Ryan Alford [00:00:19] Hey guys, what's up? Ryan Alford here on the latest episode of the Radast for our weekly news edition with the lovely Reiley Clark. What's up, Reiley? 

Reiley Clarke [00:00:28] Hello. Welcome back. 

Ryan Alford [00:00:31] Happy holidays. It’s festive in the podcasting studio. Thanks to Riley. 

Reiley Clarke [00:00:36] Yes. Got a little festive look in here and you can see it now. 

Ryan Alford [00:00:40] We have a tree and you can visualize this if you're listening to the audio. Imagine a wreath hanging over the television with colored balls and just feeling very festive. I do need some apple cider or something. 

Reiley Clarke [00:00:59] We have some on tap. We could have brought some in. 

Ryan Alford [00:01:07] What's up Reiley? How has the week been?                               

Reiley Clarke [00:01:09] It's been a good week and I feel like we've been very busy. I feel like I say that every week, but I think it's just the holidays. Everyone's getting a lot of stuff in. The podcast is doing well and Ad Gab is starting to pick up some more traction. So that's awesome. If you haven't gotten a chance to listen to Ad Gad yet, it's on Ryan's Instagram. If you go to @ryanalford on Instagram, you'll be able to see the Instagram lives that go on Wednesday around two-thirty and that's fun. You can also go with Josh Hill our digital ad manager here. But apart from that, what about you? How have you been? 

Ryan Alford [00:01:47] Been good; busy new clients. We've been growing in the fabric and textiles area. You've got two or three new clients in that space on top of others that we already had. So website branding content ads. And it seems to be coming back alive. Certain things, a lot of people reaching, wanting to get ahead for the new year or so. Business is good. And we've got our holiday party tomorrow night. 

Reiley Clarke [00:02:18] So excited about that. 

Ryan Alford [00:02:20] We have that going on. So looking forward to that. And then just holiday stuff that comes with the season. Getting gifts for the kids and overwhelming them with way too many things. 

Reiley Clarke [00:02:33] And of course. 

Ryan Alford [00:02:35] My wife talking and comparing lists, we've got to get serious about this list. I'm like; "oh, God, where's the Elf to bring some gifts or something". 

Reiley Clarke [00:02:45] Alright. Give me the choice. 

Ryan Alford [00:02:47] All he does is prance around the house leaving messages everywhere that I have to clean up. I'm going to kill that son of a bitch. 

Reiley Clarke [00:03:02]  How will he die? 

Ryan Alford [00:03:03]  Hanging from the tree with the rope around his neck. Well, it's just a stressful thing. My wife brought this kit and my kids aren't listening to this podcast they are all ten or under. I'm giving away all the secrets. And  I believe in it and I think they play along they do well. They're like, where's the elf? Where's he at? Sometimes we are tired at night and forget to move the Elf and my wife or I will wake up with cold sweat like; "oh, we didn't move Elf". 

Reiley Clarke [00:03:35] That's funny. We need an office Elf. 

Ryan Alford [00:03:38]  Yes, as long as I am not in charge of it. We had Santa Claus here yesterday to shoot some content for several clients. We had a real-life, legit Santa. This guy does the mall thing on the weekends. Growing up, I don't think he ever looked as legit as this guy does. 

Reiley Clarke [00:04:07] Is he in a bubble at the mall or how are they doing the mall ones? 

Ryan Alford [00:04:09] I don't know. I guess they're still doing pictures. It's socially Distance six feet apart. Maybe they're not even doing the photos. He just goes and he's sitting there so to give it the whole seasonality of it all. But he was here and he's a pretty good actor for what he was. And we used him for several things. 

ReileyClarke [00:04:34] We were talking about this pre-show, but it's funny and changing gears a little bit. But we've been watching shows recently.  And I had to talk about the Queen's Gambit. I finished it for the record last night. To be fair it is one season, a limited series on Netflix. There are only seven episodes when it's all said and done. 

