Announcer [00:00:00] To start somewhere, it has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now? 

Ryan [00:00:27] Hey, guys, what's up? It's Ryan Alford and Josh Hill. Welcome to the show. It's the latest edition of the Radcast. It's our advertising and marketing weekly news segment today, Friday, June 11th. Josh, good to have you back in the saddle, man. 

Josh [00:00:44] Good to be here. Happy Friday.

Ryan [00:00:45] I was going for the Batman and Robin thing, or like Jen and Jack or what are the other dynamic duos running out of? Mork and Mindy? Going back to the 80s, I'll be Mindy and you can be Mork. 

Anyway, good to have you, man. And we're glad you're listening to us wherever you are, however you are, whenever you are, wanted to say whenever you are because you never know in a podcast, you could be in the year 2027.

Josh [00:01:23] Hello from the past. 

Ryan [00:01:25] We welcome you to the show no matter when you listen. This could be one of my kids or your kids in 20 years  listening back to you.
But yeah, it's been a good week. The things are kicking at the agency, heat is turning up outside. I am headed on vacation tomorrow for a week. Folly Beach. It's our annual vacation trip to Folly Beach. I don't know if you've ever been to Folly Beach, but if you have, it's one of the beaches in Charleston, South Carolina, where we live. But it's like a trip in some ways back to nineteen. If I lived in this era, I wouldn't quite live in this era. But like what I would expect a beach town to look like in the 70s or 80s, yeah, because there aren't any high-rises. It's all old school beach houses or newly remodeled ones. Though it's quite clear that they're nice, expensive new homes, they're kind of all done with the similar hardy plant décor so that it keeps its old school charm. It is hard to preserve because most of these little beach towns you go to, your high rises start popping up. But there's a grunginess to follow that I enjoy for sure.
So today's podcast was brought to you by the City of Folly Beach. No, in all seriousness, I'm looking forward to it. We get out there, the kids get the old bocce ball. Are you a bocce ball player? 

Josh [00:03:06] I like bocce ball. I haven't played in a while. 

Ryan [00:03:08] But it's only fun in the sand or if you've got the right court, which is unusual for these parts. And I just really beat the shit out of my father in law and brother in law there. They crushed me in things like golf and other things. But this is like the one game that I get them on. 

Josh [00:03:32] You got to have your game. Whatever it is.

Ryan [00:03:34] I'm either building castles with the kids or, I'm tossin Nash in the ocean or beating the hell out of somebody in bocce ball. I don't know what it is but I have a really good sense for getting the ball close to the White Pallino, as they call it. The underrated ping pong and bocce ball.
But lots of interesting stuff in the news this week, which we're going to get to. Did you catch any of the Logan Paul-Floyd Mayweather fights on Sunday? 

Josh [00:04:05] Oh, yeah, I saw a few highlight clips and then even more memes about it. A lot of very sweet, tender, loving, hugging, but sweet moments between the two of them. 

Ryan [00:04:18] I don't know if the IQ of the Paul brothers is 90 or 175, but their IQ for social media, influencing the Internet and attention is through the roof. These guys are brilliant at their ability. This guy is just nothing more than an influencer. I don't think he has any experience other than this group of guys being influenced by YouTube and everything else, but I think they've been doing it for the past eight to 10 years, if not longer. 

Josh [00:04:50] Yeah, I remember in college just watching him on vine, blow up for jumping into a frozen lake.

Ryan [00:04:57] Just dumb shit. But they are brilliant. And somehow the guy is fighting one of the greatest boxers and you know what, actually holding his own little bit. I don't know if i was either smart enough or dumb enough to order the fifty dollars. But I did catch the replay and I admired him for it. He's in shape. He took it seriously. In terms of what he did to get attention to be in the ring with Floyd Mayweather, combined with how serious and how real he took it, I don't know, I guess they get a lot of blows and maybe deservedly so, but I can't help but admire some of it.

Josh [00:05:40] I mean, to make it that far, there's something there. It's still like one of the celebrity matches where it's more about the event than it is the actual sport. It's a couple of millionaires who have got no stake in the game. They're both walking away with like a lot of money after this. So they're not going to sacrifice their body too much for this.

Ryan [00:06:05] I think Paul's been like knocking some fools out. Then you can say, well, these guys were put in front of him, and he's trained, but he's still an amateur. And he's knocking some UFC guys out though.
So maybe I could put my mind to it, I can do anything, but I don't know the smack and brains around, like when you're young and all that, like when you're in a bar fight, you have to, but damned they have made a lot of money getting their attention.
What else is on your radar this week. 

