News Update: Empathy in marketing; Walmart's new Black Friday sale; #SendNoods; Halloween's impact on candy companies

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 If you're listening to the latest Radcast news update
 Here's Ryan and Riley
 Hey guys, what's up? It's Ryan allford and Riley Clark. Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast
 It's our weekly news update here in the second week of October. I think officially October 15th. We're in the middle of October
 Moving my fast like we said before and so we've got quite a few updates, but what's what's up Riley?
 You know just hanging out this week
 Again just lots of I mean it sounds chill, but I feel like we've been very busy
 There's a lot going on. We have a recording later today for our episodes coming out on Tuesday. So that's exciting
 And then as far as just things that are going on around here
 Where you are having a new launch of some merchandise that we one of our stores, you know, we're doing here
 Just you know practicing what we're preaching a commerce series we're getting that expanded a little bit
 So that's exciting. Yeah, the commerce series has been good. I enjoyed our episode on
 Release Tuesday
 You need to talk about our perspective a little bit more and that was good. Get some good feedback on that. Yeah, but it's been good like
 It you know on a personal note
 We're in the middle of baseball in soccer season. Oh, yeah, my four-year-old who's been playing soccer
 scored three goals in his scrimmage last night
 And two weeks ago, he was crying and wouldn't go on the field. So we love progress now
 Playing and playing well
 That's so excited about that. Yeah, for sure. You know, he would run over and give me high-fives
 So you just encourage it at that point
 Hey, we all needed we were we were we had like run out of offers. It was like okay. We'll give you some candy
 Okay, we'll give you a remote control car
 Will you buy me a full-size grave digger remote control? Okay. Yes, whatever it takes
 Just keep going buddy
 Now he likes it. That's so cute. That's so cute. Have you got that happy about
 Clemson kind of wearing out the uh the Hurricanes. Oh good. Yeah downgraded to a tropical depression
 That I'm filling headlines from one of the
 That's hilarious. That's where I love that that's where it was not even a contest
 You know the number one Tigers staying number one. So right right right now
 Full for wv this weekend. We had a biweek last week. So um or we were off last week
 But I'm excited for this weekly play Kansas. Yeah, and I am excited. I know you mentioned the Merchant nice stuff
 It is our way we run a a Merchant nice store t-shirts and sweatshirts and stuff like that. It's been local based um
 Yeah around kind of this notion of the local hustle
 But we're expanding it and there'll be some more news on that
 But we kind of use it as a platform
 One we do some things giving back locally but
 Also as a way for us to live breathe and run right at e-commerce stores since we do that for clients
 It's a great way for us to learn and test certain things that we might use for clients
 And a lot less pressure environment for us
 And so it's been good. We've had great response. We designed all the stuff in-house right and run the store. So excited about the
 The change or the pivot in some of the things that we're going to be doing some of the messaging and stuff some more news on that but
 For sure. It's been fun
 getting to
 Have a vested interest in
 And it not that you don't have it in your client stuff
 But like when you're like you have to run it yourself every day you it puts you in your the shoes of your clients too
 And so it's been a great practice for us and
 more news on that
 Is the red cast news
 We have a couple headlines this week one of the ones we'll get to is bringing empathy into marketing
 And this is a strategy more businesses should be using for a lot of reasons
 But first why do you think it's something that businesses should start be like way more mindful of versus just
 Cell cell cell cell cell
 As much as people try
 When the COVID first hit yeah, it was like every commercial was kind of the same
 It was like we know how you feel
 And it's so sad and things are you know the very depressing music and all that
 Finally, we got out of that which that was brands trying to be like what I'd call foe empathetic
 um, and now
 You're seeing more of it as it relates to just the reality of the times and you know this this article calls out one guy
 It's called the market to market toonist
 That's him a archie KET OO in IST market toonist. He's a cartoonist that writes
 um
 In the marketing space, but kind of does it through the lens of empathy for marketers and brands and things like that
 It's they're hilarious like you know, he it's all tongue and cheek and
 But it it it highlights the reality that if you can you actually if you start from a place of empathy
 It actually might allow you to introduce humor into your marketing right which always plays well
 And so and now I think we've transitioned to
 You know like it's always that it's just too soon too soon to laugh, you know
 Like but I think we're at this stage where people need to laugh
 They need to lighten up and it's like how can
 empathy now is
 Making things lighter for people in your messaging and
 realizing that you're not
 diminishing the impact and which has been great right but it is certain point
 We all need to release Valve, you know from the and I think that's the biggest thing going on now between the election and between
 Covid everything else everything is just so hypercharged
