Digital Malls, Big Tech: Do they have too much power?, Instagram Shopping on Reels, Viral TikTok videos and business responding... More business and marketing news here!

 If you're listening to the latest Radcast News Update, here's Ryan and Riley.
 Hey guys, welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast News.
 It is the week of, first real week of October, isn't it?
 A week, yeah, yeah.
 October, what, 7th, 6th, 5th?
 8th.
 But it's a case, you know?
 Today's the 8th.
 Like the Monday was the 5th, right?
 Yeah.
 Next week is halfway through October.
 How does that make you feel?
 It makes me feel like my mom's going to start decorating for Christmas anymore.
 It's my wife too.
 Oh no, one of those after Halloween and the babyly starts.
 Oh god, it's like, can't even get the Thanksgiving stuff out.
 Christmas trees everywhere.
 Right, right, right.
 Yeah, it's hard to believe.
 And Halloween's going to be a little different this year.
 You know, we've got the kids at home.
 Now, this is going to be a fire truck, which is actually Marshall.
 Was it not pound puppy?
 That was me.
 I actually couldn't tell you.
 Some kids think Marshall.
 I'm sure someone's listening when they know what they know what Marshall is.
 The fire truck, puppy, whatever.
 But he's that and I think Nicole and I are going to be firefighters.
 Cute.
 He's the fire truck.
 Absolutely.
 And the other boys, you know, there'll be some, you know, one, probably wrestlers.
 Who knows what?
 They're the different things every week.
 Yeah.
 So what does Halloween look like though this year?
 Is it going to be?
 I don't know.
 I think we're going to throw a little Cesta here.
 Oh, yeah.
 I think Cesta's a nap.
 Fiesta.
 Halloween nap.
 Here at Radical.
 No, Fiesta.
 Not a Cesta.
 And so I think we'll just live on here.
 Then there's a couple of events and things.
 I don't think Trick or Treatings canceled.
 Yeah.
 Yeah.
 Cancer culture is canceling everything.
 Including how.
 Trick or Treatings.
 This is so sad.
 It's probably the best thing.
 No, I think I agree.
 I don't totally disagree with it, no matter how I feel completely about the situation.
 I don't think we probably need the kids like handing candy off to each other.
 Right.
 Parents and parents and all that.
 Right, right, right.
 So yeah, I think we'll do a few events and we're having a little safe Fiesta here of sorts.
 Right.
 They'll get their candy in.
 Yeah.
 No, I think it'll be good.
 So as far as just news kind of around here, the Radcasts will be having our latest episode that'll come out on Tuesday again at noon.
 It'll just be a UNI kind of conversation just about e-commerce trends, kind of what's going on.
 And at some opinions about just e-commerce world because it's changing.
 I mean, obviously it's been changing for a while.
 But as we've discussed, COVID's been increasing that change.
 And I think it's important to highlight some of that stuff.
 Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
 You know, we have so many guests now and I've gotten used to the interview, you know, interviewing them and trying to interject here and there.
 So it'll be fun to kind of share some perspective and, you know, we're working on with a lot of clients on this.
 So we're kind of live in the thick of it.
 Right.
 In a lot of ways.
 So, you know, I look forward to kind of sharing my perspective and, you know, where I see things going, where things are.
 And, you know, I think it'll be good from both the technology standpoint, but some practical, practical recommendations and less.
 I think sometimes, you know, we're getting great guests.
 Yeah.
 And we want it to be approachable.
 Right.
 And people learn from them.
 But maybe sometimes some of the businesses we start are further down the road.
 Yeah.
 So I think there'll be some practical advice for people that might just be getting started to brands that are making the switch from traditional retail to online.
 I agree.
 So it'll be good.
 It'll be good.
 I agree. I think it'll be a good mix for the series.
 How's your week been?
 It's been a good week.
 It's been, I'm actually going back to West Virginia this weekend.
 My really good friends are getting married this weekend.
