Big Things Podcast
A weekly show where we talk about the big things we're watching in marketing, social media, pop culture and sports. We also talk through signals we’re seeing that could inform the future of digital marketing.
You can catch the podcast every Friday wherever you listen or watch it on YouTube. Be sure to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for updates on every episode.
Big Things Podcast
LeBron’s Legacy Off the Court (E4)
This week our team convinced us to try the viral Dua Lipa Diet Coke drink and let’s just say… It was interesting. We also do a deep dive into LeBron’s career and recent debut with his son, Bronny, the upcoming WAGS reality TV show, if everyone really needs a hobby and share a hot take on our kids’ art projects.
More from us:
- Mitzi Payne @mmmitziP
- Mike Payne @mmmiiike
Timestamps:
01:30 – What we’re talking about today.
03:00 – Dua Lipa’s viral Diet Coke drink (our team made us try it).
08:00 – Our next question: Why did Dua Lipa do this?
11:00 – Thing 1: LeBron and Bronny play their first game together
15:00 – NBA marketing, Michael Jordan and Lebron.
22:00 – Some of LeBron’s legacy and family ties.
28:00 – The WAGS reality show picked the wrong team.
31:15 – Thing 2: Does everyone really need a hobby?
36:00 – Our hobbies (Mitzi’s baking era).
41:50 – A hot take on our kids’ art projects.
44:00 – Thing 3: Rachel Karten’s social media trend report for Q3.
46:40 – Brands are hiring for Creative Directors for social media. Why we love this.
Show notes:
1. SCAN 👀 CLUB: https://scanclub.substack.com/p/what-digital-audiences-want-in-2024
2. Rachel Karten’s Social Media Trend Report: https://www.milkkarten.net/p/brand-social-trend-report-q3-2024
Big Things with Mitzi (@mmmitzi) and Mike (@mmmiiike).
For more from Arcade, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @helloarcade. https://www.arcadearcade.ca/
Production by Morgan Berna, editing by Oliver Banyard.
Oh, I'm ready for my day. That's nice. Okay, ready, Michael Looks good. Welcome to Big Things. I'm Mitzi. This is Mike.
Speaker 2:And this is our show where we talk about all the big things that we're watching in marketing, social media, pop culture and sports. We'll also talk through signals that we're seeing that could influence the future of digital marketing. You can catch the show every week on YouTube or anywhere. You get your podcasts and, of course, you got to tune into Instagram where we'll be sharing updates and fun little trending TikToks and things like that throughout the week.
Speaker 1:Totally. And again, if you're a listener of Waves or Tea for Lunch, you're going to love this show. It's a little different from what we were doing before. You'll see less interviews, but you'll see more news, pop culture, signals and trends and we'll help you zoom out and have a more proactive approach rather than being stuck in a reactive mode.
Speaker 2:And you'll get a little bit more of our point of view and how we see things through our lens.
Speaker 1:Totally yeah.
Speaker 2:If you're new here, we're married. We have kids. We're co-founders of a digital marketing agency called Arcade. That takes a lot of our time. We always say it's our first child.
Speaker 1:Sometimes our problem child.
Speaker 2:Yeah, true, we've been working in the digital marketing space for about 15 years we fact-checked that last episode and we've had the chance to work on some pretty fun clients and campaigns, so we're going to try and bring some of that experience into some of these conversations.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to be talking about a few big things. The first one is Dua Lipa broke the internet with her Diet Coke drink. Lebron and Bronny played in their first NBA game together. We're going to talk about hobbies and if everyone actually needs them, and we're going to break down Rachel Carden's Q3 social media trends report and just pull out some things that we thought were interesting.
Speaker 2:Giddy up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but first did you see that video of Dua Lipa I?
Speaker 2:did. I've seen it all over TikTok and all the responses.
Speaker 1:Totally so. If you don't know what I'm talking about, dua Lipa. Over the weekend she posted this video about her Diet Coke drink and she basically poured a can of Diet Coke into a glass of ice and then she poured pickle juice and jalapeno juice.
Speaker 2:As well as like some actual pieces of pickles and jalapenos.
Speaker 1:That part put me over the edge because I was down to try, but with actual slices of pickles I wasn't sure, it's like a garnish, you know, like you have a Caesar or a martini.
Speaker 2:There's stuff in there, you know, and just adds to the experience it reminds me of a Caesar, and I just don't like Caesars. Think about it as a martini with an olive. A little different I guess, as soon as you insert pickles into the conversation, or pickle juice, you have my attention. I am a big pickle fan, especially garlic dills. Let's go.
Speaker 1:That is not my vibe. I'm an olive girly, I love martinis, I love olives in general, so that would be more my direction. So maybe this is the best of both worlds.
Speaker 2:Maybe we need to experiment a bit and figure out like maybe we end up replacing jalapenos with olives or something like that, and maybe this will be finally the way that we replace Coke with Diet Coke for you. Well, I mean, I think we crossed that bridge recently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you said it, but you haven't done it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I've slowly been drinking Diet Coke here and there, just because you're always buying it and I think because of that I've acclimated to it a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Where before it always tasted kind of gross to me. Now it's like I kind of see the appeal.
Speaker 1:No, it's so good I just crave the aspartame. It's so and like a crispy aspartame diet Coke, like it's just nothing. Nothing can beat it. Also, if it comes from a fountain instead of like a fountain, what is that? Like a, not an app.
Speaker 2:Like a fountain instead of like a fountain. What is that like?
Speaker 1:not like a fountain coke, yeah if it's like a fountain diet coke, yeah, over a canned coke or a bottled diet coke, that is the most elite diet coke so would you rank it like fountain diet coke, canned diet coke, then bottled no, it goes. Mcdonald's fountain diet coke then Bottled one liter diet coke, then every other fountain diet coke Then can.
