Matt Farrar  00:00

Korean sensation BTS breaks the internet again. So if you’re ARMY, you’re in the right place. And if you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about, you’re also in the right place, because we will explain it to you on today’s episode. We’re also going to talk about Apple’s WWDC, which is happening right now. So we’ll give you the latest in what’s going on with Apple and the tech world. We’re going to talk about a newsletter that is now going to be funded by NFTs. It looks like we’re going to talk about Pokemon specifically at Charizard card I see on there. We’re going to talk about nostalgia and retro coolers. Yeah, retro coolers, retro art, and just the the wave of peak… [and intern Gen Z Nick is in] yeah, overtaking the internet. So this… is the podcast Of Record.

OPENING CREDITS

Of Record is a podcast focused on the marketing and advertising industry from the perspective of two industry experts. Hosts Matt Farrar and Joe Clements are co-founders of Strategic Digital Services, a digital marketing firm based in Tallahassee, Florida, and founded in 2014. by Matt Farrar, I’m Joe Clements and I’m Rebecca Romero. And this… is the podcast Of Record.

Matt Farrar  01:33

Hello, listeners. Welcome to the podcast Of Record. I’m Matt, we’ve got Joe and Rebecca, Producer Alex and Producer Nick in the studio with us today. Welcome.

Joe Clements  01:41

What if you can’t hear them say hi back. I don’t know why we welcome them.

Matt Farrar  01:45

Why,

Joe Clements  01:46

what? Why can’t we hear them?

Matt Farrar  01:47

It’s not a question. I mean, welcome is not a question, why does it matter if they say hi back?

Joe Clements  01:52

So what am I not going to care about tomorrow at WWDC, you want to give a preview there.

Matt Farrar  01:59

So I actually don’t know what’s been rolled out today yet. So yesterday, what they did preview was some of the new operating systems, Monterey is going to be the new continuing the coastal California is going to be the new operating system for computers, they’re extending, I think the biggest feature out of that is they’re extending the concept where you use your iPad, and I think your phone as an alternative to displays for your Mac. So now beyond just being able to use your iPad as as a display, for your mac book or your iMac, you are going to be able to actually drag and drop files with your mouse from device to device. So it’s going to seamlessly work a little bit more, it’s not just going to be basically another monitor, you’re going to be able to move things seamlessly, with a single mouse from one device to the other. So the environments going to love work a little bit more, you know, in tune with iOS and Mac OS together, which of course is what they’ve been trying to do for a long time. Do

Joe Clements  03:01

you think there’s gonna be any of this AR stuff?

Matt Farrar  03:03

They’ve been working on the AR stuff for a long time. I mean, we see it get incrementally better with each generation. I do not expect to see any like, wow, features on the AR side come out? Yes. I think when they finally get to a wow AR feature, it is going to get its own event.

Joe Clements  03:20

I don’t think there’ll be first in the market. I don’t think they’re waiting for they’re waiting for someone else to launch something that’s marketable to consumers. And then once that’s a little buggy and janky, they’ll come in with a cleaner product based on what they learned from it. I think that’s fair. Another Apple story is the App Store fees. And of course Alex and I have been doing this and the essay reading that we’re doing from Matthew balls essay on Apple on the future internet. We will be finishing up Part Six of that this week. So look for that to post in the next few days. But I think Facebook has finally found its little dagger to slip under the armor of Apple on this. Of course apple and Facebook have been at odds over privacy, specifically data reporting back from apps to advertisers. So what’s happened is Facebook has announced has all the hubbub between Apple over the Epic Games dispute for billing inside the app store. Facebook has said it’s going to keep online events, fan subscriptions, badges and upcoming Independent News products free to creators until 2023. And they’re saying that when they do it will be less than the 30% apple and others take and that is a quote from Zuckerberg directly. The other tech companies are I think reading the tea leaves on what Apple is about to get hammered with whether it is directly through this lawsuit, or over the next few years through regulation or through Congress is Microsoft recently cut to 12% the commission it takes on PC games, so Through the Windows app store. Roblox says it would cut fees if Apple reduced their fees. And they’re expected to be part of potentially some additional announcements from Google in the near future on Google Play Store fees.

Matt Farrar  05:17

Speaking of Google, one thing that did come out of WWDC is that Apple announced that FaceTime apps are coming to other stores. So you’re gonna be able to get a FaceTime app for the Android store. So

Joe Clements  05:29

that will make communicating with my parents so much easier. Yeah, cuz I have to use Google duo.

Matt Farrar  05:35

Yep. And there’s a lot of people that it will make life a little bit easier for especially people with young children. So I don’t know that there is a timeline yet for those other apps. But

Joe Clements  05:45

you know what, Matt, this is interesting, because this ties back to the discussion we were having about should Apple buy Snapchat? Yeah, because Snapchat was not criticizing Apple over actually, or expressly would

Matt Farrar  05:55

have been an interesting way for them to wrap in communications. And they might still

Joe Clements  05:59

be, in fact, moving this to the phone, maybe or moving this to other app stores may be the early way that they are pushing into making that Snapchat do happen. My guess that I don’t think they’re going to announce it this way. Yeah.

Matt Farrar  06:11

I mean, my guess would be they would have waited to announce it until that deal was done, right? They wouldn’t have called it FaceTime, they would have called it something else. But who knows? Well, have they actually rolled out the app yet? So I mean, what they announced yesterday was that, like, it’s coming in iOS 15. And it’s called FaceTime, right? Like, it’s, it’s called FaceTime, there’s going to be a FaceTime branded app that comes out for Android and other platforms.