 Ryan Alford [00:05:05] They say limited series, but if it is very popular will they have another season, or is it really limited? 

ReileyClarke [00:05:13]  Here is the deal. I  am not going to give away the ending. I am not that kind of a person. I don't necessarily know if there will be another season. 

 Ryan Alford [00:05:19]  Why because it had some kind of finality to it? 

ReileyClarke [00:05:26]  Which is why I can see this just being a limited series only. But it was so well done and it's funny because it's about chess. 

Ryan Alford [00:05:36] That is what I expected you to say, because you strike me, as a chess player. I mean, you walk around the office talking about how you can't wait to play chess later. I guess it matches up? 

Reiley Clarke [00:05:46]  I had the local chess club, I'm the president of it. 

Ryan Alford [00:05:51]  Reiley Clarke chess club extraordinaire. 

Reiley Clarke [00:05:56]  It's a very well-done show. And even the way the filming is done, it's very like, oh, she's very artistically well done. And the theme, the storyline, it's just all so good. But you think about it and again, you're like how do you make chess sound interesting? And, you talk to people and you're like, oh, like, what's the latest show you watch? You go, Oh, the Queen's Gambit. What's it about? Chess. Yeah, but it's so much it's just so I know exactly. But it's good. I would recommend it. 

Ryan Alford [00:06:38] What about the Queen in chess. I imagine there's some overlap there or something to do with it. 

Reiley Clarke [00:06:44] I'll just let you watch it.  

Ryan Alford [00:06:47] I'll watch it in twenty, twenty-three 

Reiley Clarke [00:06:49] But it's limited so it's going to be gone. 

Ryan Alford [00:06:52] And we've been watching pros. It's like a guilty pleasure. I don't know if it's guilty pleasure, it's hilarious. But Cobra Kai. We talked a little about this, but I was ten years old, the perfect prime kid for when Karate Kid originally came out. I was like eight but as  I told you, like in the theater, walking out like karate, kicking off the aisles, getting on the arm, rest of the chairs, and doing the crane kick, like I was kicking Johnny in the face, like, perfect. So this comes out the nostalgia because it's got Daniel and Johnny picking up their robbery right where you left off. And it's well written. I mean, you have, like, this quasi comedy-drama type shows with this type of premise. It might be nostalgic, but the writing sucks, or the acting sucks.  I don't know that anyone will win any Academy Award on the acting side. But it's just so nostalgic. The writing's really good. They've introduced new characters and watching Johnny and Daniel go at each other still holds, whether it's the stuff of nostalgia or interest for someone who didn't care. But I've been getting into that one second season so there can be a third season because it's popular. It has gotten good ratings from a lot of critics. It's light too. With everything going on  Game of Thrones might be just too much right now. 

Reiley Clarke [00:08:33]  Season eight should have been produced this year. I think that was not a good season. 

Ryan Alford [00:08:42] No, but I haven't watched a movie like this. I feel like this is the state of the movie business. I have not watched a movie other than kid's movies. We do family movie night, so I guess it counts. We watched Elf in the theater room Friday or Saturday night over the weekend. But like an adult, Nicole and I  didn't go to the movies that much because we are not huge on movies. But we watch a movie here and there. I can't remember the last drama action, an adultish movie. And  I think it's the awareness of any of them because the marketing of movies is just non-existent because the theatre is gone 

Reiley Clarke [00:09:28] You just get it on Netflix based on what you scroll through. 

Ryan Alford [00:09:32]  And it's one thing to commit to a show than to watch a 30 or 45-minute show to see if you're going to like it and another thing to like get into the movie. This is a more considered purchase for me. 

