00:00
You're listening to the latest Radcast News Update. Here's Ryan and Riley. Hey guys, welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast News. It is the week of, first real week of October, isn't it? Full week, yeah, yeah. October, what?

00:19
Seventh sixth fifth eighth eight, but it's okay. Who's you know, he's the eight. Yeah, like the Monday was the fifth, right? Yeah, and next week is halfway through October. How does that make you feel? Makes me feel like my mom's gonna start decorating for Christmas My wife to oh no one of those after Halloween it immediately starts Oh god, it's like can't even get the the Thanksgiving stuff out and that's you know Christmas trees everywhere Right, right. So yeah, it's hard to believe but in

00:49
Halloween's gonna be a little different this year. You know, we've got the kids at home and Nash is gonna be a fire truck, which he's actually Marshall, the, what's that pound, not pound puppies, that was me. I actually couldn't tell you. Some kid's thing, Marshall. I'm sure someone's listening when they know what, they know what Marshall is, the fire truck puppy, whatever. But he's that and I think Nicole and I are gonna be firefighters. Cute. And he's the fire truck. Absolutely. And the other boys,

01:19
you know, there'll be some, you know, one probably wrestlers or who knows what, they're into different things every week. So what does Halloween look like though this year? Is it going to be? I don't know. I think we're going to throw a little siesta here. That's a nap. Siesta is a nap. Fiesta. A Halloween nap here at radical. No, Fiesta, not a siesta. And so I think we'll do something here. And then

01:47
There's a couple of events and things. I don't think trick or treating is canceled. That's what, yeah. Cancel culture is canceling everything. I know. Including how trick or treating. This is so sad. It's OK. It's probably the best thing. Uh-huh. No, I think I agree. I don't totally disagree with it, no matter how I feel completely about.

02:08
the situation, I don't think we probably need the kids like handing candy off to each other and parents and grandparents and all that. So yeah, I think we'll do a few events and know we're having a little safe fiesta here of sorts. So they'll get their candy in. Yeah, no, I think it'll be good. So as far as just news kind of around here, the Radcasts

02:38
Tuesday, again at noon. And it'll just be a you and I kind of conversation just about e-commerce trends, kind of what's going on and some opinions about just e-commerce world because it's changing. I mean, obviously it's been changing for a while but as we've discussed, COVID's been increasing that change and I think it's important to highlight some of that stuff. So, yeah. I'm looking forward to that. You know, we have so many guests now and I've gotten used to the interview, you know.

03:07
interviewing them and trying to interject here and there. So it'll be fun to kind of share some perspective. And, you know, we're working on with a lot of clients on, on this, so we're kind of live in the thick of it in a lot of ways. So, you know, I look forward to kind of sharing my perspective and, you know, where I see things going, where things are. And, you know, I think it'll be good from both the technology standpoint, but some practical, practical recommendations and less, I think sometimes,

03:36
You know, we're getting great guests and we want it to be approachable. I think people learn from them. But maybe sometimes some of the businesses we were started.

03:46
are further down the road. Yeah. So I think there'll be some practical advice for people that might just be getting started, to brands that are making the switch from traditional retail to online. So it'll be good. I agree. I think it'll be a good mix for the series. How's your week been? It's been a good week. I'm actually going back to West Virginia this weekend. My really good friends are getting married this weekend. So a little shout out to them. But yeah, so that'll be fun.

04:16
Obviously staying classy is, you know. Yeah, right. Yeah, of course. How's, is West Virginia playing football this weekend? Is that on the docket? Part of me wants to think they have a bye week, but I'm saying that. All I'm saying is we beat Baylor last weekend and I was having a field day. So I was very excited about that WBU. Oklahoma's lost twice. You know, the whole Big 12 is in the...

04:38
and a little bit of a disarray. Uh-huh, uh-huh. The WV is winning, so that's what's important. Yeah, that is what's important. Right, yeah. Well, cool. Well, here's Riley with the news. Here is the Radcast News.

04:53
So our first topic for today is about Verishop. And this is a kind of online mall, so to speak. This is something that has started a couple years ago, and I think it's starting to get bigger as more brands are getting involved. I think it's changing to more business to consumer. And I think I was actually kind of waiting for this to happen, to be honest, like a digital mall.

05:17
because a lot of malls are going out of business anyway. And I don't think that's necessarily been a COVID trend. I think that's just been over the last few years trend. But I'm anxious to see kind of how this develops. Yeah, it's been, I had heard of this, it's about a year old and I'd heard of it. And it's one of those things where, at least on my personal radar, not professional, it was on my professional radar more than my personal radar for shopping. I was like, okay.

