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
Netflix is Gaslighting Us (E10)
Beyoncé is gearing up for the NFL Christmas Gameday halftime show, while Volvo and Jaguar’s latest ads are bringing the tears (for very different reasons). Plus, Smirnoff appoints Troye Sivan as their new Chief Vibes Officer—what does that even mean? This week on Big Things, we’re talking all things holiday hype, brand moves and more.
More from us:
Timestamps:
- 01:00 – We are living in a winter wonderland ☃️
- 02:30 – Big Thing #1: Beyoncé is performing during the halftime show for the NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix.
- 5:20 – Netflix livestreaming attempts (is Netflix gaslighting us?).
- 8:20 – NBA’s Disney take over: a family-friendly game.
- 11:40 – Jason Kelce to host a late-night talk show on ESPN.
- 19:00 – Big Thing #2: Volvo and Jaguar ads make us cry, and it’s not for the same reasons.
- 25:00 – Rebrands aren’t easy, but this was not it Jaguar.
- 27:50 – Mitzi wants a Volvo.
- 35:00 – Big Thing #3: Smirnoff announces Troye Sivan as Chief Vibes Officer and charged with keeping the vibes immaculate ✨
- 41:40 – Domingo makes an appearance on SNL again and shows up at the Sabrina Carpenter concert in LA.
- 45:44 – We’re in the top 15% of podcasters!
Show notes:
- Volvo commercial: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_f2Ecuol6t/?igsh=MWNiNGVodWR6MDVtbg==
- The SCAN 👀 CLUB Gift Guide: https://scanclub.substack.com/p/gift-guide-what-people-want-for-the
- The SCAN 👀 CLUB Trend Report: https://scanclub.substack.com/p/what-digital-audiences-want-in-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.
Do you want to do the usual order where you say welcome to Big Things and I say this is our show, or do you want to flip it? I'm down for that.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Big Things. I'm Mitzi. This is Mike.
Speaker 1:And this is our show where we talk about the things that we're seeing in marketing, social media, pop culture and sports, and the signals that we're watching that could influence the future of digital marketing.
Speaker 2:Today, we're going to be talking about a few big things, first one being that Beyonce is performing the halftime Christmas Day NFL game. Volvo and Jaguar made us cry this week, but for two very different reasons, and Smirnoff names Troye Sivan as its chief vibes officer.
Speaker 1:This is going to be an action-packed episode.
Speaker 2:I know lots of car talk already.
Speaker 1:I know you're in slippers today, and usually I'm the one in the so-called slippers, but today I wore the Gore-Tex Solomons in honor of my surviving winter checklist.
Speaker 2:Your winter tips, which came just in time because we are in a winter wonderland.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true, and there's a snowfall warning for this weekend. Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 2:And there's a snowfall warning for this weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 10 inches, right, yeah, like 5 to 10. It was like 15 to 25 centimeters or something like that.
Speaker 2:That's crazy.
Speaker 1:So if the math is mathing, we could have up to 10 inches of snow in the next 24 hours. Yikes, I mean, if it's going to be cold, it may as well be snowy, that's what I always say I'm ready for it.
Speaker 2:I feel like we're all in denial, that winter is like a big part of our lives. And then it happens and I think I'm just I'm going to embrace it this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too, I think, and so far we've been inside mostly. I think this weekend I was um processing that I feel like I need to get the kids outside a bit more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you guys should make a snowman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, make a snowman, dig some caves and build a fort.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kids would love that Wander around, throw some snowballs. I'll just have the hot chocolate ready for you, guys.
Speaker 1:I feel like I need to start conditioning Timo to get some snowballs in the face and be ready for the recess playground.
Speaker 2:You know that kind of thing, Not my little prince, he playground.
Speaker 1:you know my little prince he'll probably like it. Elena would hate it. Yeah, our son would probably like it. Yeah, yeah, so catch me outside this weekend in the fluffy snow all right, I'll see you from the window you can make some hot chocolate, yeah sounds good, cook it up should we talk?
Speaker 2:about Beyonce again yes are you sick of talking about her?
Speaker 1:As we were prepping the script, I was like I wonder, I wonder how often we'll talk about Beyonce, but I mean, she deserves it.
Speaker 2:That's a good answer. She does, and this combines all your favorite things with all my favorite things, and that is that Beyonce is performing at halftime for Netflix's first ever NFL Christmas Day broadcast Big news. So the game features the Cowboys versus the Ravens, which will be streamed live on Netflix, and this is a huge get for Netflix, who reportedly paid $150 million for the global rights to the Christmas Day games. So that's two games total, which are about $75 million each. Although the details of the NFL Christmas game day performance on Netflix are currently under wraps, beyonce is expected to bring along some special guests who are featured in Cowboy Carter, which is her last latest Shabuzy my guy.
