The Week of May 10 | Spotify is Ready to Compete for Video Advertising

This is the story of the one. As a custodial supervisor at a high school, he knows that during cold and flu season, germs spread fast. It's why he partners with Granger to stay fully stocked on the products and supplies he needs, from tissues to disinfectants to floor scrubbers, also that he can help students, staff and teachers stay healthy and focused. Call 1-800-BRanger, click Granger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. This is right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and caching checks? Well, it starts right about now. Right about now. What's up, guys? Welcome to right about now. So, weekly marketing and business news of the week here on May 10th, 24, joined by my good friend, Chris Hansen, down in Miami. What's up, Chris? What's up, man? How are you today? Hey, I'm good, man. Got a busy record day in and out of the studios. It's good, though. Feeling pretty good. Got a no-hat day again. I was thinking the same thing. We both got the gel in today. Yeah. It is very rare. Oh, you have gel in? Mine just naturally does this. Yeah, dude. You're lucky. I don't wake up naturally styled. I have that permagil. You're blessed, bro. I wouldn't mind. They come out with everything else that gets automated now. And, you know, if they could just do the figure hair never messes up, you just wake up and roll out. My kids. I'm surprised there's not a surgical technique for that yet. It is funny. I don't know what it is about children. Like, I wake up and my hair's not perfect. I don't have that much hair anyway. But my kids don't have much hair either. But for some reason, I don't know what it is about the way kids sleep. Their hair's like going seven different directions. And I'm like, what the? What'd you do? You're like, what happened in there last night? Exactly. Are you okay? Okay. Nash, he's eight. He sleeps practically upside down. He flips and flops all night. I'm like, geez. What are you dreaming about? Like dinosaurs? Riding them? Maybe? I don't know. But anyway, I had to wrestle on the hair. This didn't even make our show notes. But as being a Dave and Buster's a fishing auto, I got a kick out of this. They're about to launch literally where you can bet on the video games that you're playing, like with friends. So you can place wagers on the team games or you're playing someone else, put a little $5 side bet on this thing if who's going to win? Brilliant. They're smart. I know. But so they're getting into the betting world. And I think there's already been some pushback that it might not be legal. I don't know. I saw some waves. But I just can't imagine now you're sitting there. You're like, honey, I got $10. I'm going to kick your ass right here. In this connect for basketball game. That's our jam. You got a little scrappy in there. I know. Be like, put it down. And it's real money. I'm going to wager you 100 coins of my treasure here. I can see it getting competitive. You got drinks happening. You got games happening. And suddenly there's real money on the line on top of what you pay to play the game. You're going to be seeing like that's where my ass is. I can see some brawls breaking out like grown men, dude. For real. Like I could see that. I could see they're being basketball. Yeah. The troll that walks around the he but he's so good at all the games. These like challenging people going, hey, man, you want to get in on this air hockey? They're like, yo, bills in here. Hustle the kids again. We got to kick him out. Yeah, exactly. And so we'll see where that goes. But I thought that was funny. Next, Budweiser is turning songs mentioning the brand into targeted ads on Spotify. My friends at marketing dies. Budweiser has launched a new effort, dubbed uninterrupt ads to take songs that mention the Enhiger Bush inbev brand and turn them into targeted ads on Spotify. According to details being shared, the effort is based in Brazil was strategized with Africa creative agency. Okay. Interrupt ads was inspired by discovery that Budweiser's name is present in over 500 different songs on Spotify. It's also based on the idea for users who don't subscribe to the premium ad free. Versus Spotify, the platform is listening experiences often interrupted by ads. So songs by my love and other artists were strategically programmed to be advertised in playlists that correspond to their genre in terms of writing name recognition for the brand without stopping the music. It's interesting. You know, like it. This is the viral brands that get mentioned all the time. Louis Vuitton. Who knows what? Yeah. Yeah. Build it into the ads. I like it. It's gonna be fun. I got to hear it though. Trying to think of it. What transition? If it's smoother? Yeah. And with Budweiser till they had their little woken incident. How many country music ads or songs I should say? I tend to assume most of those 500 songs are country songs. I don't know if that's stereotyping. Beer drinking? Yeah. I