Joe Clements  06:33

So I think that’s definitely something to look for. is an apple acquisition on improving the messenger FaceTime?

Matt Farrar  06:39

They did. I don’t Yeah, they did announce some, some additional features for messages, but nothing that, you know, got me particularly impressed.

Rebecca Romero  06:47

So it would come out on iOS 15. But it would be made available, like would they launch it at the same time? I think,

Matt Farrar  06:54

yeah, that would be my guess, is when iOS 15 rolls out, which is typically late fall, right would make it available for download. In theory, I don’t think they specifically said this is usually when they roll out, like the major concepts. And then in the fall, when we get the keynote for the new phone is usually when we get the details about how iOS 15 will roll out. And that’s when we would hear like, you know, the Android app is going on? That’s quite interesting. So I would expect a late fall rollout of the entire pasture Mike working neck, is it I think it’s got a good close? Do you think that the Android app will be free? Or do you think it’s gonna be I would expand on it? Yeah. Because that would essentially make people pay to use an apple service. And yeah, that would just be a bad.

Joe Clements  07:40

Here’s what I think this strategy is twofold. One is improving the experience of existing Apple users being able to communicate with non Apple users easier in their Apple products, which is annoying right now. One, two, making more Apple products where there may be in app features in app buying features available across platforms. So Apple can monetize on those. This was the iTunes model. Yeah, for a long time, iTunes did a lot more revenue off of Apple products than it did on Apple products, because they made iTunes available on PCs in the the early period of that products

Matt Farrar  08:18

were well, and they were just making money from people buying songs, you know, on all types of computers that were then getting transferred to their iPod, right? So they may not have an iPhone or any other Apple devices, but they had that iPod, and they needed to buy songs and get it on that device. Yeah, I think it’ll be interesting, too, because the Android platform doesn’t really have a standardized video chat app, right? You can use Google Hangouts. There’s a bunch of different apps you can use. And that’s one of the things people brag about.

Joe Clements  08:45

Apple buying Snapchat, Apple buying Snapchat makes a lot of sense.

Matt Farrar  08:49

Yeah, no, we talked about it previously. And I still I still hold true to that. Yeah, but there’s no standard app there. So if if FaceTime comes in and starts creating a really good experience for people, that’s not a bad thing for Apple to come in and be automatically the best player in androids like video chat space all of a sudden. So next story, Safeway, Google is still the best maps experience.

Joe Clements  09:17

Next story, independent journalist and author Kyle czajka. I think ch a YK, I think is Chico’s. How sed has funded two months of his daily entertainment and culture newsletter dirt using only NF T. He made 33,000 in one week selling 131 nF T’s he made over 20,000 in the first 24 hours. According to axios. This matters because it’s a proof of concept that NF T’s alone could fund a small media company.

Matt Farrar  09:45

What kind of NF T’s does he sell.

Joe Clements  09:47

So he was selling NF T’s as they would give you early access to the newsletter special access to members exclusive content access AOC is comparing this to the modern version of selling tote bags or coffee mugs to subscribers.

Matt Farrar  10:06

I think it’s illustrated hood. Yeah,

Joe Clements  10:09

I think where this is going is you would issue the NF t on behalf of your media property. And it would guarantee the owners of that NF T, a piece of revenues or profits once the once the crypto currency exchanges are built out on these systems. So as a creator, you could issue an NF T and when people buy it, they’re entitled to X percent of revenues that come in over that month or over the duration same, I think the same is gonna work for the podcast model as well. And for the social media model.

Rebecca Romero  10:41

So doing the math on that, that averages out to about $250 per NFT, I guess that he was distributing and made about 80 of those 131 sales in the first 2124 hours. This view, when I first read that I thought he was like purchasing like other NF T’s and reselling them. But this is just like his personal he wakes up from

Matt Farrar  11:06

his issues making imaginary things and selling them. He issued them off a platform 50 a piece that doesn’t seem as like when I read 33,000 a week, I was like what I mean, essentially that point, you’re just investing to be part of this community and your subscription,

Joe Clements  11:21

subscription fee model. Yeah, he worked with a platform called mirror in order to do the NFT issuance. But again, I think the future isn’t just selling the NFT as a piece of art, or for access almost as a ticket or subscription. It’s actually the NFT is what rides along with that well gives you gives you intellectual property rights over something or gives you a piece of the feed now what you have to have in place for that are consumption networks where your consumption isn’t subsidized by ad dollars, or by a, you know, an investor’s money subsidizing a centralized platform or something else. Yes, it has to happen in order to make it where your use of the platform is just as you’re on it, you’re taking off, you know, infinitesimal amounts of cryptocurrency that are going towards directly towards the constant content that you consume. That is what I think the future of internet 3.0 looks like. But that is the future. And today we’re going to spend the deep dive talking about about the past the past. A Nick, what do you know about the past? I know as much as my mom tells me, I mean, I pretty much see the past and retro culture as like being a very common thing nowadays, especially

Nick Sanchez  12:33

with Ted Talk. The 70s like bohemian, you know, hippie vibe is very, and no one really cares about the 80s at the moment, which is kind of weird. And then Nick, I

Matt Farrar  12:44

care about the 80s. Well, I mean, Nick, we have 80s Fridays.