05:47
You know, I get it that millennials or even my age group probably isn't shopping for fashion on Amazon. We're shopping there everywhere else. And, you know, no offense, Macy's or other places, the retail environments just online haven't been wonderful. So this hit my radar as, okay, how are they gonna start to curate stuff? How are they gonna make this experience different or better?

06:14
in a way that from Amazon and they've done a really good job curating, but now, um, it's interesting because if you go to Amazon, cause I will occasionally need some staples, you know, like t-shirts or like basics that for wear and I'll go to Amazon, you know, at least do that and inevitably it will bring up stuff that I'm like, I'm pretty sure that's counterfeit.

06:39
You know, like it doesn't look, because it'll bring up like I'll go looking for undershirts and it'll bring up, you know, like a button down It looks kind of it looks good. The models always make it look good Right, right, right. And then I'm like, you know, it doesn't look it looks like it, you know, one dry cleaner one wash It's probably gonna fall apart or something like that. Yeah, and so it's interesting. I've always I haven't felt like there's been a true outlet for fashion

07:07
online that's curated well, easy to shop, and like all the benefits that you want from the Amazon experience, but then in the curated way that where you can shop in different ways, whether it's collections, whether it's popular items, those kind of things. And I know Amazon does that, but you always, it just never felt right for fashion for me. And I think, so I paid attention from that, but now with the ability for anyone that's starting D2C to do this with their real products, they're calling it verified shops.

07:36
is really interesting to me as an alternative to Amazon and a more natural fit for them. I noticed that a wallet that I actually carry and have had since they did it, they did it as a...

07:49
GoFundMe or one of those type things, like five years ago, I've had this thing forever. It's called the Ridge Wallet. Shout out to you, free commercial for the Ridge. The Ridge Wallet. I've never had a back pocket wallet, and I've always had a pocket wallet, and they're on there. And that to me makes sense because it's kind of a fashion, a functionality, and more of a modern product.

08:17
that never made sense to me on Amazon. Maybe just subjectively making that comment. I mean, I hear you. Like I feel like when I saw this, it made me feel, I go back to this a lot, but it gave me a sense of credibility to what they're actually selling and that they have to be verified. And it's almost a sense of you're trusting that this product is.

08:43
entirely suitable and just very nice. Like it's to your point about Amazon clothes maybe falling apart or you know. Yeah, it's just. Yeah, it gives you like the sense of hope that this is going to be more like authentic and reliable. Yeah, authentic, premium and more. It's something about where I buy my protein powder and vitamins and books. I don't know if I, not trust is the wrong word but.

09:09
is this the style? Is this really giving me the style? I know they're trying to get there, they're doing luxury products. Look, Amazon's a beast, you know, so I'm not really. We'll get to that in a second too. Yeah, but it makes a lot of sense to me for DTC brands that are looking for a natural extension beyond their own website, that want to sell elsewhere. And the great thing is, like the difference is with Amazon, they want to, a lot of that is working with distributors and with their stuff, where you have to pre,

09:39
create, like let's say you're selling blouses or something. You have to go produce 500 of them to store at Amazon's things. You have to assume that cost upfront. With this platform and with VeriShop, you have that more ability to produce on demand.

10:00
as a crew orders and as you build that up. You don't have to go store in there. That you can ship direct and things like that. So there's a lot of benefits here for DTC brands in the fashion space especially. I'm gonna link this in the episode notes. So for those listening, you'll be able to find it there. But it's definitely interesting and I'm very excited to see where this goes. Because I mean, it's gonna be something that I'm gonna be like, oh yeah. Yeah, and it's a more natural place for them to kind of curate their own brand.

10:29
And again, I know someone's gonna listen to this, go, well, you can do that on Amazon now. I know that you can, and I know that they have brand pages and all that stuff, I do, I know that we've worked with, we've worked with cosmetic companies, we've worked with businesses that tried to do that. And it never really took off completely.

10:47
in the way that they wanted because it wasn't curating it around other products and other fashion accessories and things like that naturally. Yeah. And so I think this would be a good place to leverage the brand, keep the brand they probably hopefully built on their own site, collecting their own customers. But another outlet. So I agree. I agree. This is a great transition, actually. But I talk about big tech monopoly power. And obviously we can always.

