By the way, Besties for the Wickedly Uninitiated, Wicked is the prequel to the Wizard of Oz. It is the story of two witches before Dorothy ever enters the scene. Wicked's also been on Broadway as a play since 2003. But Wicked, the movie is now expected to bring up to 140 Mawks. million dollars in its opening weekend, not too shabby. Which would be double the box office sales of Gladiator 2's opening weekend. And if you add in Moana this coming weekend, then the Wicked Gladiolana weekends are expected to beat Barbenheimer at the box office. But Wicked's dealing with a problem that none of those other movies are dealing with. This didn't happen in the

Gladiator movie, Jack. What was the issue? Wicked has a sing-along problem. AMC theaters, they had to issue a warning because people were going to Wicked and belted out defying gravity in the highest possible octos. They were singing along with the musical, which is a problem if you don't like people singing along. But spoiler yetis, this is actually Wicked Part 1. It's only the first of two movies. The second one comes out next year. They're also doing a special sing-along screening starting in December for people who do want to sing along in the theaters.

Which means Wicked as a franchise is going to have three movies. Wicked is too popular. If you know, you know. I do know. I actually saw Wicked on Broadway. And you like what I did there, Jim. I did. That was good. But Besties Jack and I got curious.

How did Wicked's buzz get so big? What was the secret check? Wicked is using collabs as a magic spell. Wicked is letting others market for them. Yeties, a phenomenon, Jack and I have been studying, is that fans today don't just buy one ticket. They go for the full immersion. They buy a lot of things.

If you're a fan of Wicked, you're not just going to see the movie. You want to live the movie. And that's why Universal extended the Wicked IP to food and fashion of all price ranges and beyond. 60 different collabs we're talking. 60 different collabs. In fact, D.Pop, the clothing website, said that searches for Wicked are up 500%. And searches for Galinda are up 3,000%.

If you're short on cash, you can buy a $30 Wicked Green Gap tote bag. If you got a lot of cash, you can buy a $3,000 Mark Jacobs green bag. That's the interesting difference here. They've done a range across the income spectrum when it comes. to all these collaborations. Those viral Stanley Tumblers, they made one in Alphaba Green. And of course, they sold out immediately.

So now they're 300 bucks on eBay. But funny trend we've noticed, Yeties. All the top-selling wicked collabs, they all happen to be the same precise color. We call it Wicked Green. And everything turning wicked green has us wondering, how does a single shade become a profit puppy?

It's not just because it's become popular. That was no good. No singing a lot. I think that was okay, Jack. I think it's a work in progress. No, it's a working. We're leaving it on the pod. We're leaving it on the pod.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Wicked? To scale a brand, find its lowest common denominator. Now, yet, it is in the movie. Alpha's green skin is caused by an elixir that her witch mother drank that was then passed on to her chronologically in the Magic Kingdoms. In real life, that green color is a very specific green that took months for the studio to make. Yeah, it's actually the color code 5-4A. 737. And that specific color shade, it now represents the entire business of Wicked.

That's why over 60 brands have collabed with Wicked, just using that shade of green. Now, Barbie's movie did the exact same thing last year, over a hundred different collabs, all based on the same shade of pink. Color code E-0218A. University in North Carolina has trademarked their specific color blue, and Home Depot has trademarked their specific color of orange. A trademarked color. It's great. It allows brands to speak without using words, a logo, a name, or even fonts. All you need is that specific shade of green, and you know that that product, that is a wicked product. Wicked is a case study in scaling a brand by finding its least common denominator.

In this case, the color. For our second story, a European disciple of Elon Musk created the world's biggest electric car supplier. But it just went bankrupt. And it says a whole lot. about Europe's venture scene. Now, Jack, we have studied a whole lot of companies on this pod, but I got to say, Northfold, it has the most extremely literal name I think I've ever heard before. Because they built one of the northern most factories in the world.

Way up in Sweden. They are just below the Arctic Circle. You're like, oh, what's a good spot for the office? I don't know. On the tundra? Why just build it on the tundra, guys? And that factory, it builds huge batteries for electric cars and the energy transition. And that's why this company, Northwalt, has been the best-funded startup on the entire continent.

North Volt. North Volt. Based in Sweden, North Volt got $15 billion in funding. Jack, could you sprinkle on a little context for us? That's the fourth most funding for a startup ever in this world. North Volt, they got investments from Volkswagen, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BlackRock, Jack, why don't you sprinkle on a little more context for us over there? To build out a bunch of battery factories, they got the most funding of any startup in European history. Going back to the Renaissance, Yetis.

But Jack, how are things looking up north for our buddies over at Northfault? Not good. The money is gone. Last week, North Fult declared bankruptcy. So besties over the weekend, Jack and I got curious. How did the biggest funded startup in the history of Europe suddenly disappear? To answer that question, we have to go back a decade. Because Northfault actually begins with Tesla. Yeah, interesting detail here.

