Ryan [00:00:20] Hey guys, what’s up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast News. It is Friday, January 15th and I'm joined as always by Miss Reiley Clark.

Reiley [00:00:31] Hello. Thank you!

Ryan [00:00:33] It’s Mrs or Miss?

Reiley [00:00:34] Definitely Miss. I am not married…

Ryan [00:00:35] You’re not a Mrs yet.

Reiley [00:00:36] Correct. 

Ryan [00:00:37] That’s right. I get them backwards though, I don’t know why?

Reiley [00:00:39] I used to do that too, in elementary school, and I had this one teacher that would get so mad at me, and she would be like, “ I am not married”. And I was like, okay…come on…

Ryan [00:00:53] How was the week?

Reiley [00:00:54] Yeah, it's been a good week. I feel like we've been doing a lot -- I feel like everything's just been increasing. Just business-wise, Radcast wise. Life wise. Just like everything is just picking up. But no, it’s been a good week.

Ryan [00:01:08]It’s the middle of Januar, halfway through January.

Reiley [00:01:11] It’s crazy to think about.

Ryan [00:01:13] So, it's okay. I felt like yesterday I was planning for Christmas. I hate it that it goes by so fast. It just goes by, new year’s, and now we’re like… I hate it but then I am like, “Oh! Spring’s around the corner”.

Reiley [00:01:26] Yeah, I know. It was funny because I had, well my birthday was last week, so I had a warm birthday for like the first time in my life. And, I was like, “It’s warm. I am just wearing a long-sleeve shirt, and I am fine!”. I was so excited about that, honestly. So, I can’t even imagine spring. I'm just excited for the warm weather to come back.

Ryan [00:01:48] And you never know. We’ve had, I think, a normal winter here. It’s not been colder than normal, but it’s definitely not been…we can sometimes in December and January, we can be in like the 60s here, and it has not been that. It’s been more standard 50s, you know…we do have four seasons, which is sort of nice… But yeah, it’s been a good week. We've got lots of stuff happening with business, which is great. I may have stronghold-ed our guests yesterday into some additional business as well. We got two episodes, upcoming. We've got another episode with Mr. Austin Powers. i’m kidding, not Austin Powers, it's Austin Hope -- He's the international wine man of mystery. But he did have a cool hat on, yesterday.

Reiley [00:02:46] No, he really did. I liked his hat a lot. I noticed his ring, I like his ring a lot too…

Ryan [00:02:53] He runs one of the fastest-growing wineries in the world, internationally known now and sold as the Hope Family Wines. And he's on Tuesday's episode, so be on a lookout for that. Austin and I are buddies, and it certainly showed on the episode and he really told us some additional perspective on business for them and during COVID-19 and talked about the number seven in the world ranking that he just got a couple of months ago on his own label Cabernet, or the Austin Hope Cabernet : 2018 edition. So, you know, no big-deal, number 7 in the world. But, you know, wine’s a passion of mine and I do have a collection, and have been a – I don’t want to call myself a connoisseur -- but a collector for about fifteen…

Reiley [00:03:44] You won’t call yourself a connoisseur?

Ryan [00:03:46] I don’t know. I have a 500-bottle collection. And I don’t know if that makes me a connoisseur of wine. I think when I say ‘a connoisseur it’s like “ You know I have this elegant palette…And I know… And oh! It’s a little bit of…blueberry shavings..”. You know, I can taste stuff, and I know if it’s good or not. I’m generally good about giving a guess, I kind of know when someone tells me their profile, I can give them some ideas. So, I guess it makes me more than the next person but, anyway. It’s a passion of mine, and Austin’s become a good friend.  And so, he's going to be on every six months to give us the latest in wine news -- with the Hope Family Wineries. And we may be doing a little bit of work on a new label he's got coming out. So, that’s cool.  And then hey, in the two weeks Will, a little less than two weeks, Will Ahmed, who's the founder and CEO of Whoop which is a band. If you're watching the video, you can see this, which is a fitness tracking, performance tracking band that I wear. And, they were valued as a billion-dollar company… So, you know, it’s just a ‘small’ guest we are having here on the Radcast these days. Billion dollar valuations, number 7 wine in the world — you know, no big deal! We’re blessed. We really are, to be making the connections. Will was awesome. 30-year-old CEO, he's got it together. A Harvard grad. Had a brilliant idea with another partner. They've built a technology company, a brand. And it's really fascinating what they're doing with human performance and tracking and all of those things. And now a partnership with PGA. I can't wait for everyone to hear all about that and check out that episode. That will be on the 26th.

