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You're listening to the Radcast, a top 25 worldwide business podcast. If it's radical, we cover it.

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Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the rad cast Friday, December 1st, 2023. Your first rad cast of December. Oh, Chris Hansen. Oh, Merry Christmas. We made it. Impromptu Santa Claus reference there.

00:41
Very fitting with the Christmas tree in the background. I know that's very nice. So you're at the Orlando abode. Not I am in. Yeah. No me out in the vacay lounge today. I'm in Orlando, whatever. We'll call that the You'll have to come down and come up with a nickname. I know I need to get down to the Orlando house. The Disney vacay.

01:02
Fake aid. But the magic happens, baby. Yes. How far are we from Disney from there? Like how far how long would it take you to get in line in Disney World? Like 25, 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes from fun. It's all the fun you can have the most magical place on earth. Yes. For Mickey, everybody in my seek. Hey, why? Yes. It's your weekly marketing and business news of the week.

01:29
And just anything else we want to talk about. How was Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving was lovely. Had a great family time, great food. How about you? Good. I over ate, you know, the normal thing, lots of turkey and dressing. And then my dad made vegetable soup on Friday. There's a little change of pace. It was pretty good. Yeah. Yep. So it was good.

01:58
Just driving, luckily all our family is remotely in the South Carolina area here. All good. Thank you guys. Thankful for all of those things. No family fist fights. And there's a high likelihood of some drama in any family event. I think that applies to any family. We were fortunate as well, no drama this year. The triple F, family fist fights. Everyone was happy, it was all happy drunks, no angry.

02:28
Yes, on a lighter note on our news of the week, this is the time of year when you see all of the music replay lists. Spotify comes out with their list called Spotify Wrapped. Apple is getting in the game with what they, and I use Apple Music, it's called Replay. And I've got some beef with what's going down here. I've always liked Spotify, it seemed to always get my playlist right.

02:54
Even if I feel like they've stretched it a bit, like into songs, I don't think I play that much. It's stuff that I would listen to. And they do it in a social way. It's fun. You can share it. So all those things, Apple's in there. And let me just tell you, I listen to Apple more. We're an Apple family. We've got all the subscriptions. And so we all listen to Apple music. Let me tell you, you talk about stretching. There's so many songs on there that I have never listened to.

03:23
Like it's the replay and I'm like who is this person? I'm like I was starting to question my own sanity I'm like I don't is it even at least a trick similar or catchy Oh, I mean a good job, but it was you know Miley Cyrus was like the first song and I'm like and I got no beef with Miley like her I like some of her stuff. I like a little wrecking ball sure. It's catchy, but yeah Listen to Miley Cyrus song intentionally like all year

03:52
I'm like you're not searching out Miley Cyrus when you open iTunes. You're not like, you know, like boys No, and I know she's had some hits this year some rebound hits or whatever you want to call them But like it started with that and then it went to a couple other songs and it was like All it was truly like the top 40s playlist of the year and I'm like and that's just not me I'm Alice to more country than anything and it took 12 songs to get to a country song and I'm really sitting like did they get this wrong?

04:21
What is going on? Someone messed up on the algorithm. Yeah. Your algorithm is wrong. And there was an article from tech crunch and yeah, they were bashing Apple's foray into this as well. So if you're listening out there, you, you probably have experienced the Spotify wrapped you probably have you done that Chris? Have you seen that where you get like your top list that you like this shareable thing via email?

04:44
You'll start seeing stories with everybody. Like every other story, if like your friends are like big music junkies, we'll be like they're wrapped. Like summation or whatever. And I've got a little trivia for you today, Chris. And for those out there, if you're listening, you can play along. The most streamed artist of 2023 on Spotify. I'm gonna give you a, just so we don't have too much dead air, I'll give you three seconds.