11:16
I already think about the big tech giants here, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook. There's been a lot of controversy, I would say, over the last couple of years in terms of are they getting too big? What are they doing with our data? All those questions. I think this is a very interesting way to highlight, not just because you're big tech, you're not necessarily above the law, so to speak.

11:41
necessarily, it's not that you know everything needs to be regulated super highly, but I think this brings a point of are they becoming too big? Yeah. This one hits home for me. I've been thinking a lot about this like and I'll start by saying I believe in a free market. I believe in you know capitalism and so

12:05
I don't think a company has to necessarily apologize for growing in the American dream of getting huge and being big and providing a service. Now with that said, I do think with that come challenges because especially

12:22
COVID has actually accelerated this among other things because the small guys just have had no chance with what's gone on. Everything's moved online. And the ones that have the dollars and the infrastructure to take that on.

12:36
are the Googles, the Amazons, the Facebooks. And I'll lob in there the Walmarts and the Costcos. And the big guys have just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, and the mom and pops and the small to medium businesses are eroding because they haven't been able to weather the storm. Maybe they weren't ready for e-commerce and what's happened within a COVID world. And then they're coming out in a leveraged place where getting loans to stay alive,

13:06
survive and the big are getting bigger. And I don't have or pretend, you know, I'm a marketer. I'm not a politician or a, you know, all I know is if small to medium businesses start to fold completely or en masse like they are now.

13:26
you have less taxes coming in and you have these big corporations that are leveraging tax breaks. Where are we going to have the taxes for the economy and for everything else to survive? So it's in our best interest in a lot of ways, one, because everyone deserves to have the American dream and the opportunity to do that. And two, we need a base of businesses that feed taxes and income tax. And this is just...

13:55
it's a patterns of cycle. You get further down the complete monopoly road when there's seven, eight, nine, ten big players that all lobby even Best Buy in there. Like, where else do you go to get a TV now? It's like Best Buy and everywhere else. Or, you know, yeah, I know you buy them online and things like that. But as far as brick and mortar goes, because I remember the circuit, if you remember, there was Circuit City, Best Buy,

14:23
can't remember every name, but there were like seven places where you could competitively go buy a TV or stereo or whatever. And now it's pretty much best buy or maybe a mom or pop here and there. And that's even brick and mortar, but in online, yeah, everybody say there's more competition, but you know, Amazon's sweeping that up. Walmart.com is sweeping that up. Target too. Yep. Target. It's, I mean, you know, there's like 10 to 15 players in this space and I'm talking all consumer products right now.

14:52
not to mention online advertising. It's Google, Facebook, and everything else. I don't have the solution. I'm not, if I was lucky enough to have started Google or Walmart, I might have a different perspective. I'm not saying you have to bust these companies up, but the...

15:16
This is going to come to a head and it's a problem. And I think we've got to find the middle ground of supporting small to medium business.

15:25
giving them a level playing field, while also allowing the free market to be free. And it's a complicated issue. That's a very fine line, and it's just, how do you stay on it? You know? We'll see how, I guess, what happens. That'll be something we'll follow back up on, I'm sure, as that continues. Third topic for today, which this was something, I think, we have been anticipating for a very long time, and it's been stuff we've even talked about, Instagram shopping on reels.

15:54
We've already had Instagram shopping. That's been a thing for a while now. But I think this makes sense because I think this begins more of the trend of just live stream shopping. Just, you know, you see people try on the product. I mean, I know for me, like if I see, you know, one of the influencers that I follow on Instagram and she's like, oh, hey, I just bought this shirt. It fits great. I'll put the link in my bio, whatever. I feel way more...

16:21
I trust her a lot more than just some other reviews that could or could not be a robot review or you know what I mean? So I think this will give a lot more engagement to that kind of e-commerce trend. But I'm looking forward to seeing where else this is going to go. I love it. Video content is so much more engaging.

16:44
and now seeing a natural transition for you to know, like, and shop directly in it, and transitioning to a one-to-one attribution where watch this video, purchase this product. You know, it was a little clunky before. You know that video plays a role, but it's difficult to know, especially like if you watch TV now, and they might go online and do things, but that attribution of what media influenced that purchase, anything that gets you closer to that, I'm a fan of.

17:14
And it's all about the seamlessness of it, which I do think Instagram's getting closer. I don't think they've gotten it completely. Some of it's just technology figured out. I'd love to see the ability for interactive pop-ups to happen almost in the video and stuff, where you click. That's very technology-intense to leverage that. I'm sure we're gonna get there. TikTok will probably follow, and it's all video. So you'll start to see this, I'm sure, across there.