Joe Clements  12:48

I mean, I think the 80s have become passe because the 80s were big for so long over the last 10 years and they’ve kind of passed Yeah, now we’re in the 90s

Matt Farrar  12:54

early 2000 kind of just came out of the 80s like Renaissance. Yeah, like we’ve been we’ve been in the 80s throwback culture right I mean, cuz like out of strangers thing or Stranger Things was it was an 83 Yeah, yeah. moved on

Rebecca Romero  13:09

a majority of like banned t shirts you see like vintage band tees or t shirt or all 80s so there’s it’s still

Matt Farrar  13:17

got their Do

Nick Sanchez  13:18

ya get a lot of girls nowadays are dressing up and they’re basing their outfits off of Bratz dolls, which is like a very early nine. Wait, why?

Joe Clements  13:25

was like late 90s. They’re basing their outfits Bratz doll rats. No. Yeah, like Tick Tock like miniskirts and I like to base my outfit off of Charles. They don’t wear clothes. They just have a little saying exactly what I said. He just confirmed he has a little gem as an emerald in my belly. But Brad’s that’s a funny, also terrifying. So how this came up is I was sent a YouTube video titled middle class millennial nostalgia are by youtuber YouTuber named jj macola. And the video is a it’s a smart video. It’s got some good cultural critiques in there, but he covers a few things he covers first this middle class, nostalgia art, which you may have seen on Instagram. There are some artists who do you know retro bedroom posters they do like anti war retro products. What are you so I’ll tell you my my younger brother has an interesting take on this now the YouTuber macola compares this to like Warhol. It’s like pop art. Yeah, my younger brother I think actually has a better comparison. And my younger brother says this isn’t what’s wrong here. I don’t know we should get him in. Yeah, he has takes. This is this is Thomas kincade for like 34 year old men Whoo. It’s it’s portraying and I highly stylized way a type of experience. or may not exist in

Matt Farrar  15:01

American culture.

Joe Clements  15:02

I ended. commercialized Yeah, like, um, you know, so I just had like, um, you know, but there’s no you know, because I did not tell you. So, I just noticed I had a weird speech pattern there pointed out so no one’s judging you. It’s more than it should be the listeners May this is a semi professional operation, you won’t know a Philistine. Yeah. So the the Thomas kincade is it’s it’s overtly commercial. And most of the things being portrayed in these and producer Alex, can you put some links to this stuff? And, or at least that YouTube video are like it’s showing commercial products. It’s like old video games, posters of old movies, VHS tapes of old TV shows, things like that. So I wanted to get a thoughts around the table on why, like, why is this happening so hard now? And then once we talk about that, I want to talk about what a homerun job I think igloo is doing right now capitalizing on this. But let’s go around. Why, why now?

Rebecca Romero  16:06

Because people need something to be excited about. And people were excited about the 90s 90s were

Joe Clements  16:11

an exciting time. They’re also an optimistic time. Yeah. And people want optimism. And you know, the thing that’s known about the 90s, very bright colors, very bright colors, maximalist designs. They are, they are in almost contrast to the minimalism in the more muted colors that have been popular for the last 15 or 20 years in the United States.

Rebecca Romero  16:36

I also Okay, so you guys always say that I’m like, toxically, positive. positivity. Yes, my toxic positivity. But I’ve noticed. So if you look at 90s advertisements, like they, they invoke, like enthusiasm, and you like a goga, right, it’s like this intense like skateboarding commercial at the end a lens and a half pipe. Yeah. And they like grab a goga and they rip it open, and they’re eating and they’re really excited. And by the end of it, you’re like, man, go gurt sounds good. I almost feel like that. Or that bagel bites song. I feel like the more you’re like marketers and advertisers realize that like, removing enthusiasm from their creative works is like not proving to be as effective. And I think it’s like a an effort to try to, you know, mix it up and like do something new again.

Joe Clements  17:25

And there’s an interesting contrast here to like the the gravity of the marketing, which if you haven’t watched the new Bo Burnham special on Netflix, you should definitely watch. It’s a work of artistic genius, in a lot of ways, but he has a song making fun of cause based marketing. And so you know, there’s this idea that it’s like, well, what do you stand for? bagel bites? Yeah. But like for brands in response to that to be like, No, we don’t, you know, this is bright colors positivity. This isn’t like, you know, engagement and dire political issues as a means of selling.

Rebecca Romero  18:03

Yeah, licorice, but it made me realize like how much more effective like the 90s enthusiastic advertising was compared to other areas when I watched one division. So I don’t know how many of our listeners watched it. But every episode was like, filmed in a different, like decade. And they would have these little commercial inserts that were customed to the show. But I was actually forget that that was happening. And so as I’d be watching this commercial, I’d be like, Oh, this is like an interesting one. And I remember watching the 90s when I was like, Oh my god, this is so fun. Like, what are they advertising at the end? I was like, Oh, that was just the one division commercial. Like I forgot it. I don’t know. That’s what made me realize the standard part like Matt, did you end up watching Wanda Vision?

Matt Farrar  18:47

No, I have no other reason.

Joe Clements  18:48

The reason that is Rebecca is I think you have to have a time period. That is that is optimistic. And I think the 90s were optimistic. And then 911. And then 20 years of pessimism. But in the 90s, you could do it because the Cold War was over. The economy was improving, like everything in the United States was a forward looking country. Yeah. You know, it was gonna be the American Century.