Josh [00:06:44] I've been seeing probably the biggest trend today on Tik Tok of the Adult Swim Trend. These kids make their own versions of the old adult swim bumpers that would play between commercials and TV shows and stuff. They're all smart and relevant. They're encouraging it. They're commenting on stuff. They're using people's. But they're saving millions of dollars on these impressions. 

Ryan [00:07:18] Exactly. 

Josh [00:07:19] But it's cool. I think it's really nice. As we've discussed before, it's like playing into nostalgia. People love paying homage to things that are important to them. Like Cartoon Network, they made shows that were like huge parts of a lot of people's childhoods and adolescent phases and stuff. In a way, it's almost like thanking you for creating the shows you did, the entertainment, and creating this community. I think it's kind of cool. 

Ryan [00:07:52] I think it's cool. It's hit my radar on Tik-Tok a few times. And if you don't know Adult Swim, it's the adult cartoons on Nickelodeon. Let me think of examples of those..

Josh [00:08:08] Isn’t Rick and Morty an Adult Cartoon.

Ryan [00:08:10] That would be probably one of the more popular ones. But it's all these shows that I try to keep my kids from watching. I think that's the only negative aspect of it, the fact that it crossed a line. I know It's a cartoon, there's characters. if you had it on mute, it looks like a kid's show. But

Josh [00:08:32] I always knew if I saw Bumpers, it was time to change the channel. That is where I get in trouble.

Ryan [00:08:36] Fortunately, my kids don't seem to touch it often, probably due to the fact that it's turned off and it's usually later at night. I like to watch these on YouTube or something, and we filter a lot of the content, but I'm still filtering some of this stuff out.

Josh [00:08:55] Yeah, I got away with plenty. 

Ryan [00:08:57] These are the things I have to worry about this day and age, as parents. Let’s get right to the news. So the first topic of today and this is good news, A new study done by YouGov says that U.S. shoppers are signaling a return of confidence to get out shopping again. So I am not going to get into every data point. You can Google, Google Shopper Study YouGov, and you'll find it. The overall takeaway here is that people are actually ready to get back into in-store shopping. Even to a degree that surprised me.

Josh [00:10:00] I don’t think e-commerce is shrinking for any reason. But people are getting out there. People have a little more job security these days. They feel more confident to be out in public. And I think a lot of people missed the in-person experience, I definitely did. I love shopping in person. I like to ask questions and get more. You get more context around things when you can hold it in your hand.

Ryan [00:10:24] Something like 60 percent were somewhat very interested and excited about getting back into in-store shopping. It was primarily groceries and things you would expect to buy at the grocery store right back to feeling the feeling, the oranges and avocados, I believe. Is that lettuce truly green? 

Josh [00:10:46] Yeah, especially in the summer out there. How dare you send someone out to pick your own watermelon in the summer? 

Ryan [00:10:53] I think some of it wasn't surprising. And it's going to be interesting. I was reading an article the other day. It said we're going to be really surprised how back to normal things are like assuming, you know, all things stay clear and we don't have any of these variants from the West Indies or whatever it might be. You need to have a little humor with this stuff guys, it's been a shitty last 18 months. Nevertheless, in all seriousness, the thought process was, like, I'm not sure if people will be ready, but then someone was debating, saying we're going to be just shocked. I was like, wow, I just thought it's going to take longer. I wasn't being pessimistic as much as just scared a lot of people who were already trending this way anyway. But no, this guy's like, no, we're going to be shocked, like how? A lot more people were shopping. The volume of people online shopping is not going away. And we've eased the baby boomers and everyone else into being comfortable with it. So that Jeannie's not going back in the bottle now. But it's going to be interesting to see just how quickly the rebound happens.

Josh [00:12:19] Be cool to see this hybrid of increased e-commerce plus the original in person. 

Ryan [00:12:25] And when you think about it, it's not that shocking because it's a human race meant to be together, like we're with sporting events, and family outings. There are so  many things that are tied to in person like experiences as a race and human bonding. The experience of what we do. So it's not completely shocking. It would all be great if the news would stop scaring people. And some of it was needed to scare us, but as long as we can keep things nonpolitical and as scientific as possible. 

Josh [00:13:04] In general, it is better for your mental health to be around other people if you are able to do so safely. 