Speaker 2:I'm sure Shabuzy will be there. I'm pretty sure I saw that.
Speaker 1:Shabuzy got snubbed at the CMAs and there's like some semi, like racist comments from stage I was gonna say it's giving racism yeah, that sucks yeah, that does suck.
Speaker 2:Well, hopefully shibuzi will be at the nfl halftime show I keep saying nfl halftime show. It's not like the nfl halftime show, it's the christmas day nfl halftime show which nfl on christmas day is Day NFL halftime show which.
Speaker 1:NFL on Christmas Day is pretty lit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's always fun, it's similar to NFL on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've seen this in the last couple years as you started to pay more attention to football, but a big Thanksgiving tradition is the winning team on Thanksgiving Day gets to eat these huge drumsticks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did see that Turkey legs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, turkey legs, yeah, turkey legs. So I feel like thanksgiving in the nfl and christmas in the nfl are both like goaded traditional experiences wow, I could go for a turkey leg right now you're huge on the protein this month I'm all about the meat.
Speaker 2:Um well, yeah, you are. Stop, I'm surprised.
Speaker 1:I'm surprised we're not doing like ribeye steak tonight.
Speaker 2:I feel like we're on a roll of steak. I would love ribs and a turkey leg right now.
Speaker 1:Just for an afternoon snack.
Speaker 2:I'd be so down. Well, this is a huge get for Netflix. I'm obviously thrilled to see Beyonce on stage at an NFL game, like where she belongs. She's in a few halftime shows for Super Bowl and I'm excited, excited, like who's she gonna bring out? What's it all gonna be like?
Speaker 1:in addition to the excitement around her, it's pretty cool that she's bringing guests that's always so fun um, and people were obviously so disappointed when she showed up at a kamala harris rally and then didn't perform, so I feel like this is retribution for all those people that missed out. But, um, I think it's kind of crazy work for Netflix to pay $150 million just for the whole game to be buffering on their live stream, because that Mike Tyson and Jake Paul fight was terrible.
Speaker 2:Really, I know you were trying to watch it. Did you end up watching any of it?
Speaker 1:I saw a little bit on Twitter Like people's streams on their ex profiles from like seats in the stadium were better than the Netflix stream.
Speaker 2:That sucks, antonio.
Speaker 1:Brown speaking of the NFL. He live streamed on X from where he was sitting and it had like five million viewers or something like that because people couldn't access the Netflix stream.
Speaker 2:That's my biggest concern here, because people couldn't access the Netflix stream. That's my biggest concern here, like the time that Netflix has done live streaming, although the idea and the concept, like I'm all for the love is blind reunion, which I know you didn't try to stream at all, but when we were with you, though, really trying to watch it couldn't watch it.
Speaker 2:It was like, I think, maybe the first of the like the live streaming, like attempts that they've had, and it was terrible. So I'm I'm very concerned that we'll miss some of it, but I mean, there will be a replay, obviously yeah, I guess I wonder.
Speaker 1:I sometimes wonder too if we get the short end of the stick in Canada, like is it worse for us in Canada than it is for people in the US?
Speaker 2:probably.
Speaker 1:I feel like there's got to be like some prioritization scheme yeah, they would never tell and I thought it was even kind of petty by netflix too, because when we were trying to access the, the mike tyson and jake paul fight, they kept kind of gaslighting us as if it was our wi-fi and getting us to troubleshoot our wi-fi connection, and then every time we'd be like your wi-fi is fast yeah and then we'd try to reconnect and it would still just buffer it 25 we all had to be like off our phones and stuff yeah, it was so lame.
Speaker 2:Um, the thing that is so interesting about this, too, is like obviously netflix is making a move here, like they paid a lot of money for the rights to the nfl uh, christmas day games, and I know like football is synonymous with Thanksgiving in the US.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think they're trying to make some like you know, tradition happen with like Christmas Day and, from what I saw on social, a lot of like NBA fans were like freaking out over this, because I know NBA Christmas Day games are a big deal and they make it like a big moment in the season. Apparently, the broadcast is like 13 hours long or something.
Speaker 1:The NFL broadcast.
Speaker 2:No, the NBA broadcast. The NFL broadcast is only two games, while the NBA is like eight games or something, so it's interesting to see that. I also saw that the NBA since this Netflix announcement. They announced that they're going to be doing Christmas Day games with a Disney Mickey Mouse takeover, which is cute, but it's not Beyonce.
Speaker 1:I know, like, if you're going to pick, I feel like most people are going to pick Beyonce.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wasn't there some sort of NFL game where they did a Toy Story takeover?
Speaker 1:There was some sort of like. I don't know if it was AI or just AR, but you could either watch the game in real life, like the real version, or I think it was on Amazon, maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah that sounds right, or?
Speaker 1:it might have been on Disney but you could watch it in real time. But there was like an effect applied where it looked like they were like Disney or Toy Story characters playing a football game.