Reiley Clarke[00:09:48] OK, so I will say I'm a big movie buff and my favorite movie I think is Gladiator, which is random. But I am obsessed with that movie. It's big for my family too. But there is this movie on Netflix that I would recommend and it's a dark kind of movie. It's called The Devil All the Time. All right. And it's kind of funny because, I mean, I'm originally from West Virginia. So the movie part of the movie takes place in parts of West Virginia and parts of Ohio. And then I thought, oh, gosh, I think it's the 50s and 60s. And it's very interesting because it's backwoods West Virginia, backwoods Ohio kind of stuff. It follows a couple of different characters and it's a loaded cast. Tom Hollins is in it. Robert Pattinson is in it. Well, I'm going to mispronounce our names, but he's Swedish or something.  But there are a lot of good people in it and I  would recommend that one too. That's a good, but again very dark and it's not something you would want to watch on family movie night 

Ryan Alford [00:11:21] Well Christmas vacations have been on constantly. It's light-hearted.  Just give me some low thought process humor, like it's silly. There's stuff that I probably wouldn't normally tolerate. And look, I love Christmas vacation, but certain other movies I can't deal with. But I'm craving a little bit of levity being reduced. 

 Reiley clarkeA[00:11:49] OK, then I have another one for you. Kid Movie Klaws. It is on Netflix and it is a family movie 

Speaker 2 [00:12:04] Here’s Riley with the news. 

Here is the Radcast news. 

Reiley Clarke [00:12:13] OK, guys, so our topics for this week:  The first one we will be talking about is; End of the year searches and what was the most Google searches of 2020? 

Ryan Alford [00:12:25] Yes, the year in search is one of my favorite things, and I almost forgot about it. Sort of tripped over when we were thinking about topics for the news and didn't know it was out just yet. So Google puts out the year in search and you see what was trending. What were the most searched terms across categories? I'll go over the ones that are probably most obvious. And we do a little trivia and see what you can guess here. 

ReileyClarke 1 [00:12:49] OK, this could be fun.

Ryan Alford [00:12:50] So the top five searches overall. 1 - Election results. 2 - Coronavirus. Wow. 3- Kobe Bryant, 4- Coronavirus update. And 5 - coming in on the coronavirus. The top five are Coronavirus symptoms. 

Reiley Clarke [00:13:17] See, I'm shocked that it wasn't higher, to be honest. I'm shocked that wasn't a higher number. 

Ryan Alford [00:13:31] Elections ruled the year sprinkled with coronavirus sprinkled with the tragedy of Kobe Bryant. And this is no good. I'm not enjoying this at all because it's reminding me that it's true. After all, it is what trended.  So we'll have a little fun. Let's go-to definitions. So people were looking up the definition of these words, any guesses on the top five, 

Reiley Clarke [00:14:13] Top five guesses of definitions, 

Ryan Alford [00:14:16] What are people looking up wanting to know what it means? Um, I'll give you a hint on the first one and it's not number one, but it's related to coronavirus.  What is the coronavirus and why would you be looking it up? 

Reiley Clarke [00:14:29] Oh, gosh, I don't know that I could even pinpoint. Would it be like the definition of like the full virus itself? 

Ryan Alford [00:14:39] Yes, Pandemic was the first. It was number four on definitions. Number five was also related. I knew what it meant, but I wanted to know what it meant when it first came out and they were talking about it. It meant you didn't have symptoms, asymptomatic that was number five on the list and number one is a song by a certain female rapper and an acronym. 

Reiley Clarke [00:15:12] That was the number one; most searched definition?. 

Ryan Alford [00:15:15] WAP - it was number one for Definition looked up. Every parent in America was going; "what is this WAP"?  Look it up. 

Reiley Clarke [00:15:24] That is wow' kind of scary. 

Ryan Alford [00:15:29] And number two is entanglement. Does that mean it's like a Biden and a Trump thing? Like where was that like a constant news article? There's this entanglement. Number 3 is the Antebellum. It sounds like that scary movie. Never wanted to know what it means.  

Reiley Clarke [00:15:52] Oh, I guess maybe it could be. Are there any other top searches? 

Ryan Alford [00:15:57] Oh yeah. But we're going to go with this one. Let's go with people looking up- were,  they were wanting to know this, so they start their search with where. 