Speaker 2:Bottle over can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one liter bottle.
Speaker 2:I feel like I've always experienced better beverages From a can than a bottle, unless it's a glass bottle.
Speaker 1:No, I just don't think the can does it for me. I like the sensory experience of cracking it open, but the one liter bottle is where it's at. Like I don't know something about the one liter bottle, like over the two liter. Two liter gets flat too fast. One liter is like the perfect amount that'll last you a week.
Speaker 1:You get two uses out of a one liter, Exactly yeah, Whereas a can you're committed to finishing that thing or dumping it at the end which, whereas a can you're committed to finishing that thing or dumping it at the end, which is not hard to finish it, but I don't know something about, although a can does hit in the middle of a work day. We do have cans of Diet Coke at the office and it's really nice to have, but anyways, I thought that today on the show we should try it.
Speaker 2:I'm down, let's do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so let's bring in our assistant. This is our. It's like the price is right when you know you have those like assistants. This is pamela, our social media intern. They're one of the many wonderful jobs you get to do as an internet arcade. Wow, wow, this is amazing, thank you, okay. So we got our cans of diet coke. We got our glasses of water. This, this is. Which juice is which? Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think this is.
Speaker 1:Pickle Jalapeno Taller one's jalapeno Alright. I'm gonna go easy on the juices, I think.
Speaker 2:I feel like we gotta crack the can in the mic.
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely For the.
Speaker 2:ASMR, that was a good can crack. That was a good can crack you got to pour yours in the mic, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:We might even have to do an ASMR IG post I have done one for Arcade Really Mm-hmm, can you hear those bubbles? It's a crispy one.
Speaker 2:All right, are we putting juice in here?
Speaker 1:I'm all for this right now, but the juice is like oh, you got to get the juice in. Okay, I can do it. This looks so gross.
Speaker 2:Oh, it smells good. I can smell the pickles.
Speaker 1:Yuck, I am not.
Speaker 2:And the garnish.
Speaker 1:Not a pickle girly. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I'm only doing one jalapeno. I'm a lightweight.
Speaker 1:I don't want any jalapeno, I'm just doing pickles. Alright Gross, I don't have anything to stir with.
Speaker 2:So it's just gonna be my finger.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're stirring. I am not going to do that. No, thank you. Should we cheers? Salute alright, let's see here. Do you want to go first?
Speaker 2:on the count of three. Okay, one, two, three. That is strange. I was like really prepared to love it. To be honest, no, I just.
Speaker 1:Maybe I do need to stir it yeah, I feel like you.
Speaker 2:Just you mostly lose the diet coke flavor and just you taste savory, which I don't mind, but it's also like not truly pickle juice flavor, it's not truly jalapeno, so it just seems like they all kind of cancel each other out yeah, I don't think this is for me tell me more. What are you experiencing? What's the flavor profile? It?
Speaker 1:it tastes like oh, thank you. It tastes like. I think some people might like it. It kind of tastes like a hamburger tastes like a salty diet coke. That's honestly all that it is well, no, every time I take another sip thinking it might be better. It's confusing to me because I still kind of get the Diet Coke, which makes I feel like my body's programmed to get another sip, but it's just not giving me what I need.
Speaker 2:You're getting the sugar and your body's response is like let's have more, but your tongue is like what the hell?
Speaker 1:No, I don't like it. And the pickle like the thing is, I can like smell the pickle juice before I drink it. You know, smell is a big part of taste.
Speaker 2:You're just offending yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like what am I thinking?
Speaker 2:Sipping a Diet Coke, smelling a pickle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my take is just stick to the classic. Like I could see Dua Lipa being into this drink, though.
Speaker 2:It's like unique and different. What is it about Dua Lipa that you would say that I?
Speaker 1:just feel like she's an artist and she like artists, like need to be, like different and unique, and I appreciate that about her. I love her.
Speaker 2:What was the desired outcome for trying this in the first place? Like, was there like a health benefit that caused her to try something like this? Like? A mix of sugar and like high sodium or something like that.
Speaker 1:It's just for the vibes, it's just for fun.
Speaker 2:But who just comes up with that out of thin air?
Speaker 1:You know artists.
Speaker 2:Party one night. You're kind of tipsy.
Speaker 1:It does kind of taste like a hamburger.
Speaker 2:No one is mixing these things and saying, hopefully it tastes like a hamburger. So I'm just trying to figure out where it came from.
Speaker 1:But I think maybe it was a dare.
Speaker 2:It's got to be a dare.
Speaker 1:No, it seems like it's like her drink.
Speaker 2:It's become that, but how did it start? That's what I'm trying to get to. Anyways, we don't have the answers.
Speaker 1:I wonder if it would be better if it was shaken like a martini.
Speaker 2:You'd lose the fizz, Like the. What's the word Carbonation? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yuck.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I'll stick to Diet Coke or just pickles.
Speaker 1:I kind of just want a straight up Diet Coke.
Speaker 2:Sip from the can.
Speaker 1:Oof, I mean in the hierarchy of best Diet Cokes. That's last Straight up from a can.
Speaker 2:All right, let's just leave it and get into thing two. How about that?
Speaker 1:Okay, sounds good. I think they need to clear it, though. Maybe just the tequila in that rank Diet Coke.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was expecting more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was hoping it would be good.
Speaker 2:Well, now that we've had a hamburger and a cup, let's get into thing two.
Speaker 1:Let's do it.
Speaker 2:LeBron and Bronny playing their first NBA game together. It was preseason we still got the regular season coming in hot but it was an iconic moment and, honestly, this really got me thinking. It all started after this game happened with a haircut, which, honestly, the best stories start with a haircut especially for you.