Matt Farrar  19:20

And so you could do that. And part of me wonders. Now, if the 90s retro stuff isn’t a form of like ironic escapism. Like we’re embracing this optimistic. This optimism, I think it’s more than escapism. And here’s my take on why you’re seeing this wave of 90s nostalgia so I mean, what where we are right now is the the people that enjoy the people that are most comforted by the 90s nostalgia are going to be people that are mostly in Joe and I’s age range, right? You’re probably fall somewhere but remember it. Yeah, you probably fall somewhere between like 32 and 40. Well,

Joe Clements  19:59

let’s go Let’s go with this. How old was everybody in the room in September of 2001? Rebecca? Eight.

Matt Farrar  20:08

September 2001? I would have been fifteen.

Joe Clements  20:10

I was 16. I was seven months old, seven months old. Alex was three. So, um, you know, there’s there’s a piece of this, Matt, where like, we remember it. Yeah. So it makes sense that we think it’s cool.

Matt Farrar  20:25

Correct. And here’s why I think you’re seeing it.

Joe Clements  20:25

But why? Why do Alex and Nick think it’s cool?

Matt Farrar  20:26

There you go. So I think you’re seeing it everywhere right now. Because you’re seeing a power shift in like these mid to late 30s millennials are starting to take over as like managers and directors of companies that are able to influence the way things are being marketed. And this is a huge like comfort area to them, right, like seeing these things, whether it’s bringing back like Full House, or whether it’s seeing like posters in a bedroom, it’s comforting to them. Like as a society, we’ve started focusing on self comfort and self care. So like, the people that are now in control of what goes where, like, literally what gets shown on a screen, what gets placed in ads, what gets shown on television shows and movies, like who’s controlling that now, they want to see the things that bring them joy and comfort on the screen. But for people that never even experienced that originally, it’s the same reason why that a lot of people in our age range find joy and comfort in Beatles music that they didn’t grow up with, right like that is a bridge to your past because like your parents found that music comforting, or your grandparents, in some cases found that music comforting.

Joe Clements  21:40

It also has had some lasting artistic value.

Matt Farrar  21:43

It does. But like that culture connects you to your siblings, to your co workers to your friends. So like finding that culture interesting and that nostalgia interesting, even if it’s not what you grew up with specifically, is a culture bridge among people you spend a lot of time with, whether they’re connected to you by family, or whether they’re connected to you by work, or friends or relationships. And it’s a really powerful bridge that doesn’t get created by almost any other interaction in society.

Joe Clements  22:10

So you’re saying it’s become like an artifact of social cohesion as social cohesion around a nationality or around religion

Matt Farrar  22:20

We’ve decided for for hundreds of year [the only cohesion is now pop culture] we’ve decided for hundreds of years that memories from childhood bring us great comfort, right, that memories from when we were younger, bring us great comfort. And so now that we’re placing those into pop culture in places that we can see them that bring us comfort on a global scale, it’s natural for other people to want to join in on that, because they feel like they can get comfort from it too. Even if it’s not an experience, they directly shared in.

Joe Clements  22:47

So the ultimate expression of this, I think, would be [the same reason people got comfort from Stranger Things even if they didn’t grew up in the 80s] sure, but it was cool. I think the simpler expression this would be Christmas music and Christmas decoration like Christmas music is all basically pre 1960 like, you know, what you grew up with? So

Matt Farrar  23:03

you feel comfortable with it. Yeah.

Joe Clements  23:05

And expresses this idea of this time, you know,

Matt Farrar  23:09

yeah, like Bing Crosby was not a modern artist for any of us. But like, you still want to hear him croon out White Christmas every year. I mean, like, Nick, Alex,

Joe Clements  23:19

is this something that is relevant in any way for Gen Z, other than, like, the the look is cool.

Nick Sanchez  23:30

I think like what you’re talking about, it connects us to our past. And I think like growing up listening to, you know, my mom’s and my aunts and all my family’s music from the 90s from the 80s. I feel connected to them. At the same time. There’s also this sense of like, I discovered something new, because a lot of people my age won’t necessarily know a lot of Destiny’s Child songs, you know, or artists, 90 songs. And when you’ve memorized their entire back catalogue, yeah, every single album, every single song, but I feel like I found something new. And I feel like I have some sense of ownership, because you get to rediscover

Matt Farrar  24:04

things right. And now instead of waiting for Destiny’s Child to drop a new album, 12 months from now, you get to go back and listen to a decade’s worth of catalogue that they developed, right? It’s the same way when you get to discover a show that has 15 seasons of content on Netflix, instead of waiting a year for season two to premiere of a new show. I mean, you get to just bask in all of that. And the 90s were a hugely optimistic time for I mean, especially in the US, like we came out of the we came out of the Gulf War, like we came out of the, the 80s. And like we, you know, Bill Clinton was president, like, we just, we just went for everything pretty aggressively. Like it was a bright and vibrant time. Like it was a bold, colorful time. And, you know, the same way that kids in the 90s and early 2000s, like wanted to wear the bell bottoms that their parents were wearing in the 70s like you’re seeing 20 years later. That’s Same resurgence. And so now you’re seeing like loose fitting jeans coming back, you’re seeing bell bottoms coming back, whether it’s fashion trends, music or anything else, you just see that cycle repeat itself.

