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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 last edition of the Radcast of 2023. It's our weekly marketing business news of the week here on Friday, December 29th, 2023. We appreciate you wherever you are, whenever you are. And we hope you've had a fabulous 2023.

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and are prepping for an amazing 2024. Special edition here, you've got Ryan Alford, the host of the Radcast. Appreciate you, just me alone, a little monologue today. Wanted to treat today's episode from a couple different angles. First, you know, there's a lot of shows in marketing and business that do trends. I started to go down that avenue, but it's really gonna be more about marketing success in 24.

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trends kind of come and go. And I started, you know, I had some thoughts in my mind. I started doing some research. Some of the people that I trust to see what they're throwing floating out there. And you know, we're still in this, we tend to think things change faster than they do, number one. And so if you go look at all the trends in the last like five or six years, very few of them have actually come to fruition. Very few of them are very helpful.

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if you're running a small business, a large business, or a company at all, because they don't really tell you anything you need to be paying attention to. And so I wanted to take this episode to take a moment so you have perspective of what I think can help companies drive success in 2024 with their marketing and business overall. And so I wanted to, you know, we're about action, we're about value here on the Radcast, and...

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You know, I don't know, I spend a lot of time, you know, we talk a lot of different topics. I have a lot of guests on the show. Don't get a ton of time spending on my background. I've been in the agency and marketing business for 20 plus years, working on some of the largest brands in the world, Verizon, Samsung, Motorola, Audi, the who's who of wireless named Apple, worked on the first iPhone launch.

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as well as the Droid campaign that came after it really ushered in the iPhone, smartphone era. And then began to work on a number of other companies and businesses working in Madison Avenue. And so my background is marketing. And so know that this is coming from a space of a lot of experience, both as we've transitioned from analog to the digital space. And so I look forward to kind of talking to you about what I think will be successful.

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in 2024 and ways that you could leverage some of the things that have already been going on, but things that I think haven't been leveraged to the degree that they could. And so I'm gonna get into that today. It's gonna be a condensed episode. We'll see how long it goes. Maybe 15 minutes, it might be 30 minutes, I don't know. I wanna just share ways that you can get ahead, where you can be thinking about 24 a little differently with your marketing budgets. And it really does transcend whether you're a big, small or medium company.

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First thing I wanted to do is give a shout out to our sponsors this year, from Branded Bills, to Good Ranchers, Caldera Lab, VK. We have some really great sponsors of the show. We don't litter our show with ads that overtake, parts of the show that you're just fast forwarding through. We try to build that in, and ultimately, we're really thankful for all the partners we've worked with, we continue to work with. They've been loyal to us, just like our listeners have, and we appreciate you.

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for supporting them and supporting us. That's how this works. We give you a lot of free content, bring you a lot of value. You support our sponsors, it works in hand and we appreciate that. And our final read of the year with my favorite skincare product I've ever used, the official skincare provider of Ryan offered in the Radcast. I have it on today to be transparent, I use it every day. Face lotion, face serum, eye cream.

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This really is premium men's skincare delivered straight to your house at calderalab.com. Use the code radryan, you get 20% off and you'll thank me. Best my skin's ever looked, ever felt. And it's just premium quality stuff made right here in the U.S. Give them some love calderalab, calderalab.com. You know, I was watching, it's bowl season and I was watching the bowl games this week.

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And look, some of these games are good, some are bad. Some are teams you've kept up with, you've heard of, and others aren't, so let's not overplay it. I did though, wanna mention this, because this is the best integration I've ever seen from a brand in bowl game. And if you're gonna spend all this money and have a bowl game, number one, you need to make it fully integrated. And number two, you need to have fun and create engagements over and above the game, because sometimes the games themselves may not be

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Wonderful. Let's be honest. We kind of got into this playoff era where the playoffs are most important. And I think we've relegated and reduced some of the value of the ball games, unfortunately. But look, the Dukes mayonnaise bowl last night, I was watching between North Carolina and West Virginia. It was a good game. West Virginia took over. Ultimately had more players available for that game and and won and played well. But I was super impressed with how Dukes integrated their brand.