Speaker 2:You're a haircut guy yeah, I've always said you're only as good as your last haircut and I stand by that statement. No one can refute it. But I was getting a haircut on tuesday and I was chatting with richard from goat shop shout out to the Goat Shop, that's the best place to get your hair cut but we were talking about the fact that they were playing together and also just that everlasting, never-ending LeBron versus Michael Jordan debate, and I think that that debate primarily circles around their performance on the court and their stats, and when that's the case, I admittedly lean more towards Michael Jordan. But what we got talking about as I was getting my haircut was more so the legacy of the players and what their impact was outside of the game itself, but also with their family and social impact and the brand impact of the NBA when they were players. So I wanted to just talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do it Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So, first off, I know that you're a fan of Savannah.
Speaker 1:I love Savannah.
Speaker 2:We've talked about wags on this show, more so in the NFL context, but wags are everywhere. They're in the NBA, they're in the NHL too, and Savannah, I think, is one of the most understated wags that deserves more attention.
Speaker 1:If I could be any wag, it'd be her, because she has. I mean her husband's the Brown James, so he's like a goat. I mean her husband's LeBron James, so he's like a goat. He's very well respected. He's so good, very rich. That's a big part of the appeal of being a wank to be honest, I'm working on it, I'm doing my best.
Speaker 1:You're doing great honey. Well, savannah also is just like she still has the like benefit or she still gets the privacy that like a lay person could have. Like she's not going to be like flocked at the grocery store Not that she'd go to the grocery store, but like if she did, she'd still have like an element of privacy. Not everyone knows like or can see her face like everywhere. And then she still gets to like pursue her passions, but it's not a requirement and she posts up like she should and she has an amazing podcast.
Speaker 2:I just really love what she's doing for the community and also she gets invited to beyonce's birthday you're doing something right if you get invited to beyonce yeah, savannah's got it made yeah, so he's married to savannah, but also in general, I think what we can respect about lebron is that he's never had a scandal. He's always been in the spotlight ever since he was a kid and even had kind of like an unstable childhood, a lot of support from the community. But then as soon as he came into the league he was on Sports Illustrated, being labeled the chosen one and just had so much scrutiny right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hard to live up to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but through all of that he got married. He's been married to one wife, he's had kids.
Speaker 1:He's been present for his kids and he hasn't had like a cheating scandal exactly there.
Speaker 2:He's been held to the the standard of perfection and he's almost measured up, if not measured up he goes to bed at like 7 pm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he gets 12 hours of sleep every night that's why he's had the longevity that he's had as an athlete, playing 21 seasons in the NBA, let alone college and high school and all that kind of stuff. But, like I said, I lean typically towards MJ and the debate between stats and just their impact on the court in the moment. But I think it's been really interesting to start to visualize the difference between the two players in other regards. So to kind of set the scene in the eighties and nineties. We have the NBA as home of numerous larger than life figures like magic Johnson, larry bird. Obviously we already mentioned Michael Jordan. They excelled on the court. They also made basketball inroads in global markets.
Speaker 2:I think when Michael Jordan was a player. That was when I don't remember the name of the commissioner, but there was a new NBA commissioner that really made a play to globalize the NBA and players like Michael Jordan made that feel feasible. After those players retired, the NBA kind of had this moment where it seemed like it was lacking that same kind of level of marketable superstars that could transcend a niche audience and reach even international groups. But that's where LeBron James entered with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003. So when you're talking about stats, you have four championships for LeBron, you got six for MJ. You got 19 all-star game nominations for LeBron. 14 for MJ. You got LeBron as an all-time leading scorer with over 40,000 points in his career over 21 seasons.
Speaker 1:Stop. That's stupid 40,000 points Compared to MJ's 32,292 in 15 seasons.
Speaker 2:Importantly though, LeBron has been name dropped in 188 songs.
Speaker 1:MJ has been mentioned over 400 times in songs.
Speaker 2:You know who's higher than both of them, though.
Speaker 1:Who.
Speaker 2:Messi, love that your boy, I love Messi.
Speaker 1:He also has an amazing wag. Yes, his wife is incredible, but go on 100%.
Speaker 2:So I mean I could get into things like LeBron's contract with Nike. His initial one was $90 million over seven years, which was compared to an offer from Reebok which was $118 million over the same period but he just felt like it was a better fit with Nike. And of course MJ went with Nike.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And Nike is just like way more of a household name, especially in basketball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Nike's just like way more of a household name, especially in basketball. Yeah, in terms of sports brand Nike is the apple of the sports brands, yeah, and the rest are.
Speaker 2:Samsung Quote that LeBron's shoes have generated $340 million for Nike just in the last 12 months, which sounds like a lot, but then you have MJ and Jordan brand, which generated $7 billion in that same period. So, there's still room to progress for LeBron in that sense. But on the other hand, LeBron is the only player to become a billionaire during their on-court career.
Speaker 1:LeBron's a billionaire.
Speaker 2:He is. Love that he's the first player to do it while he's still playing, whereas Michael Jordan is obviously a billionaire, but he did it after he retired.
Speaker 1:I love that for him and I love that for Savannah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I'm kind of circling the point here, because what I had kind of set up was the fact that his legacy is more about his off-the-court stuff that he's got going on. So I really think it's his social impact and him as a family man and someone who like uplifts the people around him that's going to make his legacy stand out. He's become the face of athlete participation in contemporary social and political discourses. In contrast, michael Jordan stuck mostly to business decisions and he's famously quoted as saying Republicans buy shoes too. When he refused to endorse a political candidate or have a stance in the political sphere, um, which lebron is known for doing. He's like he's outspoken about his political opinions. He's he's been really supportive of specific movements along the way. You look like you're about to say something no, I'm good keep going.
Speaker 2:I'll keep going. This is my monologue. I read an article in the Economist where Dang Michael, that's some good research.
Speaker 1:I went down a rabbit trail. I love this for us. You know it all starts as a conversation at the barbershop, but then it really unearths a lot of things, and what started at a barbershop led you to read an article in the Economist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I had finish reading the article. So I'm on a trial right now with the Economist, but they were talking about a couple of books that kind of compared Michael Jordan and LeBron James and there was some interesting comparisons, kind of compounding off this political point that I made, where Michael Jordan was perceived to to try and transcend race in the sense that he didn't want to be defined by the color of his skin and that's kind of how he carried himself. He wanted to be just perceived as an athlete, as a person, and not really he didn't in the way he moved, in the way he talked, he didn't really want his blackness to be a factor and the way he talked he didn't really want his blackness to be a factor, whereas LeBron James is kind of the opposite and he is seen to be trying to use his celebrity as a way to give blackness more prominence.
Speaker 1:That's so interesting because I would imagine that part of Michael Jordan's point of view with that specifically and like how he wanted to be, like his blackness, not be a part of, like his legacy or define his legacy, the environment and time in which he had his career which makes me think that if he had not maybe done what he had done, like it feels like LeBron could only do what he's done because he could stand on what Michael Jordan had had to do, you know yeah, I don't know if it says much about standing on what Michaelael jordan did, but I 100 agree that they existed in different moments and environments in the league and in american culture and the article talked about that a little bit, because when michael jordan came in in the 80s, that was during president reagan's time and one of the things president reagan liked to talk about was this colorblind society where he
Speaker 2:he touted that racial injustice was not really as much of a thing as it used to be. And we all know, because we have history to show us, that racial injustice was never absent in America. But at the time the success of black players in the NBA was kind of held up as his evidence that the American dream was for black people too. And then you have LeBron James, who came in in the early 2000s and really reached his peak in a sharply different context where race was again forcing itself to the front of public discourse, and he's been active and vocal about his support of movements like Black Lives.
Speaker 1:Matter and things like that.
Speaker 2:So, all that to be said, there's no rule that says that stars and athletes need to be activists, but I do think it's their positions and their platforms, as well as their business moves, that play a part in the legacy that they leave behind.
Speaker 2:Um, and I think, from what I some of the research I did in the reading I did, the off court achievements that James is most proud of seems to be the work that he's doing to uplift the lives of young people in his hometown of Akron in Ohio, which he's done a lot.
Speaker 2:He has the LeBron James Family Foundation, which he started just a year after he came into the league, first gained attention for simple things like giving away bikes and backpacks, but then it started into afterschool programs and then eventually compounded into starting an actual public school called I Promise. That's currently serving about 575 third through eighth graders. But the interesting thing is, on top of that, the school includes a family resource center that provides a wide range of services to parents, including mental health health, financial literacy and legal aid, as well as ged courses, so even helping the students parents get their ged and down the street from the school. They also have set up rent-free housing for as many as 16 different families at a time when needed and they're expanding that to be able to provide 50 units of affordable housing.
Speaker 1:That is why he's king james like that is just so beautiful of affordable housing, and that is why he's King James Like that is just so beautiful.
Speaker 1:I also heard that that school is like it's not, it's a special kind of school where they pre-select people who have test the lowest in standardized testing to bring them to that school and that itself is like so beautiful, like knowing and understanding that people were testing so low, like there's so many contributors to that, including family, including support, including, like additional help, like it's just so cool that he's doing that yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So all that stuff is so interesting and I think, um, on the brand side, where Jordan was seen as more of a renegade in the 90s, james is definitely more of this commerce-friendly superstar. And, getting back to the point around the brand of the NBA and these players' impact, I think they've both definitely really contributed to the fact that now the NBA is in over 200 countries and 40 languages around the world. So, all that to say, the GOAT debate is still pretty subjective between MJ and LeBron, but I think it's safe to say that LeBron's off the court legacy, especially in the areas of social impact and bringing that kind of the globalization of the NBA forward, is undebatable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also like the fact that he's done so much to support his family. Like the fact that he's done so much to support his family. Like you can tell, lebron's a family man like, not just because his sons are great at basketball, but he's been such a like like he's so tied and glued to his family, his wife and it's. I mean, I imagine that for players like that I know he's getting a lot of heat right now because he was really clear and outspoken about that he's not going to retire until he can play with his son and I think that is just so sweet.
Speaker 2:I mean, we love nepotism once in a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't love it everywhere, but I'm here for nepotism in sports, which is honestly the hardest arena to have nepotism in, because you're like an old player if you reach 35. And so like the fact that he's still playing pretty well, but he's staying so he can play with his son, like how beautiful is that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I do think, for what it's worth, bronny would have made it to the NBA eventually. But, would he have declared early, after just a year at USC and not that much playing time, and after cardiac arrest, and would he have gone to the Lakers? Would he have gone in the second round? That's all speculation at this point, but it is a cool storyline. It's never happened before.
Speaker 1:I love to see it, and I am rooting for Bronny. I hope that he ends up just kind of showing the haters that they're wrong and ends up being a really solid yeah professional athlete and not to bring it back to football, but when you compare other goats, like tom brady, for example, who basically, like he risked his family for his legacy, lebron is like risking his legacy for his family and I think that's so beautiful.
Speaker 2:Well said, I like that, um, but speaking of lebron james, do you see that he was just is like risking his legacy for his family, and I think that's so beautiful, well said, I like that.
Speaker 1:But speaking of LeBron James, did you see that he was just named as an honorary co-chair for the Met Gala?
Speaker 2:I didn't see it because I don't really pay that much attention to the Met Gala, but I heard it from you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so he, alongside Lewis Hamilton, who's a Formula One racer, and, I believe, asap rocky pharrell williams, they're all going to be co-chairs of this year's met gala, which will be may 5th, I believe.
Speaker 2:I don't know anything about this, but I saw on social, I think, yesterday that for there's a documentary about pharrell coming out oh, I didn't see that. Yeah, um but yeah, I love to see it. I love to see him get his flowers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's cool to see it. I love to see him get his flowers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's cool to see him kind of getting into other spaces like fashion. He like carried the torch at the Olympics for the US team and now he's in the Met Gala, I don't know. It's just cool to see it kind of expanding out from what's been typical.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm a fan, for sure. Speaking of sports, though, did you see? There was that game, I think the Minnesota Vikings game where two of their players did a celebration of the parent trap?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I used to know that handshake off by heart.
Speaker 2:That's one of your favorite movies, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that movie. It's such a good movie. Lindsay Lohan in her prime, but man.
Speaker 2:I just thought it was so cute.
Speaker 1:I thought it was so cute that you see them actually do that handshake, but then they also shared footage of them practicing that handshake. And a lot goes into practicing a celebration. In NFL, at least, people do take the time to practice their celebrations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's like a weekly thing that these athletes do. They're at practice and then, when practice is over, they're practicing their celebrations for the weekend. What are we going to cook up this Sunday if we score?
Speaker 1:Which I think is so sweet. But then I think there was one season I think it might have been last season where the Miami Dolphins just got too overboard with it and they were just doing these crazy elaborate like 10 person celebrations, but they'd still lose the games. It was just too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're sort of corny I feel like it's Tyreek Hill's influence. Just got corny humor.
Speaker 1:Got it, but also big news in my world. Bravo has announced that they're developing a show centered around the wags of the Kansas City Chiefs, and it's confirmed that Taylor Swift will have no part of it, which is not a surprise to anyone. Same with Brittany.
Speaker 2:Mahomes. Why should she?
Speaker 1:Yeah, basically she's like she won't be a part of it. I'm sure she wishes she could but she's not going to. But I'm excited to see the wags get more attention. I do feel like they picked the wrong team.
Speaker 2:I'm with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if there's no taylor swift, then we're gonna talk about who on the chief's team is really that interesting and I feel like they'll still talk about taylor swift without talking about taylor swift yeah and I get it like they're the big team in the league, like they're the defending champs or whatever, but I just wish they would have done the wags of the San Francisco 49ers.
Speaker 2:Those are my girls, it's there for the taking. I know we can only hope that they're going to do different teams at different times, kind of like the Real Housewives have, like different regions or cities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know Totally. It's kind of like franchise model. What do you know about the Real Housewives?
Speaker 2:Just that they have different cities. That's about it Sweet. That's about it Sweet, so don't ask me too many questions about that but yeah, and I find it funny that Brittany Mahomes isn't going to participate in it either, and I feel like it's just because she wants to align herself with Taylor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, if I were her, I wouldn't either. If my best friend was Taylor or my best friend could be Taylor.
Speaker 2:But it's interesting, I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision.
Speaker 1:Because she also likes the spotlight. I could see her being really good on reality TV.
Speaker 2:She's kind of like polarizing in the way that she exists and lives in the world, or what if she's kind of what if, like her and some of the other chiefs, wags don't get along? I'm just creating drama.
Speaker 1:For sure, and that's what's a very necessary part of a good reality TV show is drama. True, and that's actually I'm glad you brought that up, because that's a big reason that like holds me back from pursuing a reality show for us and at least arcade you're saying that as if, like, there's a likelihood that we could have a reality, there's like no chance.
Speaker 1:We're not interesting enough. I know, I know, I know, but say we were like. The thing that always holds me up like is that there would have to be conflict within our team.
Speaker 2:And we just get along too well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just too easy to hang out with these people.
Speaker 2:It's all cake and rainbows.
Speaker 1:For sure.
Speaker 2:No, bravo, show for us yet. Yet it's got to bring in a little bit more conflict.
Speaker 1:To be honest, I wouldn't want to do Bravo, To be clear, if anyone's asking, nobody's asking. But I would do Netflix.
Speaker 2:Okay, clear, if anyone's asking, nobody's asking, but I would do Netflix.
Speaker 1:okay, it's out there gotta put it out there, um, but also I, just before we move on from NFL, how you doing.
Speaker 2:I'm doing good in your fantasy yeah, I mean we're it's still early, we're coming into kind of a third of the way through the season, but I'm doing pretty well.
Speaker 2:I'm in a lot of leagues, yes, but I think I was a little worried about it when I started the season because I felt like maybe I'd be stretched too thin managing more leagues than is normal, but I actually feel like it's caused me to put less stock in each specific league, so it's ended up causing less stress unnecessarily, because you shouldn't be stressed about fantasy sports no, there's bigger things in life yeah, like I'm doing pretty well like I always tell you, when you're losing in fantasy, at least you're winning in life hey, that's true, I got you
Speaker 2:that's right but yeah, there's one league that I just finally got my first win last week I was I had lost every week before that in that one league, but all of my other leagues I have a winning record and three of them.
Speaker 1:I'm still undefeated okay so well, that was my obligatory wellness check on Mike and his fantasy leagues. We don't have to do that for another few weeks, so the diagnosis is he's thriving. He's thriving yeah, um, let's move on to the next big thing. Um, does everyone really need a hobby?
Speaker 1:you tell me so there's a huge trend on tiktok right now of like people finding their hobbies or going on this like pursuit to find a hobby. Um, so people are lamenting on how hard it is also to find a hobby. There's actually a video that went viral of someone trying reading coloring painting but nothing kept her interested, which I think is kind of funny. Like I'm trying to color and it's just kind of boring. Like, of course it is, it's not like a fun thing to do.
Speaker 2:And especially if you're just like trying it for the first time, like you're not going to be good at it, right, right.
Speaker 1:Well, hundreds of people were in her comments saying that they also felt like it's so hard to find a hobby and nothing keeps their interest. Some people also say that it's hard to find a hobby because it costs money, it costs time, it costs energy, investment, and a lot of people also shared that their only interest is really watching Netflix or scrolling TikTok. So, and lots of people say that they want to find a hobby because they don't want to say that Netflix and TikTok are their hobbies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean it's just kind of like it's a equal equalizer, like everyone watches Netflix and most people scroll TikTok. But I think for most of us there's probably people that just have so much validation and enjoyment from watching shows on Netflix all the time. But I think for a lot of us, even though we do it because it's the low-hanging fruit, it of feels not the best like a little icky, you know like am I going to do this every night?
Speaker 1:for the rest of my life. There's got to be more to life. This is what I'm looking forward to the weekend for, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I don't know. It's kind of like drinking Coca-Cola Like it tastes good, but I kind of feel bad.
Speaker 1:You know what, though? I also don't like when people regard or disregard watching TV because it's like OK, settle down, like you're not solving the world's problems. Your pursuits are not that much greater than those like those of us who are just bums on the couch, like it's not that deep. You know, sometimes you just need to like tune into something else and like switch your brains. Tune in to something else and like switch your brains. So I don't really subscribe to like the fact that like TV is just so lowbrow that you shouldn't invest time in.
Speaker 2:It has its time and place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 2:Anything in moderation, as my father would always say. Anything in moderation. Yeah, almost anything.
Speaker 1:Well, this reminded me when I was single and talking to guys, when was? That Many, many moons ago. I remember I was with some friends and we were talking to these guys and they're clearly, like you know, the outdoorsy type.
Speaker 2:Who were they? Where are they?
Speaker 1:Not important.
Speaker 2:Should I talk to them?
Speaker 1:No, but basically they were like we were talking and like you know, whatever, as one does, filling each other out. And they're like what do you guys like to do for fun? And my good friend was like Netflix and she said it so proudly and I was like kind of embarrassed but also like that is what we do. And they're like we're like what do you guys do for fun? And they're like oh, we like sunrise camping and like doing hikes and we like sunrise camping and like doing hikes and it was like boring.
Speaker 1:So it's just like so funny, like I'm sure if you're say you're single and you're going on a first date like you don't want to be like oh, all I'd like to do with my free time is like sit on the couch and watch TV. So you got to find something else that's a little more interesting to say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to really establish your positioning.
Speaker 1:But then the good news is for anyone who's single and feels like that after you do find someone, you can just spend time on the couch watching tv with your partner yeah, and that's great yeah, although since covid I feel like programming hasn't been as good true, so which we've talked about that's also part of the like icky feeling of doing.
Speaker 2:Doing that all the time is like it doesn't feel like there's enough content, enough high value content to consume, so you're just you kind of end up lowering your standards of what you watch or watching multiple screens at the same time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, second screen talked about that well, this is like just sparked an interesting conversation is because this pursuit of a hobby, although it's's like a noble quest, it seems like people are doing it with ulterior motives, when they're trying to find something more interesting to say about themselves. But also it seems like people are maybe using hobbies as a way to avoid being alone or a way to feel productive. I feel like a lot of us can relate to this like need to be productive at all times when really you should just like your body rest. But I think for me, this like got me thinking. Like for me, having hobbies. I feel like I've discovered a few new hobbies in the last like two years and it's been so nice for me like to have something else to relate with, like with people like I'm. Like I think that my work and this stuff takes a lot of my brain space, but when I can like sit and do like a hobby that isn't productive, no one needs anything from me. It's like so nice for me. It's been really good for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think, as you're talking, I'm like it broadens your perception of yourself good for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think as you're talking, I'm like it broadens your perception of yourself, like when you don't have really anything to to pinpoint as a hobby outside of having a family or being married or being single or the work that you do on a daily basis which takes up most of your time. Then inevitably your identity is either your family or your singleness or the work that you do, right. So, being able to add in other kinds of hobbies or activities, it just kind of rounds you out and shows you different parts of yourself and parts of like who you are naturally and what you gravitate towards naturally and how you overcome problems or solve things or how you get creative.
Speaker 2:Even last episode you were talking about um, the event you went to where you had to be an artist. You know and how that was like really challenging, and that's what's interesting too about that lady you were talking about who said, like the hobbies she was trying couldn't hold her attention, Like yeah, it's challenging. It's challenging to develop a new skill or to try something you haven't done before.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and it takes effort. Anything new takes effort. So when I was thinking about hobbies, I feel like my latest hobby has been like sourdough. I've been in a bit of a sourdough doing my best over here. The best thing about it is like nobody needs anything from me, like we don't need the sourdough to survive. It's just like a bonus. So I feel like I can just take my time. I'm not like rushing to feed hungry kids with my sourdough, like it's just an extra nice to have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, and I'm a big sourdough fan. So I'm here for it, although sometimes I feel like you're pretty ambitious, like there's the one Saturday where I think you made a sourdough and then you made pigs in a blanket, and then you also. What was the third thing, was it?
Speaker 1:I made sourdough pigs in a blanket and then I made tiramisu. Yeah, so it was like and I made two loaves of sourdough.
Speaker 2:It was like I was solo parenting that day and you were just yeah, I've been on a kind of like a hobby discovery arc, I think also it's been a process for me of like yeah, odyssey is a good word for it.
Speaker 2:It's been a process of just also coming back to things that I used to like when I was younger, and not necessarily feeling bad about what it is I like like gaming, for example. Like I loved gaming when I was in high school. Like what grade nine or 10 boy didn't like playing Halo or Call of Duty or Madden NFL, you know. But I didn't play video games for so long. But then in the last couple of years, with your support, I got into gaming again.
Speaker 2:With my permission, I don't do it a lot like once or twice a week maybe, but I think that's something that feels kind of juvenile at a surface level. But it's been a really nice way for just my brain to disconnect from all the things that I'm thinking about with work and having a family and stuff like that. I also got back to reading.
Speaker 2:I used to read a lot when I was younger Didn't really through university which we talked about on a recent episode how university students in general aren't reading as much yeah um, but getting back to reading, but not any, just any type of reading, like fiction books and specifically sci-fi and fantasy, which again I feel like if I was single and like going on first dates, I would feel weird about being like, yeah, yeah, I love to read fantasy books, you know.
Speaker 1:Which I think there's less of a stigma on that now, because fantasy is such a like big genre.
Speaker 2:But still, it gives a person a perception about you.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But here now, as a person in my mid thirties, with a beautiful wife that loves me anyway and kids that love me no matter what, and just like a little bit of time on my hands to do with what I will, I enjoy that yeah, let your freak flag fly fantasy flag fly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the video game journey has been interesting for us yeah, I think I've been well balanced, would you agree?
Speaker 2:yeah, and then I enjoy sports. I most I more so watch sports, but I also enjoy playing them, and I think that's one area that I want to progress in over the next couple of years is getting back into more actively playing sports.
Speaker 1:Like a rec league.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or even just tennis with my friends, or pickleball, or whatever. It might be, golf even.
Speaker 1:We should try pickleball. We cannot do tennis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've been there, we've tried that.
Speaker 1:It wasn't good for our relationship. It was really bad.
Speaker 2:It might be good for a reality show, though For conflict, because we need conflict, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:If you ever see us on a reality show and we're playing tennis, it's for the plot.
Speaker 2:It's for the plot, yeah 100%, and you're the, your villain era 100. I'm just trying to give you some helpful tips of how to like keep our rallies going a little bit longer, and helpful tips are not suddenly I'm the enemy from you.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much, um, but this reminded me of our kids, and I don't know what it is about schools, but they just like love sending home art projects literally every single day. Every single day, my kids come home from daycare or school. They're coming home with this like handmade, recycled conglomerate of different pieces of garbage, like it's.
Speaker 2:You know, it's beautiful to see their handiwork in some cases, but not every day like it's too much, like there has to be a limit to these art projects yeah, and we've been talking about this of, like, what do we keep versus what do we not keep, and, as I've been thinking about it more, I think the where I'm at with a solution is, honestly, the stuff they bring home from school. We don't need to keep that because it's like a guided activity. Often it's like coloring things in.
Speaker 2:It's nothing original, but I mean, our daughter is an artist and that stuff isn't art yeah but like it's the stuff that in her room on a Saturday when she has nothing but time and maybe she's confronted with some boredom and then she gets out a piece of paper and her markers or her paint and create something. It could be for someone, it could just be for herself. But I think those are the times where like something really cool comes out of it art and that's the stuff that's going on our fridge or filing away in the little accordion folder that we have, you know.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and it's like our son who's two years old and so so cute, but he comes home with these like sometimes they're interesting crafts, like they're. The other day he made like a little turkey, like turkey, and it was like a um popsicle, like stick, and then it was like connected to like a perfect circular construction piece of paper and then like strips of different colored construction papers.
Speaker 1:Like he did not cut those clips of paper like he did not write his name on that popsicle stick, he did not glue the eyes on that thing. Like he's two years old, he literally did nothing. This was a craft made from his teacher, given and passed down to me right, and that's why it's offensive, because like we do not need this.
Speaker 2:I'm with you. I'm with you.
Speaker 1:Anyways.
Speaker 2:Rant over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, let's move on to the big thing number three. So Rachel Carden. We're big fans of her over here. She has a great sub stack called Lincoln Bio. You should subscribe if you haven't already, but she just released a Q3 brand social trend report and there's a few things that I found really interesting in this report. I wanted to chat with you about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so she talked about a bunch of different trends. They're all like kind of micro trends, what's happening right now, currently in Q3. So if you're in social, like it's a great little guide for you, also great talking points to talk to, like whether it's talking to your clients or boss or whatever. It's just like what is happening in social right now. What are we seeing? Um, but she did talk about rapid response in social and basically like, rapid response means like if you see something as an opportunity, as a social media, like content piece or something that to just like act on it quickly.
Speaker 2:Rapid response it means what it means, yeah it's kind of like the micro trend thing, where there's like moments happening and you can participate or let it pass yeah.
Speaker 1:So basically, what she's seeing is that a lot of like bigger brands are spending more resources and building in rapid response teams into their 2025 planning, which is so interesting because it seems like, as a social media practitioner, like we've been in this industry for so long and we've seen the different iterations of our field and platforms come up and like changes in how you post and what you post and things like that but it seems like it's so consistent, like if you can act quickly, you'll see the reward, and I think brands are noticing that more and more, so they're dedicating bigger teams to be able to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really happened with the entrance of TikTok onto the scene. Because before that social media was all about original content and doing something for the first time or being the first on the scene right or the first to start a conversation, and then with tiktok it kind of flipped the script where it was like someone does something and then everyone else piles on and it becomes a trend and and the algorithm favors almost like repeat content rather than the virality feedback loop I just had to present on that. That's true.
Speaker 1:The other thing that they're noticing is that brands are starting to hire for creative directors of social. I thought this was super interesting. So what's happening is it's like a new job description that seems to be popping up for a lot of bigger brands. So they're hiring not just for a creative director, but specifically a creative director for social, which makes perfect sense to me. Like, as an agency, we've always kind of operated with that kind of role within our team. So we have a creative director. We also have an art director who's very talented and brilliant and wonderful, and he's right next to us right now.
Speaker 1:So what's cool is that when you work with us on, say, your social accounts or social programming, it's kind of built into our team, we build it into our agreements.