Nick Sanchez  25:09

And I think I’m back from the pandemic, like we were all trapped in our houses for however long during lockdown, we were kind of stuck in this negative state of mind, like, when will this end stepping out of our homes and being like, oh, now it’s time to be positive. We don’t have to wear masks, you don’t have to, you know, be stressed out about this virus. I think the 90s mentality of happiness and like the aesthetic of you know, maximalist ik are and bright colors and stuff really fits in with our new heads over there new mindset that, you know, it’s a new period in time for us where we don’t have to worry about Yeah,

Matt Farrar  25:39

it went back to heavy escapism, for sure.

Rebecca Romero  25:42

And we’ll also if you follow people who are who are big into like, studying the stars, and you know, horoscopes, they were saying that the year 2021 was supposed to be, what was the term for it? We are entering like a new era, and it was gonna be Renaissance, like, so it’s almost like, I don’t know, if it’s like chicken or the egg, like, Are people feeling that way? Like growing into it? Because of, you know, expecting that? Or is that actually like, what’s happened,

Joe Clements  26:11

you’ve just been locked in your house for a year. So anything seems to be a better app than that.

Matt Farrar  26:16

Alright, one thing that’s interesting to me when we look at like the 80s, and 90s, that’s that so so different, particularly in like video games and movies, because their visual is how they create different experiences than they do today. Because we have the technology now to create such accurate visual representations of whatever world we’re trying to create, whether it’s Call of Duty, or whether it’s a photorealistic movie, right, we can create such accurate representations of whatever we’re trying to create, which is awesome, right? It makes photorealistic immersion, that’s a big part of some of this millennial art is like replicating like a 90s bedroom. But at the same time, I think in some cases, it kind of misses the point. Like it makes it real from a from an immersion perspective. But I think from an idealistic perspective, part of the attraction of this is the art and the cultural and the visual experiences from the 90s weren’t technologically savvy, right, like they were true escapism because they were eight bit or because they’re so fantasy, right? Like, they don’t want the intense detail. There was no realistic way to

Joe Clements  27:25

do two things. And then I like we need to move on to the igloo piece of this, that using this for execution of a marketing campaign. But like, one of the things that macola points out in this video is that the media of the time period was based on fantasy. And was it didn’t it didn’t own you, you weren’t immersed in it, it was something you would put the tape in the VCR. Yeah, play the tape. The other thing I think about the 80s and 90s is it’s the first time period where the material culture is rich enough to have enough things to draw from almost indefinitely. Because prior to the maybe the late set, remember the first blockbuster movie wasn’t until the mid 70s, late 70s. With jaws? Yeah. So you don’t have that rich variety of content where you have posters and video game and there’s multiple premiere hours happening. And multiple premiere. Yeah. So you only are getting that some point in the 80s through the night. Yeah,

Matt Farrar  28:21

that’s a good point.

Joe Clements  28:21

Um, so let’s talk about Igloo. So if you had asked me four years ago, what is a brand in the dumpster? igloo would have been one you would have said right in its category and coolers getting destroyed by YETI. Yeah, all of the like modern brand got totally high ended, right cooler. So they’re selling $20 coolers. And then YETI is like, no, we’re gonna sell a $900 cooler and people would much rather have the $900 cooler and pay for it. And so they’re sinking you kind of look at as this kind of like old washed up Walmart brand.

Matt Farrar  28:58

The thing you drink Gatorade out of at a soccer game.

Joe Clements  29:00

Yeah. So then, about three years ago, right? About three years ago, they did hire a new marketing director cmo who I think is probably responsible for this. They start worked out well.

Matt Farrar  29:14

What seems to have worked out very well.

Joe Clements  29:16

Yeah. They start to do influencer marketing on Instagram. And so how do we see that? middle class fancy? Put your crispy boys in your igloo cooler. And it’s almost making fun uncultured. A Crispy Boy is a Bud Lite. It is almost on its face a retro product. Yeah, putting it in that old Igloo cooler is a retro thing. It is cool because of its coolness.

Matt Farrar  29:42

And because they just didn’t change the design much from Yeah, yes, it was still it was still looks like it was

Rebecca Romero  29:49

exactly the same. And it was something that none of us had really thought much of until Middle Class B and C started promoting and we’re like, oh man, that’s fun. My dad used to like bring his lunch to work and Every single day and one of those I got Rebecca one for literally was my birthday present that your coach

Matt Farrar  30:04

brings brings. slices bro

Rebecca Romero  30:07

I got a six pack or Crispy Boys in an Igloo cooler literally yeah now three years later.

Joe Clements  30:13

It’s a it’s a popular thing. So that happens and then invalid this year in 2020 has best iconic now.

Matt Farrar  30:21

This is 2021.

Joe Clements  30:22

Are you sure? Yeah. 2021 igloo has been on an absolute branding tear. And what I think they’ve realized they’ve done this magic unlock on their product, is they figured out that they can use their product as a brand platform. Like they’re using their product as white bread into which you can build whatever sandwich you like with whatever toppings you like on to it. And so the the coolest thing I think they’ve done is the retro line that’s come out for the summer in which half the products are sold out. But it’s the old school, teal and purple and violet and blue electric blue colors. It is the quintessential 90s. And they’ve relaunched the fanny pack. The the igloo insulated fanny pack is back out. But they’ve added on to this. I mean, they have to at least be doing licensing licensing deals with 10 or 15 notable pieces of IP. So what do you see in there, Rebecca?