But the founder of this company, Peter Carlson, had been working at Tesla for four years, and he noticed that batteries were the most important part of the electric car. But virtually every battery was made in Asia. So he decided to return home to Sweden and build the future of electric vehicles with the most important thing, the battery. His mission was to break Asia's dominance of batteries and give the world a European option. He basically wanted to build the IKEA for electric vehicles. That's what he was doing. But sadly, he simply blew it.

Ten years later, while Tesla has scaled remarkably well, Northfault didn't, and now North Fult has bankrupted. Get this. The factory in Northern Arctic Circle we told you about, it was only running at 1% capacity. And then, instead of fixing the operational issues, the CEO was busy pitching investors to raise more money. Yeties, Jack and I, we've talked to you about entrepreneurship in terms of vision,

innovation, and disruption. But this story shows none of that. matters if you can't manage, execute, and operate. Now, Jack, we should point out Northfold, they could still rise from the bankruptcy ashes. There's still potential here, an incredible amount of assets. They're still operating. They could find financing. They're replacing their CEO. They could come back from this. But in the meantime, there's something way bigger buried under that Arctic snow, and it's our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Northfault? The innovation gap between the United States and Europe has never been wider.

Now, yet he's in America, the biggest industry is tech. Our seven biggest companies are the seven biggest companies in the world, and they're all tech. Europe's biggest tech company is SAP from Germany, and that's the 30th biggest company in the world. Oh, and we've got even more. Jack, what's that wild stat you shared about Nvidia? Invidia stock is worth $3.5 trillion. That's their market cap. And what is that equal to? bigger than the entire stock markets of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, or any other European country. One company is worth the stock markets of all those European companies. Sit down again.

Now, Yeti's Europe. It has some incredible startups. They've got big ones like Klarna and Revolut. They've got a whole bunch of talent, a bunch of our listeners, incredible talent over there. They got Spotify, an amazing company based in Sweden. But Northfault was Europe's biggest startup. It was like Europe's Open AI, but now it is bankrupt. So, Yetis, this story highlights just how far behind Europe is compared to the United States in tech and adventure. The innovation gap, it's never been wider. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Kellogg's Fruit Loops are in the hot seat as RFK Jr. is set to take on fake children's cereals.

We'll explain in this story why Canada has natural fruit loops and America has fake fruit loops. But besties, let's start with some context. RFK Jr., the politician, is known first as the son of Robert F. Kennedy. He's known second as an environmentalist, an anti-vaxxer, and someone who's married to Cheryl, the character from Kirby Enthusiasm. He was nominated by Trump to lead our nation's health agencies, but Jack, what is his other big health policy these days? Besides vaccine policies, he hates big food. Yeah, RFK Jr., not a fan of processed food or artificial additives or colors he can't pronounce.

Which means he's not a fan of Kellogg. In fact, RFK Jr. said about Kellogg that their fruit loops get brighter colors, but they are literally poisoning our kids. Kellogg scientists respond that scientists across the world say their artificial coloring is safe. And Jack and I consumed plenty of yellow five when we were younger, and it didn't stop us from having kids, did it, Jack? Despite the rumors, no, it didn't. But Fruit Loops does spell fruit, F-R-O-O-T, which, if my grammar is correct, Jack, is not how you actually spell fruit. Well, parents tell kids to eat their fruits, and so kids are like, fruit loops. It is legally and literally not a fruit in that nice bowl of milk you got there.

But a three-year-old might be tricked. Now, Yeties, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and we notice that kids cereals do have a magically delicious history of prioritizing profits over PDF. In fact, kid's cereal is shockingly one of the most regulated products. In fact, children's cereal is one of the most regulated products out there. Yeah, like frosted flakes. They got hit hard like cigarettes. And here's why. Nick, what's your favorite cereal when you were a kid?

Okay, honestly, Jack, I would do crack on oat brand, which was like a cookie in disguise. It looked very classy. My nana always used to send me boxes of Reese's peanut butter puffs. And of course, I like cao-o-o-ky crisp, which, which is a little. literally has cookie in the name. You're basically eating your trick-or-treat candy, Jack. But Jack, what do all of these products in the kids cereal aisle have exactly in common? Tons of sugar, cartoon character mascots, and artificial dyes. It's basically like a formula, and that's why cereal is believed to be a major contributor

to U.S. childhood obesity, because Tony the Tiger made you do it. Now, in 1990, Congress passed laws regulating how food companies could advertise to kids. Because 44% of ads that kids see are for food. With the top advertising category being breakfast cereal. Well, that law Jack mentioned about kids cereal advertising basically took toucan sand off TV. Next, RFK could try to remove two can sams artificial coloring. And then, Jack, you're going to end up getting cuckoo for beige cocoa puffs. That's going to be the result.

Lucky charms are going 50 shades of gray. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? Over at Kellogg Fruit Loops. Freedom isn't sugar-free. Yeties, you may be surprised to hear this, but General Mills in Kellogg, they actually sold different versions of their kid cereals overseas.