Speaker 1:But I think what people are starting to notice is that your social presence is like the, the front page or the front door of your brand, like your brand's representation to the world kind of exists with your living social media feed, and so you really need someone to steward that brand on a creative front, because every day there's posts that go out that you know include sound, includes colors, includes certain shots, includes a style of photography, it includes a tone of voice in the caption, like all of that is basically how brand plays out in real, real time. So I think people are starting to see that there needs to be a steward of those creative assets, but also a steward that understands social. And we've worked with a lot of different brands and we've had moments, you know, when a well-intentioned creative director gets involved in a campaign that we're running and it just doesn't quite work if they don't understand social. So you really need these social people to be leading the way when it comes to creative direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's the key point. There is, like many creative directors traditionally haven't understood this channel and so there's always a disconnect. So I think it's a cool nod just to like the the level of influence that that channel has has has come to have on brand and on marketing and advertising overall, um, and I love to see it yeah, I love to see social get it more resources.
Speaker 2:I think brands are also just recognizing that. So because, to your point of how important social is, it's not. You can't expect one person to do it all and to be good at it all, especially because social is one of the few, if not the only channels for a brand where you're literally at eye level with your customers. Like you're on the ground, you're having the conversations.
Speaker 1:you're having to be transparent, you're having to solve problems and, like one intermediate level social media manager can't do that for a huge brand no so you need different people playing different roles that all understand the channel and maybe yeah, and maybe in some instances I really feel like there's when there's a new campaign that's coming out where a big chunk of like a global brands marketing budget goes towards this campaign and sometimes social leads leads it out. So why not have someone who's thinking about it first, like it just makes sense? Yeah, um, the other thing that I thought was really interesting about this report is they talk about silence brands. So basically, what we're seeing is there's a bit of a rise of an anti-trend movement on TikTok, where users are getting annoyed at brands for leaning into a meme, think like very demure, very mindful, like it was really fun when it started, but when, like every like law firms are doing very demure, very mindful, it just got old fast and it was like this is not for you, this is for us, like don't get involved here.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of the sentiment that people have. They're starting to kind of see through the smoke a little bit more and just reject the brands that are trying too hard to get in on the joke. So, because TikTok is also getting more saturated with brands, it's another reason why a lot of people or brands are starting to consider other platforms, like YouTube Shorts, which, according to Zaria Paravez, who she's a global social media manager at Duolingo, big fan of what she's doing there. She said that for them at Duolingo they're starting to see a 300% increase in organic impressions on YouTube Shorts, which is like heyday TikTok days, so that's pretty interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's notable.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So for me, the big takeaways are, like really considering organic content, like not content that's repurposed from a meme or what people's are what's trending right now. It's like, what can you make as, like, maybe a series or something that really causes, like creates entertainment value for people? That's original, like skit based content is really cool, but there's like so many other things you can do. It just like if anything requires a bit more creativity I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, do you find that this one, the silence brand thing is almost at odds with the first one? We talked about the rapid response element of social and how brands are building rapid response teams to be like reactive to these trends no, because I think rapid response is still incredibly valuable, as long as you can add value.
Speaker 1:I think it's more so that last one is like don't just recycle what's already happening there or try so hard to insert something that doesn't make sense for your brand. So you need to be a bit more critical and like, consider, like that. This is the movement and the sentiment on TikTok right now. Tiktok users don't want to see brands involve themselves in everything. But rapid response is interesting because you can still see an opportunity and if you act quickly, you'll see the reward when it makes sense for your brand got it okay.
Speaker 2:So it's almost like the. The type of rapid response that resonates is less about just participating in trends and it's more about seeing something that happens and finding a way for your brand to be able to like solve that or yeah, or answer it or and mobilize a team to make something unique and interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, I think skims does this really well. They see a moment, like they're so good at picking like or creating campaigns around people who are really like of the moment right now. Like they did a campaign with the Bridgerton girl, like with the last the third season that just came out I can't remember her name right now, but they they had that go live like so quickly, like they're just like so fast, and I think that's more of what you need is like someone who's on the pulse and identifying opportunities and moving quickly yeah, it's like rapid response is how is it how it expresses itself?
Speaker 2:but I think how brands can be set up to succeed with that is with in, like proactive efforts, which is like their ability to understand what's happening in the culture on these channels enough that it's easy to respond quickly because you already have the context as a team, and that's something that we've been working really hard to do over the last year, especially with our creative director, alyssa, and you know we're all reacting quickly, no matter what whether we understand the context or not.
Speaker 2:Just because, that's the nature of the channel. But the more preparation you do and the more kind of constant assessment you do ahead of time prepares you to feel equipped to react when there's a moment that's relevant for your brand.
Speaker 1:Totally. That's why Scan Club has been so good for us too, because it allows like we are an agency that's, yes, focused on digital marketing Social media is a big piece of this but you know, we're only so many people who can keep up with so many things, and we have a ton of clients all in like different niches, so I think ScanClubs allows us to zoom out even more. So when things start to happen, it doesn't feel surprising to us. You can still do that like rapid response, but in a way that's like you said, like more proactive, but also like you're not so, like Like oh no, like you have to completely pivot.
Speaker 2:It's not knee jerky.
Speaker 1:Focus on a direction, because you've seen that direction coming for a while.
Speaker 2:You anticipated it yeah, and that takes the anxiety out of how quickly these channels move, and these trends move, so sign up for Scan Club.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we haven't talked about it that much so far.
Speaker 2:We do talk about signals, but in the context of Scan Club, we have a newsletter and a trend report that you can take advantage of For sure.
Speaker 1:Well, those are the big things on my radar.
Speaker 2:That was a good one, good episode, I liked it Well. Make sure you subscribe.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being here.
Speaker 2:Make sure you share it with your friends. Check us out on Instagram. We're sharing clips all week and otherwise. Thanks for coming. Have a good day.
Speaker 1:Loved it. I always forget it's coming. Like I know it's part of the show now, but like I still feel, like I'm surprised that it came out. I just think about it constantly through the whole episode the whole episode until I can just like I can't wait to use the gong. Smack the gong, yeah, gross.