00:00:00
if I give the greatest speech of my life
00:00:02
in a forest and no one hears it what did
00:00:04
it actually do the ability for a video
00:00:06
to go viral as we sit in this conference
00:00:09
room right now is dramatically higher
00:00:11
than it's ever been in the history of
00:00:12
marketing how Brands grow in the '90s is
00:00:15
vulnerable in 2024 it's all rah rah rah
00:00:18
and fun and games but then if your
00:00:20
numbers are down you go back to tried
00:00:21
and true biggest conversation in
00:00:23
marketing going forward we can now
00:00:25
measure if the creative is good the
00:00:27
creative is the variable of this entire
00:00:29
conversation now the creative finds you
00:00:32
because the AI is that good we've put
00:00:34
Common Sense way back and we need to
00:00:36
bring Common Sense back into companies
00:00:38
thank you
00:00:41
guys attention is the number one asset I
00:00:45
choose optimism your old principles of
00:00:47
building Brands still stay true yes but
00:00:51
I think it's been the vulnerability of
00:00:52
the industry the last 30 years you know
00:00:55
us wanting everything to be matching
00:00:56
luggage and on brand based on our
00:00:59
subjective opinion
00:01:00
has made us incredibly not relevant but
00:01:03
I will say that how Brands grow written
00:01:06
in 1991 and some of the stuff you
00:01:08
learned in the 90s in college about
00:01:09
building Brands is vulnerable in 2024
00:01:13
because distribution's different
00:01:14
consumer behavior is different and so to
00:01:17
me uh incredibly optimistic about the
00:01:20
transformation that I think you're going
00:01:22
through definitely have been have been
00:01:25
burned by companies that are going
00:01:27
through transformation in my 15E your
00:01:30
career as an agency owner who's really
00:01:32
trying to do consumer Centric work not
00:01:34
corporate work in that you need a lot of
00:01:37
things to move to actually get this done
00:01:40
so you may feel it in an offsite like
00:01:42
this but then next
00:01:44
Thursday if you're making a decision
00:01:46
based on defense you become in trouble
00:01:49
and what I mean by that is it's all rah
00:01:51
rah rah and fun in games but then if
00:01:53
you're numbers are down the last 90 days
00:01:56
what I notice is that you go back to
00:01:57
tried and true which actually means
00:01:59
let's kill ourselves even
00:02:02
faster and so I've been through a lot of
00:02:05
Transformations with all the Fortune 500
00:02:07
cpgs because it's my favorite category
00:02:09
and everything gets going until it's a
00:02:11
bad quarter or something else happens
00:02:13
and then people go to fake math I mean
00:02:16
our entire current you know one of the
00:02:18
challenging things when I looked at
00:02:20
bullet point 3 Let's measure business
00:02:22
results well then let's bring back media
00:02:23
and creative Under One Roof I mean look
00:02:27
what's happened in our industry last 30
00:02:29
40 years media and creative us to sit
00:02:31
under one agency and we held them
00:02:33
accountable for our
00:02:34
business what we've done is we've
00:02:36
separated media and creative since the
00:02:38
90s and what that's done is made you
00:02:40
spend a lot of money on reports to
00:02:42
measure stuff for no reason we the
00:02:45
biggest elephant in the room is we've
00:02:46
put Common Sense way back and we need to
00:02:50
bring Common Sense back into
00:02:52
companies I appreciate that very much
00:02:54
you touched on a couple of these things
00:02:55
so I'm going to build on a few things
00:02:57
that that you said so you just released
00:03:00
yet yet another New York Times uh
00:03:02
bestselling book day trading attention
00:03:04
everyone's gonna get a copy of the of
00:03:06
the book by the way I highly recommend
00:03:07
it uh once once you do by the way just
00:03:11
as a side note I got an email from an
00:03:12
English teacher in high school so I am a
00:03:16
historical poor
00:03:18
student um Mrs horbath gave me four DS
00:03:22
sophomore year and 3DS and an F senior
00:03:25
year and in her email she said this was
00:03:29
an amazing email I haven't talked to her
00:03:30
in 30 years she said if you told me the
00:03:33
student in my history that would have
00:03:35
seven New York Times bestselling books
00:03:38
would be you I would have laughed you
00:03:40
out of the
00:03:42
room I I saved that email it's a good
00:03:47
one your books cover Ry topics this one
00:03:49
is more marketing Focus um and it
00:03:53
underscores how to build Brands and how
00:03:56
to grow sales we've had a lot of you