Reiley [00:05:42] So, that’s coming out too. And the other thing I wanted to share too is that we're doing —Ad Gab. That's normally on Wednesdays around 2:30ish and 3 is going to start being a Clubhouse Room. So, if you're on Clubhouse and you have not followed Ryan yet, please follow Ryan because we're going to create these rooms for Ad Gab technical conversation. We would love to have more people, just a part of the conversation adding in their insight and just obviously creating a nice practical conversation about advertising and marketing. And so yeah, if you're on Clubhouse, we'll create an event, that way you're aware of it. And it'll be a great thing for Ad Gab and obviously the Radcast too. And just Clubhouse in general, and we’d love to start talking to you guys…

Ryan [00:06:27] We want to stimulate that back and forth in that open dialogue and Q&A. We do this, trying to bring topics that we think are most relevant to the advertising and marketing space and trying to give practical advice for businesses of all sizes. But I think this will open it up, especially for people that are already in the app. But it's growing. I get these notifications every day. So they've obviously started to open it up. It's going to be more and more mainstream. But yeah, check out the clubhouse app and follow along and you'll see the Ad Gab. And this is going to be some amount of the future component of Radcast. It's a natural transition, not because we're leaving behind the forms that we do now and the podcasts on the other platforms. That’s not going anywhere. But this will be another layer for us as we consider and look for ways to grow the brand and grow just the opportunity to get that interaction. And so it's going to be another layer. And we really hope if you're on Clubhouse, you give it a checkout. We will eventually have our own club specific there. But, you get to start with a channel or a room. You never know who's going to be in the room. And so I'm excited about that. And, you know, things are busy around the agency. We've added several new clients and getting that rolling, it's going to be a good year. Ignoring the shitshow that’s happening around us, like there's a bomb going off over there. We're just ignoring that while this happens. But, I'm OK with living in my own bubble of positivity…

Reiley [00:08:17] We create our own destinies, or whatever it is…we create our own bubbles sometimes.

Ryan [00:08:19] It’s not all that bad. But no, I’m excited about things. So, any other big announcements? 

Reiley [00:08:26] I don’t think so. I think that’s it for the most part. Apart from that it’s just kind of normal Radcast stuff that’s happening, Radical stuff that’s happening. I feel like there’s a lot of things in the process, or in the making of becoming news for us, but not necessarily yet. I think…

Ryan [00:08:45] New merchandise. Further along, in going, to at least initially going to be on RyanAlford.com. So, we’ll share that. So if you are in the ad marketing game, it will be some fun stuff. You might get a kick out of it. I think you will. And we may be doing some giveaways, for sure. So, be on the lookout for that. And yeah, I’m excited about that. But here's Riley with the news.

Announcer 3 [00:09:10] Here is the Radcast news.

Reiley [00:09:14] OK, guys, so first up, today, I think it's critically important to address some of the big rebrandings that have been happening around a couple of the brands. One of them is a brand [called] Burger King. Burger King rebranded, but the other one is the CIA. And it's like they considered the CIA a brand. And I think in this case, yes. Because if you look, I’ll bring up the CIA first, but if you look at [the] CIA's new style it honestly looks like the Hunger Games met the Silicon Valley techies. And it's just funny. I think it’s fun, but what was really interesting to me were the memes that came out of the rebranding because some of the memes were just tearing them apart, the way they looked like one of them was ‘CIA rebranding is the new festival in Berlin’. So it's like just fun things like that. But, that was just one of the things that had come up in the news and I felt like it was worth bringing up here too. And Burger King obviously rebranded as well. 