don't hear a lot of hip hop and EDM talking about Budweiser. Yeah. Probably not. Maybe Bud Light. Maybe they should be. They wouldn't be so jaded as emo folks. I don't know. Yeah. I can't see it in like dance music. But she's usually just beats anyway. Yeah. I don't know. I'm thinking of Old Town Road or something. It's got to be Budweiser in that somewhere. Yeah. Little Nas. Anyway, I think it's smart. If it sounds good. If it does, it is. It brings out the broader point that we've talked about a lot. That ads typically are interrupting your content experience. There's always that way on television. That radio. You listen to your favorite song. You have to tolerate the ads. And even as a marketer, I understand that's why you have to be entertaining or educating these days. But if you can keep the music going, it makes sense. And let's be honest, Budweiser needs to all the help they can get. The numbers are still or not wonderful. And then you get in those mocktails. Yeah. Their niche market is not very forgiving. Ironically, they're in the mocktail category, but not for the right reason. They're getting mocked, all right. I digress. Look at IV refreshes brand to stand out in the evolving hydration market. There's something now. I watch Water Boy with my boys the other night like the first time now. So when I see this hydration thing, I always think of the Water Boy. I don't know why. Probably because I just watched it. And anyway, the marketing dive, our good friends, get all the marketing news. Liquid IV is jumping on the brand refresh bandwagon with its first such such effort since it's founding in 2012, 12 years in. Don't seem like it's been that long. I'm going to go on. Have you ever tried this liquid IV stuff? It's really new. I feel like that was like yesterday. Where's the time? Goodbye. 2018 is when I got on the bandwagon. Yeah. I'm a look. I'm getting sidetracked here. We'll get back to the brand refresh. I'm a packet drink kind of guy though. I get the water. I know you are, bro. I'm pouring those packets in. I am too now. Yeah. I've jumped on the binwagon. It's convenient. I like water. I'm fine with like try to get in like just no nothing added as much as possible. But like when I eat, you don't want a flavored drink or something. And try to drink less soda. I don't drink that much soda. Get it up in my bad stuff with the energy drinks. I'm just talking about like flavor packets. Liquid IV, your fan? I was a huge fan of it. And the more I've learned about ingredients, I've moved a little away from them. Yeah. I forget what ingredient it was. It was some TikTok talking about it. There was healthier options. I still will drink it. Yeah. You have a great taste. They got me any electrolyte thing. Yeah. And like you, you don't like cocaine. I'm not a big fan. Exactly. Exactly. That's why it's not what they put in here. No wonder I like it. Maybe. But I'll drink three of those a day. Really? Because I'm even now programmed like thinking our water isn't having a vitamins and minerals that I should be drinking more electrolytes. Yes. And I agree. And but I'll say this is many of those types of drinks that I've had. I like the flavor. But whether they've got electrolytes or otherwise, I need like a monitor to believe that it's actually improving something because I don't feel any different. Like I don't have. Oh, I'll just suddenly feel like you're like driven and refreshed. Maybe because I'm not truly dehydrated. But. Yeah. I don't know. I can tell. But I know that I never drink enough water in general. So I think for me, it's like a nice little hack. The branding for liquid IV is intended to center the customer experience and packaging and merchandising with a bold modern look as the company continues to build momentum. Launching this brand refresh marks a watershed moment in the evolution and kicks off the next chapter of growth and innovation said CEO Mike Keach. The new look and feel reflects our passion to help everyone live healthier, more fulfilling things. Man, this sounds like cat GPT wrote this quote. I'm just going to. Yeah. Sorry, Mike. Break it down. Your PR team really need to have a little wordy there, Mike. Yeah. A little wordy. We know you didn't say this. But anyway, I like liquid IV. If they got bought by you to live or still up. Excuse me. Yeah. I'm kidding. Yeah. We always like for you to leave you to buy something. We're going to say that I like to taste juries out. On whether or not it really improves the overall hydration, but it's like a monitor. Like, we need an LCD screen on our wrist that tells us exactly what we can't be far from that, right? They claim is that one equals three bottles of water. I think on their packet or two bottles of water. I can't remember. It's two or three. Yeah. But how do you measure that? You wouldn't know. There's got to be like an aura ring or something. Maybe. Yeah. It's like my teeth get wider and more hydrated. So I'm going to tell we need the science. Yeah. We need it. But for now, they got a new look. So if you go to the store, you're looking at that liquid IV and you're like, where is it? They got a new brand. And according to my teach, it's really bold and extraordinary. You know what they're trying to do is probably hit the prime market. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like your sons. Yes. They want to tap into those guys. Yeah. I'm more of a liquid IV, like an actual IV guy. Like that's. I can buy it. Go ahead and get one of those. You feel that. Or line it right into me. Exactly. You've had a long line out. Go get one of those IV drips. I'm telling you, that shit works. Because it's going straight into your bloodstream. I don't know if it's getting there through these packs or not. This next article comes to us from Rooters. Rooters.com, the original press release company. Microsoft Ready's new AI model to compete with Google. Open AI, the information reports. This comes to us directly from Microsoft. Training a new in-house AI language model large enough to compete with those from Google and open AI. New model internally referred to as M-A-I-1. Wonderful. Who's naming these things? ChatGPTs. Okay, made sense. But open AI, M-A-I-I-1, we have C3POs debuting it. Okay. Is being overseen by recently hired co-founder and CEO of AI Startup inflection, the report said the exact purpose of the model has not been determined yet. That's not good. And would have been on how well it performs. This is all just a look. Here's what's going on right now. All these companies want to release a press release saying, AI, we're doing artificial intelligence. We are ahead of the game. It's all press. And look, there's a lot of shit happening in AI. I'm not doubting that. It's helping a lot of things. But all these announcements with, we don't know the purpose. We're not sure if we're going to like it. We don't even know if you'll ever get to use it. But we're putting out this press release, baby. We want that stock to go up. It just seems like it's not like you're talking about something that's not even there yet. But you have a name, but there's no product. M-A-I is more like M-I-A. M-A-I is M-I-A is what I call that. Missing in action. Yeah. But according to them, it'll be far larger than the previously smaller open source model. Reading through this is like a treasure trove of bullshit is what I call it. Yeah. We're taking the bullshit out of business, baby. And this is it. And look, Microsoft is one of the most well-respected companies in the universe. Like, I'm not knocking them. I'm just saying, if you've got something to release, tell us what it does, what it solves. Don't just give us the... We're working on AI. It's definitely going to be bigger. It's going to be more important. It's going to do more things, maybe. We'll be figuring out what it does. Okay. But we do know it's using Nvidia servers. It's like, all right, is this a market of the stock traders? Is this like a stock market article or than anything? That's all this is. All right. Is Microsoft innovating? Are they getting behind all the other companies? Open AI is so far ahead of them. Anyway, we know that we know it. We know you've got it going on. But tell us about it when it means something to consumers. Yeah. TikTok is suing the US government. It's another day in America. I know. I do wonder how this stuff really works. Yep. Society wants to sue the US government. And I get it. This is a big deal. This is a trillion dollar, a billion dollar company. And a lot of shit's been happening and going down. But this is essentially China. Suing the US. Yeah. Yeah. It's Chinese-owned companies. So let's just call it what is. If you're Chinese owned, the Chinese government's involved. Yeah. So Chinese government is suing the US government in the US. Can the US government go to China and sue them? Yeah. Would China allow this US government to be to sue the Chinese? Can you even legally do that like in China? I have a hard time believing that goes far. Because the government controls all the courts and everything else. So, yeah. But only in the US do we allow foreign governments to sue our government. The democracy extends to all folks. Just come here and sue our US government. There's just something fucked up about that. I'm just going to call what it is. No matter how I feel about TikTok and how addictive it is. It's a good platform. But it's... I don't know. I'm just tired of reading about this. Yeah. Make a decision. You can stay. You can go. It's easy for me to say I hold no allegiance to anyone platform. Right. There's a lot of people that would have to... What they're going to do with their day? Because they can't watch good on the TikTok rabbit hole anymore. And then there's private businesses that would be not in good shape. Which just means you need to diversify. But anyway, they're suing the US government and I don't know. People everywhere are really... The addicts are scared. The TikTok influencers are not liking it. That's for sure. No, they're not liking