 So a little shout out to them, but yeah, so that'll be fun.
 You know, obviously staying classy is, you know, right?
 Yeah, of course.
 How's, uh, is West Virginia playing football this weekend?
 Is that on the docket?
 Part of me wants to think they have a buy week, but I'm saying that all I'm saying is we beat Baylor last weekend.
 And I was having a field day.
 So I was very excited about that.
 Oh, the home was lost twice.
 So, you know, the old big 12s and a little bit of a disarray.
 Uh-huh.
 The WWE is winning.
 So that's what's important.
 Yeah, that is what's important.
 Right.
 Yeah.
 Well, cool. Well, here's Riley with the news.
 Here is the Radcast News.
 So our first topic for today is about Verishop.
 And this is a kind of online mall, so to speak.
 This is something that has started a couple of years ago.
 And I think it's starting to get bigger as more brands are getting involved.
 I think it's changing to more business to consumer.
 And I think I was actually kind of waiting for this to happen, to be honest, like a digital mall.
 Because a lot of malls are going out of business anyway.
 And I don't think that's necessarily been a COVID trend.
 I think that's just been over the last few years trend.
 But I'm, I'm anxious to see kind of how this develops.
 Yeah, it's been, I had heard of this.
 It's about a year old.
 And I had heard of it.
 And it's one of those things where, at least on my personal radar,
 not professional, it was on my professional radar more than my personal radar for shopping.
 I was like, okay, you know, I get it that millennials, or even my age group,
 probably isn't shopping for fashion on Amazon.
 We're shopping there everywhere else.
 And you know, no offense macy's or other places.
 The retail environments just online haven't been wonderful.
 So this hit my radar is, okay, how are they going to start to curate stuff?
 How are they going to make this experience different or better in a way from Amazon?
 And they've done a really good job curating.
 But now it's interesting because if you go to Amazon,
 because I will occasionally need some staples, you know, like t-shirts or like basics for wear.
 And I'll go to Amazon, you know, at least do that.
 And inevitably it will bring up stuff that I'm like, I'm pretty sure that's counterfeit.
 You know, like it doesn't look, because it will bring up, like I'll go looking for undershirts,
 and it will bring up, you know, like a button down or something.
 It looks kind of, it looks good.
 And the model always make it look good.
 And then I'm like, you know, it doesn't look, it looks like it, you know, one dry cleaner, one wash,
 it's probably going to fall apart or something like that.
 And so it's interesting.
 I haven't felt like there's been a true outlet for fashion online
 that's curated well, easy to shop.
 And like all the benefits that you want from the Amazon experience,
 but then in the curated way that where you can shop in different ways,
 whether it's collections, whether it's popular items, those kind of things.
 And I know Amazon does that, but you always, it's just never felt right for fashion for me.
 And I think some pictures are from that, but now with the ability for anyone to start in D2C
 to do this with their real products, they're calling it verified shops,
 it's really interesting to me as an alternative to Amazon.
 And a more natural fit for them.
 I noticed that a wallet that I actually carry and had since they did it,
 they did it as a fun, go fund me or one of those type things like five years ago,
 I've had this thing forever, it's called Ridge, the Ridge Wall,
 it shot out to you free commercial for the Ridge, the Ridge Wall.
 I've never had a back pocket wallet and I've always had a pocket wallet.
 And they're on there.
 And that to me makes sense because it's kind of a fashion,
 a functionality and more of a modern product that never made sense to me on Amazon.
 Maybe just subjectively making that complex.
 I mean, I hear you, like I feel like when I saw this, it made me feel,
 it gave me a sense of credibility to what they're actually selling
 and that they have to be verified and it's almost a sense of
 you're trusting that this product is entirely suitable and just very nice.
 Like to your point about Amazon clothes may be falling apart.
 Yeah, it gives you the sense of hope that this is going to be more authentic and reliable.