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into the bowl game. Obviously, they have the naming rights and things like that and TV's dominates. But look, everything from the announcers to the sidelines to the activations on the field were thoroughly thought through and integrated. They had a ton of fun. The announcers were literally eating product, different sauces throughout the game. The sideline guy was doing the same thing. They were doing contests. There were things.

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It was really the best I had ever seen a brand integrate into the bowl game. And so I wanted to bring that up from a marketing perspective. When you think about things that you do, sponsorships that you have, engagements that you do, it's just about checking the box to get it done. It's about how you make it fully integrated. How do you build into that fan experience? And I thought Dukes did an amazing job. I wanted to give a shout out to them. And just, again, being a little irreverent. You know, their whole brand is fun and things like that.

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but they really leaned in the whole thing from having like honey mustard sauce on donuts. I mean, some things that seemed a little outlandish, but it got my attention. I wasn't like flipping the channel, whether or not the game was good or bad, because I was kind of wondering what was next, what was the next sauce they were gonna try, what were they gonna do? And then the very end they do the mayonnaise bath for the coach, which is, seems gross and crazy and it is, but who does it like kind of get a little intrigued with who's getting a mayonnaise bath? And again,

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Not scared to have fun, not scared to experiment a little bit with the brand. So hats off and shout shout out to Duke's. I wouldn't be surprised. I did look up like their search data. Their search data was like 10 X throughout the game, which is to be expected. You're on television and things like that. But I think some of the integration they had within the game played a lot into it. And that actually feeds into what I think. Not trends again, but how to be successful in marketing in 2024. I've got three things, just three things that I think are important.

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There's a million things that you can do. But what are some of the prevailing things in marketing that are happening that I think really have the potential to grow up, to blow up and to grow your business or your brand? And the first one is, we've all heard about influencer marketing. That's not a new term. So how do we use a spokesperson? How do we use an online person that has a cache, has followers and has an audience that you wanna tap into? So how do you leverage them?

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Well, traditionally it's been, okay, send them product, have them talk about an experience. They get paid, few posts, and you know, it's starting to be pretty obvious when those things happen. And it's okay that it's obvious, but you're just trying to tie into that audience. But I think my first thing that I wanna talk about this year is what I'd call integrated influencers. So look, if you want to get the maximum value out of working with someone that has audience that you think has relevance to the product or service that you're selling,

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then you need to really work with these influencers in a more integrated way. What do I mean by that? Okay, let me say what it is and what it isn't. What it is not is sending them product, having them post one, two, or three times, and then you never see or hear of it again. It comes off very ad-like, it comes off very disingenuous, and I don't think it has the impact that you could.

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We've been focused so much on, well, are they micro influencers? Are they nano influencers? Are they other? It doesn't matter. You need to think about it with a fully integrated lens. Let me give you an example. So look, instead of just sending them a product, how do you integrate them into other channels that you have? Your website, your email newsletter, your events. How can you get these influencers more involved and more engaged and leveraging throughout your communication channels?

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I call that integration, integrated influencers. This is what will drive influencer success in 2024. Stop thinking about it through the lens of how many widgets can I sell with three posts from Tom Smith, who is, you know, some influencer that has a million followers around this niche. Stop thinking about that, start thinking about it, how can I integrate this influencer throughout some communication channels that does include posting.

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But how can we get them involved in, okay, maybe we have a show or a podcast or other media channels with which to integrate them. How can we get them to be leveraged more than just posts? Can we do it in posts and stories and multiple channels at the same time while also showing up potentially at events or engagements where the brand is gonna be active? I think integrated influencer campaigns and having someone in a team that works with influencers.

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to really pull ideas out of you and the influencers. A lot of times, the brands or companies go to these influencers and they go, okay, how many posts for this? And there's really no ideation that takes place with the influencer. And maybe there's other channels that the influencer has that could be leveraged. I think how you're gonna have success with influencer marketing in 24 is gonna be integrated throughout the brand. That's the first thing I think could drive a lot of success for brands in 21, integrated influencers.

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Digital marketing is changing. Performance marketing is starting to be less and less effective. We have first party data that's more and more important. You've probably been hearing about cookies going away and different things like that. But really what it is at the core is consumers have never been more aware that they're being marketed to. And if you wanna learn from me directly, join my newsletter, RyanOffer.com backslash newsletter.