 I think the brands that can figure out how to leverage
 empathy understand the moment transitioning into humor
 Can really start to break through with their messaging and not just be pandering
 To oh, you know, we know you times are tough, you know, and all that's true
 It is true, but there's it doesn't come across as real right and so like I'm gonna read one of these marks
 Sure, so as a business guy talking to his boss like at a brand that said or are like the message that they were gonna put on the recording on their their dial in line
 Okay, says due to Covid whole times maybe long our selection may be limited our fees may be excessive orders may be delayed
 Our service may be bad and then his boss is a woman and she she there's a picture of her she goes
 Wasn't that all true before Covid as well
 We're all in this together
 I love that it's like, you know good for him. Yeah, no, I mean that makes fun of you know brands and companies and the discusses that they're having and like
 All right
 You need to do better real for Covid and anyway, it shouldn't be necessarily an excuse
 Like, you know that kind of route which that's actually really funny and the other one is
 There's all these marketers sitting around a boardroom table
 And a woman goes our consumers drive a VMW
 They like John mayor they watch those arc they love rescue dogs and they hate
 Having their personal data used for psychographic profiling and another one at the end of table
 Well, but what model of votes like and do they drive
 The notion that marketers aren't really listening to the fact that they don't want to be
 Psychographically profiled but uh exactly and then the uh the guy in the table just goes in one ear and out the other
 Exactly, that's funny. Now that is funny
 Markatunus.com I go check it out and not definitely deploy empathy and humor and marketing and you'll win
 I think this is a great segue actually to another article um another headline we have for this week the um
 I don't necessarily know that this went great for them personally
 But crafts um send nudes can be
 This is hilarious. I think this is hilarious because my opinion on this is like
 Regardless of all these angry moms that are like you're sexualizing macaroni and cheese like my thing is is
 The audience for macaroni and cheese is bigger than just children
 It's also college students and it's also like other like older people and it I don't it's not just kids
 You know, and so this was hilarious to me like I feel like this was absolutely
 You know in these strange times people are in need of extra comfort. This is exactly what they're their CMO
 I'd said and it's just like you know
 This is a nice way to just let people know you're thinking about them. Send them a box of mac and cheese like
 National noodle day. I know
 Like send nudes. I think it's hilarious
 I this is like pee this is
 The overkill of the politically correct environment. We're in it. Don't give me wrong. I have children. I don't want
 I'm not the child trafficking and all I get it it's sensitive and all this
 But if we just if we can't have fun with things a little bit
 Um
 It's just this is like cancel culture 101 for me and I'm sure someone's gonna message me and go, you know, it's serious stuff and I it is serious stuff
 but we have to sort of be able to
 There's no delineation anymore of okay. This is humor. It's for humor sake and
 But there's serious things going on
 So let's just let's all let's take everything really serious and
 You know, I get there's some people that that that's there, you know, how they cope or whatever that's their personalities
 And that's totally fine
 But I also feel like there are a lot of people that this is just funny
 Like I don't know. I feel like this is actually way more harmless than it was coming across and for them to have done it on national noodle day
 It's still in the middle of a pandemic
 Send nudes someone feels better box of mac and cheese. I don't know. I feel like a missed opportunity
 They say no, you know, no no press is bad press. So, you know, I don't know how they're viewing it
 That's true, but I thought it was brilliant and
 I think that uh, you know
 Again back to breaking through in a COVID environment with everyone's
 Doing a lot of the types of the same stuff and you know craft you know, it was brave enough to
 To to run a campaign like this
 You know, and I can't pretend to know, you know, if you're the CEO of craft or, you know, whatever level this raised up to
 You know, the pressure that might have come and you know, not only to alienate some level
 But good reef
 What a what a what a buzzkill for great promo. I guess it depends on a few days, but I know I think it's hilarious
 You know
 I don't know
 Hashtags and nudes
 SC&D
 N-O-O-D-S
 Noodles, nudes. Let's get this trending. I know I know I know we'll bring it back
 In terms of holiday stuff these last two articles about black Friday sales
 Then obviously about Halloween, but Walmart. I think this is really interesting tactic
 They're doing
 Black Friday sales, but they're doing three different types of
 Sales um it's starting online and then the sale will be on in the store a few days later
 What do you think like what is your initial takeaway from that kind of strategy?
 Obviously, there are huge companies, so it's different than a small business doing something like this, but
 I think you've got a few things to play here
 You know like as much as I don't like for episodes to be to say the word COVID 27 times, but I'm gonna say it number 28
 You have look
 It's probably not a good idea for 10,000 people to be in the store at the same time, right?