00:03:58
touched on uh how Brands grow we've had
00:04:00
a lot of exposure to Byron Shar and how
00:04:02
Brands grow um would you just share a
00:04:05
little bit more about the perspective
00:04:07
from the book and how what it takes to
00:04:10
actually and you guys will see it in the
00:04:13
book actually is underlined how to
00:04:15
actually grow
00:04:16
brands well look if I give the greatest
00:04:19
speech of my life in a forest and no one
00:04:21
hears it what did it actually do I think
00:04:24
the writing in theory or philosophy is a
00:04:28
great idea CU there's truth to that I
00:04:30
mean some of my favorite stuff to think
00:04:33
about is that but I think where we've
00:04:34
lost our way is an execution the way to
00:04:37
actually get a brand to grow is to win
00:04:40
on relevance at scale with as many
00:04:43
consumer segmentations as humanly
00:04:45
possible so that every person on Earth
00:04:47
buys your stuff that could conceivably
00:04:49
buy your stuff the only way to do that
00:04:52
is first to get the media to actually be
00:04:54
consumed when you are buying potential
00:04:57
reach like this company does at scale
00:05:00
versus actualized reach you're already
00:05:03
in a very vulnerable spot I own one of
00:05:06
the largest e-commerce wine businesses
00:05:07
in the country I know everything about
00:05:10
everybody I'm marketing
00:05:12
to but when the creative doesn't convert
00:05:15
you still lose the creative is the
00:05:18
variable of this entire
00:05:20
conversation even if you could Target
00:05:22
everybody everywhere if I knew every
00:05:23
single person that I was talking to and
00:05:25
everything about
00:05:26
you it still doesn't mean I'm going to
00:05:28
convert you your partners that all the
00:05:30
leverage don't convert all the time too
00:05:31
but when I say that here's what I mean I
00:05:33
mean that we all stink at marketing
00:05:35
because it's hard it is hard to make a
00:05:38
picture and a video or written words
00:05:40
that compel someone to switch over to
00:05:43
you or to buy your stuff when we're
00:05:46
convening with so many other things like
00:05:47
convenience or prior history or a
00:05:50
million other variables so you know for
00:05:53
me what I'm most passionate about is
00:05:55
mitigating the risk of creative what
00:05:58
companies do we start buying up fake
00:06:02
reports to justify our
00:06:04
creative right we used to do animatics
00:06:07
and things of that nature but you all
00:06:09
know this you're in real life the
00:06:11
decision on Creative is being made by
00:06:13
three or four or two of you subjectively
00:06:16
and then we buy reports that are
00:06:18
incredibly flawed to justify the
00:06:20
creative Effectiveness Meanwhile we're
00:06:23
all infatuated with talking about Ai and
00:06:25
the single most important AI in all of
00:06:28
marketing sits current in the seven
00:06:30
social networks Platforms in their
00:06:33
algorithms we are now living in a social
00:06:35
media world where the creative is
00:06:37
finding you not you follow someone like
00:06:39
I grew up with and you would get all
00:06:41
their stuff now the creative finds you
00:06:44
because the AI is that good all of
00:06:47
creative testing in all of Fortune 500
00:06:50
marketing should be happening in Native
00:06:52
social media creative ads because those
00:06:56
analytics and that data and that AI is
00:06:59
disproportionally the most powerful it's
00:07:01
also in the platform that's going to
00:07:03
actually reach the consumer you can get
00:07:05
unlimited Quant and qual information out
00:07:07
of just being good at doing day-to-day
00:07:10
advertising on social media and not only
00:07:13
is it disproportionally the best
00:07:14
creative testing but you're actually
00:07:17
getting the testing by actually doing
00:07:20
marketing you're literally getting a two
00:07:22
for one you're advertising for the sake
00:07:25
of better
00:07:27
advertising yet we prefer to be
00:07:29
corporate and what we are doing and the
00:07:32
Elephant in the industry is that we take
00:07:35
organic social media as something that's
00:07:38
a nice to have matching luggage number
00:07:41
16 on our list of importance to our big
00:07:43
campaign idea when it is
00:07:45
disproportionately the most important
00:07:47
place of consumer attention and the
00:07:50
mitigation of creative risk and once you
00:07:54
understand that then we can start to
00:07:57
compete thank you
00:08:02
guys I'm Luke I'm going to take this
00:08:05
moment because I I feel like I I want
00:08:06
all of you to hear this this is a