Ryan [00:13:15] So second on the list, Apple is doubling down on privacy. Further with tracking. They're having a new developer event which they have talked about. So, extending beyond the removal of third party cookies, iOS 14, the lack of tracking mobile IDs, etc. But going down to the email level with the ability to track open rates and even autonomize. How would you say when you are making it autonomous or you don't know who sent it to you? I'm just saying autonomize. But they're making it so that you can actually set up multiple aliases to hide where your email comes from. And they are making it much more difficult to track the behaviors of emails in some of the new releases.

Josh [00:14:23] I think it's definitely going to secure them as a first pick for iPhone for a bit longer in the smartphone category. It's definitely making retargeting a lot harder. A lot of retargeting lists have gotten smaller because of this. I think it's fantastic because I hate getting emails. I am like, don't email me or my son ever again. I like important emails. I don't like this random one-offs. It's like a first step in a trend. It doesn't seem like we're going to hit a point where maybe we've done too much privacy up here. 

Ryan[00:15:09] Let's be real here. This is very self-serving. Apple just happens to be bolstering an ad network platform where they make a lot of money on ads. If we make it hard for all the other ad networks to track our people and to target them appropriately, then we can sell ads that may get into the algorithm of whatever they are doing. Maybe they'll sell more. I don't think it's all altruistic here.

Josh [00:15:47] It's kind of two fold here. They're protecting your data, but keeping it within their castle walls. They have complete control over what they do with it, to whom they sell it, and how much they charge, especially when they control this much of the US market. It's insane.

Ryan [00:16:08] Yes, I think, control 70% of it.

Josh [00:16:11] And then secondly, it's similar to Tesla. Tesla is not a technology company. They are a battery company. So Apple is not a technology company, they're a brand. They're not innovators in technology. And they never have been so all this is a branding move. It’s like we're the safe protecting company and you can trust us. In return it is going to boost sales further. 

Ryan [00:16:43] Don't hate the player, hate the game. Pinterest is introducing a shopping list feature. Pinterest has been slow to the game with their ad platform and with the overall look. They have all these boards and all this stuff that in theory you can buy, but they've been one of the slowest to embrace e-commerce. They've been catching up with social media in linking it to commerce and everything else, and they're just introducing the ability to make shopping lists. What are your first impressions of that?

Josh [00:17:23] I think it's the right move for them. It's a great way to keep people on their platform instead of making because I think they figured out people were making shopping lists and then leaving to buy it somewhere else. So, they thought of getting that commission might as well. 

Ryan [00:17:38] Exactly. Any commissions and spiffs they can get, any additional ads they can sell to people who are being put on the list the most. You're going to see a lot more with these networks tying in with e-commerce.
And now finally today and probably most fun, especially being a father, Ryan Reynolds and his team introducing the vasectomy cocktail. And I'm just going to go ahead and tell you here on the Radcast, I am on the schedule next month for such an event. So I will be having a vasectomy cocktail of a different kind, the real kind. Despite the fact that Ryan Reynolds is currently the smartest guy in marketing, he was an actor. Can this guy switch over to another field? He is just taking all the fun out of everybody. 

Josh [00:18:36] Maybe he's going to start boxing. 

Ryan [00:18:39] He's awesome. And he's got a production company that puts out great ads. They did the match.com, devil ads and they are a gin company, and I'm sure this will go viral in some way when there's a commercial out of vasectomy cocktail. What do you think of the spot?

Josh [00:18:59] I thought it was hilarious. It's so fun. Also, it looks like a good drink.

Ryan [00:19:01] It does look like a good drink. I've talked on the podcast before then. The last time I had gin was when I was 23. I had so many that I kind of buried it, but then they started to make me want another one.

Josh [00:19:14] I've been having a gin phase recently. 

Ryan [00:19:16] Oh, I love gin. There's some new gin bars around here. Something out there. 

Josh [00:19:21] Yeah there's a couple.

Ryan [00:19:24] So I'm going to have some vasectomy cocktails right after my vasectomy. I'm going to bring some to work. And I'll do a Tik Tok on that. 

Ryan [00:19:39] I have the legs on this already. That's cool. Thanks Josh. We appreciate everyone listening. This was short, quick and to the point, The advertising and marketing news update from the Radcastt. You know where to find us. It’s radcast.com and the.rad.cast on Instagram. I'm Ryan Alford on all the platforms and you can find Josh Hill on Instagram.Thanks for tuning in.