Ryan [00:10:21] Well Burger King went ‘back to the future’, ‘back to the past’, whatever you want to say. They went back to the logo they probably should have never changed. No one really ever liked the modernization of their logo, for the most part, at least. I say no one, I mean, I don't know how much consumers weigh in on this, but us ad types and creative types and all of those never did. It's more of the traditional, they removed that little swoosh and some of the gradient of the color on it. So it's just kind of that classic burger look. And so, it looks cool, and I think it definitely has a retro feel to it, a simpler feel. Definitely will play well on this mobile and digital — a simpler logo. You are getting in trouble sometimes with these funky logos, with mobile and other things for how it looks. You think it looks great because you're looking on a huge screen and on a huge website or on a billboard. But then you get into mobile applications. The simpler the better,  a lot of times for these logos. But it's cool. But the CIA is interesting. I mean look, I believe in a brand for anything, you know. And so they certainly have a brand, but it did feel almost like an ad agency website, you know, like a consumer research firm. Yeah, it’s like okay, the rebrand’s cool, it’s nice-looking, our logo, I should say, but I don't know, what are we doing here? Where do we need to spend dollars right now? I wanna know how much they spent, who did it. I don't know that the agency probably has signed some non-disclosure agreement or something.

Reiley [00:12:04] I don't know if they were trying to plan more like a millennial…

Ryan [00:12:07] ...you don't really want to screw with the government.

Reiley [00:12:08] Oh gosh, no! But I don't know if they were trying to pull more of the millennial techies that are coming up and trying to get them to apply more to be in the agency. I don't know if that was the mindset, but anyway, it's their…

Ryan [00:12:18] …and it did use to be cool like to be an FBI agent or CIA… you just aspired to that. I just don't know if that exists anymore. I mean, some of this is like the overall universal mistrust that's happening, the environment. And then some of it is just, I don’t know,if people want to be TikTok stars or something, you know, YouTube stars. And also the James Bond dream is dying. 

Reiley [00:12:46] I think they're trying so hard to come back into the government game. 

Ryan [00:12:49] But, I like the Retro Burger Burger King logo. 

Reiley [00:12:54] Oh, I like that so much better too. 

Ryan [00:12:55] I'm digging. I'm picking up what Burger King is throwing down lately. Between the value meal, which is great…

Reiley [00:13:02] Oh, that's so funny. We really have been talking about Burger King a lot recently.

Ryan [00:13:06] Yeah, we have. They're hitting the radar. They must be doing something right. They're having it their way. That's and that's McDonald's tagline. No, I'm sure their sales are, they're always like, traditionally a distant second to McDonald's, but I wonder if they're closing the gap at all. I haven't seen some of the latest sales data for US QSR or fast food. So, you know… But I do like what they're doing from a marketing perspective. 

Reiley [00:13:36] The other thing that's happening that’s interesting branding is NHL. Their advertisements are not necessarily on the boards anymore. Like, obviously the boards of a hockey ice-rink or whatever. But now they're more on the helmets and more on the jerseys. And it's interesting because a lot of people in the U.S. are not liking that. They're thinking it's more of this European feel. I feel like some people might like that European jersey-feel that feels incredibly branded. But, helmets are having, whatever division, region is sponsoring the team now is like going to be on their helmets or it's on their jerseys, or whatever. And it's interesting, I don't really know what it's doing for the NHL, apart from the logos always being seen on camera at some point. 

Ryan [00:14:29] It's all money. I mean for them it’s a money play with covid and everything else, every one of these leagues has taken a hurting on some level, the NHL more than others, Major League Baseball, all these, they are making up revenue. And whether or not this will stick around, I don’t know. I don't have a problem with it per se. It's definitely going to junk up the screen on some level. And I know the traditionalists hate it, but, look, it's a free country. We live in a capitalistic country and naming rights are for sale for anything. And so, it's a way for them to recoup lost revenue. And that's the only reason they're doing it. I guarantee you, they kicked and screamed their way to making the decision, but they need to make up the revenue. And so they're doing it the best way they know-how, which is selling the asset they have, which is their brand and what's on air, not so different from the golfers. I mean, how many golf logos do you see within the screen on the golfer? You've got one on their golf shirt, one of their golf gloves, two on the hat. And it's not like overkill, but look, it's a walking billboard. And so, these players' jerseys are the same thing. They're on screen the entire game and the biggest players are going to have it and be seen and things like that. I get both sides of it, but I don't have a problem with it. And it makes sense, especially when they're trying to recoup the revenue. And opening night’s what, Monday?

Reiley [00:15:57] Yeah, sometime soon. Yeah. 

Ryan [00: 15:59] Yeah, next week. 

Reiley [00:16:00] So I guess that's going to be big. And I know everyone is excited about that, especially if you're a hockey fan. So that's what…hockey games are fun though…

Ryan [00:16:08] I only like going, saying the exact thing. I am not -- I grew up in the South, I lived in New York, but the Rangers always sucked, at least when I was there. And so like I went to a Rangers game, and it was a blast! But it's fun to go to games, but I don't have enough interest historically. You know, it's not like a family thing. Yes, you get all those traditions passed down. And growing up in South Carolina, hockey just wasn't one of them. And the Greenville Drive doesn't count…not Drive excuse me, that’s the baseball team. The Swamp Rabbits, excuse me, Greenville Swamp Rabbits — which was kinda like, a terrible name in and of itself, but…

Reiley [00:16:48] No I mean, that’s the thing, like hockey games are fun, but it's never it was never something, it was like a family thing and the interest was gone, but like they're fun to watch. So, I'm sure it's awesome for people that -- it's opening night. It's coming up. So get your popcorn and your beers and get ready for…

Ryan [00:17:43]...your skating billboards. That’s what these players’ jerseys are.

Reiley [00:17:13] Yeah, have fun with that. No, the other thing that's happening in [the] news, which I think, “This is fun.This is so like, childhood like, or whatever”. UNO is celebrating their 50 years and they're creating new designs for it and they're creating a tournament that's happening for revamping of the game. I'm not entirely sure how this is playing with the COVID regulations right now, but I think it'll be fun. And I mean, that's awesome. It's crazy that it's like fifty years. I guess for some people, you know, it’s probably like, “Oh my God, fifty years!”, you know…

Ryan [00:17:4] I've been playing it a long time. My kids, we play… definitely on beach trips and things like that. And, I grew up playing it with my grandmothers, both of them. So I have fond memories of this. Skip Bo was actually another one that I played with one grandmother, anyway. But, I definitely grew up, nostalgic for me, playing UNO. And, you know, it looks like they have a retro look to them. I almost thought ‘70s’ish, groovy looking. And so, it’s cool. And I think, look, they've got mobile apps and different things like that. I'm wondering if maybe some of that, with COVID going on, will be mobile-driven, the contest, and things like that. Or I'm sure they've figured out some way to virtually play it. Maybe the only way is through the app. And so, it’s cool. Look, you know, and this is all about -- it's an older game. How do you stir up interest so that today's younger generation, does it forget about it or doesn't get exposed to it? And so that's the challenge with all of these legacy brands with staying relevant in today's environment. And I would advise them to have an influencer on TikTok. If they do it, selling this.

Reiley [00:19:00] It's a really good point.

Ryan [00:19:03] We’ll see if they do… we could have fun with that… I think about the colors and all that stuff. I can think of some random dance or something, you know — the UNO dance. Maybe we should do that, the UNO dance, right here. You don’t wanna see me dance.

Reiley [00:19:16] Why not?

Ryan [00:19:17] Because it is just so good.

Reiley [00:19:20] Yeah, everyone’s gotta be a competition now. That’s funny.

Ryan [00:19:25] I think, what they have, the four – what are those things, you skip over someone. You could play like – you can create different games with the UNO cards. Reverse. You do the reverse. You do the skip. You do the…free ideas everywhere…some better than the others.

Reiley [00:19:46] Exactly! The other part of our news today is, GM is pushing electric vehicles very hard. We talked about this in either last week’s news, or the week before that. It was because this other company that was really pushing out the electric vehicle idea and the design and concepts — KIA. KIA was pushing that. But I like this because obviously, Asia is growing vastly with the automobile industry. And America has always been pretty good about that. But I feel like now they're trying to catch back up in a way. And so I'm glad this electric vehicle push is happening again. Again, GM is kind of doing this with a refresh of their logo a little bit, just to encourage more electric vehicle use. And honestly, electric vehicles are awesome. I mean, like you're saving the environment and saving your gas money. And it's crazy. I love electric vehicles. 

Ryan [00:20:45] Well, I like them, too, now especially when the range is getting better. I didn't like it when you had to plug it in every other day, but like every other hour. They've gotten much better on that. And look, this is the future. I can tell you an industry as old as the automobile industry, when you see GM and Ford getting after electric, you know it's coming. Because look, the costs involved with changing all of their factories from gas cars to electric cars is immense. They've been fighting this for a long time. But finally, the battery technology is getting there, or is already here, and getting better. And so, now the logo, on the other hand, for me, just lacks the simplicity of the new Burger King logo, which makes sense for them, but all the gradients and all the stuff is ho-hum for me. It's a little I don't know, I get what the look they were going for. But again, just because you can doesn't mean you always should. You’ll hear me say that. So it’s all meh, M E H for me, on the [new] logo. I understand that it looks dynamic or electric in a way, with the gradients, but it's a pass for me, bro…

Reiley [00:22:12] Sometimes it shouldn’t happen, you know. But I like it. I hope this just continues across the board and I hope more car companies start doing more of this. I am just like -- I love it. And they're also so quiet. I'm waiting for a commercial to really play on, if this hasn't already happened already, but I am waiting for a commercial of…

Ryan [00:22:32] The lack of noise pollution?

Reiley [00:22:34] Yes. But like, think about it from a scary movie perspective. Like you sneak away in the electric car. But it's a cute little commercial of some guy…

Ryan [00:22:41] I wonder if the car wrecks and the accidents will go up, like running over people because you don't hear it coming. I mean, people are -- look, we all get distracted. I don’t know what the rates are. How many people die while they're walking out in front of cars? But like, if you don't hear it coming.

Reiley [00:22:57] I am not trying to be funny but …

Ryan [00:22:50] I am not trying to be funny either, but it’s like… I’m serious…

Reiley [00:23:02] It happens even sometimes with my car because people don't hear it and it's electric. When you're, like, just coasting. And there will be times I'm in the parking garage of my apartment and I'm behind. Someone's just walking in the middle of the parking garage. They have no idea I'm behind them. And I'm like, I don’t know how to handle this. And then they eventually turn back and they're like, “oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry”.

Ryan [00:23:27] Like sneaking up. You get right up on their shin, or right at the back of their legs…someone’s gonna come out and have this song, “it’s electric!”. It’s gotta be like a campaign…

Reiley [00:23:37] It has to be someone’s campaign eventually…

Ryan [00:23:43] …boogie-woogie? Sorry… I was thinking, “yes”...

Reiley [00:23:45] We’re in a retro mindset…

Reiley [00:23:51] In other news, the last bit of news for today is White Castle has their Valentine's Day campaign, which I think is sweet. And speaking of which, kinda a side note here, any small businesses now would be the time to start preparing for Valentine's campaign or if you haven't already started, get the juices flowing of what you want to put out for Valentine's Day. Is your campaign for whatever's going on. But again, White Castle is doing a cool little pick-up, little box here, I'll put it in an episode here, but it is a cool campaign. Are you a big White Castle guy or not?

Ryan [00:24:23] I'm not. Like we talked about Burger King enough, but we're more like Mole's or those kinds of places. Like a burrito or something like that. Burger King is snuck in here and there. Here’s one really close to our loft. And I've never been a White Castle person -- little mini burgers and all that. Never really hit my palate very well, you know. I think it's a love it or hate it type thing. And I don't necessarily hate it as much as it just wasn't around that much. I think we didn't even have one here. I didn't know that we have one anymore here, in Greenville. Are you aware of one? There was one here for a little while, but I think it's been closed for a while. But, I know there are still hundreds of white castles nationwide. I like the idea, it’s cool. I mean, they're turning into retro drive-ins, and you know, sonics…and doing the business. And with COVID and everything people don't want to go indoors, way to play off of it. I like the packaging. I like what they're doing. I just don’t know enough about, you know, I haven't dug into their market. Like, are people going to do that for their Valentine's. Would you be cool if your boyfriend took you to Whitse Castle, for Valentine’s day?

Reiley [00:25:38] It’s not like I wouldn’t be. Time with him is what’s important…

Ryan [00:25:44] Oh man. We have a lying radar here, in the Radcast studio, and it just buzzed straight up. It just went off. Like, the lie…

Reiley [00:25:52] Oh no! No! No! I’m being serious. I mean, at some point it's like there was a thing that I even saw on Twitter one time and it was like, would you consider a date to McDonald's a day? And I'm like, well, technically, you can make anything and date if you have fun with it, you know what I mean. And this is a cute little thing, and we both kind of are in the marketing, whatever space, so…

Ryan [00:26:14] Can we tell that you’re only dancing around this because it’s a big, fat no!

Reiley [00:26:18] I’m not saying anything, you know!

Ryan [00:26:20] You’re not like high-maintenance bougie, I don’t get that from you. Not that you are not bougie, but I don’t take you as being high-maintenance. I don’t think you are, I wouldn’t think you are… So, I don’t mean this because you gotta be taking him to, like a 300$ restaurant, or something like that. But at the same time, I don’t know if White Castle’s hitting the radar, you know.

Reiley [00:26:42] No, I mean, I get it.

Ryan [00:26:43] But I like the idea, it’s cute. Like maybe for your -- you know we are getting to those two holidays for every holiday. Maybe it’s like, “This is just a fun little thing we go do, but where I am really taking you for a big steak on Friday.

Reiley [00:26:58] Yeah right, right. That can be fun… like you can make this into something fun and then play rummy while you’re doing it, or you know. Just kidding, I had to throw in the rummy. But yeah. But I think that’ll be fun. It’s a cool move on White Castle’s part. It looks cool. And again, it brings in this whole retro thing again. Like everyone’s doing this retro, kinda ‘70s kinda vibe right now. And it’s clearly trending, so I guess, you know. There’s a point when it’s not gonna be trending, but here we are…

Ryan [00:27:30] Well, there we are. I guess that’s the news for the week.

Reiley [00:27:32] Yeah, it is. There's only one other thing I wanted to just reiterate one more time for our listeners. The upcoming episodes are: Tuesday is Austin Hope's episode. And again, this is all about his winery and the number seven wine in the world and different ways to get his wine and where to find him. And then the following week is going to be Will Ahmed, again, CEO and founder of WHOOP, a super cool app. And like you all have to listen to this episode when it comes out because he talks a lot about even some of the cases of it picking up COVID cases and things like that. It is crazy. Technology is crazy. 

Ryan [00:28:12] Will be deep episodes, both of these episodes, each of their products, but they both have really great insights that I think are universal to business and marketing. And just overall, like getting our hits, I think really great rich episodes and more to come. Well thanks so much Reiley.

Reiley [00:28:27] Yeah, thank you!

Ryan [00:28:28] We appreciate everyone as always. You know where to find us, at theradcast.com. You can follow us around, or in, or on, or around…I’m like hey, kinda spinning around here, all the ‘70s stuff… like a record. But yeah, anyway. ‘The’ dot ‘rad’ dot ‘cast’ on Instagram. And you can follow me @RyanAlford, as always. And we’ll see you next week.

Reiley [00:28:57] See ya!

Ryan [00:28:58] Yo guys, what's up? Ryan Alford here. Thanks so much for listening. Really 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 really appreciate it. And go leave us a review at Apple or Spotify. Leave us a solid. Tell more people, leave us some reviews. And hey, here's the best news of all. If you want to work with me directly, 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. Eight six four seven two nine thirty six eighty. We'll see you next time.