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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. And so my second notion, opportunity for success in 2024 is the return of creativity and experimentation. Look, we've really gone downhill with creative in the marketing space. It's no longer just throw a price point and offer

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and hit people over the head with it 100 times. People know they're being marketed to, they want a either education or entertainment. You have to be able to break through. Ultimately, brands are interrupting consumers when they're on social media with ads. And if that ad does not integrate, if that experience does not improve what their...

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time is and their value that they're putting into watching what content you have, it's just going to continue to be skipped and be less and less effective. And so I think the brands and the companies that will lean into creativity and experimentation on social media and throughout their creative products and their messaging will win in 2024. Look, tension is harder than ever to maintain or to gain.

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And so the only way to do that is going to be to improving the creative product and to ultimately being a part of the experience that people expect online. Right now, nothing screeches to a halt faster than when someone's watching TikTok or videos or something educational or heck, they're just looking to get away for a moment and watch something fun or interesting. Nothing kind of crashes faster than a typical.

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brand experience ad or something that just purely gets in the way of what the experience they're expecting. And so we've got to learn and get back to this world of creativity and experimenting with different ways to get your brand in the hands and in the eyes and in the mind of consumers. Top of mind awareness is getting harder and harder to maintain. And the brands that really will lean into creativity, will lean into experimentation, will win.

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in 2024. Finally, number three, to win and have success. This isn't about trends. This isn't about, oh, what if we did this? This isn't about AI or the metaverse. It's some bullshit that matters. And it is changing the way that we experience media, but really has no bearing on whether you'll be successful in 2024. The third is building community. We've been talking about this community building shit for a long time, but here's the deal.

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With first party data, and that being brands no longer being able to use cookies and everything like that, having relationships, valuable relationships, and building experiences that consumers want to be a part of is going to be crucial in 2024. You've got to be able to nurture these relationships with consumers. You've got to foster relationships throughout the community so that other consumers are wanting to engage and interact. These can be both online communities and offline. I think...

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post-COVID, we've really returned to this opportunity for experiences to come to life. And I think the brands that will lean heavily into this, because look, as much as we think things change, things are the same. We're severely missing connection and in real life experiences in 2024. People are ready to get back to that. People are lonely. People are wanting to have more experiences together.

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And I think brands that will lean into this to create community opportunities amongst not only themselves, but with the other customers, I think they'll see tremendous success in 24. Social media is so powerful these days. We have these channels available to them. You have Facebook groups, you have Instagram channels, you have TikTok, you have all these channels, LinkedIn if you're in B2B. There's so many opportunities to be building community.

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and not just be building more and more content for the sake of content. And I think if people will lean into this, we'll get more into the experiential opportunities of bringing customers together, and to really become the shepherd that leads to more in real life opportunities, I think the brands will win. So I think building community and really nurturing those existing customer relationships to increase lifetime value, and ultimately,

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to increase their loyalty back to the brand. Those are my three marketing keys and success opportunities in 2024. Integrated influencers, creativity and experimentation. Be bold and you'll win. And finally, building true community, both in real life and online. Look folks, I'm gonna keep it practical. It's a radical, it's a Radcast. We could get far reaching if we wanted to.

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And look, we wanna talk about those things. But at the end of the day, I wanna see you be successful in life and in business and ultimately have things that you can take away and leverage in your business. If you ever wanna find me, I'm at Ryan Alford on Instagram, active the most there. Find me on LinkedIn and TikTok. Wherever you see that blue check, that's me. And, usually on Facebook, but it's not my everyday platform. So.

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You know where to find us, theradcast.com. You can find this episode. You can find all our highlight clips. And look, it's a great search functionality there. And we will be changing in 2024, some of the naming, some of the ways to reach these things. There'll be more announcements on that. And don't forget our next episode, Dave Asprey, the godfather of biohacking, next Tuesday. We appreciate you wherever, whenever, however you are, you are the reason we do the show.

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If it's radical, we will continue to cover it. And I appreciate you. Happy New Year to everyone. I hope it's an amazing year. We're about to kick some ass and take some names, baby. We're snapping necks and writing checks here on the Radcast.

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To listen or 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.