Today in Digital Marketing - Llama Drama

Episode Date: April 1, 2021

The Lands End clothing brand has banned alpaca fleece... is Alberta Canada the next hotspot for raising llamas?... a rare black alpaca born in Scotland is what everyone’s talking about there… and reunited! The travelling llama has finally found its home again.Get the entire show content, with links and images, as a DAILY email newsletter! Subscribe at TodayInDigital.com/newsletterPodcast Perks: Exclusive Deals for ListenersAdvertising: Perks (free!) • Ads • Classifieds • Brand TakeoversJoin the Community: Slack or DiscordEnjoying the show? Please rate and review us!Follow Tod: Twitter • LinkedIn • TikTok (daily digital marketing tips)Get this as a daily email newsletterLeave a VoicemailToday in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin and produced by engageQ digital. Subscribe at https://TodayInDigital.com or wherever you get your podcasts. (Theme music by Mark Blevis. All other music licensed by Source Audio.)Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today, the Land's End clothing brand has banned alpaca fleece. Is Alberta, Canada the next hotspot for raising llamas? A rare black alpaca born in Scotland is what everyone's talking about there. And reunited, the travelling llama has found its home again. It's Thursday, April 1st, 2021. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here's what you missed today in llama and alpaca breeding. The National Alpaca Show is now underway at the Five Points Bank Livestock Arena. It runs until Sunday. It is sponsored by the alpacas of Moose

Creek Ranch and Red Granite Ranch and is expected to draw hundreds of alpaca enthusiasts and fiber artists from across the U.S. There are 102 alpaca farms represented at this year's show. They have brought more than 500 alpacas for the competition. The Land's End clothing brand says it has banned alpaca fleece. In response, the activist group PETA has sent the company a box of vegan chocolates. PETA says alpacas were abused during the shearing process. This isn't the first product ban for Land's End. They also no longer use Angora and Mohair.

Land's End now joins Esprit, Ann Taylor, Loft, and Columbia as clothing brands that have banned alpaca fleece. Is Canada the next hotspot for llama and alpaca breeding? Alberta in particular? Turns out the Western Canadian province is becoming a hotspot for animals native to South America. There are close to 28,000 alpacas in Canada, an increase of nearly 50% over the last 14 years. That according to the Canadian Llama and Alpaca Association, nearly 40% of the country's llama and alpaca population is in Alberta. And even

though it's a lengthy process to turn alpaca fibre into yarn, which is in high demand, one fibre mill owner has a waning list of almost two years. I'm turning away one or two customers a week at least. Their temperament is really good. They're easy to work with because they're not big animals. You only have to shear them once a year. Typically, their births are fairly easy. A rep for the association says more ranches are opening across the province

and they hope they will pick up the slack as the interest in using alpaca fiber for clothing continues to grow. A rare black alpaca born in Scotland could be worth thousands of dollars because of its prized fur. The miniature mammal named Tia was born at the Wildlife Park in Perthshire, Scotland. Black alpacas are valued for their fur, with the rarest being black and white, according to Inca Alpaca. They are native to South America but have been in the UK since about the 1980s. There are about 14,000 of them in the country and can bring $650 for a young male to more than $2,500 for a female of breeding age. They are calling it an alpaca alert.

Detachment officers in Lanark, Australia, finally secured an animal that was running around loose near the Drummond Concession 7 Road east of Perth. But they were still trying to figure out who owned the runaway. This morning, police reported that the wanderer has been reunited with its owner. Also, it did turn out to be an alpaca after all, and not, as the police initially said, a llama. So, that new feed I told you about last week, not working out. Most of the alpaca herd are fine with it. They don't seem to eat as much as the old feed, and that's, you know, probably a good thing. But the problem is, the goddamn cows like it too, and so do the peacocks.

And last night I spent an hour shooing them away, so that's probably going to be my weekend. I'm also on level 17 now on Llama Drama. And yes, I bought some microtransaction skins for my llama. You know, honestly, I should be about level 25, I figure. But it's a team game, right? It's multiplayer. And I never get any attention from the feeders. And when I do, they're out of feed.

I'm like, manage your resources better, Dimwit. Anyway, talk to you later today for The Real Podcast.