00:08:09
profoundly important
00:08:11
conversation because of our subjective
00:08:14
opinions of what social media is and our
00:08:16
deep misunderstanding of what's
00:08:18
happening there and because it's hard
00:08:21
for holding companies and independent
00:08:24
agencies to make a lot of money in it we
00:08:28
as Fortune 500 company have
00:08:30
disproportionately allowed startup
00:08:32
Brands to outflank us on the single most
00:08:34
important platform in marketing in the
00:08:36
world which is
00:08:39
organic social media
00:08:41
creative and what has happened is in the
00:08:43
last three to four years the platforms
00:08:45
have completely changed to a for you
00:08:48
page content finds you Dynamic built on
00:08:51
AI which is actually in our benefit
00:08:54
because we're getting to test the
00:08:55
creative in that environment but the
00:08:57
word test is banned at bner media
00:08:59
because to me it's not a test it's just
00:09:01
a good ad that I'm making for someone to
00:09:03
go to Target and buy my stuff that will
00:09:06
give me feedback Quant and qual to then
00:09:09
make better ads going forward and so you
00:09:11
have to go consumer up the funnel not
00:09:14
boardroom idea down to matching luggage
00:09:17
we are getting outflanked brands in this
00:09:19
portfolio are getting outflanked by
00:09:21
startup brands with a couple of million
00:09:23
dollars of VC funding because they are
00:09:25
winning in consumer Centric environments
00:09:28
and we are doing things in corporate
00:09:30
environments to appease our Retail
00:09:32
Partners who are taking all of our money
00:09:35
to private label us out and to appease
00:09:38
our reports that we pay a lot of money
00:09:40
for that are
00:09:45
fake all right you guys remember what
00:09:47
Mike was saying about the power of
00:09:48
constructive debate I think we are
00:09:51
serious that real
00:09:53
time the point well that is the point
00:09:56
the debate is starting to unravel for
00:09:58
the count
00:10:00
because now we have things like Prime
00:10:02
energy drink and Poppy and now we have
00:10:05
unlimited brands that people can talk to
00:10:07
do liquid death was started by a
00:10:09
creative director at Vayner media
00:10:11
started by day before Mike is working at
00:10:14
my company next day he's like Gary I'm
00:10:15
leaving to start a bottle water company
00:10:17
would you like to invest thank God my
00:10:20
mom created a kind human being so out of
00:10:23
Charity I'm like sure Mike I'll give you
00:10:25
10,000 bucks to get I'm G to make like
00:10:27
$30 million on this [ __ ] Luke
00:10:32
but he's executing the
00:10:35
model I don't understand there's nobody
00:10:37
here that is confused there's nobody
00:10:40
here that's that's the that was big you
00:10:41
know Luke that was the biggest eye
00:10:42
opener of being in this business I came
00:10:44
in thinking like I was smart I was like
00:10:47
these people don't get it you do get it
00:10:50
it's just I'm empathetic that it's hard
00:10:51
for you to change because the rules the
00:10:53
bonuses the way everything's measured
00:10:55
and how I get it people have mortgages
00:10:57
people have goals and dreams so we are
00:11:00
operating not on what we most believe
00:11:02
our money is spent on to drive sales
00:11:04
we're doing what is accepted within the
00:11:07
organization we must debate the internal
00:11:09
kpis we must debate what's actually
00:11:12
happening out
00:11:13
there because I know you see
00:11:15
it you're too smart you wouldn't be in a
00:11:18
soft site if you didn't see it let's
00:11:21
stay on this a little bit a little bit
00:11:23
long because in the book you also talks
00:11:24
about a mistake that many Fortune 500
00:11:28
companies made
00:11:30
is to bring the traditional mindset the
00:11:32
TV and print mindset into social which
00:11:36
forces brand guidelines into every
00:11:39
single piece of
00:11:41
content are you really interested in
00:11:44
sitting and debating for 31 minutes
00:11:46
about a color or a font on a individual
00:11:50
social media post like it's a Super Bowl
00:11:52
ad but we do it all day long Luke no I
00:11:55
believe it we do it all day long and
00:11:57
meanwhile if you understood
00:11:59
so I'm sure all of you do social
00:12:01
differently with different agenc however
00:12:03
are you do just please if you remember
00:12:05
anything from this talk please remember
00:12:07
this whatever thought you have
00:12:08
subjectively on that creative ask your
00:12:11
agency partner to make that as well as
00:12:13
let them post what they made for you and