it. And so, the key learning here, I don't think it's even going to go down. If you ask me, this is going to get worked out. I think the platform will stay on varying views on that every time. And look, if your audience is there, you should be there marketing. No matter what's going on behind the scenes. And it does work. And it's free attention. So look, yeah, you can run ads. But I'll TikTok with that algorithm. Maybe one video pops off. And it's confirmed, but you got to convert that intention to intent. It's one thing to be, hey, look at me. You better have something to sell or have a purpose behind it. That's my only thing with some of this stuff. Hey, got attention. I mean, hey, that popped off for 200,000 views. But they're bank accounts. $30, $30 negative. Yeah. Okay. Like you went viral once during the pandemic for a dance. Get over it. Move on. Yes. But some people were making real money on the platform. Oh, definitely. TikTok shop is a huge enough. I thought about that. How many people is that going to affect on e-commerce? Because I know that's been a strong player right now in the e-commerce space. Yeah. And so essentially, I'm going to, I'm going to read you this. And I'm going to change TikTok for Chinese government. The Chinese government has argued that the law will stifle free speech in her creators and small business owners. You're not even in America, bro. Why are you talking about the Constitution? Yeah. Let's go do that in China. And the Bill of Rights. Yeah, exactly. So there's some China censor their entire internet of speaking of free speech. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Everything is censored in China. We don't allow it here, but we're going to sue you to make sure it can keep going on in America. Yeah. Exactly. Making makes sense. But that's what I'm saying. You and I are talking about this like in real terms. And when you think about it, how screwed up it is, it's okay. It's one thing we can argue whether or not, look, I think TikTok should sell to a corporate, a US entity. And I think it's well within the right for the government to go, okay, this is, this doesn't make a lot of sense. Now, it's just blasphemy, though, for the Chinese government through TikTok. Let's just call it what it is to talk about free speech. Like, what? We'll play a new one. Yeah. Spotify is ready to compete for video advertising. And it's first news, new fronts, the company revealed over 500,000 video podcasts have been uploaded to the platform so far this year, including yours truly soon. We will be doing that. And this, that's on the ad week. So I will say this is interesting. And I guess you can always flip from one to the other, but it's always interesting like the music you're listening and converting that to video. And the same thing with YouTube is always a little weird with understanding YouTube music is huge, but like the podcasting aspect is like you watching you're listening to it. And I guess you have your choice, but all within the same platform. I guess you can give her quickly. And I haven't played around the user interface enough, but the data is real. So a lot of people want to watch the podcast. That's why we have the new set here, Chris. You've got this big baby right here. You got to watch what is happening on the podcast. I got this beautiful bamboo plan behind you. People want to see it. Yes. Exactly. And then we'll see your beautiful face. Chris is a good looking guy. You guys, if nothing else, you get on there. Older bachelor. Everything. I'm not styling my hair just for you, Ryan. Doing it for the Graham and for Spotify video. And YouTube. Yes. Millennial and Gen Z consumers prioritize influencer reputations over their shared values or authenticity among their frequent buyers, posting frequency and follow account far out way, personal values and authenticity when it came to the traits, consumers valued most among the influencers sway consumers. But authenticity loses some clout for this from marketing diet. What do you think about that? I tend to disagree with that. I think maybe in the past, I think now people are craving more authenticity. Yeah. But I don't know. I can't speak on Gen Z. I'm a Millennial. And I could give two shits about someone's follower account. If you're a piece of shit, I don't give a shit. How many followers you have? You know what I mean? I think this is my opinion. Focus group of one. Very dangerous. But hey, it's called Ryan is right. That's the reason it's my show. We can share opinion. So what this is, I think there's all this talk that these values and all this shit falling on their sword for all the right reasons. And I think it's failed in a bunch of bullshit. I think that they are very much swayed just like everyone else has always been by spokesperson's that used to be celebrities that are now influencers and the herd mentality is still alive and well. And we can couch this and my personal beliefs and my authenticity. Yeah. You're right. You're right on a grand scale. You're