 A big premium and more is something about where I buy my protein powder and vitamins and books.
 I don't know if I trust this the wrong word but is this the style?
 Is this really giving me the style?
 I know they're trying to get there. They're doing lecture products.
 Look, Amazon's at the abyss.
 We'll get to that in a second too.
 But it makes a lot of sense to me for D to C brands.
 They're looking for a natural extension beyond their own website.
 They want to sell elsewhere.
 And the great thing is that the difference is with Amazon, they want a lot of that is
 working with distributors and with their stuff where you have to pre-create.
 Like let's say you're selling blouses or something.
 You have to go produce 500 of them to store at Amazon's things.
 You have to assume that cost up front.
 With this platform and with Vera Shop, you have that more ability to produce on demand
 as you accrue orders and as you build that up.
 You don't have to go stored in there that you ship direct and things like that.
 There's a lot of benefits here for D to C brands in the fashion space especially.
 I'm going to link this in the episode notes.
 So for those listening, you'll be able to find it there.
 But it's definitely interesting and I'm very excited to see where this goes.
 Because it means it's going to be something that I'm going to be like.
 It's a more natural place for them to curate their own brand.
 Again, I know someone's going to listen to this go well you can do that on Amazon now.
 I know that you can and I know that they have brand pages and all that.
 I do. I know that we've worked with cosmetic companies.
 We've worked with businesses that tried to do that.
 And it never really took off completely in the way that they wanted
 because it wasn't curating it around other products and other fashion accessories
 and things like that naturally.
 I think this would be a good place to leverage the brand.
 Keep the brand they probably hopefully build on their own site,
 collecting their own customers.
 But another outlet.
 This is a great transition actually.
 But I talk about big tech, monopoly power.
 And obviously we can always already think about the big tech giants here.
 Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook.
 There's been a lot of controversy I would say over the last couple of years
 in terms of are they getting too big?
 What are they doing with our data?
 All those questions, right?
 And so I think this is a very interesting way to highlight, you know,
 not just because you're big tech.
 You're not necessarily above the law, so to speak.
 They're necessarily, it's not that you know,
 everything needs to be regulated super highly.
 But I think this brings a point of are they becoming too big?
 Yeah.
 This one hits home for me.
 I've been thinking a lot about this.
 And I'll start by saying I believe in a free market.
 I believe in, you know, capitalism.
 And so I don't think a company has to necessarily apologize for growing
 and the American dream of getting huge and being big and providing a service.
 Now with that said, I do think with that come challenges
 because especially COVID has actually accelerated this among a lot of other things
 because the small guys just have had no chance with what's gone on.
 Everything's moved online.
 And the ones that have the dollars and the infrastructure to take that on
 are the Googles, the Amazon's, the Facebook's.
 And I'll lob in there with the Walmart's and the Costco's.
 And the big guys have just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger.
 And the mom and pops and the small and medium businesses are eroding
 because they haven't been able to weather the storm.
 And they weren't ready for e-commerce and what's happened within a COVID world.
 And then they're coming out in a leveraged place where getting loans to stay alive,
 trying to survive, and the big are getting bigger.
 And I don't have or pretend a marketer, I'm not a politician or a, you know,
 what I know is if small to medium businesses start to fold completely
 or in mass like they are now, you have less taxes coming in
 and you have these big corporations that are leveraging tax breaks.
 Where are we going to have the taxes?
 Because you know, like for the economy and for everything else to survive.
 So it's in our best interest in a lot of ways, one,
 because everyone deserves them to have the American dream and the opportunity to do that.
 And two, we need a base of businesses that feed corporate taxes and income tax.
 And this is just, it's a pattern, it's a cycle you get further down the complete monopoly road
 when there's 7, 8, 9, 10 big players that a lot of even best buy in there.
 Like because where else do you go to get a TV now?
 It's like best buy in everywhere else.
 Right, right, right.
 You know, yeah, I know that you buy them online and things like that.
