The Best One Yet - 📦 “Your storage unit is Hotel California” — The $11B storage war. Insta Founders’ anti-Insta app. Netflix’s sneaky car.

Episode Date: February 7, 2023

The most exciting real estate right now? Storage Units — and the #1 company just declared war on Wall Street. The co-founders of Instagram just launched their first app together since Instagram… and it’s the opposite of Instagram. And if you notice the same Chevy car show up in your Netflix shows, it’s not a coincidence: It’s Netflix’s new product placement biz.$PSA $LSI $NFLX $GM $METAFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn 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. It's Tuesday, T-boy, Tuesday, February 7th. And today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. Breaking news just as we turned on the mics. True story. Google just announced it has a response to chat GPT.

Yet these Google's got its own AI chat bot. It's launching like ASAP. But they already announced they're calling it BARD. BARD. Guess what? This chat bot named itself. Jack, what's the first story for today's pod? For our first story, did you notice the same Chevy car when you've watched Netflix lately?

Jack, I'm noticing the same Chevy car when I'm watching Netflix lately. It's not a coincidence. It's because Chevy is in the cast. Yeah. For our second story, if you've left something in a storage unit for three years, this story's for you. Because two storage unit giants just declared stock market war. And our third and final story, the co-founders of Instagram just launched their second app together. It's called artifact and there are no picks allowed.

But yeties, before we hit that fantastic mix. Fantastic mix of stories. This podcast is audio first. You can watch us on YouTube, but you're probably hearing us right now. And here's the problem with hearing. Yeah, he's the problem with hearing is pronunciation. It's pronunciations. Because is it velociraptor?

Or is it veliceraptor? Is it Nevada? Or is it Nevada? Unfortunately for us, one of us is misdemeanor. mispronouncing those words. Or is it mispronouncing those words? And the most unfortunate thing for us is that one of the most mispronounced words in this language is company names. It's company names. And Jack, what is it that you and I do on a daily basis on this podcast? Company names. So funny thing Jack and I noticed, the more popular a company tends to be,

the more challenging that name tends to be. So we whipped up a list of the most brutally mispronounced brands in business. For example, Adidas, the sports brand. How's it really pronounced, Jack? It's really Adidas, named after Adidasler. How about Bulgari, the fashion brand? How is it really pronounced? It's Bulgari, Nick.

Bulgari. Jack, what about IKEA, the furniture brand? How's that really pronounced? Get this, it's actually Ekea. And what about Volkswagen with a V, the car company, Jack? Das is to mine Volkswagen, yeah? As in Volkswagen with an F. It's a V pronounced.

like an ad. Don't even get us started on Porsche. It's Porsche. Not Porsche. Although Porsche is socially acceptable on this podcast. So for T-Boy Tuesday, if you have a commonly mispronounced company name, if there's a company name that you think you're pronouncing correctly but no one else is pronouncing correctly?

If there's a brand that everyone's butchering, hit us up at T-boy Pot on Twitter and Instagram. Because we want to hit it right. Now, Jack, let's hit our three stars. Or is it stories? I don't know how to react to that. 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 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.

For our first story, Netflix has agreed to put a GM electric car into every Netflix movie, show, and shmovey going forward. It's a brand new version of an old marketing hack, the product placement. All right, yetis. When you're hanging out this weekend and you're on the couch, you may notice a certain type of car on some Netflix shows. Actually, every new Netflix show. Yes, and please tweet us at T-Boy Pod if you're watching Emily and Paris this weekend and you see a Chevy Bolt drive across the screen. Season three is one big product placement.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I saw Sylvie hang out at the Bastille with like 12 different brands the other day. But Yeties, Netflix and GM just announced officially a movie marketing marriage. Every Netflix show that Netflix produces is going to include at least one General Motors electric car. If you cast a movie for Netflix, it better have a Cadillac. That chassis is going to get a credit at the end of the show. Now, Netflix is spinning this as a sustainability play for the environment. Yeah, because Netflix knows that art shapes culture. So Netflix is helping electrified transportation by showing us queer eye in an electric vehicle.

On the crown, Prince Charles, he's going to be riving around in a Chevy Tahoe pretty soon. Electric. Allegedly. Now, yet he's here's what Jack and I found so fascinating about this story. Netflix just launched ads and that got a lot of attention, but they've actually been doing product placements for years. And product placements are basically ads, right? Okay.

This goes all the way back to House of Cruel. cards, doesn't it, Jack? Francis Underwood, representative from South Carolina, schemed on his Blackberry. Oh, and by the way, Elle's favorite food in stranger things? What was that, Jack? Ego Waffles, which led to a 14% jump in ego sales after season one premiere. And it's not just streaming lately. Yellowstone Ranch over on cable, they only drive the Dodge Ram. Grace and Frankie, they only eat Cheerios. And now Netflix only drives a Chevy Bolt electric car. So Dustin Henderson, When you get that license, we know what you're driving. And this Sunday, GM is making it Super Bowl official

with a commercial that stars all of Netflix's top characters in an electric car. The biggest star on Netflix isn't Millie Bobby Brown. It's a car. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Netflix? The product placement is the holy grail of advertising. Get this, Yeties. General Motors spends over $3 billion every year on advertisements. That is $10 per in America.