Speaker 2:I think that's what they're gonna do for the NBA game. So they're gonna do like Mickey Mouse characters like Toontown, like Donald Duck and Goofy like doing the game.
Speaker 1:I want to see Goofy throw a Hail Mary, for sure, or I guess it's NBA so like a three-pointer yeah, yeah, who's Steph Curry gonna be? I don't know. I don NBA, so like a three-pointer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Who's Steph Curry going to be? I don't know. I don't know if like characters will be assigned to players. I don't know how that will be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's wishful thinking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, apparently the Toy Story one is like super popular.
Speaker 1:It was actually well done. I thought yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know what's crazy when I think about that is someone who's like an NBA fan. Is he going to turn on the Disney version of the game so his family can watch it with him?
Speaker 1:I think, yes, that's if I if like for the, if it was football for me, if that was a way for me to get, like our kids, a little bit more stoked about the sports that I like to watch and want to have on the TV, instead of them streaming on.
Speaker 2:Disney Like watching their show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then I would switch over to that for sure, because I still get the gist of the game.
Speaker 2:but they're like whoa, but you don't feel like you're sacrificing the experience of watching the game To an extent?
Speaker 1:but like pros and cons, that's really nice, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll see how that all turns out. Obviously, we'll be watching the NBA game or, sorry, the NFL game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean, maybe we may we experience a bit of both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be cute.
Speaker 1:I think it's interesting, I think we are going to start to see a little bit more competition for holidays with sports. Because I've also been hearing and I don't know how real it becomes, but a lot of people have been speculating that the nfl might try to make the super bowl later, like make this the season even a little bit longer than it is, maybe add a bye week, an extra bye week for the teams so that they end up with a super bowl on president's day weekend, so that the day after the super bowl every year is a stat holiday, because so many people are like, oh, it sucks to have the Super Bowl party and then have to go to work the next day, but there's only so many US holidays and there's more leagues than just the NFL.
Speaker 1:And so, if that, ends up being a strategic thing that increases viewership and stuff like that, we might see a bit of healthy competition.
Speaker 2:I want to see if President's Day in the US is a holiday for us in Canada.
Speaker 1:I don't think it is. That would be nice though. Yeah, maybe it needs to become one.
Speaker 2:It's February 17th, which is not a holiday. Yeah Well, we have Family Day.
Speaker 1:Sorry, it might depend on the province. Family Dayary 17th.
Speaker 2:Are you serious? Let's go.
Speaker 1:All right, petition happening this year, yeah petition to make the super bowl president's day weekend and yeah, I'm here for a longer season and give the players a break.
Speaker 2:Like they're all literally getting so injured like breaking their back, playing through like sprains and broken ribs.
Speaker 1:Like they should get a break yeah, I think players would be down for it if it meant an extra bye week, because right now every team gets one bye week through the regular season so if that meant like extend the, the, the regular season by a week, but through extra bye weeks I feel like all the players would be pretty excited about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's great. Speaking of nfl players, one of my favorite retired players ever, jason kelsey, is getting a new late night show on espn, which I'm so happy for.
Speaker 1:I love jason kelsey I know he's such a good guy I keep seeing him get in like weird altercations with fans, though, like I think, people are provoking him because of that one time you think. So yeah, like encourage more, yeah, I saw another one.
Speaker 2:People are just like trying to get him to like do something which for a payday? Yeah, that sucks but this late night show is going to be filmed in philadelphia. It's also a partnership with nfl films, which I love because they do such a good job with their movies and all that, so production level will be good and he's filming it with a live audience. On what is it?
Speaker 1:Monday nights? Yeah, monday nights, or Friday nights.
Speaker 2:It's post-season and going into the playoffs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's five weeks, starting in January.
Speaker 2:And they're filming it at 1 am.
Speaker 1:Whoa really Live. Why 1am 1am eastern, that's wild.
Speaker 2:Philadelphia time. I know that's so late. I guess Is that like when late night shows film, cause that's crazy 1am eastern would be 11pm mountain, which is us, and then 10pm PST. So yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 1:It still feels like it should be earlier, like why not make it like eight o'clock?
Speaker 2:because then la time would be like late night start doesn't start at nine why not? I don't know. This just doesn't feel like 9 pm is like I would call it late night.
Speaker 1:Yeah and the name they call it late night is a play on NFL film from like the 1970s called. They call it pro football.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm excited for Jason Kelsey. He's going to have lots of guests come through and I just love to see him do more stuff.
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to see if it's on Mondays.
Speaker 2:Cool.
Speaker 1:Starts January 4th, five consecutive weekends during the nfl playoffs. I'm not seeing what day it is, but yeah, also hard knocks.