17:44
as they build out their ad platform. I agree. And it's just another way for influencers and the curation of things. It's another lever for brands to leverage with influencers and even their own stuff. And it feels like it's a great opportunity to do that.

18:05
It was just a matter of when and not if. Exactly. Yeah, no, I agree. And your point about the seamlessness of it. I mean, there have been products that I've bought before, saw on Instagram, purchased on Instagram. You know what I mean? And it was just an absolutely seamless transaction. And I didn't leave and then go to another app or anything and then purchase it from there. So I think that's smart on Instagram. And I think big brands are doing this. But if I counsel small to medium business owners that might be listening to this, make it easy for your customers.

18:33
to leverage your content into purchase. So that can mean everything from B2B to B2C, whether you're selling blue jeans or internet service. It's create a frictionless experience from content to purchase. And that's what this is getting down. It may be video, it may be these things, but I think it is a more macro of removing friction from content to sale.

19:01
And every business can learn from that. Absolutely. And then this kind of, I guess, even this all flows together so nicely today. I love this last one. So I'm sure we've all seen the viral video that's gone on TikTok of the man skating on his skateboard, listening to dreams and he's drinking his cranberry juice. Ocean Spray. This was so smart on their part. Got on board on this too. Bought him a new truck. And also I just think that's sweet.

19:29
But I mean, this is, I think, a business appropriately responding to the viral nature of a product. And I just think this is really smart.

19:40
I think this is like the American way right here. This is nothing encapsulated. Cause I mean, I'm not saying you don't see this in Europe or the Middle East. Like I'm sure it happened. They always don't see the news, but this just feels like an American story, American business story. And now it's like leveraging social media in the moment hats off to ocean spray. Um, I'm sure I guarantee you they've had an uptick of sales. The song is in an uptick in, in, in, in that's back to this notion.

20:08
I know everyone wants to get paid yesterday, but, and I know that it's a fine line with like rights management and things like this, but if you'll...

20:19
ride the wave of content, like when it's happened and not worry about like, well, all these people are posting the song and not using rights man, it's like, you know, as an agency, we toil over that sometimes, you know, we're not trying to rip off someone, but we wanna make it better. We're trying to leverage the song. And either our commercial rights, and I'm not saying they shouldn't get it, but like letting this slide, Fleetwood Mac, you know, this song hits.

20:46
like Spotify's top five, and I don't know what the royalties are on that. I'm sure it's hundreds of thousands, something down the line, more than they would have gotten for one play as an ad on a television spot. Oh, for sure. And especially the awareness. I'm humming it all the time. I'm in the office. I'm like, hmm. Yeah, exactly. And so you leverage that. Ocean Spray was big. And then I think, you know, the offshoots, we did this for a client. We...

21:09
We have a burger boy or burger guy or the hamburger, you know, for a smaller LTO burger, which is a brand that we work with here in Greenville. Really cool brand and we're doing some fun stuff. They're letting us have a lot of fun and we've got a guy that dresses up like a burger who's been going around town and Josh is awesome. He works on our team and, you know, he got on his skateboard and rode around and we did some fun stuff with that. I know it's gotten a lot of views on their stuff. So, you know, sometimes you just piggyback

21:39
the ride of something that's culturally relevant and I definitely recommend brands to do that. And a lot have. You've seen it kind of everywhere. Almost like the fly last night from the vice president. Good, bad, or different. Honestly for a second I was like, is there a fly on my TV? And then everyone in America for a second thought that. This is awesome.

22:09
And you know, the American dream, you're just drinking your ocean spray and do a TikTok. I love it. There it goes. You know, you got a car, you got $10,000, it's gone, it's gone for me or something. So good for him. I got to think about that with coffee or something. This is why every kid and every person is trying to become the next...

22:33
X star. This is what you dream of happening and it's so organic. Like you don't know what's going to... Because I've, you know, people have done, I'm not saying they've done this exact thing, but some kid somewhere has done something clever today with, you know, big pins, you know, like, or whatever. And it never gets seen. I don't, there's like this magical formula sometimes for this content that, that spikes off and...

22:59
It's great. Yeah. No, that's it for us this week. And then stay tuned for Tuesday for our just e-commerce kind of recap. What's going on? Cool. That's all for us this week. We'll see you next time on the Radcast. Have a great weekend. To listen to full episodes or to contact us, visit us on the web at theradcast.com. Or follow our host, at Ryan Alford on Instagram. Thanks for tuning in.