 But as far as brick and mortar goes, because I remember the circuit,
 if you remember the circuit city, best buy, can't remember every name.
 But there were like seven places where you could competitively go buy a TV or stereo or whatever.
 And now it's pretty much best buy or maybe a mom or pop here and there.
 And that's even brick and mortar.
 But in online, yeah, everybody say there's more competition.
 But, you know, Amazon is sweeping that up.
 Walmart.com is sweeping that up.
 Target too.
 Yep, target.
 I mean, you know, there's like 10 to 15 players in this space.
 And I'm talking all consumer products right now, not to mention online advertising.
 It's Google, Facebook, and everything else, you know.
 I don't have the solution.
 I'm not, you know, if I was lucky enough to have started Google or Walmart,
 you know, I might have a different perspective.
 I'm not saying get the bust these companies up.
 But this is going to come to a head.
 And it's a problem.
 And I think we've got to find the middle ground of supporting small and medium business,
 giving them a level playing field while also allowing the free market to be free.
 And it's a complicated issue.
 That's very fine line.
 And it's just, you know, how do you stay on it?
 We'll see how I guess what happens.
 That'll be something we'll follow back up on.
 I'm sure that continues.
 Third topic for today, which this was something I think we have been anticipating for a very long time.
 And it's been stuff we've even talked about, Instagram shopping on Reels.
 We've already had Instagram shopping.
 That's been a thing for a while now.
 But I think this makes sense because I think this begins more of the trend of just live stream shopping.
 Just, you know, you see people try on the product.
 I mean, I know for me, like if I see, you know, one of the influencers that I follow on Instagram.
 And she's like, oh, hey, I just bought this shirt.
 It fits great.
 I'll put the link in my bio whatever.
 I feel way more, I trust her a lot more than just, you know, some other reviews that could or could not be a robot review.
 Or, you know what I mean?
 So I think this will give a lot more engagement to that kind of e-commerce trend.
 But I'm looking forward to seeing like where else this is going to go.
 Yeah, I love it.
 You know, I've video content is so much more engaging and now seeing a natural transition for you to know, like,
 and shop directly in it and transitioning to a one-to-one attribution where watch this video purchased this product.
 You know, it was a little clunky before.
 You know that video plays a role.
 But it's difficult to know, especially like if you watch TV now and they might go online and do things.
 But that attribution of what media influence that purchase, anything that gets you closer to that, I'm a fan of.
 And it's all about the seamlessness of it, which I do think Instagram is getting closer.
 I don't think they've gotten it completely.
 So I was just technology figured out.
 I'd love to see like the ability for like interactive pop-ups that happen like almost in the video and stuff where you could.
 That's a very technical technology intents to leverage that.
 I'm sure we're going to get there.
 TikTok will probably follow in.
 I mean, it's all video.
 So you'll start to see this.
 I'm sure across there as they build out their ad platform.
 And you know, it's just another way for influencers and curation of things.
 You know, it's another lever for brand to leverage with influencers and even their own stuff.
 And it feels like it was just a matter of win and not.
 Exactly. Yeah, no, I agree.
 And your point about the seamlessness of it, I mean, there have been products that I've bought before.
 Saw on Instagram, purchased on Instagram.
 You know what I mean? And it was just an absolutely seamless transaction.
 And I didn't leave and then go to like another app or anything and then purchase it from there.
 So I think that's smart.
 And I think big brands are doing this.
 But if I cancel like small to be the business owners that might be listening to this, make it easy for your customers to leverage your content into purchase.
 So that can mean everything from B to B to B to C, whether you're selling blue jeans or internet service.
 It's create a frictionless experience from content to purchase.
 And that's what this is getting down.
 It may be video, it may be these things.
 But I think it is a more macro of removing friction from content to sale.
 And every business can learn from that.
 Absolutely.
 And then this kind of, I guess, even this all flows together so nicely today.
 I love this last one.