GM spends $10 per American on commercials. But here's the problem. GM knows that 74% of TV ads get skipped or you just miss them because you happen to go to the bathroom at that moment. That's why the holy grail for a product is to be organically integrated into the content that we watch. And that is why GM is going to pay Netflix for this. But GM won't force electric vehicles into plots of movies where it would be ridiculous. That's key. They can't compromise on the content. Like the Bridgetton director doesn't want to stick an electric hummer into a Victorian Britain.

And the Bridgetton director isn't going to have to. But Yeti's, every modern movie has cars, so Netflix is just going to make that car a General Motors electric vehicle. That's why this partnership guarantees GM the holy grail for its products. Organic integration into the content we consume. For our second story, public storage is attempting a hostile takeover of life storage. Because the storage industry is ridiculously profitable. Such a profit puppy. If I had a genie, I'd wish for three storage units I could rent out.

I know. World peace is a great wish. But no, I think storage units are a good one too, Jack. Jack, let's whip open Bartlett's book of quotations. Andrew Carnegie. Or is it Carnegie? Or is it Carnegie? Jack, what was that great quote we found from about Andrew Carnegie?

90% of millionaires made their wealth in real estate. State. Great Andrew Carnegie, quote, 90% of millionaires made their wealth through real estate. Well, Yetis, when you hear real estate money, you think Fifth Avenue, you think mall developer, maybe you think someone who like bought up a whole downtown and developed it. Yeah, some condo building in South Beach, that kind of thing. Classic example check. But the most active area of real estate financially may be the least active physically. And that area of real estate is storage.

Like a storage unit. Storage. Like a big building with a bunch of units. That's it. And those orange walls that are really loud. They're always orange or they're always brown. Those are the only colors of storage units. Because Yeti's one out of every three Americans pays to use a storage unit.

One out of every three American storage is the sexiest, unsexy business in all of real estate. Storage is your home for hoarding. It's your hotel for your crap. You know what we're talking about yeties. It's like a halfway point between your closet and the trash you just can't commit yet. We can all confess to ourselves that 90% of the stuff in there, we should toss it. Do you really need six copies of that fifth grade essay on Macbeth? Looking at you.

Actually, I feel guilty. I feel guilty, Jack. I know about a storage thing I accidentally left at you. Sophomore year, my skis. You left the skis. I love the skis. I know. Oh, my God.

I was an unpaid storage unit for Nick Skies for like eight years. And then I picked them up for you and we never discussed it again. And they didn't fit anymore. until today. We should have tossed him. Which leads to the news. The number one largest storage company in America. Public storage is trying to buy the fourth largest storage company in America.

Life Storage. Now Life Storage, their CEO doesn't want to sell the company, so public storage had to offer $11 billion to buy their company. Which is 19% above asking price, aka 19% above the stock price. And Life Storage's CEO still. doesn't want to sell his company. So public storage is going directly to shareholders in a hostile takeover at a higher price. Now we know what you're thinking yeties in this real life storage war situation. Why is one storage company trying so hard to buy another storage company?

Because storage may be the ultimate profit puppy. Get these numbers, the margins, the profit margins in storage are 50%. If you spend a hundred bucks a month for a storage unit, that is $50 of profit for the storage company. We're looking at you, Manhattan, Middy, storage. Now, you may be wondering, how can a storage unit charge so much money to hold that pullout chair that you should just throw away? Well, the answer is our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the storage industry?

This is the Hotel California strategy. As you know, the Hotel California, you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. Yet these, some businesses have high financial switching costs. It is expensive to leave as a customer. But storage units have high behavioral and physical switching costs. It is a pain to leave as a customer. So the storage industry knows they can increase prices on you 10% every year

because you don't ever want to move this stuff again. Because the cost of switching is a whole day of moving and a whole month of back aches. That's why the storage industry has never been. more confident thanks to the Hotel California situation. Jack, you can check out of storage anytime you like, but your junk can never leave. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. You can do just about anything from your phone, but some industries, they've just been slow to move. The finance industry was slow to move from phone to computer and then from computer to app. Robin Hood wasn't. It's the Silicon Valley-based brokerage that's been updating app since it was

born in 2015. Using the Robin Hood app for your stocks and crypto is almost as easy. easy as downloading it. So you can invest to your pace on your terms by downloading the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robinhood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y limitation supply. Stocks are offered by Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Crypto offered through Robin Hood crypto. All investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood.

For our third and final story, the co-founders of Vincent Instagram don't work at Facebook anymore. So they just launched their second app together. They think the future of social media is the opposite of Instagram. We got to give Zuck some credit on this one. One of the greatest acquisitions in all of history. What is it, man? One of the most lucrative for sure is Instagram.

Yeah, Yeties. Let's travel back in time together. 2012. Instagram's co-founders, Kevin and Mike, met at the St. Regis Hotel because they were about to sell their company to Twitter. They were going to sell it to Twitter. Instagram was about to be acquired by Twitter for $500 million.