Reiley Clarke [00:16:12] Oh, I know what the first one is. Where is the city in China that started the coronavirus?  

Ryan Alford [00:16:21] Not in the top five. 

Reiley Clarke [00:16:23] No, seriously, that's a big surprise to me. 

Ryan Alford[00:16:28] Not in the top five. I think about WI FM and what were people wanting and making sure they got when the coronavirus happened and it had the down. 

Reiley Clarke [00:16:43] Oh are we talking about retail stores, like where to get a mask? 

Ryan Alford [00:16:47] Where's my money? Show me the money. Where's my stimulus money. Number one: Where is it? Number 2: 

Reiley Clarke [00:16:57] I was going actual location. 

Ryan Alford [00:17:01]  Could be there are some of those here so they're intermixed. So it could be. And so get this, no 2 - where is my refund? Where is my stimulus money? Where is my refund?  Some people are still locked down but a lot of those people are like, yeah that makes some money. We're number three, where is Kansas City? 

Reiley Clarke [00:17:32]  What took place in Kansas City? 

Ryan Alford [00:17:44] How about the top five TV shows? We were just talking about them when and ironically, we did not plan this. Both of the shows we reference are in the top five. 

Reiley Clarke [00:17:55] Is Queen's Gambit the first one? 

Ryan Alford [00:17:56] No, no, it's not. 

Reiley Clarke [00:17:58] Is Queen's Gambit there? 

Ryan Alford [00:17:59] Another Netflix phenomenon, though. Think of what it is probably more summertime and it took off was crazy. 

Reiley Clarke [00:18:09] Oh gosh. What's this the teenager show that's in North Carolina? 

Ryan Alfor [00:18:15]  Oh no.  I thought that would be on it too. It's not on here. Number one - Tiger King. 

Reiley Clarke [00:18:20] Tiger King. Tiger game. Yeah. That was this year wasn't it? 

Ryan Alford [00:18:23] That's what you see where our times like oh, they're going fast or slow. I'm not sure. Tiger King is number one.  Number two -- Cobra kai. 

Reiley Clarke [00:18:34] Yours is above mine? 

Ryan Alford [00:18:33] Oh it is way above it. And its number three is like one of my second favorites shows also on Netflix. Jason Bateman? 5] Ozark number three. Number four. I've not heard of this one. The Umbrella Academy. 

Reiley Clarke [00:18:53] I remember my brother watching that show. 

 Ryan Alford [00:18:58]  I  have no idea what that is. 

Reiley Clarke [00:19:01]  It's a very peculiar show. I've been wanting to watch it, but I feel like it's one of the ones you kind of need to be in the mood to watch. So I haven't done that. But, I am not hating on it just haven't done so yet. You haven't given a number five. 

Ryan Alford [00:19:07]  Number five: The Queen's Gambit. 

Reiley Clarke [00:19:09] The Queen's Gambit. There it is. It's so good. You have to watch it. 

Ryan Alford [00:19:14] The only one left that's kind of fun, I would do one more. Why? Why then something and no I have no idea. It's so scary and I feel like I'm missing something. But OK, I'm just going to tell you. Number one: why were chainsaws invented?. 

Reiley Clarke [00:19:33] Yikes! 

Ryan Alford [00:19:41] The number one: Why? 

Reiley Clar 3 [00:19:45] h My queststion now. Why is that one search?  What happened in Texas over there? 

Ryan Alford [00:19:48] Can you imagine cutting down a tree in any other way now? So I don't know why that's so fascinating. Number two makes sense. Back to coronavirus. I don't know if it's as bad now or if it was bad for a while. You go to the grocery store, you go to a gas station. What's the sign that they don't have? Change, coins. Why is there a coin shortage? That's no two. 

Reiley Clar [00:20:19] Interesting. 

Ryan Alford [00:20:29] Let's do another one. Why is TikTok getting banned? 

Reiley Clarke [00:20:21] I was waiting for something like that. 

Ryan Alford 2 [00:20:25] Everything else makes sense. A lot of its coronavirus general stuff. The top five people, are Joe Biden, Kim Jong-un, Kamala Harris, Jacob Blake, and Ryan Newman. The top five searched people overall. . So a great list. It's all part of Google's year in search and you can find it online we'll have a link to it somewhere in our show, I'm sure.  

Reiley Clarke [00:20:46] Yeah. Our next topic, which I just think is so fun. So Mario Lopez is being cast as Colonel Sanders for KFC. Lifetime movie, is partnering up with KFC and Colonel Sanders is Mario Lopez, but it almost sounds like it's a play. And it doesn't sound like it's some heartfelt kind of movie. It's being marketed as something almost like sexual seduction. 

Ryan Alford [00:21:25]  Colonel Sanders is known for his recipes, but now I guess he's done it for another one. And maybe it fits with a lifetime. Branded content. You're going to see a lot more of this where brands are trying to engage in platforms naturally and organically.  Obviously, in a lifetime, something salacious or interesting. And I don't know how far they're going to take it, but it looks quasi spoof-ish, but also, I guess, is playing into the mindset of a lifetime. And I think, look, here's what they're doing. A lot of women and a lot of moms make a lot of the decisions for the households. So you're getting KFC kind of in an organic way there. I'll get Mario Lopez well-liked, he's kind of the everyday guy. Now to Entertainment Tonight. So you got a good actor. The guys think he's sort of cool. He was a little over-the-top, geeky at one time. If you follow him as I follow him on social and stuff, he's pretty cool, a good-looking guy who has been around and so very good mainstream middle-of-the-road actor. And then you've got Lifetime playing on what they do best, which is drama. And so it's good for KFC. We'll see. I don't know how but I guess you'll see if sales with and whatever the exact demo ends up watching this, then you correlate sales. I'm sure Lifetime will be able to get a read from their metrics like who watched the show. And then KFC can see if they get a bump in sales from that demographic. It's more of a soft brand play, but it's cool. We'll see. I'll probably catch it on YouTube or something.  Otherwise, I will watch it live at noon on Sunday. . But I'll watch it on social channels. I'm sure it'll be on  IG tv. 

Reiley Clarke [00:23:28] Our next topic for today is Coors Light is creating a beer man versus a snowman. I like the little let's chill, everybody is ready to chill. And they're creating an imperfect snowman that's built to keep your cans of beer cold, which is clever and cute and whatever. If you're watching on YouTube, if you are on the YouTube video, then I'm currently playing the video along with it. But you can see this little animated snowman and it's a man and they're encouraging people to then build their own Beerman. And if you create your Beerman, you tag them, you hashtag beer, man, and then you will get this special kind of winter wonderland makeover on your lawn. If you're a beer man, as the cutest or the best whatever creation you come up with. But I think this is clever. And I like it a lot, to be honest. 

Ryan Alford [00:24:25] Yeah, I like what Cors is doing. If you've seen- I'm going to detour for one second, they've been targeting more women. I don't know if you see the woman, the woman that's been working all day, come home and getting a little undressed and like taking off. So they're expanding their target because I think it's an easy-drinking beer, a light beer. But I think most of their historical branding has been like all beer, on the couch watching sports or the silver bullet is what they were always known as. And so they're expanding that. And then this is just another it's playing into the sentiment like, OK, this is a beat-up snowman. It's not perfect, but he's keeping it in line with kind of the whole year. Right. The imperfect nature of the year.  So it's fun. And, I don't know how many people want a winter wonderland in their front yard, but, sure. I do see people liking it.  a non-snowman. If you're in a northern state like us being in South Carolina, the thought of how we'd ever build a snowman listen naturally or I guess we could build up a non-snowman. 

Reiley Clarke [00:25:40] I think we should build a Beer Man here at the office somewhere outside, maybe with cardboard boxes or something like that. 