Rebecca Romero  31:20

For the IP or the IP? Oh, the IP we have our we have a Star Wars line. Yes, epically. So our 2d to the child, Darth Vader, and then in the Disney line, we have Mickey and Minnie we have some Donald Duck

Matt Farrar  31:34

cases one big deal with Disney.

Rebecca Romero  31:36

Yeah, but they’re no separately pieced out on the site when you look at the collab but they have other

Joe Clements  31:41

stuff. They call them cool labs. Yeah, they have Grateful Dead Scooby Doo Wonder Woman Hello Kitty NASCAR. A number of artists have signed on so they have like photographs on like, printed on the top of photographers series is what they’re calling. Yeah, photographer series.

Matt Farrar  31:58

So do they do custom ones yet? No, no, that’s what’s coming next. Yeah, the custom one that I load your own design one is what’s coming next. The Beatles that

Rebecca Romero  32:07

if you’re if you’re someone that can do that now just get into it before they Yeah, sir offering buy up your coolers and then offer a cup.

Matt Farrar  32:14

Yeah, I mean, but even that, like it’s it’s just not going to be the same as when now who offers the like, official.

Joe Clements  32:23

But I mean, they have some interesting ones that they have like a parks project sticker cooler, which is they printed all these Park stickers on it. And like Rebecca said, a bunch of so they’re doing some very interesting things. And the unimog kind

Matt Farrar  32:34

of collabs are big in the outdoor world, right. There’s a bunch of brands that do like specific versions for specific parks where the only thing different is it has like a sticker on it. But $5 like it’s $5 more on that $5 goes to the part and

Joe Clements  32:47

I think the powerful thing about this campaign for them is they get these other brands working to sell their products for them

Matt Farrar  32:54

and maybe even selling those products in other stores. Those coolers may all be getting sold in like Disney parks. They may be being sold in the Disney Store. Like we have no idea where those products are getting sold besides just the igloo online store. Yeah.

Joe Clements  33:07

And so they have been just I they must have been crazy busy over the last year doing IP deals for this stuff because there’s a ton of stuff on on the website now. Now to revive a brand brand Yeah. In the retro cooler. It looks like in the headline for the video or the header for the for the page for the retro they shot a video where they remade all of these like scenes from the 90s. And you see like people on a beach with those like Velcro mittens Kanga tennis ball, like some people at an arcade and 90s fashion another brand that I love that does this really well. And so this is not 90s retro, this is actually 70s but marine layer is another brand that catches the retro vibe and their marketing super well.

Matt Farrar  33:49

They use a 70s inspired look and feel they’re a San Francisco based brand, but all of their marketing stuff. They’re fairly new company. But I think they put out like a bounty on like 70s photos from around the San Francisco area because they have this huge library of these great like Polaroids from 70s era, like beach, San Francisco area, like people doing stuff out on the water. And so they use that in their marketing materials. And it just makes this really authentic like 70s air. And all of their brand is like these kind of like, like Nick would say comfort colors like Yeah, kind of like faded stripes. So it it’s very authentic for their brands. So another Go ahead, Nick,

Nick Sanchez  34:32

I think another brand that went through this type of growth as well, that was kind of down in the dumps was champion apparel was a Walmart brand just like a glue. People would buy cheap champions sweatshirts and sweatpants. And then the past, you know, three, four years, the hypebeast you know, the people that were supreme and where all those streetwear brands have taken up champion as one of their brands, and now they don’t target sell champion now. I’m not sure they did for a little while they did for a little while but so did Walmart. But I think now that they’re popular again, they’re being sold at stores like yeah, I don’t know champs perhaps? Or Dick’s I don’t know like, like bigger like remain Yeah, sporting goods stores not just like discounts. Yeah, you know,

Joe Clements  35:17

I mean, are there are there like marketers just walking through Walmart looking for like distressed brands and then going to pitch I mean,

Matt Farrar  35:26

I mean, there’s been a lot of opportunities in the last couple years if you can find the right niche for your product, right, like I think phila has seen a little bit of a resurgence in the last couple years. Case Swiss in the sneaker space and specifically has seen a good like surge in their products. Reebok has tried to I don’t know how successful it’s been for them.

Joe Clements  35:46

Here’s another thing I think igloo has done well, by the way for itself. Is that cooler market went really high end and really like hardcore, like boater hunter fisherman. Outdoors person. Yeah, igloo just went below that is just yard Barbie. Yeah. Yeah, this

Matt Farrar  36:07

is like,

Joe Clements  36:08

Look, they have a line for that outdoor stuff. But where they seem to be focused, it’s like, let’s just go, you know, middle class backyard.

Matt Farrar  36:16

Yeah, this is this is mom and kids go into the beach on a summer day. This is Dad, you know, flipping some burgers in the backyard, go

Nick Sanchez  36:24

walking over to the neighbor’s house. And it’s so much less intimidating because I see a Yeti cooler. And I’m like, that’s an expensive cooler. And you feel kind of weird being around it. Because who would spend $900 on a cooler? You know, but then you see an igloo? What’s the status symbol cooler? Which is kind of weird. Exactly. Yeah, who needs that? But it’s a flex, it is a flex, but to what like for what, you know, what are you gonna gain?

Matt Farrar  36:43

Alright, let’s wrap it up with so let’s finish real quick with some of the best like nostalgia marketing, at least tied up into a package that I’ve seen recently. And it was in the music industry, which is not really a place we see it very often. So let’s talk about BTS. Which, if you’re still not familiar with BTS, you haven’t been paying a lot of attention to the news.