Speaker 2:My favorite nfl reality show announced their new season and they're going to be taking viewers behind the scene of the afc north yeah, I thought that was interesting because they've now.
Speaker 1:I think this is the third year where they've done in season hard knocks. Usually it historically has just been preseason. Um, I know one of them. One of the in season ones was with my team, the Colts. One was with the Dolphins, but now it's interesting to see them expanding from one team to a whole division. I think it'll be cool, but it also probably means you don't get as deep with an individual team, but what you do get is the rivalries.
Speaker 2:Right and the AFC.
Speaker 1:North have? Is it AFC North or NFC North?
Speaker 2:AFC North. Okay, what is the AFC North?
Speaker 1:It's one of the divisions.
Speaker 2:But what does it stand for?
Speaker 1:American Football Conference.
Speaker 2:North, and that's the northern teams.
Speaker 1:Of the AFC. So there's two conferences, like in the NBA, afc and NFC, okay, and then within each conference there's multiple divisions, so like North, south, west, east.
Speaker 2:So AFC North.
Speaker 1:AFC South, AFC West.
Speaker 2:They're all competing to be the best in that division so they can compete against the best in the other divisions, so they can go to Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:If you win your division, then you clinch a playoff spot. Yeah, if you're not the leader in your division, then you have to fight for your playoff spot.
Speaker 2:So who are the teams in that division? Do you know?
Speaker 1:Not off the top of my head, no Cool.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I'm excited for Hard Knocks. Hard Knocks is what turned me into a football fan. If you're new here, a season with the New York Jets RIP.
Speaker 1:And the Lions. I feel like it started for you with the Lions and then the Jets, one kind of solidified it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it started with the Lions, which they're doing amazing this year.
Speaker 1:They're the best team in the league.
Speaker 2:Love to see it go all the way, dan Campbell.
Speaker 1:I think the Chiefs have a better record, but they've fluked their way to a better record.
Speaker 2:And then they did the Jets, which got me like really invested in Aaron Rodgers and like him coming to the Jets, which has turned out horribly. Like I feel like it's so—the other day, actually yesterday on my lunch time, I was like eating at my desk, as I usually do, and I Googled on my own unprompted is Aaron Rodgers going to play for the Jets next season? Because I was like it's so bad. I genuinely feel concerned for his career and his legacy. Like he is, it's not good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not good, I don't. I'm so curious. I don't think he'll play for the Jets, but I also. That begs the question will he try to slug it out and go to another team and try to win, or is he just going to like, accept his fate and just retire.
Speaker 2:I feel like he has a bad reputation even for, like you know, bandwagon fans like me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but this is the NFL. They want to make money. Aaron Rodgers draws media attention, which means he gets fan attention. He's also been an NFL MVP, so any QB needy team would be tempted.
Speaker 2:I feel like he must be having the worst year of his life because two of his big exes, like his most prominent exes, olivia Munn and Shaileneene Woodley, are both thriving in their new relationships and their new families. He's having the worst season of his career, like his. His boys that he brought to the team are getting fired.
Speaker 2:Like it's just a bad year to be Aaron Rodgers yeah, it is, and I don't think he thinks it's his fault that so far the head coach got fired, the offensive coordinator got demoted from play calling and now, just this last week, their gm got fired yeah, and olivia munn is married to john mulaney and they have two kids, and she was woman of the year, glamour's women of the year, and shailene woodley. Isn't she also dating a football player? Now I don't know. Do you know who she is?
Speaker 1:I don't keep track, yeah she's dating someone.
Speaker 2:She's dating like uh, I want to say josh a josh a josh out there on one of the joshes.
Speaker 1:Do you know?
Speaker 2:I feel like he's a quarterback. I feel like he just won like a big game against k City. Who's a quarterback?
Speaker 1:Josh Allen. Yeah, really I didn't think he was dating her, but I could be wrong.
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:We'll confirm Josh sounds right he's got like an interesting track record with his relationships as well. Nfl quarterbacks man yeah, well do we want to go to thing two?
Speaker 2:I feel, like I got a lot to say about thing two oh no, josh Allen, just to clarify, is dating Haley Steinfeld, who did not date Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1:Correct.
Speaker 2:The other thing that's unfortunate about Aaron Rodgers is he doesn't talk to his family.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's a rough year for Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1:He needs to retire and just reshuffle his priorities and rekindle things with his family and find a wife.
Speaker 2:Yeah, have a kid. Learn from Tom Brady's mistakes. Okay, let's move on to the next big thing.
Speaker 1:Jaguar and Volvo make us cry for two very different reasons. I think we're mostly going to talk about Jaguar here, but two car brands launched new campaigns Really, three car brands launched new campaigns this week, not this week. The big one getting the headlines is Jaguar. The company's promotional video posted on X and Instagram shows models dressed in futuristic, brightly colored outfits walking in an alien-like landscape. Phrases including live vivid, break molds, delete ordinary and copy nothing, appear on screen as the figures pose next to pink rocks.
Speaker 2:You got to see it. Like, if you haven't seen this ad, like go and Google it and find it. It's like so hard to explain in words, it's just something to look at.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and of course the brand's new logo appears on screen, which even the logo outside of everything else. I felt like the logo was strange one. When you zoom out and, like you, view it in like a small context, it's kind of hard to read. But then two, if you actually look at each letter, some of them are lowercase and some of them are uppercase. They're all the same size, but the J A are lowercase, the G and U are uppercase. I guess you could argue about the U, but then the A R at the end are lowercase.
Speaker 2:You're really taking the copy nothing slogan too far. Yeah, yeah, but I mean there's so much we can say about this new rebrand. If we're isolating the logo like, it's almost impossible to get a new logo Perfect. You know, especially for such an old brand like you can't please, everyone goes on their own. I kind of like don't pay much attention to, but in their like environment that they're like their new promo videos or on the car, I feel like that's when you can start to really see if it makes sense yeah, and we've seen this before with automakers like Kia did a rebrand and a new word mark a few years ago and it received a lot of criticism because people felt like it wasn't that readable.
Speaker 1:But I think there's more to this story and when you say you can't please everyone, I think that's like a big part of what the moral to the story is. But it got over 90 million views online in the first few days and instant brutal backlash from the internet. On X, numerous viewers mocked the advertisement, pointing out that no cars featured in the video, and Elon even I saw, I think it was just yesterday trolled them saying are you a car company? Which I thought was funny. Another person said what a joke, but it felt deeper than just an ugly rebrand and I think that's what we're trying to move towards as we talk about this story. Another fan said it really well. They said whoever agreed to this needs to know that they've just killed a british icon and it's true, it literally feels like they've wiped out a century of heritage yeah some other comments on instagram.
Speaker 1:Jaguar once stood as a timeless icon of traditional tradition, class and values. Today, it feels like they've traded heritage for hollow marketing. A brand that forgets its roots loses its soul. Where is is the elegance and strength that defined the Jaguar spirit? This has to be from someone who drives a Jaguar. I feel like it's like deep for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Another person said fire your whole marketing team for this. And then someone else said this is just sad, you really did kill the cat.
Speaker 2:I know that's savage. Both those comments have more than 3,000 likes, which, yeah, that's tough.
Speaker 1:We were talking at the beginning of the show how we like or actually this was before the show, but we were talking about how we like Land Rover and that's actually part of the Jaguar family, but I agree with some of these comments.
Speaker 1:I don't want to just pile on or get on the bandwagon of criticism, but the more I think about it, the more frustrated I feel, just because it does feel like they just wiped out their history which, no matter how you slice it or spin it, it just seems like a terrible mistake. Um, because they, they, really have been an icon in automaking for nearly 100 years, I think they they put out their first car in like 1935 or something like that, and they've really been heralded over the years for incredible design and products Like their E-Type was called the most beautiful car ever made.
Speaker 1:The F-Type was considered a modern masterpiece and really people have described these as like modern art over the decades.
Speaker 1:Yeah art over the decades, yeah, um. But I will say that the rebrand itself isn't surprising because, specifically since like 2020 or 2021, you could feel the winds of change with, like tesla becoming a big thing. Electrical vehicles in general um, also more regulations in the space, like regulations around emissions, and then, even with customers, more of a concern over the environment and climate change and things like that yeah, and as a brand or as a company, they haven't been doing well.
Speaker 2:I saw tiktok, like analyzing, like decisions, I can see why they decided to rebrand. I just don't like this new rebrand doesn't feel like it's hitting well with anyone. So when you're doing so poorly as a company I think in like last year they only sold like 600 cars or something, which isn't that many in the like when you think about like how much inventory you have so I think they're at a place as a brand where, like everything can be like discussed and nothing is on the table, like everything can be changed, and I think it's clearly a desperate move to kind of like restart the whole company. And they deleted all their posts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like it literally is in essence a reset.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which just seems shocking. A couple sometime in the last couple of years I don't remember the actual date, but they said that they were going to be all electric by 2025, which is a couple of months from now.
Speaker 1:So I think this rebrand and the timing of it is obviously part of the plate, away from the types of cars that they manufactured before into EVs and you can see it in the vibe of the rebrand. But I think their mistake is that in their effort to reach a new audience that cares about the environment and wants EVs and is willing to pay a luxury price tag for it, they are alienating their current customer base.
Speaker 2:For sure, yeah, so that's wild.
Speaker 1:And it's not an easy task, it's not an easy task.
Speaker 2:It's not an easy task. It's just like this, was not it? No, yeah, it's crazy. On the other side of the coin, should we talk about volvo? Sure, let's talk about it yeah, so they launched a campaign that won the internet this week. They tapped cinematographer hoyt van Hoytema.