But then Zuck called up and said, I'll offer you double. And then Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion instead. Paying double sounds like a lot. But Bloomberg estimated in 2018 that if Instagram was its own company, it would be worth $100 billion. We repeat, Instagram was worth $100 billion just a few years ago. That would be a 100x return in just six years for Mark Zuckerberg.

Well, Instagram's co-founders left Facebook in 2018. They were done with the duck. And so they finally launched their new app because their non-compete clause finally probably ended. So here's the funny thing Jack and I noticed yet is they say that this new artifact app is the future of social media. But Jack and I noticed it's actually the opposite of Instagram. This new app, artifact, it is a social. media app, but it has nothing to do with posting photos or videos of your family. No, this new app is entirely focused on AI-powered news. That's it.

So it's not photography, not filters and sunsets like the old Instagram. It is just news headlines published by news agencies. And it's not every news company that can join. Not like everyone can just jump on in and have fun on Artifact. Only the news agencies that meet Artifax standards. Yeah, so the Instagram guys didn't suck Facebook. This is a news feed focused on news, personalized for your taste. This is TikTok for text.

You'll have to read. You can only read. There's no posting. Just scrolling. But here's the key yetis. There is one bigger fundamental difference between Instagram and Artifact. There's also a fundamental difference between Artifact and Twitter. And that fundamental difference, it tastes like our takeaway.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Artifact? These guys are betting that the algorithm, knows you better than you know you. Okay, Yeti, social media apps, they can be divided into two types, follow-based social media and recommendation-based social media. The OG social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, they're all follow-based. Your feed is full of posts from accounts that you follow.

But TikTok changed all that because TikTok is recommendation-based social media. After just a few taps and swipes in TikTok, TikTok's algorithm knows you and starts recommending post. that you like. Well, the Instagram guys think that's the way. They think their algorithm can get to know you too. For example, they'll show you a headline about rainforest preservation and see how you react to it in the app. If you click to it, if you spend time on it, if you scroll down, scroll back up, spend a lot more time on it, then they start showing you more environmental posts. But if you skipped it and had no interest, you won't see environmental posts in the future.

So Artifact is betting that their algorithm can get to know you better than you know you. They think TikTok's recommendations beat Instagram's follows. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Netflix just announced a huge product placement deal with GM for electric cars. Those product placements, they are the holy grail of advertising. For our second story, the number one storage giant is trying to buy the number four storage giant in a hostile takeover. Because these storage units are like the Hotel California. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

And our third and final story is the Instagram co-founders. They just launched Artifact, a news-based social media app. Because they think TikTok's recommendation beats Instagram's follows. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me when we were researching the intro to today's podcast. One of the most historically mispronounced brands of all time. What is it, Jack? It's Nike.

It's Nike. I mean Nike. I like what you did that. Now, we've always said Nike. Like two syllables. I feel like we grew up saying Nike. I've always said that too, but I remember some kid in school said Nike and was so confident that he was right. Yeah, that kid. Who's that kid?

That kid. I think that kid was kind of on to something because a lot of other people were mispronouncing it too. Yeah, for years, apparently people thought Nike was called Nike, a one-syllible word. I'm not going to get into the grammar of this, but it wasn't until 2014 when Nike's founder, Phil Knight, confirmed the correct pronunciation, Nike. Two business school students wrote him a letter and said, should we say Nike? Or should we say Nike? 50 years after founding the company, he finally confirmed Nike. Two syllables.

Nike. Nick, your favorite peanut butter? Is it Giff or is it GIF? True question. It's Skippies. Yates, you look fantastic. Jack, you owe me a new pair of skis. We'll see you tomorrow.

And before we go, congratulations to Yeti's Michael Dravo and Erica Ender, who just got engaged up in Napa, not too shabby last weekend. And happy 25th wedding. anniversary to Trisha and Daniel Paul in Boulder, Colorado. And a happy birthday to Tiffany Wynn in Westminster, California. And happy birthday to Ryan Harold, who's turning 32, I mean 25, in Charleston, South Carolina. And Adam Grimes is celebrating his birthday while flying a C-17 fighter jet for the U.S. Air Force over Hawaii.

Adam, thanks for having our back up in the skies. Celebrate that chassis. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-Barr. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix and Nick and I both own stock of Robin Hood. Oh, and I own stock of Volkswagen, too. Oh, you mean Volkswagen? Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood.

Jack, rule number one about a kitchen renovation. Tell your friends about your kitchen renovation. We know the cabinets are expensive. Well, in the pandemic, a lot of companies renovated their businesses focusing on apps and digital. Robin Hood didn't have to. It was built digital from the start. Robin Hood's mobile first and intuitive design makes investing a little bit. easier for every stage of your investing journey. Whether you want to trade options, ETFs, or stocks through Robin Hood Financial, or buy some Bitcoin on Robin Hood Crypto,

you can do all that right on the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash TBOI. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involved risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood.