Weekly Marketing and Advertising News: Neutrogena Content Studio; Budweiser Special Beer; Airheads Skip Ad; Facebook Hotline; Google Vaccine Ad
Ryan Alford and Reiley Clark break down Neutrogena's content studio, Budweiser's Utah cans, the Airheads skip-ad spot, Facebook Hotline and Google's
- Brands are pulling content production in house because the sheer volume of content required has outpaced traditional agency workflows, but outside partners still add value for ideation.
- With ad-free subscription platforms like Netflix and Disney growing, expect brands to build longer-form documentaries and films they sponsor rather than interrupting content with ads.
- Self-aware creative works: Airheads' spot leaned into ad fatigue and the skip button, which fit its mischievous brand personality.
- Ryan's ad-length rule of thumb: a 30-second pre-roll on a 15-second clip is a pain; a 10-second ad is tolerable.
- Budweiser's Utah-specific cans show the payoff of hyper-local targeting - fans in other markets start hoping their culture gets featured next.
- Facebook's Hotline blends Clubhouse's open conversation with Instagram Live's audience feed and adds expert Q&A; brands should test it for engagement and even customer service.
- Treat Facebook and Instagram as separate platforms - Instagram is for snackable images and video, while Facebook has become the long-form community hub.
- Use the 80/20 rule for new platforms: if your customers are migrating there, experiment and put your internal experts forward as brand stewards.
consumers are very ad exhausted, I'll say
But look, I like brands that are self aware.
It's kind of what's so funny is what's old is new again.
to the latest Radcast news update. Here's Ryan and Riley. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast this Friday, April 9th, and I come to you live from sunny Las Vegas. I'm always joined by my cohost, Riley Clark who's back in the warm and cozy. We'll South Carolina studios. What's up Riley? No, exactly. I was just about to say, you know, I think we're both getting the good end of the stick here with good and warm weather. But unfortunately, the bad end of the stick at the same time with horrible pollen. Yes. It's just pollen and messenger. I feel like I should have a how it was going and how it really is. Like if you saw my makeshift studio here on the porch
in Las Vegas. I've got an ironing board that the laptop's on. And it looks cool. But it's nice to be in sunny Vegas and excited to, you know, for everyone to hear everything we went through the other day with Brad. Yeah, I'm so intrigued. So first you were on Bradley's podcast dropping bombs podcast. Yeah, so Bradley on his podcast this week we recorded. I don't know exactly when the episode is going to release. I think it's going to release pretty quickly though. We had some times of some stuff we got on there. So it could release as early as next week. So we'll have details on the social channels on that. But Brad was great. Really great host. His team was really cool. We got a lot of content behind the scenes.
But we just we talked everything marketing in today. And you know, some of my background and some tips and tricks and everything's trying to get people some actionable advice and marketing. And so it was really cool. So I might be able to work with Brad a little bit more down the road. So I'm about some collaborations and things like that. But yeah, so we dropped some marketing bombs for sure. That's awesome. I bet that was like just this really cool experience. Because I mean, you went out to Vegas for this experience. I mean, that has to be awesome. What have you done while you've been in Vegas? Because Nicole's with you too. Yeah. So Nicole and I, you know, it was our anniversary last week.
So it was good. It was a good timing. So we had a little business ample as your mixed in. So it's been nice to spend some time together. And last year, you know, COVID had just like started. It was our five year anniversary last year. We were going to go on like a seven day trip that kind of got derailed. And so we didn't we've had trips and things like that. But this is our first kind of us get away probably 18 months. You know, we're just the two of us outside of like one night here and there. So we've, there's no real shows going on. We've been to like the pools and we've had really good dinner. I've eaten steak the last two nights, which is my favorite.
And we ate a place called STK stewed steak, which there's one in New York as well. They have a real trendy place. And that was good in place called the strip house last night. We eat some sushi tonight. So I'm making everyone hungry whenever you're and however you're listening to the podcast. I apologize ahead of time. But there's a really always talking with the talk about you. Yes. Hey, you know, I like to eat. I'm a big boy. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm here. Just kidding. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's awesome. That's awesome. But it's been a good week. The agency's had a good week. I've been, you know, working remotely, you know, and lots of new projects and things kicking off. We're hiring like the crazy.
So we've been interviewing people and different things at the agency. And you know, we've got the Greenville hustle a bit coming up on April 29th. It's Thursday. So if you're in the Greenville area, you need to get signed up for that. All the details are online at GBL Hustle at GBL Hustle on Instagram. Or if you just search for GBL Hustle on the Googles, you will find us anywhere. We got a website GBLHustle.com. You can learn more about the event. We've got my man, mountain man, Sims, Noah coming on to talk through a little cooking demonstration. I believe and tell his story and, you know, I'm going to do a little talk and break down some marketing knowledge. So excited about that event. We're going to have video and audio and everything.
I'm sure from it. So if you aren't local in Greenville, we'll definitely be able to get more out of it. But it's going to be a nice night of community and collaboration and all the good stuff that comes with it. So we're excited about that event here in Greenville at our home, which is camaraderie, which is the home of radical. And a nice little co-working space if you're really good for co-working in Greenville. We'll just plug all the businesses today, Riley. I know. You go on everything. Yes. But yeah. So I think that's really it. Here's Riley with the news. Here is the red cast news. Yeah. So we have a couple topics today that are going to be really exciting. A lot of this is about collaboration and branding, which I think is really cool that you know we're talking about our GVL hustle community.
But there's a couple topics in here today that are really play on that idea of community content and how to really utilize Ryan talks about this all the time. How to really utilize what consumer generated content. And so this is just something that's going to be a really cool conversation today. So first up is Neutrogena is opening up its first brand studio to create its own kind of content, which I think this is going to be a really interesting thing to see developed. And I think a lot of other companies have been kind of getting on board with this as we've seen. What were your thoughts on this when you saw this come up? Well, you're going to see more and more of this. This is one another mountain.
There's a few things to play. Number one, brands are bringing a lot of marketing in house because of the volume and scope of content they have to develop. I'm on the fence on that. Being an agency, not just to be self-serving, I do think there's a place for us in development and helping brands and being outside of the bubble of the company to help ideate. But at the same time, it makes sense for brands to be doing this because of the volume of content that has to be created. And the reality that a lot of stuff, consumers are very ad exhausted, I'll say. And you're going to see things like Netflix and Disney and all these channels where there is no commercials. So you're going to see brands develop longer form content where they're more the sponsor of it.
And they develop it. Like, you know, I saw that NutriGenius developing a couple movies or documentaries and things like that. So you're going to see more and more of these types of things because brands got to find a way to get their impressions out there to be seen and heard. Well, also being a more organic experience where it's not just heavy handed ad in your face, you know, as you're scrolling down your feet. So I think it's interesting. And I think you're going to see more and more of this from brand. So we're just, we're just scratching the surface, I think, on this display for brands. Oh, totally, totally. And I mean, I think you see more of it. You, I mean, we'll talk about this a little bit later as well.
But I mean, you're going to see more brands. Actually, let's just go ahead and talk about it. It's a couple topics down, but that's okay. Yeah, we make the rules. Yeah, exactly. And you know what the rules are, there are no rules. Yeah, exactly. So we'll talk about this ad because it makes total sense. So airheads kind of did this. They played on this notion of like annoying ads. And, you know, anytime you're on YouTube or anything like that, you always want to go down and hit like the skip ad button. But airheads created this ad that essentially plays on the like skipping the ad. And you know, you see these construction workers and they're standing there and they're like, Oh, great. Another ad. And then it's like, Oh, okay, do we, do we hit it?
And then you hit it. And they're like just skipping rope. They're jumping. They're like skipping and all these things. And I think it's fun that they're playing on like annoying ads, but also like the brand's overall message. You're just playing like it might be annoying, but you get the point. You're going to get airheads play. Okay, it's funny. Like you're, you're getting, you're picking up what they're putting down. Yeah. It's totally aligned with their brand, you know, little mischievous a little off the off the wall. But look, I like brands that are self aware. You know, and where you kind of acknowledge it's kind of like when you're watching the commercial. And they go, they kind of wink at the camera. Like, you know, I like that.
I think it's clever if done the right way. And look, everyone knows like what's going on with ads. You know, let's just acknowledge it and the frustration because I have, I remember personally, you know, I'm in the business. But sometimes I just want to watch the day. I mean, yes, be in clip, you know, like I just want to see this guy get knocked out on UFC. The highlight clip and I got to watch. I don't even mind watching ads, but it's like a 30 second ad when I'm just wanting to watch a 15 second clip is a pain in the ass. Like it needs to be a 10 second ad. I can deal with 10 seconds. You know, but anyway, and I've tried to you try to move the bar across.
Just jump ahead of it. You used to do it. You used to do it. And, you know, again, being an interim, maybe you can't anymore. But at the same time, at the same time, it's true. People do that. They're like, can I get ahead of this thing? You know, I think it was fun. Yeah, super fun. Super. Just smart creative, you know, like using the, and we talk a lot about creative. And I think, you know, even with the episode, we had this past week with some rot. Like you talk about the use of creative and, you know, neuro and marketing and how data is going to be pulled together. And you even talked about the art of creative, but also the science that's needed to create these good ads.
And this was just, I think, a smart thing to think about what's happening with the culture of ads. Everyone's annoyed with them. Okay. What do we do about it? You know, so yeah, exactly. And both the new street dinner and air heads on different ends of the spectrum, but sort of playing in the same themes though strategically with, you know, just the acknowledgement of what's happening in the industry. Totally, totally, which I think appropriately leads us to, which, you know, another topic today. But why is there, it's really close to where you're at right now. I guess just, I think north of you are to the east. I honestly don't really remember right now with my geography, but anyway, Utah. Utah. Yes. Yeah, Utah is number is apparently the number one state to have bought like their biggest beer purchase is Budweiser beer.
So Budweiser, I think this is super smart. Again, they created these special cans kind of playing on Utah culture, which I guess they are known for. I'm going to have to ask my sister, she lives out there. So I'm going to have to ask her like, you apparently scream profanities and you say these profanities, but it's not actually like, you know, WTF, it's like what the frick, you know, you're like it's interesting. So, but Budweiser created these cans that essentially are trying to get you to scream these, you know, absurd profanities on top of the mountain, you know, whatever. It's just fun. Like this is such a fun thing, but it's hitting their audience like in Utah, but it's also engaging with the rest of the brand.
Like, oh my gosh, it's so cool. Like maybe one time Budweiser will feature something we're doing on because we're a huge consumers of Budweiser. You know, it just generates that kind of thought. I think it's really interesting. They did it. They did that. No, it's cool. And look, I mean, it plays into the reality of like the consumer mindset. Like everyone, it's been a rough year, right? And everybody's a little frustrated. So like, go take your frustrations out. You know, and so doing it in a social way and leveraging it in an ad campaign is clever. Look, Budweiser's always coming up with some of the funniest shit. Like, and just, you know, they got a great team. So I liked it. And my man, Sean Whalen is huge from Utah.
I have to have his hat on today. Alliance like see the red cast today brought to you by lions, not cheap. Yeah. But anyway, he's in Utah. So I saw the Utah thing and maybe you think of Sean, but I do love it. It's fun. And look, I want to get, I want to find one and go yell here. I'll be proud of my 60 second floor of the cars and polyps in here in Las Vegas. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. No, just crack it open. No, that's so fun. I love this. I want to find it too and just be like, oh, my gosh. You know, send it to my sister or something fun. But I love this. And yeah, it definitely engages appropriately. And I think ultimately it's going to hit their wider audience anyway,
because it's just it's intentional targeting to your consumers who doesn't love that. Who doesn't love being caught out in the best way possible, you know? Yeah, exactly. And then our next topic today. So Facebook is generating this. It's essentially kind of like a clubhouse and Instagram live combined, which totally plays, and you talk about this all the time as well, playing on this notion of real time content and conversation. And they're developing this. It's going to be super cool to see, you know, the stages of it. What, you know, what were your thoughts when you saw this? I definitely think it plays on clubhouse and Instagram live pretty well. So. Yeah, it's called hotline. You know, you know, in the hotline. It's kind of what's so funny is what's old is new again.
It's like, hotline is an old radio term. Like, you know, get on the hotline. And now, you know, clubhouses essentially AM radio on steroids. And so it's a little early 2000s to me. I was like, ah. Yes, but no, I mean, it's, it's cool. Like, you know, you're going to see, I like to see how the stimulation of innovation happens when new things come out. You know, clubhouse comes out, which I said was didn't feel that new to me because of of GAB, a video version of clubhouse that I got. I was on in 2014, you know, that didn't fade out. But it, you know, these things are going more mainstream. I get notifications every day of on clubhouse that. Literally people that I never would have thought, you know, like,
when you think of like beta testing and like early entry, I'm, you know, I think everyone about my mother is on clubhouse now. But so, so you're going to see these integrations. Like, I haven't had time and I think it's still in beta like to play with hotline. But it's this notion of being able to ask questions for experts. So it's that notion of kind of the blend of both Instagram live and clubhouse. And they kind of just as a matter of that. And that's what it seems like because you've got, because what happens with Instagram live, if you think about it, you get on and you've got the feed of people that are watching. But not everyone can get in. You can only have what up to four people now with Instagram live.
So it's still again, back to that stages notion. Instagram live still kind of a stage versus kind of that around the water cooler. Where anyone can talk that clubhouse is, you know, so it's kind of that mashup because you can ask questions. But it definitely seems to have a better interface. I mean, that's still freaking hate club houses interface. It's, they got a long way to go there. They've been, they're getting to use your base and I'm sure with all their, their funding they've generated, they'll be fine. But you're going to see these innovations continue to happen. And what you have to do is a brand and a company is again, back to that 80, 20 rule. But if you're seeing that your customer base are headed to these platforms,
then you need to be experimenting with ways that you can get involved in it. And leveraging your people in different ways is kind of the brand stewards and experts. And I can see a really cool place with this specifically for brands in a way to engage with their customers. Even in a customer service potentially aspect, you know, so it's going to be interesting and I love seeing all the innovation. I will ask you a question. I'm curious. Why do you feel like Facebook, because Facebook owns Instagram. So like with Instagram live, I'm thinking, why do you feel like this is going to be something that Facebook will implement on Instagram? They're just testing it in a different format for now. But it eventually will cross over into Instagram live.
Like, do you feel like it will have that appeal or no? Well, here's the thing. I think we do this naturally because we now, everyone knows that Facebook and Instagram are the same, you know, Facebook owns Instagram. That's exactly it. And so I think, so I think thus, we forget that there are two very different platforms. We lump them together. True. But they have very different user bases and they have a very different engagement experience. Yes, over time, it's gotten closer. It's gotten closer. But it's still, with Instagram, I'm looking for snackable, quick images or videos. I'm not reading a ton of captions. I'm scrolling on whatever. Facebook has become more of the community hub. And you spend, you know, people are, you know, writing, you know,
five paragraphs about stuff. You're spending a little bit more engagement there. It's not just snackable. You've got long form video, you've got other things. You're kind of in the community. And so something like this makes sense for Facebook. And I think Instagram live is the closest thing you'll probably see to this. For, you know, why and how they'll be different. So I think, you know, we kind of on the surface think, well, won't they just launch this on, you know, well, maybe. But I think they're, they're still different platforms that have different engagement experiences. No, that's absolutely, no, you're right. You're absolutely right. I think it'll be interesting to follow and obviously we'll be following it here. Yes. That's what we do. Okay. And then our last topic for today is I loved this.
I saw it first on TikTok, actually, which I felt like you would think was interesting. So Google put out their commercial. It felt very similar to Super Bowl commercial. They did what is the two times running together like two years ago or something. But it was the vaccine commercial. And essentially it's like playing this, you know, Google search bar and it's the word quarantine. And then you know, the vaccine and then it gets into this part. Like it's promoting, you know, getting the COVID vaccine. So that way, you know, now you're saying things come open. And it was just this very emotionally charged video. And it's awesome. It was beautiful. I thought I loved it. Did you see it already? I saw it first on TikTok.
Where did you see it first? I saw it got in my news feed. All these news like updates, like Google trends and different things like that. I got notification of it. Then I watched it on YouTube or wherever I hit link to. Right, right, right. I think I saw it the back end of it on TV the other night. Like after I'd seen it, I think there was a TV on it. One of the bars or the restaurant throughout it. And I swear I caught like part of it. It looked familiar. It was a Google commercial. I think it was the back end of it. Yeah, what did you do about it? You know, it's a powerful spot. It's this. You think of a health.
And what, you know, what Google's trying to say is they're part of the fabric of America. Where, you know, how many times a day do you do a search for different things? And the consumer mindset, you know, going from, you know, it's kind of like going from fear to hope. You know, the sentiment of America can be read through your Google searches. You know, like literally because, you know, you're searching. Everybody's scared at the beginning. They're like vaccine. They're looking for impacts of COVID or symptoms of COVID. And now, you know, moving towards hopefully reopening. And, you know, getting more people vaccinated and things like that. And, you know, encouraging them, you know, the only thing. You know, I'm not, I'm not crazy about brands that are too heavy handed on personal choices.
But, you know, I think universally, you know, we're everyone's trying to look out for the common good. I just, I think sometimes there's a fine line of what the common good is. That's my only kind of trepidation. I'm not saying here that I don't agree with what they're trying to do. But I think there's a fine line, but it was a really, I thought the spot was really nice. It was a beautiful spot. And yeah, it definitely felt very similar to that commercial. They did a couple years ago, even though this one, I felt like it's everyone one way or another. And the other one, I feel like just pulled out your heartstrings. I felt this one was more of the emotional connection because we're all living that.
You know, in some way or another, like we've all been living that quarantine experience. And so I think it, I think it was a really cool spot too. And just, I like how it pulled everyone together. It felt, you know, felt very united. And I just, I kind of really liked that idea of it. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I, you know, I just, my first feeling decided of just some of the, you know, not because I don't agree with like everyone. Helping one another gets safe and things like that. But I just, you know, everyone's normal is different. Everyone's personal decisions are different. And so, you know, and you've had varying degrees of lockdowns and things like that. So, you know, I just don't want to see any heavy handed forcing of what anyone person's normal should be.
When it was personally okay for them to do something, you know, like, like, you know, walk outside of my house. You know, I just think there was a lot of fear mongering, you know, with this, because it was serious. And it deserves the attention that it got. I'm not saying it didn't need to be taken serious, but it's feel like some of the fear mongering. And I'm not cool. I'm not saying they're doing that here, but it's, I don't know, that just crossed starts to cross some lines for me. But we'll see. Everything's on the up and up. Yeah, exactly. And speaking of which, I mean, we said we'd follow up with stuff here. The Nike lawsuit. Have you been following this with little noz eggs?
I know there's been some updates this week. You know, I know Nike's starting to take a little stronger stance, but I haven't seen every bit of it. Apparently, they're out of season to sis now. And so, you know, but apparently, you know, mischief is like there are no other shoes made. That was it. So I'm, I still think it's still going on. Hopefully over the weekend, we'll get some more understanding of what's going on. But like we said, we do follow up here. So at least we're following up with what we know. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I do want to mention again, we've got the updated the radcast.com. So all of our content is available there. All the past episodes, all the past highlight clips.
All the way and watch and learn. And of course, use that search bar to find back topics. But hopefully you're listening to this at the home of the radcast, which is the radcast.com. And but as always, you can find us on all the normal places, IGTV, YouTube, Facebook, and any new platform being developed. We will be there eventually. Yeah. There's probably one, there's like seven on me developed today by the same day. Someone, someone just got funding for another one. Exactly. Yeah. And we'll let you know about them too. Exactly. So you'll, you know where to find the latest marketing and advertising news. And that's right here at the radcast. Find us at v.rad.cast on Instagram as always. And Riley, I'm going to sign off to you here from Las Vegas.
And no matter where you are, when you are, how you are, everyone, have a wonderful day. And we'll see you next time. Yo, guys, what's up, Ryan Alfred here. Thanks so much for listening, really appreciated it. Do us a favor. If you've been enjoying the radcast, you need to share the word with a friend or anyone else. We'd really appreciate it. And go leave us a review at Apple or Spotify. Do us a solid, tell more people, leave us some reviews. And hey, here's the best news of all. You'll work with me directly if you want to get your business kicking ass. And if you want radical or myself involved, you can text me directly at 864. 729-3680. Don't wait another minute. Let's get your business going.
864-729-3680. We'll see you next time.
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