Joe Clements  37:05

So they’re like the, I mean, they’re the biggest musical act in the world right now, by a long way, I

Matt Farrar  37:10

think Yeah. And they’ve kind of penetrated pretty much every part of pop culture, right? Because they’re on Jimmy Fallon and that McDonald’s meal they have a McDonald’s meal, right, like so. I mean, they’re they’re all over American pop culture. They’re certainly all over international pop culture. They are part of what is known as K-pop which is Korean pop. So there’s boy bands and girl bands and very much like what you think of as like 90s and early 2000s like boy bands, there’s there’s very heavy dance involved there. Seven of them. In this group, this is a boy band. So they released their new single. This is their second all-English single. Most of their songs are heavily in Korean, or you know, only have a few English words in them. Or sometimes they use other languages. But this is their second all-English songs; second, all-English song, and it broke YouTube records 24 hour doubt or 24-hour views record. Yep. When it came out. So Dynamite when it came out last year set a lot of records, as well. But they they blew this out of the water when it launched. Why it’s interesting to me is not necessarily that they broke YouTube records. That’s great. But BTS is interesting, because the band is not just a group of guys, first of all, the band is actually owned, it’s a publicly traded company, a company that is a publicly traded company, all of the band members have shares in the company and that is one of the ways they are compensated and they’re all multimillionaires as a result of that. So it’s not like they’re, you know, just slaves that are being like, forced to dance and you know, were being paid minimum wage [like the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC were] yeah heh. So I mean, like that, they’re, you know, they’re very nicely taken care of like they’re in this company, but, and this company has other acts and other things that they do. But this kind of creates this marketing machine out of Korea that then expands into countries all over the world. So the engineered the song, to kinda just be very pleasant to your ears. And so you hear in the first couple lines of the song, pop culture references from the early 90s. And so you hear things like pop like Trouble, right? And so if you were a kid in the 90s, you definitely played the board game Trouble and you will instantly think of like the little board game pop where the dice in the center of the board game pop, you hear things like smooth like a criminal, which is actually 80s but so you hear these little pop culture references woven and now if you look at the music video, they’re in a high school gymnasium they have on track suits that are gonna make you think the 90s.

Joe Clements  39:41

They’re doing like breakdancing like 90s music videos. The video is cut like a 90s boyband video,

Matt Farrar  39:47

Yep, there’s a couple of scenes, there’s outfit changes, color it is gonna make you think of an NSYNC video or a Backstreet Boys video from the 90s which

Joe Clements  39:56

I didn’t notice it when you first played it. Once you pointed out I was that’s exactly I knew it was a boy band because it’s a boy band. And that’s all of kind of the, just the subliminal references to the 90s and early 2000s.

Matt Farrar  40:10

And if you break the music down, you actually hear a lot of elements that sound like that. So one of the things they do that I think is super interesting from a marketing perspective that I don’t hear get talked about very often is after they release their tracks, about a week later, is they release, usually a separate record that has some remixes. And then this is an important part, they release the instrumental track of that song. TikTok? And this is the reason, well, so I mean, they don’t have to do it for TikTok, usually TikTok, you have the words in there because people are lip synching. The reason I think they released the instrumental track is for YouTube. I think they do it for YouTube, because people are actually going to seeing on YouTube, they’re going to play the instrumental track, and people are going to try to impress their friends by showing how well they can sing. And that’s how you end up with karaoke. You have like karaoke videos on YouTube. And so what happens with BTS is their fans call themselves the ARMY.

Joe Clements  41:06

They let they basically let memetic marketing do it for them [YOU GOT IT!]. So everybody’s participating and making the meme of the song which spreads the meme further. So people look into what is the source of the meme, you gotta find the video.

Matt Farrar  41:19

BTS uses their fans – in a in a good way, not like uses them – but like interacts with their fans, maybe better than any music group I’ve ever seen on the planet. The fans are called ARMY. They embrace that. And so actually, if you noticed in the music video, they mentioned ARMY at one point in the song which they don’t always do, and then the guys actually spelled out very subtly with their hand movements army at one point as a subtle nod to their face.

Joe Clements  41:45

So they’re putting it easter eggs, which is the ultimate like Comic Con nerd thing.

Matt Farrar  41:49

You can feed this fire with their fans who are just all over it. So they’re doing this stuff. A huge amount of their attention. This is why blew up on YouTube right? Because all of this is taking place on YouTube tik tok is great Instagram is great. All these other places are great. The eyeballs are going to YouTube. Are you why they broke the record?

Rebecca Romero  42:07

Are you in the ARMY?

Matt Farrar  42:09

I would not…

Joe Clements  42:10

Matt’s ARMY! Look at him…

Rebecca Romero  42:11

The only songs I’ve ever listened to are their two English songs, right?  I think you’re on your way to being in the ARMY.

Matt Farrar  42:17

I don’t think ARMY would consider me ARMY if I’ve never listened to anything but the English songs.

Rebecca Romero  42:21

You’re right! You’re right.

Joe Clements  42:22

You don’t know that, he may have a video

Rebecca Romero  42:24

he’d be a poser for right now.

Matt Farrar  42:26

I would feel like a poser in that scenario.

Joe Clements  42:29

I mean, so like my final question on this is coming out of a pandemic, maybe?