 So it makes a ton of sense to split it up these these retailers whether they're Walmart or
 mom and pop brick and mortar
 rely on black for I mean
 This is it's called black Friday because it's when most retailers get in the black
 They start to actually have a a year that that makes money and some
 The big guys are having great years. They got into black a lot longer a lot longer a lot earlier in the year
 The mom pops are strongly still, but this is all about how do you how do you split up your traffic especially at stores
 They still want to get in store business. They still need that
 And how do you how do you accommodate a pandemic is going on and you don't want 10,000 people on top of each other
 And you've got crowd control
 So how do you split this up and look you've got the trend of online already there and so it makes a ton of sense because you've already have
 um
 Cyber Monday is kind of become its own thing right after black Friday, and so this is a way just to
 Again get started a little bit earlier maybe break up the crowds a bit both online and in store
 It makes sense. I think what you're going to see other retailers fall Walmart, you know being a leader in in the space
 You're going to see other retailers and other stores do the same things
 Unfortunately, I think the mom and pops
 Yeah, they're gonna struggle even more. I think you're in this period the ones that don't have any commerce strategy
 If you're only a brick and mortar and you're trying to make hay for black Friday this year
 It's gonna be a rough year
 You just not because you're still gonna have some amount of social distancing
 Not gonna have the traffic all in the stores that you do before right
 She got the limit how many people can come into the store you needed to
 If you haven't already you need to start your e-commerce strategy or be building it or find ways
 You know the one other tip that I might would give was find ways to leverage
 store pickup or
 Good point even if you don't have an e-commerce store setup right have
 Extra people on the phones that week and have a outside cart setup where you'll hey call they can call you can call the store and and put
 Blast it on your social media channels. You know if you're looking for a product, you know, we'll concierge this for you
 You know, and so how can you up that if you have an e-commerce store then you just need to leverage that you
 buy a mod pickup and store
 Or if you're local
 Just you got to find ways to kind of concierge it and
 Find ways to remove friction that COVID is applying all this is more friction to buying process
 That's another layer and so what Walmart's done is they're trying to remove that friction. They're trying to
 Spread it out over time the sales versus all on that one day or the winter the Thursday Wednesday and Thursday of
 Cuz I don't even think they're gonna be open a lot of these retailers are are
 Canceling the Thanksgiving day opening. Yeah, so just truly going back to black Friday, which I commend
 Drives me crazy that the people that take half the right there Thanksgiving with family and they were worried about getting to best buyer
 I know I know I know that transition of giving and getting flips so quickly
 But yeah, the last article kind of goes into this a little bit
 I know a lot of candy companies are kind of like you know, what's about to happen with Halloween
 um
 The new normal challenges, you know versus the old way of doing, you know, Halloween like this is something that a lot of companies are you know concerned about
 Um a lot of people don't know if they're even gonna meet that you know initial
 Target that they always hit every year for Halloween
 uh, you know because a lot of the other thing is
 People could be celebrating in a very different way that actually might require more candy
 You know or everyone's like uh, no, we're just not gonna do Halloween this year at all
 And then it's just no candy, you know, no nothing with no one's buying anything. Yeah
 Candy sales had been up in general. It goes to probably, you know, none of the surprises
 All the three candy, you know, we've all been stuck at home
 or a lot of us and
 The candy sales are up and food sales are up, you know, no no no kidding
 Yeah, so our elastic pants
 Elastic pants and somehow pull a ton and a bike
 Exactly
 You can't outwork the diet, but I'll tell you that from personal experience
 nonetheless
 They've been producing it sounds like more candy with they're actually less Halloween or less seasonal
 In hopes that of having a longer shelf life and which makes sense. They've been preparing for this
 But it'll be interesting to see uh, where the sales numbers come out at because you know
 It's just not a good idea. Kids aren't I don't know what the percent's gonna be that number one
 Most of the house is probably earning an allotted for the kids that aren't doing it. I know they're they're
 I don't know if anyone's come out and said that Halloween's officially canceled per se I feel like neighborhoods
 Because you know, they're gonna have things anymore. They're probably gonna send out like you know alerts
 You know those kinds of things that are saying all probably limited Halloween or you know, you're probably not gonna see cars parked miles down
 You know the
 Neighborhoods
 Um, but no, I think it'll be interesting. I think what's interesting that that's happening here is all of these brands
 Evening the last news that we talked about with Walmart. Mm-hmm
 It's forcing an agility and a rethink for these brands for how to to market smarter how to package smarter how to
 Navigate and execute and I don't I think that's gonna serve these brands well down the road
 Because you know, it's as much as we like to think things change quickly
 Some things don't and they've relied on Halloween forever for certain percentages of their sales
 So if they can maximize in a pandemic in a in a season that may or may not happen the traditional trick-or-treat season
 It
 It's gonna kind of put a metal of honor on them a little bit of navigating through this
 We'll see how many presidents and CMOs make it through
 This it's some of these large retailers
 The uncertainty is I think the uncertainty and everything is what's killing everyone you know mentally
 You know like the unknown and what's the other shoe gonna drop what and all those things right and so
 We're not even knowing if a new strategy is actually gonna work
 Or you know if it's gonna have the effect they want it to have before Halloween which is in two weeks
 Yeah, yeah, and
 I'd be interesting to see the online sales of candy like after all this is said dead for the season
 are more you know, you see
 Less people going to the stores more people buying online in on any other category
 I'll be interested to watch the numbers on candy over the Halloween sales if it if it is in fact
 Falls in that same vein. I imagine it does on some level
 But there's gonna be an impact. They're not there will be some kind of decline
 There has to be absolutely when 300 million kids aren't trick-or-treating
 You know, or how many ever million that will change things
 That will try not the entire population of the US, but
 Right
 Though I have seen some of the trick-or-treaters in our in our neighborhood are look like grown men so
 You know maybe it is
 That could be teenagers up big these days. I know I know I know we'll definitely follow up in a couple weeks
 To see how that plays out, but that's our news for this week
 And then an episode release on Tuesday at noon eastern time and yeah, great
 We appreciate everyone listening you can follow along at the radcast.com and we'll talk to you next time. See you next time
 To listen to full episodes or to contact us visit us on the web at the radcast.com
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