00:12:15
then let the data educate you on
00:12:18
it we continue to debate in the
00:12:21
boardroom as if the internet doesn't
00:12:24
exist as if these social networks don't
00:12:26
have unlimited analytics I'm empathetic
00:12:29
you have so many other I mean half the
00:12:30
room is even in marketing so I'm
00:12:32
incredibly empathetic that even for the
00:12:34
people in marketing in this room they're
00:12:36
not so deep on these platforms that they
00:12:38
understand what these platforms provide
00:12:41
but my friends we are literally wasting
00:12:44
ungodly amounts of dollars in boardrooms
00:12:47
debating our opinions of what's on brand
00:12:50
versus taking advantage of the Quant and
00:12:52
qual signals of the modern distribution
00:12:57
platforms like my team asks me all the
00:12:59
time Nick will be like what do you think
00:13:00
about this I'm like I don't think uh
00:13:03
like meaning I've like I don't know what
00:13:05
to think I'm not interested in my
00:13:07
opinion about this 13-second video or
00:13:09
this picture what I think is have we
00:13:12
done best
00:13:13
practices to get the most amount of
00:13:15
people to see it what I think about is
00:13:18
the first second of the video what I
00:13:20
think about is the thumbnail what I
00:13:22
think about is the copy what I think
00:13:23
about is as I sit here right now as a
00:13:25
practitioner of The Craft of marketing
00:13:27
not as an executive of it that I know
00:13:30
that a 1C Loop reel is over indexing on
00:13:33
Instagram this nanc and for every brand
00:13:36
in this portfolio we would get hundreds
00:13:38
of thousands of people to see it versus
00:13:39
800 people I think about the craft not
00:13:43
in the way you were all taught which is
00:13:46
like it's got high production value and
00:13:48
the bougie creative director can romance
00:13:51
you to think it's good I mean the craft
00:13:53
of the biggest conversation in marketing
00:13:56
going forward which is we can now
00:13:58
measure if the creat is good it is
00:14:00
happening in the platforms not in some
00:14:03
SAS software that you paid a lot of
00:14:04
money
00:14:06
for
00:14:12
Luke well I would not prerm
00:14:17
or but can you talk a little bit then
00:14:20
about how you see in that context how do
00:14:23
you see the role of the brand identity
00:14:27
and understanding the brand what the
00:14:29
brand stands
00:14:31
for people are like Gary but you don't
00:14:33
get it we have like a brief or we have a
00:14:35
brand guideline like it's important I'm
00:14:37
like you know what else is important the
00:14:41
Constitution the Constitution is
00:14:43
important it's been written I don't know
00:14:45
if you've heard half of the country sees
00:14:47
it one way and half sees it the other
00:14:50
way so what do I think about the what
00:14:53
the brand stand for us who what what
00:14:56
brand positioning in this portfolio do
00:14:57
we want to talk about first of all all
00:14:59
all of your brand positioning all of it
00:15:01
is a vanilla sentence so you can do
00:15:04
anything by Nature every brand position
00:15:06
is very
00:15:08
wide empowering the everyday I won this
00:15:11
debate with Nick on a famous flight at
00:15:12
vayer media because I decided to ask my
00:15:15
12 Executives who deeply disagreed with
00:15:17
me that we T I decided to go for the
00:15:19
jugular and said let's talk about just
00:15:21
do it you guys like brand positioning
00:15:23
let's talk about just do it I go to them
00:15:26
you're not allowed to talk to each other
00:15:28
all of you take out your phone and I
00:15:29
want you to write yes or no in the notes
00:15:32
pad of the phone I'm about to ask you a
00:15:33
question and I said just do it does that
00:15:37
mean that that is Rel does just do it
00:15:40
stand for a student going hard at
00:15:42
Homework every week to become a
00:15:44
remarkable student reply yes or no Luke
00:15:48
can you guess how the 12 votes worked
00:15:51
out six six let's clap it up for Luke
00:15:54
[Applause]
00:15:59
position of course brand positioning
00:16:00
matters and comma no human on earth that
00:16:04
buys our stuff thinks about brand
00:16:06
positioning they think about
00:16:08
relevance we have lost our way on
00:16:12
Academia dictating our behavior and
00:16:15
gotten too far away of how humans work
00:16:18
the only thing that's going to save this
00:16:20
company or any other cpg from what is
00:16:25
just starting to really wake everyone up
00:16:27
which is this retail dyam damic is a
00:16:30
bigger deal than you think it's just
00:16:33
starting 30 years ago slotting fees were
00:16:36
small now they big shopper marketing's
00:16:38
budget has gotten much bigger retail
00:16:41
media what are you going to do when a
00:16:42
retailer represents 50% of your business
00:16:45
and they ask you for another $20 million
00:16:47
in retail media you're going to say
00:16:49
thank you very much we must build demand
00:16:54
to offset the toll booth the only way to
00:16:58
build demand
00:16:59
is relevance at scale so what do I think
00:17:03
about brand position I think it's
00:17:04
wonderful I also think the
00:17:05
interpretation of it is much more
00:17:08
fragmented than the ideology we hold
00:17:10
about it and so what I mean by that is
00:17:14
keep doing it knock yourself out but how
00:17:17
you actually execute ads to the
00:17:21
consumer is incredibly important it
00:17:23
starts with the stuff we talked about
00:17:24
earlier poish the setup yes you have to
00:17:26
get in front of people and have as much
00:17:28
information as you want but good news
00:17:30
your direct competitors will always have
00:17:32
the same ability to do the same all big
00:17:35
data and all AI at scale always become a
00:17:38
commodity what is not a commodity is an
00:17:42
operating system to outflank on creating
00:17:46
as many stories as possible that can
00:17:49
motivate someone to buy your thing that
00:17:53
requires very different creative at
00:17:56
scale because if I'm buying
00:17:59
or any like a Latina mom living in Texas
00:18:04
who's 28 making 150,000 a year is a very
00:18:08
different consumer than a 41-year-old
00:18:11
firsttime mother in Boston that loves
00:18:14
the Celtics making 41,000 a year and how
00:18:18
on Earth is the same video or picture
00:18:20
going to convert them both this is an
00:18:23
incredible misunderstanding of the power
00:18:26
of Social and why that need to be the
00:18:29
beginning of your marketing journey and
00:18:32
then you go up and then you do socially
00:18:34
informed campaigns campaigns that have
00:18:38
black and white Quant and qual data that
00:18:40
consumers actually care about the
00:18:42
creative and it's dictating their
00:18:44
behavior and then you decide how to
00:18:46
distribute it in places that are
00:18:48
actually being consumed versus
00:18:49
potentially being consumed it's why I
00:18:51
have always been a champion of Super
00:18:53
Bowl Super Bowl is the cheapest and
00:18:56
cheapest added marketing it's the most
00:18:59
expensive but for $8 million you get 130
00:19:03
million people to watch 30 seconds of a
00:19:05
video no matter how good you are at day
00:19:07
trading attention you will never pull
00:19:09
that off right now the problem is if the
00:19:11
creative isn't good you're
00:19:13
dead right and now you just wasted
00:19:16
25 so to me why I become infatuated Luke
00:19:20
with social is being able to mitigate
00:19:23
the risk of the creative I put in Super
00:19:25
Bowl by doing marketing all year is
00:19:28
exciting for me versus what as you know
00:19:30
everyone does which is they start with a
00:19:32
brief an agency comes up with an idea
00:19:34
and then you bet the farm on it at Super
00:19:37
Bowl and then you do matching luggage
00:19:39
the rest of the year we have it
00:19:43
backwards I appreciate that we're going
00:19:45
to open up for questions from the
00:19:47
audience in a second so folks uh please
00:19:51
uh you have them start start to get
00:19:53
ready I'm going to slide pivot one more
00:19:55
and then and then we'll open it up uh
00:19:57
slide pivot you talk a lot about
00:20:01
leadership and leading with empathy and
00:20:04
kindness yes uh you just talk for a
00:20:06
little bit about your your leadership
00:20:08
philosophy and and how you think it
00:20:10
better atal performance uh and actually
00:20:13
transformation weaponizing
00:20:17
fear as a
00:20:19
leader has
00:20:21
unfortunately had tremendous short-term
00:20:25
results and often does in a corporation
00:20:30
it just doesn't have long-term results
00:20:32
so I believe leadership styles are
00:20:35
really the story of the tortois in the
00:20:37
hair you have a lot of people that come
00:20:39
out the gun with like you got to hit
00:20:41
these numbers and so all that and
00:20:43
there's unfortunately so many people
00:20:45
that feel that fear is the right tactic
00:20:47
even when it's subtle and clever they
00:20:49
may not yell but it's just a simple
00:20:51
little comment of like if we don't hit
00:20:53
these numbers you know and I am
00:20:56
empathetic to that my father LED with
00:20:58
fear
00:20:59
um so I understand it I just think it's
00:21:02
incredibly the wrong way to go about it
00:21:05
I think it is uh uh the reason we
00:21:07
continue to do it politicians parents
00:21:10
think about your parenting you'd be
00:21:11
stunned if you recorded yourself for a
00:21:13
year
00:21:15
parenting I mean you you I love when
00:21:18
people in a corporate are like yeah yeah
00:21:20
screw fear and I'm like as a parent
00:21:21
they're like damn I'm straight pushing
00:21:24
fear really though no no baloney if you
00:21:27
really think right now what ever you're
00:21:28
dealing with with your children you'd be
00:21:30
shocked how 97% of your tactics are
00:21:33
fear-based I'm going to take your
00:21:36
phone like it's it's just a short-term
00:21:40
weapon but it but parents that parented
00:21:43
their children only with beer pay the
00:21:46
ramifications of that when the kids
00:21:48
become in their 20s 30s and 40s and the
00:21:50
same way about corporations it's not
00:21:52
sustainable and you'll do it but you're
00:21:55
you're going to you're I don't think
00:21:57
leaders that sell on Fe year realize
00:21:59
they're just getting seven out of 10
00:22:01
from people the only way to get 11 out
00:22:03
of 10 is
00:22:04
love period and unfortunately and I'm
00:22:08
sure especially with the political
00:22:09
situation in our country this is not
00:22:11
confusing to anybody given where Society
00:22:13
is Right This Minute like you know love
00:22:16
Windows tend to be smaller love is hard
00:22:20
you know
00:22:21
optimism is a much harder game to play
00:22:25
than
00:22:26
cynicism somebody said to me the other
00:22:27
day Gary I'm just keeping it real I'm
00:22:29
like real
00:22:32
negative you know in life my friends I
00:22:34
I'll just go very philosophical here is
00:22:36
the biggest thing I believe in and I for
00:22:38
a living basically watch people Behavior
00:22:41
which is why I'm early on stuff it's
00:22:42
just I see it early because I'm always
00:22:44
looking for it in life you find what
00:22:47
you're looking for if you want to be
00:22:49
upset I've got good news for you you can
00:22:51
open your phone and turn on your
00:22:52
television you can be upset
00:22:54
247 what people don't realize is if you
00:22:57
want to be happy you can't turn on your
00:22:59
television but you can turn on social
00:23:01
media and be very happy the algorithm is
00:23:04
exposing who you
00:23:05
are not forcing you to be someone and
00:23:09
that's a great misunderstanding I really
00:23:10
do believe both in society and in
00:23:12
marketing we have a very deep very naive
00:23:16
point of view on social and we also are
00:23:19
incredibly not
00:23:22
accountable humans and definitely human
00:23:25
Americans and definitely human Americans
00:23:26
that sit in this kind of room like
00:23:28
myself and all of you we've become
00:23:30
remarkably good at pointing fingers not
00:23:33
thumbs um I because I talk a lot about
00:23:36
social media get confronted I'm pumped I
00:23:39
didn't get it was so early in La this
00:23:40
morning but maybe on the way back now
00:23:42
Luke I'll give you a preview of my life
00:23:43
I'm going to go to ohare right now and
00:23:45
somebody will come up to me like Gary I
00:23:46
like you I like your stuff but I got to
00:23:48
say you're you're wrong about the Social
00:23:50
Media stuff it's a real problem my
00:23:52
15-year-old I'm really worried about a
00:23:54
China and this and that and then I look
00:23:56
and I'm like so what why are you yelling
00:23:59
at
00:24:00
me I'm like you're the parent somebody
00:24:03
literally told me like this is the thing
00:24:04
that they most fear is going to like
00:24:06
kill their
00:24:08
child and I said so be a [ __ ] parent
00:24:11
and take the phone
00:24:15
away like if you're sitting so worried
00:24:18
about social media that it's going to
00:24:20
cause all this great harm to your
00:24:22
children shouldn't you be a parent and
00:24:24
take the social media off the kid's
00:24:26
phone
00:24:29
parenting is my next book
00:24:31
Luke it
00:24:34
is by the way it actually is I'm writing
00:24:36
a book called perfectly
00:24:38
parented and it talks about what I think
00:24:40
my mom was able to do which is find this
00:24:42
purple in a world of red and blue and
00:24:46
that's how I think about bringing it
00:24:48
back to marketing brother back to this I
00:24:50
don't think everyone realizes how deeply
00:24:52
traditional we
00:24:54
are you're way more traditional than you
00:24:56
think I'm on the inside
00:24:59
and I would challenge you to get
00:25:01
dramatically more educated on how Brands