They still do today. They do. Because in Canada and Europe, the additives and artificial flavors we have here in the States, they're illegal over there. In fact, in Canada, Fruit Loops' colors come from carrot

and watermelon and blueberries. These are natural real fruit colors. In the USA, fruit loops are much brighter colors. because they use red 40, yellow 5, and blue one. It's like a neon rainbow. What interesting experiment in 2015. Both General Mills and Kellogg volunteered to remove artificial coloring from their American kid

cereals. But guess what? American consumers hated it. Yeah, the bland colors, the different taste, the sagier cereals, like, we just stopped buying kid cereal in Isle 6. We threw it out. Some people liked natural fruit loops, but most didn't. So General Mills had to reintroduce their classic original artificial color tricks. And Fruit Loops went back to its F-R-O-O-T spelling.

Love that typo. Now, Yetis, America's freedom to choose desires are facing an outspoken opponent to artificial foods. And cereal companies like Kellogg are awkwardly stuck in the middle. Because so far, when it comes to American food, freedom isn't sugar-free. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Wicked sold twice as many tickets as Gladiator 2, and it has way more marketing collaborations. Because Wicked scaled the brand's least common denominator, the color. For our second story, it's North Volt.

Sweden's battery company for electric cars has spent all $15 billion of its funding, and it's now bankrupt. The innovation gap between the U.S. and Europe has never been wider. And finally, Kellogg's. Their use of artificial colors in cereal will be under scrutiny with RFK Jr. in charge of the FDA. But when it comes to America, freedom isn't sugar-free. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, one password. The Toronto-based password manager is interviewing banks for a potential 2025 IPO. We both use one password. Full disclosure. I have like 300 passwords in there. Yeah. And now I don't need to remember them. I think we share

some of our passwords too right now. Don't we? Yeah, we do. We even share the whole thing. Yeah, I think we're technically family members according to one password. kind of thing where they're giving you like an x3b and 42 different symbols as your password. You're not going to remember this thing. When I have to tell Alex one of my passwords, she thinks I'm like robotic. You know, at this point, if you do one, two, three, four, five, no one's going to guess that. And second, what is the most expensive shopping street in the world? Well, it's not Fifth Avenue in New York and it's not Bond Street in London. It's in Milan. Via month, Napoleon, is for the first time the most expensive shopping street in the world.

Rent on that street is $2,000 per square foot. Yeah, now, interestingly, Milan has been one of the surprise winners of Brexit. They've taken a whole lot of money away from London. And finally, Uber's newest ride option? Not Uber Black, not Uber XL. Uber XXL. They went double XL on this thing, like Gap Husky. If you and your family are pulling a home alone and you're all flying to Paris with a bunch of kids and a bunch of luggage,

hail an Uber XXL. Although we should point out the fine print, if you do hail an Uber XXL, Uncle Frank's not paying for it. And he's going to steal the water bottles in the backseat. And he seems to be hoarding my clothes. I think you took that one step too far. I don't know. You just kind of steak stuff. He takes stuff.

Now, time for the best fact. Yet this one whipped up by Jack and me because we have got a little trivia. Here's the question. The existence of what item on an Airbnb listing increases booking rates by 13%. If you put this thing in an Airbnb listing, you can charge 13% more and people will pay.

What is this thing? Is it a bidet? Is it a Pelot? you can use while you're there? Is it a margarita machine? Is it an espresso maker? What could it be? The answer is the episode of the best idea yet that drops tomorrow.

That's right. Our weekly show The Best Idea Yet, where we dive into the untold origins of the products you're obsessed with. The answer is tomorrow's episode. What item boosts in Airbnb's bookings by 13%? Tell us your guests in the comments. Yiddies, you look fantastic to start the week. Jack, you know, we got an organic cookie crisp

on the pod. Not too shabby over there. You're looking great. Maybe lose my blights, to be honest. We're going to get you some cough drops. We're going to get through this. In the meantime, Bessies, if you haven't yet drop down to rate and review the show because five stars, that helps us grow the pod. And Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy

fifth birthday to Felix Speta over in Norderstadt, Germany, just outside of Hamburg. Allis Guta, Tsumkebortstadt. And Evie is turning eight years old down in lovely Los Angeles. She's got a birthday on Thanksgiving and is listening to the best idea yet and the best one yet. Thank you, Evie. We love having you listening. Happy 8th birthday to Kira Chapurran in Gatorzburg, Maryland,

listening with her brother Adrian on the way to school right now. And a happy birthday to Morgan Emery Grover down in the beautiful Brattleboro, Vermont. I'm pretty sure we slow danced in middle school a couple times. Okay. All right. Hey, fact check team, let's get on that one. And Jeff Thomas out of Princeton, Texas is driving 52 miles both ways commuting with T-boy. Happy birthday, Jeff. We love hanging out with you. Happy birthday to Margo from Maryland, who is crushing it on her consulting project. And Andrew Codden down in Atlanta, Georgia.

Happy 20th wedding anniversary. Your wife and you are both looking fantastic. Happy birthday to Cora Kieran Call in Tallinn-Austinia, the goat developer over at Silver Ticket. And Justin Hartman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is a hardworking EMT, has got a heart full of platinum. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.

This is Jack, Nick and I both on stock of Airbnb and Peloton. Is that all you're going to say, Jack? That's all you got? Yeah, that's all I got. That's all I got.