Speaker 1:What a name.
Speaker 2:That's how you say it. He worked with Christopher Nolan flicks like Oppenheimer and Interstellar. They did an emotional three-minute ad for their new electric SUV and it's beautiful. It made me ugly cry at my desk. I was not prepared for the emotional roller coaster. If you haven't seen it, you've got to go find it. It's worth your time to see it.
Speaker 1:We'll link it in the show notes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we should definitely link it in the show notes. Um, but what was interesting to me is that it originally aired back in September, but it's getting a ton of attention right now because the marketing director of McDonald's his name is can't say his name. He tweeted it and he said Volvo posted a three minute and 46 second ad on Instagram shot by Hoyt Van Hoytema, the cinematographer of Interstellar and Oppenheimer. It goes against every single rule you can think of as a social lead Length format, overproduced, and every comment under it said that they are now part of the consideration group for Volvo. So this, this ad, just like, like he said, kind of like breaks all the rules, but somehow still worked.
Speaker 2:I want to read some of the comments under the ad on Instagram just to contrast it against what we saw on on Jaguar. So some people said this is the best commercial I have ever seen. Best thing about this ad is that it speaks to the reality of life. No need to add anything weird. I love it. Didn't think I'd have a morning cry over a car ad, but here we are. Bravo, Dear Jaguar. One watch Two. Learn that one's so savage In a year of headlines in the creative world dominated by the rise of AI. It fills my heart with joy to see such craft playing out in front of me. This is the ad of the year, by a mile. Thank you to everyone involved and thank you to everyone at Volvo for showing exactly how these things can be done with trust in your creative team. Literally the exact opposite of what people were commenting on. Jaguar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and now you want a Volvo.
Speaker 2:I want a Volvo. This is the ad that changed things for me, like it's such compelling advertising. And one thing that I found was so interesting about this ad and my experience with this ad is like every time I see advertising I think about the teams involved, because I'm part of teams that do advertising.
Speaker 2:We try our best to do great marketing and I think when you get into marketing there's like basic principles you learn like marketing is brand connecting to a target audience to inspire action, and so the connection piece, like as marketing, once you start working whether it's social design or anything else, it's it's what we're all trying to do, is like connect and create movement and I think after some time that concepts kind of gets like convoluted. It turns like from, instead of trying to connect with an audience, it turns to convert an audience or to engage an audience, and those things aren't necessarily bad. But we lost the like in the like, the connection piece, and I think this ad really brings us back to like some of those initial principles. It's just like inspiring you in a way and making you feel stuff, and like feeling stuff really does bring connection to brands. So it just took me on a roller coaster, but I'm so glad for it.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad too, and I think the interesting thing is that they're doing electric vehicles too, but they didn't abandon their values or what their customers know them to be. They built on it. Yeah, I think I was going to say this about about Jaguar, and I think it is only proven by this Volvo advertisement, but I really feel like today's successful brands are built through one real connections. Two consistent values and trust. And then three, an authentic story. And I think we saw all those things exhibited in this advertisement and that's why it was so compelling, but we also saw ourselves in it you know, yes, it was about a growing family and like that's what we're experiencing right now.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness yeah and just real human feelings and concerns and emotions and pressures and stuff like that. So where this jaguar rebrand and the creative that came with it felt like really futuristic and visually interesting, it lacked the depth and the authentic story and the history that this auto company has been built on, and that's where they're missing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is again not easy to do, but somehow this three-minute ad just Nailed it. Yeah, incredible work.
Speaker 1:And then honorable mention was the Porsche collab with Amy Leandor. I think it's not as deep as the Volvo story or the Jaguar story.
Speaker 1:But I think one thing they did well when they released it was really embodying the historical like deep kind of heritage elements of Porsche. And it also just felt like great brand alignment because Aimee Leandor, even though it's a newer brand in this grand scheme of things, it's been around for a while. Um, but they did a great job of kind of amalgamating their brand with the deep history and the the true like visual elements of Porsche and just the feeling of that you perceive around driving a Porsche and the lifestyle that comes with that.
Speaker 2:So yeah another win another one that makes Jaguar definitely cool. I think it's like a little less relatable than the Volvo one, but it was for sure cool and yeah. So the thing that I thought was interesting when I first saw that they did a collab I was like what are they selling? But then I watched the ad and you can see there's literally they collabed on the car and the jacket yeah, there's some really cool elements in this car, but I feel like the car itself is a one-off.
Speaker 1:I could be wrong on that, it might just be like kind of the nucleus of the campaign. But then there's a whole line of apparel from jackets to hats and scarves and like driving gloves and things like that Driving gloves. And it released this morning and it's all sold out already.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:So I know, because a friend of ours recently got an old Porsche and he was hoping to grab a hat, but he missed out.
Speaker 2:Dang.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's the story of the automakers for today.
Speaker 2:Do you want to take?
Speaker 1:us into thing three.
Speaker 2:Big thing three is Smirnoff names Troye Sivan, its chief vibes officer. Smirnoff kicked off a multi-year partnership with Troye Sivan, putting the Grammy nominated pop star in charge of keeping its vibes immaculate. Putting the grammy nominated pop star in charge of keeping its vibes immaculate. The collaboration kicked off with an ad in which siobhan gives a press conference to announce his rule, his new role as chief vibes officer. He's wearing sunglasses and he's like sipping a cocktail and he explains that his job is real and that he even got business cards and that his mission is to see everyone go off. So we're not for sponsoring sponsoring Troye Sivan's Australia and New Zealand tour, which will feature exclusive after parties in Sydney and Melbourne, and the partnership will also be activated across social, out of home, digital, in store and event platforms in more than 20 countries. So I love this so much. I I think it's so cheesy when brands come out with like a celebrity chief, like creative director or chief taste director, like I just think it's. It's like a silly way to integrate a celebrity or get a celebrity endorsement for marketing sake. So I loved this one because it is so unserious, like obviously it's not a real job and obviously it's just like a great brand partnership between a awesome celebrity that fits the target demo of Smirnoff, so it's great.
Speaker 2:I was thinking back to some of like other stunts like this that I feel like I just didn't quite like because it took it too seriously, like, for example, this might be a hot take, by the way, um, but lady gaga was the chief creative director for polaroid and, yes, she did come out with like a few products for polaroid and then they had to like announce that they parted ways too and I just felt like the whole campaign around it and the delivery of it was too serious. Like obviously she's not doing the work of the brand's creative department. You know, she's not actually being the creative director, so I just like I just felt it was too serious for what they were actually doing. Another one was when Jennifer Aniston was appointed chief creative officer at Vital Proteins, which, again, like jennifer anderson's like a working actress, she's not like working with the art department yeah exactly, like it was just kind of like two, why they have to take it so far.
Speaker 2:Couldn't they just say like we have a new line of great protein products? You know, it's just like go just do some sponsored content, yeah, and maybe you are investing in the company or something like that, but like it doesn't have to be Like a in house Role, like I just felt it was too far. I think. So I love, I like this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think some have done it well, even though it was serious like I actually feel like the Ronnie Feig as the creative Director with the New York Knicks has gone really well.
Speaker 1:Um but he's a creative, he's like not necessarily like a celebrity yeah, totally that makes sense, because we've also seen other teams try to do similar things. I think the Cleveland Cavaliers engaged an artist named Daniel Arsham to be their creative director, which he is a creative, yes, but he's more of like a. I feel like he's more of a celebrity than Ronnie Feig is, and I feel like that's just kind of fallen flat.
Speaker 2:I don't even know who that is.
Speaker 1:He's a big artist oh, okay. Yeah, and I think my initial reaction to this one with Troye Sivan I felt like it was corny, but listening to you talk about it, I feel like you're bang on, in the sense that they kind of like made it parody and that's where it works, because my initial reaction was like chief vibes officer, like that reminds me of like branding agencies in 2019 that were like marketing mavens and like chief coloring book officer and like stuff like that. That was just like an absolute miss.
Speaker 2:But you're right. Yeah, when kim kardashian, she was the chief taste officer for beyond meat and like it's. It's unserious in the way where you're in on it but. I think this one was executed even better, because when Troye Sivan says chief vibes officer, he says it like unserious and unbothered. If I say that, I'm like lame and like elder millennial, like I'm like an aging grandma, so like it's different, like the way he delivers it kind of just makes it work.
Speaker 1:And I thought his delivery of like I just want to see people go off was perfect.
Speaker 2:Like if I said that ruin the whole campaign, I like, want to see people go off was perfect. Like if I said that, yeah, ruin the whole campaign, I like the tie in of go off with Smirnoff Like.
Speaker 1:I think, that's just a fun, witty thing that they're doing. Um, and we also know we've talked about this on the show before that a lot of the Gen Z generation or audience are slowly moving away from drinking alcohol. So I think it's a smart strategic play for an alcohol company to engage a Gen Z artist and take it less seriously to make Smirnoff more relevant for a different group of people.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's the other alignment that I really like for this one, because they're sponsoring after parties for his shows and his music is like like it's not like mellow, it's like poppy and fun and like unserious, you know. So I like it's such a good alignment with like the product that they're selling, while something like Lady Gaga and Polaroid just like it's a stretch yeah, you know it's not like, like a like. It's not a natural fit. Yeah, you just feel like.
Speaker 1:the mandate was get a celebrity and launch a campaign and they just like forced a round peg into a square hole to make it happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But this one feels well executed and the fact that it's a joke too, I feel like leans into people's perceptions around Smirnoff, especially Smirnoff Ice. Because, like I haven't seen Smirnoff, especially Smirnoff Ice. Because, like I haven't seen Smirnoff at a party unless it was a joke, since I was like 19 years old.
Speaker 2:Totally, and people ice each other all the time Like get in on it, maybe he'll get iced at a show or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I started out kind of cold on this one, but I warmed up a lot even through the course of this conversation. The other update I wanted to share is Domingo on this one and I've warmed up a lot even through the course of this conversation.
Speaker 2:Um, the other update I wanted to share is dual. Um Domingo, my favorite person on the internet, uh made waves last week because he was on SNL again. They did a follow-up skit to his last one that went viral. This one it was with uh Charlie XCX and they did like a parody to her song. Hot to go. It was great, brilliant. I loved it. Like give me more, I just want more domingo.
Speaker 2:And then he showed up at sabrina carpenter's la show and in her show she does this bit where, like she finds like a cute guy in the crowd and she like arrests supposed to be like an awkward guy, right well the the clips I've seen like they're like flushed and bothered, like they're just kind of like I can't believe it, and they like zoom in on his face and he's like interacting with her and she's like you're so hot, I'm going to have to arrest you. And then she gets someone like security to hand them like a fuzzy handcuff or something. So she was looking for like the guy in the crowd and it was domingo and it was marcelo hernandez dressed as domingo in la. But it was so funny because the original skit was to her song, so I loved it. Couldn't get enough of it.
Speaker 2:My whole, like tiktok was like different angles of this one moment at her concert yeah and I just can't get enough, like I just need more domingo in my life I feel like when you started talking about this, you almost said duolingo I know so like to that point.
Speaker 1:I almost feel like there's an opportunity here for domingo to do something with duolingo yeah, like imagine if he was the owl mascot and then, like they did, like a piece of content, and then he, like, took off the owl helmet and it was domingo right, he should be their chief dance officer yeah or something better than that chief bilingual officer yeah, I love domingo.
Speaker 2:Well, in the skit for snl with charlie xdx they in the song they said like she's spending all her time on Duolingo because she's trying to learn Spanish. To be with Domingo so I'm into it. Yes, come on Duolingo yeah, tap in, go ahead, it's a free idea. I would love to see that man.
Speaker 1:I'm not a big fan of Sabrina Carpenter's music, but I love her music.
Speaker 2:I'm like, I think I sometimes I think she's very talented, but sometimes she gives industry plant, because literally every Spotify playlist I play, the next song is espresso. It's like it starts off with like OK, like cool new R&B song, and that's like espresso. And then every time I'm trying to post a reel on Instagram, it's like do you want to use espresso? Or like do you want to use any other, sabrina?
Speaker 1:Carpenter song it's like it's getting boosted a bit yeah.
Speaker 2:It's getting a lot of attention.
Speaker 1:Not to discredit her abilities.
Speaker 2:No, and.
Speaker 1:I feel like she's really leaned into her persona well and she's just like killing it, but this is not my taste, which is fine, because I'm not the audience. Yeah, it's not for you, I'm not looking for a fuzzy pair of handcuffs from someone else. Exactly, if you want to bring some we can talk.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. I hope you're not watching her like concert footage like I am, it's just yeah.
Speaker 1:Just when you show it to me Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I do like her, I do like her stuff, and so far delayed. It's like someone's giving you more sabrina carpenter, and I'm like sure I'll take it nice I'd rather listen to chapel roan. Nice, yeah, she has actually sabrina carpenter's has a new christmas special coming out.
Speaker 1:I'll listen to that on netflix. I'm here for all the christmas content and she's gonna have chapel roan on it let's go gonna be the best christmas yet I'm ready well, everybody, thanks for watching, subscribe on, make sure you find us on Instagram and enjoy the clips and let us know, send us a DM, let us know what you're liking, what you're not liking, what you'd like to see more of any ideas you have for how we can grow the show. This is episode 10.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which feels like an accomplishment I was seeing. I just randomly saw some stats on twitter recently. Excuse me that if you make it past 10 episodes, you're in the top 15 of podcasters love it, so this is just the beginning, but already we're the upper echelon just because we lasted.
Speaker 2:If you listen to this fully and you're listening right now on youtube, please give this video a thumbs up. It does actually make a huge difference in the like ranking of youtube videos and it would mean a lot to us.
Speaker 1:This is a part of our podcast journey that we could use some external validation so please, please, leave a comment if you're not watching on youtube, leave us a review on apple or spotify, and I think you can leave comments on spotify too, if I'm not mistaken but, I'm ringing this gong for all of you who are leaving us a thumbs up. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:That was a confident gong it was more aggressive. You made up for it, since you forgot it last time.
Speaker 1:I know, lest we forget it never again, lest we forget it.