 So I'm sure we've all seen the viral video that's gone on TikTok of the man skating on his skateboard, listening to dreams, and he's drinking his cranberry juice.
 Ocean spray.
 This was so smart on their part.
 God, I'm hard on this too.
 I bought him a new truck.
 And also, I just think that's sweet.
 But I mean, this is, I think, a business appropriately responding to the viral nature of a product.
 And I just think this is really smart.
 I think this is like the American way right here.
 Nothing encapsulates.
 Because I mean, I'm not saying you don't see this in Europe or the Middle East.
 I'm sure it happened that we don't see the news, but this just feels like an American story.
 American business story.
 And now it's like leveraging social media in the moment, hats off to Ocean spray.
 I'm sure I guarantee you they've had an uptick of sales.
 The song is an uptick.
 And that's back to this notion.
 I know everyone wants to get paid yesterday.
 But, and I know that it's a fine line with like rights management and things like this.
 But if you'll ride the wave of content, like when it's happened and not worry about like,
 well, all these people are posting the song and not using rights management.
 It's like, you know, as an agency, we told over that sometimes.
 You know, we're not trying to rip off someone, but we want to make it better.
 We're trying to leverage the song.
 And either are commercial rights, and I'm not saying they shouldn't get it, but like letting this slide, the Fleetwood Mac, you know,
 let's, this song hits like Spotify's top five.
 And I don't know what the royalties are on that.
 I'm sure it's hundreds of thousands, something down the line.
 More than they would have gotten for one play as an ad in a television spot.
 Oh, for sure.
 And especially the awareness.
 I'm humming it all the, I'm in the office.
 Yeah.
 Exactly.
 And so you leverage that.
 Ocean spray was big.
 And then I think, you know, all shoots, we, we did this for a client.
 We, we have a burger boy.
 Or burger guy or the hamburger, you know, for a smaller LTO burger, which is a brand that we work with here in Greenville.
 Really cool brand.
 And we're doing some fun stuff.
 They're letting us have a lot of fun.
 And we've got a guy that dresses up like a burger.
 He's been going around town and Josh is awesome.
 He works on our team.
 And you know, he got on his skateboard and rode around and we did some fun stuff with that.
 I know it's gotten a lot of views on their stuff.
 Yeah.
 You know, sometimes you just piggyback and get on, on the ride of something that's culturally relevant.
 And I definitely recommend brands to do that.
 Exactly.
 In a lot of halves, you've seen it kind of everywhere.
 Almost like the fly last night from the, oh my god.
 The president, the vice president.
 Yeah.
 Plus his heart.
 Good, battered, different.
 I know.
 Honestly, for a second, I was like, is there a fly on my TV?
 And then everyone.
 Everyone in America for a second thought that.
 But yeah, this is awesome.
 And, you know, the American Dream, you know, you're just drinking jr.
 Spraying.
 Do a TikTok.
 I love it.
 Next thing you know, you get a car.
 You get $10,000.
 Like it's gone.
 There's like a gun foot.
 Good for me or something.
 I got to think about that with, you know, coffee or something.
 But this is why every kid and every person is trying to get, you know, become the next star.
 This is what you, you know, what you dream of happening.
 And it's so organic like you, you don't know what's going to, because I've, you know, people have done, I'm not saying that it's
 this exact thing.
 But some kids somewhere has done something clever today with, you know, big pins, you know, like, or whatever.
 And it never gets seen.
 I don't, there's like this magical formula sometimes with this content that, that spikes off and it's great.
 Yeah.
 No, that's it for us this week.
 And then stay tuned for Tuesday for our just e-commerce kind of recap.
 What's going on?
 Cool.
 That's all for us this week.
 We'll see you next time on the Radcast.
 Have a great weekend.
 To listen to full episodes or to contact us, visit us on the web at theradcast.com.
 Or follow our host, Ad Ryan offered on Instagram.
 Thanks for tuning in.
 you