05:13
Let's keep it most streamed artists. What's your guess, Chris? Oh, you're a ding. Yes. You talk about her every other week. I figure she's got to be. It's the Taylor Swift show and the Taylor Swift world. We just live in it. Oh, you Swifties out there just downloading your hearts out. I was I look Taylor Swift would probably been in my playlist this year, at least on some level, because I did like her new album and I did. There's a couple of jams on there.

05:43
I like some T Swift, a couple of her songs. I don't really love all the Swifties. I kinda wanna punch the Swifties in the face, not with their girls, just with their guys. But. Unless you lived in a box, you knew Taylor Swift had a massive tour that she went. Yeah, but I like Taylor Swift, I just don't like her fans. Is that possible? And is that okay? Is it okay to like her but not like her fans? I agree with you. Yeah, so if you're a fan, like I'm a fan.

06:12
I listen to her. I'm more like a respect, like good artist, right turn stuff, a lot of respect for the hustle. And she's like one of the most popular people on the planet. Total respect. Fan, like crazy hood, just gets to me. I would honestly say that applies to any super famous person in their fan base. Probably. Not just 50s. When you start passing out and sobbing, crying, it's a little...

06:40
Yeah, like I got to be from all like overwhelmed I talked to a lot of famous people and I don't know I just don't have that gene where I'm like I really don't give a shit like I'm Excited to talk to you. There's some of my heroes behind me on the board that I've had on the show and hope it's like You're just a human We all bleed the same blood exactly

07:05
A couple more zeros in your bank account, but that just doesn't really mean much to me as far as me falling down over you. But to each their own and you know who you are. You're listening out there. There's people either getting offended by this that are listening or that are going, Oh God, yeah, I know what you're saying, Ryan. Yeah. I had something tells me it's more of a the latter. And it's mother lighter news. I thought this was funny. I'm a big college football guy. When a Clemson.

07:33
and go Clemson Tigers, be our rival South Carolina, ugliest game ever. God, it was so boring. But we won. That's all that matters. That's how you really feel. It was. I was just telling my dad, came over for the game, and I'm like, no one in America is watching this game unless you are a South Carolina or a Clemson fan, because you're watching it for three minutes going, this is the worst offense display. It was offensive.

07:59
That's how bad the offense was by both teams. And the only thing that saved us was Clemson defense was just better. And anyway, go Tigers. But related to that, a little more fun news for those of you out there, Pop Tarts is gonna have their own bowl game this year. And they're coming out with an edible mascot for their inaugural bowl game.

08:23
A mascot walks by, you can just take a bite of that thing. Pop Tarts is introducing an edible mascot for the first time ever. Pop Tarts Bowl, a post-season college football game set for December 28th in Orlando. You can go there and take a bite, Chris. Woo woo. The unique mascot will engage with the crowd during the game after the final whistle, transform into a snack for the winning team. Is he gonna have a wrapper on that he pulls off?

08:51
He's been walking around all day sweating his ass off. And you're going to take a bite out of his pop tart. Oh, yeah. This initiative was part of the brand's efforts to connect with the college football audience and aligns with its new creative direction introduced in July. Yeah. All right. So you could eat that guy. Yeah, interesting. It's good brand play, I think. Sounds a little gross at first, but I'm going to play it out. And I like college football. I will say this.

09:21
It makes me want to tune into this game. If long as we get to see that, is that mascot get eaten? It should be at like halftime or something. Are they hosting like a whole new bowl game specifically? Yeah, usually they're taking over, a sponsor's taking over an existing one. They don't add too many new ones. It's usually one that had a sponsor's name, the Cheez-Its bowl or something, I had to guess. If you don't see a Cheez-Its bowl this year, probably this bowl that took over the name sponsorship.

09:51
And this is a popular marketing play for some of the medium to larger brands because, and let me tell you, it's not because the game's going to be very good because let's be honest, this is going to be like Rutgers versus like central Florida. Sorry. If you're a Rutgers or central Florida fan. My alumni, my alma mater, but no offense thinking. Yes. It's all about the TV dollars and the TV exposure because think about how much pop tarts or any of these brands spend on a 30 second commercial, right?