Matt Farrar  42:35

Here’s the other thing, they haven’t traveled, they haven’t left at all, Korea. They have not left Korea.

Joe Clements  42:39

So what I was just gonna tell you is this is the perfect like, this is why they’re the biggest act in the world. They knew this before. It’s like they didn’t need to tour in order to promote their music.

Matt Farrar  42:47

So they very clearly made a deal at the beginning of the pandemic that’s like, “Hey, we’re locking these guys down. We are not letting them leave the country until we feel it’s safe. But here’s what we’ll do. We will create the biggest-ass show that you’ve ever seen. For every single thing you want to put them on: Billboard Music Awards, Stephen Colbert, we don’t care. We will put a ridiculously produced show on. So every time you see them on a live show, it’s got pyrotechnics, it’s got green screen, it’s got crazy-ass production.

Joe Clements  43:15

Also, Matt, like people are spending 14 hours a day in media and online probably benefits an act like this, which is designed to be [100%]

Matt Farrar  43:23

100% I mean, they are making the right moves. Without a doubt.

Joe Clements  43:25

My last question on this like just psychologically is in theory, what you’d want to have is the society emerging from a disaster looking towards the future. The societies emerging from the disaster looking 25 years into the past. Like play this out another year and a half or so. Like if you’re skating to where the puck is going to be not where the puck is and by the way,

Matt Farrar  43:50

you’re able to go out on tour again. They’re going to obliterate every other band on the planet.

Joe Clements  43:55

I 100% agree but from a marketing perspective, what what do you need to be gearing up for an 18 months I think doing retro stuff this summer is going to be where it’s at. What what is it next summer? That that replaces over retro we’re looking back now like last summer was all about brand activism this summer is going to be all about like brand retro

Matt Farrar  44:16

For me the takeaway here is that even the the retro stuff right i think the retro stuff they went with in this particular video and the last video right Dynamite that came out in August well there I mean there that was a disco retro trend that was a disco inspired song like that had a very retro feel in the music video. But what I think is actually happening here is the the companies behind them and the marketing people behind them are playing off of the fans. I think that is actually the secret sauce that is different.

Joe Clements  44:45

So they’re just, they’re just going to watch the fans see what the fans are into at the time and then they will build

Matt Farrar  44:52

they’re doing a better job of seeing what the fans want and giving it to them than the teams behind other acts. That is the difference.

Joe Clements  44:59

So then the marketing takeaway there would be the marketing takeaway is watch

Matt Farrar  45:03

what your direct what’s going to be there and

Joe Clements  45:05

watch what they’re doing. And then go copy it. Yeah, yeah,

Matt Farrar  45:08

the the takeaway is you need to figure out what that is. In December,

Joe Clements  45:12

you just sit on the Reddit forums, figure out what they’re into.

Matt Farrar  45:15

You need to sit on the YouTube comments. Yeah, because they’re gonna tell you exactly what they want.

Joe Clements  45:19

How do you think that was being communicated? Like the retro stuff in this? I mean, there had a bit of deeper market research to pick that other than YouTube comments. Yeah,

Matt Farrar  45:29

I think it’s knowing the demographics of your audience and then seeing what else they’re doing and what they like, right? I mean, because part of it is you need to know what style these people have. Yeah, you know, the style leanings of the people that are making these comments and aggressively I can’t remember they have pink hair, and they like yeah, jeans and if they’re wearing Canadian tuxedos, like that gives you the look of your next music video.

Joe Clements  45:51

Yeah. Canadian tuxedos? Yeah. All right. Anything else? Rebecca, Nick

Rebecca Romero  45:56

denim on denim denim on denim. No, I’m just glad that we’re bringing back 90s

Joe Clements  46:02

for the summer at least. Yeah. Cue that LFO to take us out.

Matt Farrar  46:08

Smooth like butter. Awesome. Smooth like butter.

Joe Clements  46:14

Alright.

Rebecca Romero  46:15

Also, this may be my last podcast episode. Who knows?

Joe Clements  46:17

Yeah. Rebecca is extremely pregnant.

Matt Farrar  46:19

For a little while. I assumed that you were going to like, just Zoom in from your house with the baby.

Rebecca Romero  46:25

Oh, with the baby? Unless I can get a mute button for when the baby starts screaming…

Matt Farrar  46:29

you have a mute button right there. You can take it home with you.

Rebecca Romero  46:31

Okay, good idea.

Matt Farrar  46:32

Perfect. Alright, listeners we appreciate you tuning in today. As always, if you enjoyed the episode jump in your favorite podcast app of choice. Give us a rating or review helps more people discover the show and when more people discover the show that makes us happy. And producer Alex – it makes him happy, too. He’s got a shades on, because this future’s so bright. He’s ready to hit the stop button on his computer so he can get back to work and do productive stuff. Alright, listeners we’ll be back next week! Thanks for tuning in. Of Record is hosted and produced by me, Matt Farrar, Joe Clements, and Rebecca Romero, with producer Alex Reinhard. Of Record is recorded at Grey Bridge Studios in Tallahassee, Florida. This episode was edited by Alex Reinhard. Our theme music is composed and performed by Rob Gokee. Special thanks to our entire team at SDS here in Tallahassee. You can see more information about the show at our website: podcastofrecord.com. As always, we’d appreciate your reviews and ratings in your podcast app of choice. Those ratings and reviews help more people discover the show which helps us keep delivering quality content each week. Thanks for listening!