00:25:04
grow and sell in 2024 and I'll give you
00:25:08
the answer to the quiz it's called
00:25:10
social media and as long as you continue
00:25:12
to disrespect it and boy do we
00:25:14
disrespect it and let me tell you how we
00:25:16
disrespect
00:25:17
it there's a m multi-billion dollar
00:25:22
company on the west coast in the apparel
00:25:24
business new CEO I'm friendly with him
00:25:27
we're starting to talk
00:25:29
I I this is I brought him some
00:25:32
information this weekend there's a
00:25:33
t-shirt brand that's gone from zero to
00:25:36
a100 million in Revenue in the last five
00:25:39
years they spent $6.6 million a year in
00:25:43
organic social fees agency creative 6 M
00:25:47
6.6 this cadrillion dollar company for
00:25:51
its brand
00:25:53
spends that's what's happening we
00:25:56
disrespect it cuz you don't allocate the
00:25:58
right money to it given its importance
00:26:01
you spend more on a fake report to
00:26:03
measure your creative than you do on
00:26:05
making creative in
00:26:10
Social right okay and with
00:26:16
that it really is incredible no bull
00:26:19
crap like it's wild to see how many of
00:26:23
the
00:26:24
elements are sitting in the room like I
00:26:27
I am we're in a lot of buildings the
00:26:30
speed in which over the last 24 months
00:26:32
we've had productive conversations
00:26:33
Crossing te's looking at it like I I
00:26:37
just I I don't want to before we go to
00:26:38
Q&A I want to say this as you can see
00:26:40
I'm incredibly passionate about this and
00:26:42
I think we are really have a huge
00:26:44
opportunity but it takes big girl big
00:26:46
boy decisions to get there that being
00:26:48
said it shouldn't bury the lead that in
00:26:51
the last 24 months there's been
00:26:52
significant progress on
00:26:55
respecting the ability for that cre
00:26:58
creative in Social to be a meaningful
00:27:00
Force to above the line and then
00:27:02
obviously the horror films are videos
00:27:04
people actually want to watch and so the
00:27:07
other key is when you're in commercials
00:27:10
like the way we see creative a and the
00:27:11
reason we've been eating up a lot of
00:27:13
creative a Scopes is we come from social
00:27:16
at the center we go social up the the
00:27:19
creative creates the brief that makes
00:27:21
the ad and that's powerful and it
00:27:24
matters and and by the way it's
00:27:26
intuitive to everyone ironically
00:27:29
guessing with four people on the brand
00:27:32
side and the agency side ironically
00:27:34
people realize is a bad model all right
00:27:37
open up for questions from the audience
00:27:39
10 years ago our traditional agencies
00:27:42
were say whatever you writing the brief
00:27:43
to was please don't ask for a viral
00:27:46
video yes what kind of brief is that but
00:27:49
it sounds like you know how to make a
00:27:51
viral video how do you do it yeah so
00:27:55
it's really funny you're asking me this
00:27:57
at a very interesting time we your
00:28:00
agency was correct and I would continue
00:28:02
to say that you know a viral video let's
00:28:06
break that down first let's start with
00:28:08
this the ability for a video to go viral
00:28:12
as we sit in this conference room right
00:28:14
now is dramatically higher than it's
00:28:17
ever been in the history of marketing so
00:28:19
much so that you're catching me at an
00:28:21
interesting time I know my team smiling
00:28:22
over there Nick knows this I'm about to
00:28:25
unleash to the
00:28:26
organization that that on a daily basis
00:28:29
because what's very unique about our
00:28:31
creative agency is we are a production
00:28:33
agency we make every day right so we're
00:28:36
not just thinking of ideas we think and
00:28:37
make which is a very big part of all of
00:28:40
this that one of the remits internally
00:28:43
that I'm launching post Labor Day is
00:28:45
that on a daily basis because we're
00:28:47
making five seven 12 ads a day it's not
00:28:50
like once a week that there is something
00:28:53
called attempted
00:28:55
virality now
00:28:58
that is really important to break down
00:29:00
for everyone here because a viral video
00:29:03
was an impossible ask in the past on the
00:29:07
flip side I want to take you to cpg land
00:29:09
with me right now how many people here
00:29:11
and this is going to require a child in
00:29:13
a certain age but show of hands please
00:29:15
how many people here are familiar with
00:29:17
what happened with Walgreens and the
00:29:19
mango gummy that sold out in every
00:29:21
Wallgreens in America just raise your
00:29:23
hand higher I feel like some of you are