10:21
tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the network, depending on the time. Super Bowl adds $5 million. So even like a news time, 30 second spots, a hundred grand sometimes. More than that if it's a network TV. So they do these bowl sponsorships because think about, we're talking about it right now. We're validating it from a marketing perspective. The ESPNs of the world, all the sports networks, that Pop Tarts will get mentioned.

10:51
I don't know how many million times because of the name sponsorship. And then the game is on TV for three hours with the pop tarts bowl on the screen for three hours. So again, back to the comparison of what you pay for a 32nd commercial on television, much less a three hour bowl game that has your name plastered everywhere. So that's why they do this big time reaching frequency. And.

11:21
usually a pretty in tune audience because of the popularity of ballgames in general, especially on the TV. How many people go, you'll go and you'll be like, there's only like a hundred people there. It's because it's all TV now. They might as well play in an empty stadium for some of these, but then you wouldn't be able to eat the Pop Tart. There's another reason to actually go to the game. You might get to take a bite out of that Pop Tart.

11:45
I hope they're handing them out. Tell them the pressure's 10. Would you take a bite of that guy if he walked by? If he walked by and he like ripped that wrapper off, would you take a bite? It's a hard pass for me. I couldn't, I'm not gonna lie. Even if it's brown sugar and cinnamon. I'd have a hard time not taking a bite. Maybe break off a piece, but I wouldn't put my face. Yeah, you'd be like breaking off the corner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rip a little piece off the corner of the bread. I don't eat the whole, just.

12:15
Yeah, just for the experience for the photo op. But in other lighter news, one of my icon favorites, Dolly Parton. Did you see this? Dolly Parton dazzles. I did in Dallas Cowboys cheerleader uniform at the Thanksgiving halftime show comes to us from our friends at billboard.com. Dolly Parton surprised the crowd of the NFL halftime show during the Dallas Cowboys Washington commanders game.

12:44
Thanksgiving wearing a sparkling Cowboys inspired cheerleaders outfit the 77 year old country superstar performed high-energy medley of hits from her new album and Queen songs I tell you what 77 man Rock that chill. I'd stop sort of saying like I was all she was tracked it But good God 77 and being just able to even rock that thing pretty incredible

13:13
She looked great. I was seeing a lot of people getting triggered by it. Oh, you're too old. Like, dude, this lady's actual good person. Who's had a very long, successful career. Give her a break. If you can still go rock a stage at 77. Yeah. Hats off to you. I would. She was flipping them the silent middle finger. I think she gives a shit. Yeah. And.

13:41
But the reality is. That story is amazing. Yeah. And still rocking it. Anybody hating on that is just wishes that 77, that they could do the halftime show for Thanksgiving game and be rocking some outfit that they actually can pull off. So. Yeah. Hats off to old Dolly. Instagram. Old Dolly. Is testing a feature for users to filter spam followers.

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Instagram is testing a new feature to filter out spam followers, which should be available to all users soon. Always love these articles, they're so specific. Soon, it's available soon. This feature will identify potential spam accounts and require your approval before they can follow you, helping to clean up your follower list and prove engagement. The effectiveness of the spam detection remains uncertain, probably because they haven't launched it yet.

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but it aims to address issues like cluttered follower lists, reduced engagement, and damage to your accounts or credibility caused by fake followers. So there you go. I'm all for getting rid of some spam accounts because nobody clutters up my comment section more than these fuckers that are just going, when I'm in a time of need, I like to go for molly.ringwald or whatever. They're trying to promote these.

15:08
other accounts. This person helped me so much with my financial. Go follow it's okay. Sounds legit. I was really down in the dumps. I was contemplating things that I've never thought were possible, but then Rick dot hassle came along and saved my day. Like come.

15:32
get out of my feed. Yeah, I know. I guess the easiest solution is this is I send it to private and you can go to who follows you, but. Yeah, maybe, but. I'm right there with you. We'll see how effective it is once they launch it. I'm all for it, we'll see. Surely there's gonna be people already working, trying to work around it, you better believe that. Yep. And if you wanna learn from me directly, join my newsletter, RyanOffer.com backslash newsletter.

16:01
Sign up, I give daily advice on marketing, personal branding, podcasting, life. Give that a shout, join that, it's free, it's daily. Just like this show, give away our best advice. So this comes to us from USAtoday.com. CableTV.com is hiring a chief of cheer. Yeah, all right. And you know what? They're gonna pay you $2,500 to watch 25 holiday movies in 25 days. That doesn't sound very hard.

16:31
One holiday movie a day for 25 days. I know I read that and I was like, like easy. Yeah. So the chief of cheer is offering $2,500 and one year streaming service memberships applicants must be 18 or older and Smith or info by December. First. That's today. People get them in the job includes rating movies and streaming services. Although they're only going to hire one. I thought this was like a contest for multiple.

17:01
A single one. That's what I thought anyone could do. Oh, give me a break. Okay. This is more like a contest. It's called a contest and more than you're hiring someone. That's a bullshit. So this one Chief of Cheer gets $100 a day for 25 days. So they're gonna only hire one. That's unfortunate. I was hoping I was gonna apply for that shit, Chris. I'll do one movie a day.

17:26
What do they pick the winner? They say that you apply with a reason why you're the best fit as I read the small print here. I was getting excited. I thought it was gonna be like multiple Chiefs of cheer. There's only one. Could be the Chiefs of cheer or something. The Chiefs of cheer. I think we should apply as a team. Do we need a duel? We'll split the money. I want you to say, putting it all on one person, just mean what if they fail?

17:54
But they don't watch 25 movies. I know. I might need a junior chief of cheer to assist. Cameron, I need you on board with this. I need a junior chief of cheer to assist with my movie watching. In today's time, not off. I might get bored or something and I need to be able, they're probably gonna have a quiz, like what happened to make sure that you actually did the job. Split that 2,500 with her. How much PTO do I get with this chief of cheer?

18:21
I need some time off, baby. 25 days in a row of work, all work and no play. An hour a day, what? This is more than most people work. Not most, let's say some people, not most. Fortunately. Oh God, I have to watch a movie every day. And if you're watching, there's people doing this not getting paid this time of year. So, I don't know if they're having a game. They might as well throw it in. Unless they're...

18:50
really bad Christmas movies. Maybe it's like all. Yeah, like the worst. Like these movies that you don't even want to watch, like the worst, like the Bobo, like Scrooge movie or something from like, it doesn't have the named actors. It's like D list actors in everything. Yeah, like the Hallmark Channel, Hallmark, the Hallmark Channel. Oh, God, I definitely would. I would be the I need the chief of beer.

19:18
I was going to be the chief of cheer to do that. Yeah. I think combined some jobs here. Yeah. We need Budweiser to be a sponsor to step in for, if you're going to watch all this shit, but anyway, yeah, we did have some winners and losers of black Friday last year. Did you do any shopping? Did you go black Friday shopping?

19:38
I ordered some stuff online. That doesn't count. If you didn't get in a line and have someone yell at you for jumping the line or something, does that even exist anymore? Yeah, no. I drove down to the boat on Friday and the lot, there was no, there's no, no traffic.

19:58
Really? Yeah, I didn't see any traffic. I think people are, you can get it all online now. Unless you're one of those people that likes that experience, I think. Yeah. Camping out, whatever. What, getting a root canal? I love that experience. I think I'd rather do that than be in line at 4 a.m. at Best Buy.

20:22
It said Black Friday 2023 saw record online spending, no kidding, 9.8 billion with mobile shopping expected to surpass desktop for the first time. That's hard to believe. I thought that already happened. However, analysts like TD Cohen lowered holiday season forecast due to consumer caution from inflation. Retailers started promoting deals early and mobile shopping reached an all-time high.

20:52
Despite the increased online sales, they revised the spend forecast to a 2.2 to 3% increase. The article also mentions the rise of mobile shopping, the impact of inflation on fulfillment options and expectations for cyber week spending. Super Saturday with an extra shopping day is anticipated to be significant for retailers. It just goes and talks about the decline of early morning.

21:22
Doorbuster deals in recent Black Friday. I didn't see any doorbuster deals actually. Moving on, fake out of home ads are becoming a hurdle for the out of home history, out of home industry. Fake billboards are gaining popularity as a social media attention grabbing strategy. Bexpert's warned of brand trust risk associated with this trend.

21:47
Brands are posting out of home ads on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, but some of these billboards don't actually exist in the physical world. So you're posting a picture of an outdoor board, I guess that doesn't exist. I may have done that before, I don't know. I know we've done that for vacay. We did a picture of a billboard like your mom wants gummies for Mother's Day. Yeah. Has it really, people really.

22:15
think that that's a board or that is it really reducing trust? I don't know. That might be an overstatement. I don't think anybody at all thought, oh, where's that billboard? Yeah. Oh, I miss passing it by. I think they got to get the ploy. And I thought this was more like brands were actually like playing around with like spoofs on outdoor boards, like spoofing something. Yeah, I have seen that. And.

22:43
That's more of the funny thing is if someone is spoofing someone or making fun of them. It used to be, they used to do this and I think they cracked down on it. Like when Clemson and South Carolina would play each other, they would actually put up billboards in each other's towns like talking shit. They won't let them do that anymore. Like it'd be like something derogatory about their coach. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

23:12
But I think the psychological warfare in the media playing up on college football.

23:24
Walmart's shoppable rom-com bridges holiday Content commerce Walmart is launching a shoppable holiday content series titled add to heart Get it add to heart add to cart inspired by romantic comedies the 23 part series running on tik-tok Roku YouTube and Walmart social channels follows the story of Jessica a New York designer

23:53
and Javi, an old flame. The unique aspect is that viewers can purchase items seen on screen, including furniture and outfits with orders fulfilled by Walmart. The series aims to bridge content and commerce, leveraging TikTok's shoppable video format and Roku's okay to text feature. Campaign, part of Walmart's efforts to adapt to the digital area targets a broad audience, while particularly appealing to Gen Z and millennials, of course.

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Add to Heart episodes will start airing on December 2nd, that's tomorrow, with a live premiere that happened this week, featuring real life couples who met at Walmart stores. Oh, how sweet. What a love story. Yeah, there's some Walmarts here that would be an interesting place to pick up people, but I digress. It gets a little- I just thought of that Walmart, you and I were in Greenville together.

24:52
It's any potential girlfriends there. It was brimming with the, the, the, only if they had a dentist, the built in. Anyway, yeah, it's, I just play actually. If it's successful, it's all about how, how good the entertainment is. But I do think you're going to see more and more of this brandy type content where you can buy stuff within the entertainment that's happening. That's not a direct sale.

25:21
And so if it's done, this can be very lucrative. It's just. This reminds me of video games. Yeah. It's like buying upgrades while live playing, kinda. Yeah. I think it's smart. Yeah. Let's see what the content's. That's what I mean. The content's gotta carry it though. So it makes, in theory, it's brilliant. And it makes a lot of sense, but it's just the content still has to be good enough because you're gonna, are you gonna watch it?

25:52
And if you're watching it, to have the products and the influential things built in, you can direct buy, I totally get it. But I hope that content's good, because if not, then you just got shitty content that nobody watches with a bunch of features that no one uses. So, if you're thinking about doing something like this, focus on the content and not the shopping engine. Like the technology is there.

26:20
But you got to make the content good. So those people get caught up. I know this firsthand working with big brands. They get really caught up in the technology of the solution. And, oh, wow, this whiz bank can do these things. That it's all the sizzle, but they forget about the steak and it's, but the experience, but the experience sucked. Oh, we had all these features and all this stuff. It could have been so cool, but you have to make the experience good. Like.

26:50
It doesn't matter. Cool factor like the Xbox is cool as shit, but the game better be good or people don't play it. Yeah. I remember they'd have all this stuff. You'd watch all these things, games coming out and then be so like exciting and the game sucked and it's all lost because the game wasn't any fun. And don't forget about the steak while you're cooking sizzle.

27:16
We'll see where shopping goes for Walmart, but I will say this intersection of content, shopping and non-salesy ways with which to interject product within content is going to be expanding because consumers are very aware, more aware than they've ever been that they're being marketed to. And so.

27:45
direct hit you over the head ads are becoming less and less effective. And so these more natural organic engagements where product is intertwined and then easily shoppable is the new play. Look, you've had product placement for 50 years. That's what soap operas were. Oh, look at the box of soap on the counter. That's where all this started. That's where content started. That's where TV and entertainment started was the soap opera.

28:15
which is moms that stayed at home, they're watching TV, and they see the brand that the actor's using. But, so that's not new. What's new is the ability to hit one button and it show up on your doorstep the next day. But that content better be good. Just like the software. Look, Days of Our Lives, they want a lot of Emmys. Ha ha ha.

28:39
Or something. And they've been in the game a long time, bro. With that track record, you're doing something right. Oh my God. Where the storyline moves at a snail's pace. Like, you can watch it and like not watch it three weeks later and she's still like hanging over the cliff, almost dying. God, she hasn't moved yet. Anyway, you get the point. Keep them on those cliff hangers. Yes.

29:04
Finally today, we be remiss without talking about the way we stay looking good. And that for me is Caldera Lab. The only way this glow happens, Chris, this holiday glow, I gotta stay and flow with my holiday glow with Caldera Lab. My favorite, I'm holding it in my hand. I'm trying to be an icon, but I gotta, until I am, I'm just using the icon.

29:31
keep the bags under these eyes. I got four kids, Chris. I'm running companies, I got four kids I'm chasing around. And I'm sleeps in low supply. So I gotta keep Caldera Lab at high supply. Premium men's care, delivered right to your house. Delivered straight to you. And look, you can't buy this stuff in store. You gotta buy it direct and you use Rad Ryan, you get 20% off. And I'm telling you,

30:00
I've said this before, I make a big deal out of it, but literally, I was using this morning, the suds were overflowing, Chris. It was like, it's like you shake, it was like shaking up a champagne bottle and just an explosion of like stuff. So that's how it is. The champagne of soap is Caldera Lab, the body bar. I'm telling you, go to calderalab.com, use Rad Ride, you'll get 20% off, you'll thank me for it, and look, it's gift giving time.

30:28
The man in your life does not need ties and socks. He needs skin care. He needs to look good. And Caldair Lab will do it. We appreciate them as the official skin care partner of the Radcast and Ryan Alford, and anyone that's smart enough to get it.

30:48
Ah, Chris, any final words, my friend here in Orlando?

30:55
No final words, just everyone stays warm out there and it's a great holiday. Yes. Happy holidays to everyone. December 1st, that means you have about three weeks. Three weeks of shopping. So you should be nervous. How you doing? That's how my mom is. I only have three weeks left. I'm nervous. Oh, I'm not nervous. I like to buy stuff on Christmas Eve. I'm just, I'm kidding. It's at least the day before Christmas Eve. I'm that guy typically.

31:24
Yeah. We appreciate everyone. You're like to come through in the clutch. Yeah, come through the clutch. Hey, like you can have a little pressure. It's not fun. Yeah, exactly. Make it a game. I want to challenge. Yeah. Find us at the Radcast dot com. For Chris Hansen in Orlando, I'm Ryan Allford from G Vegas. We'll see you next time on the Radcast.

31:49
To listen and watch full episodes, visit us on the web at theradcast.com or follow us on social media at our Instagram account, the.rad.cast or at Ryan Alford. Stay radical.