right. Yeah. Out the world I live in. Yes. But I'm reminded every day. There's a big majority that does not think like me. And I think also being Gen Z. Like when you're younger, you're way more influenced. Yeah. And anything even now is younger. So that's celebrity uses this protein. I'm going to use that. He says it. I'll tell you his influence. My wife. The Amazon oil. Out in front of our years. There's a permanent oil slick from the delivery trucks out in front of the offer. That shows up. I'm like, what's that? Oh, like I've said this for sure. We just she just says I've been influenced. That's it. But they were all influenced. But I don't I just I get a little that you know when you turn your head like or you know that doubtful look you give when someone says something about. I don't know. And when I hear that this younger generation is value-driven and authentic. Really? Really? That's just my opinion from I think we like to paint with that brush. But it's disappearing ink. If you ask me. They're always going to be influenced by what they think is cool. Yes. Always 100%. Yeah. I just think that there's a reason that influence remarketing exists. And there's a reason that that it's as old as time that celebrities and people that have large popularity and fame in whatever are utilized. And they drive a sense of purpose when you relate to them or you like them or you think that your tribe or your people are all following and doing the same thing. We are a tribe, follow the tribe, follow the herb type of society. It's the way it is. A lot of our interest to build that way. Some good, some bad. And so I don't think that's going to change. And I think we talk about influence or marketing in like it's something new or something different. What's different is these channels. The social media channels have changed where people every day people have used these channels to create fame and awareness of themselves where back before it took being an actor or a true athlete or someone that's on television and had mass awareness and mass reach to build the fame, to build the credibility to become a spokesperson for a campaign. And now you have more quasi spokespersons that drive interest and drive purchase behavior. And so I'm not, I believe firmly in that. I just don't necessarily buy the conjecture of purpose marketing. You buy shit that you like, you buy shit that you need and you buy shit that your friends have because you want to have it too. That's not changed. What's going on in Miami this week, Chris? It's been a little quiet now. F1 was last weekend. So it was popping off pretty heavy. It's been a little quiet. I think that in Cinco de Mayo. So. Was there, was that a big, you're right. And you're a lot of Hispanic community culture was Cinco de Mayo, like just popping off. There was definitely some parties going down. Yeah. Definitely some vibes. It's probably I'll probably hurt productivity on the Monday. It was all a Sunday. Monday was real quiet. Did you notice it? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Between the F1 and, and that, I'm sure. Exactly. Yeah, man. And there was a lot of people coming in town for it. So. Yeah. And now they've got, that was like naval fleet week or something. So there's all these Navy dudes. And all over the city. They've got one of the naval ships parked in the port here. So there's all these sailors running around all over town. Nice. That's cool. Yeah. We do have recording with Gary V. this week. That episode will be out very quick because his new book is coming out that we'll be talking about. So look for that coming up. At least on the 14th. Is that right, Lindsey? 14th, the episode. Yeah. His book next Tuesday. We got an immediate. That's right. We got to record and release with him. So day trading attention. His newest book. We talking about it. And we're asking him some tough questions. What the hell is happening out there? What's hot? What's not? What's the real sizzle that we should be paying attention to? Not just social media in general, but how do we start driving intent? How do we? How should companies be thinking about their marketing bicks? So we're going to break it down. It's going to be highly valuable. So check that out. Next Tuesday, the 14th. Gary V. Chris, any final words, my friend? I'm pumped for that episode of Gary V. I'm going to share to hear what his diagnosis is of what's hot out there right now. Because he's usually ahead of the game. Yeah, exactly. So check that out. We appreciate you. You don't want to find us. Ryan is right.com. Find all the highlights clips from today. Full episodes. And check out that episode next week for Chris Brobie Hansen on Instagram. I'm at Ryan Alford on Instagram. We'll see you next time. All right. About now. This has been right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast network production. Visit Ryan is right.com for full audio and video versions of the show. Order one choir about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.