Ryan Alford [00:25:48] And then we'll get a commodity transformed into a winter snowman. It's fun. It's clever. "Made to chill". 

Reiley Clarke [00:26:00] Our last topic for today is:  Chipotle was given the award of Mobile Marketer of the Year. I feel like this is a very lofty title to claim, but I think it's an important title, especially when everything is granted. OK, I'm going to say this, everything already has been going digital and I'm not saying this was the year everything went digital, but there was a higher pressure for companies to go digital this year because you needed to keep up with the fact that brick and mortar wasn't happening. You needed to keep up with where people are at, which was your social channels. Chipotle, I remember last year when they, first of all, they have marketed so well at least to my generation because they are everywhere and it's a thing.  And, whether it's TikTok or Instagram or whatever, they've been doing well with your Chipotle rewards. They're big in college towns. I mean, I feel like they've been getting their rewards, like loyalty to their customers, like, pretty soundly. And so I think this is probably why they got this award this year because we all very much so rely on I mean, I know everyone does. They use their apps a lot anyway. But I think just using the rewards points this way is, I mean, clearly it won them an award, so it worked for them. 

Ryan Alford  [00:27:15] Yes. they've come a long way. I mean, it wasn't that long, at least on my mental radar, where they were fighting all the issues, where they had people getting sick in the restaurants like two or three years ago. They've completely kind of turned a 180 with their quality. And you see that in the commercials. And they've made a real turnaround, literally. And, they've embraced that. They were starting to do it anyway. But it was good timing for them with everything going on that they had leaned into this mobile strategy in the app and like, really getting that robust. And then covid hits and you've got all this. They've got the infrastructure there to take advantage of it. So it was a win for them. I know the real activity on Tik Tok with branded videos and things like that. So they're kind of leaning into that whole customer base and everything that's going on. And then it's great to see a brand. A lot of these companies have apps and stuff, but some just suck out loud this. And it's like one that works. It ties into their charitable causes. You can do roundups and things like that from your meals. And, yeah, it brings the whole brand together, leveraging the app in the way that it should be and tracking their loyalty program and all those things. So fully integrated approach and looks. We have good results for them and quite the turnaround. 

Reiley Clarke [00:28:38] Well, that's it for us today. As far as the next upcoming things, we have an episode that's coming out on Tuesday and that is with a cool guest. He is part of my mine pump media. And if you're familiar with them, they are a marketing area. They are a big business podcast. But they also really cool products and services to get you on a very healthy fitness journey versus just that bodybuilders have to be esthetic. I mean, it's just a very healthy approach to working on and improving yourself. I think it's a great sentiment and I'm excited about that. 

Ryan Alford [00:29:19] Sal was a great and really good interview. Good back and forth. Insightful guy. I love what they're doing with the podcast and how they're growing their brand. It's like preaching a lot of things that we talk about from overarching marketing and branding perspective, and they're living it. And I think people are going really like that episode. And it couldn't be better timing for them another well placed with what they're doing online before covid starts and then now their ability to kind of be there and deliver on those virtual fitness experiences. But I also just really like their approach and Sal is a straight shooter. I follow him on Instagram and watched him kind of interjecting in certain conversations. I love his perspective. And I think people will enjoy that episode. 

Reiley Clarke [00:30:07] And then be sure to give us a follow on Instagram if you haven't already. We're at the Radcast. If you have any other questions or want to follow up with us, go to the Radcast for com, and we will see you all next time. 

Ryan Alford: Yo guys, what's up? Ryan offered here. Thanks so much for listening. Appreciate it. But 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 appreciate it and give us a review at Apple or Spotify. It was solid, tell more people, and leave us some reviews. And hey, here's the best news of all. If you want to work with me to check with you, to get your business kicking ass and you want radical or myself involved, you can text me directly at 8647293680. Don't wait another minute. Let's get your business going.  8647293680. We'll see you next time.