00:29:26
embarrassed about it this should be a
00:29:27
pride
00:29:28
so the people that just raised their
00:29:30
hands I just want everybody to
00:29:32
understand this a single video not done
00:29:34
by the brand or the agency by a human a
00:29:37
single video so I think a lot of you are
00:29:40
familiar with nice the private label
00:29:42
brand because you've seen the peanuts
00:29:43
I'm sure at
00:29:45
Walgreens they have they have a mango
00:29:47
gummy under that private label and a
00:29:49
single video not only sold out all the
00:29:52
products if you would appease me if you
00:29:54
have eBay on your phone right now please
00:29:57
go to it you won't bother me that you're
00:29:59
looking at it please go to eBay right
00:30:01
now and type in nice mango gummy not
00:30:05
only did it sell out people have sold it
00:30:08
for five to seven to 20 times its cost
00:30:10
on
00:30:12
eBay the Ocean Spray example I think we
00:30:15
all know right the Tik Tok that Ocean
00:30:16
Spray sold out every bottle of Ocean
00:30:18
Spray in America I can sit here for the
00:30:21
next three hours and tell you about
00:30:23
individual videos on social media that
00:30:25
sold out every single product at a
00:30:29
retail store Walgreens Dollar General
00:30:32
Walmart Target Publix HB all of it and
00:30:37
no one on earth can mention a single
00:30:39
commercial that has done that in the
00:30:41
last 25
00:30:44
years Luke I'm not GNA try think about I
00:30:48
I really I really need everyone to
00:30:50
Kumbaya with me on this I can sit here
00:30:53
and give you countless examples that
00:30:55
have happened this year that have done
00:30:57
that and we can't name one and the price
00:31:01
of an individual video on social media
00:31:04
organically I think you know is very
00:31:06
different than paying for an AO fee to
00:31:09
come up with one idea then go pay
00:31:11
another agency to make that 30- second
00:31:13
video spend all the out- of pocket and
00:31:16
production fees and all the other
00:31:18
testing and then put it into Market on
00:31:21
very expensive media that is based on
00:31:24
grps which is a laughable metric if you
00:31:27
know what grps
00:31:33
are another question so the answer my
00:31:36
friend is no we we do not know how to
00:31:40
make a viral video we just make a lot
00:31:42
more than most people because we know
00:31:44
the elements that are needed to and we
00:31:48
make so much more advertising than
00:31:50
anybody else in the world that we just
00:31:52
have more at bats it's hard to go viral
00:31:55
when you bet the whole Farm on one video
00:31:57
I'm guessing based on one person's
00:32:01
opinion we have another
00:32:03
question
00:32:04
how
00:32:06
kindness as being a
00:32:09
potential creating leverage of kindness
00:32:12
to drive disruption Innovation and
00:32:15
breakthroughs it's a great question John
00:32:17
thank you so much uh I use kindness as
00:32:20
the lubricant the reason I hate fear so
00:32:22
much is I think it leads to slowness the
00:32:25
reason my companies have always been
00:32:27
fast is cuz people aren't scared to
00:32:30
lose the I don't think I think where
00:32:34
y'all are caught is measuring
00:32:38
success I believe the thing that will
00:32:40
unlock John is what we're
00:32:44
measuring right like I'm telling you
00:32:46
like the to your point one of the things
00:32:48
that always made me want to work with
00:32:50
this company for years you know was I
00:32:53
always heard about the kindness and that
00:32:55
really speaks to me in a real way
00:32:58
kindness when it's too far isn't
00:33:01
creating slowness it creates
00:33:03
entitlement my big flaw in my career is
00:33:06
I've created a lot of entitlement
00:33:07
because we didn't have the cander to
00:33:09
match the kindness because cander was
00:33:12
viewed as a negative that has been my
00:33:14
great flaw as an operator and I've
00:33:16
really worked on that and both
00:33:17
personally and professionally everything
00:33:19
that has not worked for me it was my you
00:33:21
know it's so funny on stage like this
00:33:23
cander is easy as you can
00:33:26
tell but the more I know you and care
00:33:28
about you and one-on-one cander was my
00:33:30
flaw I I'm literally the reverse of this
00:33:32
which is wild but it was just it's just
00:33:34
the way I am and I've really worked on
00:33:36
that over the last so I don't think
00:33:38
kindness is making us slow I think we
00:33:41
are not incentivizing our marketers to
00:33:44
market the proper way somebody said so I
00:33:47
really believe in this huge issue of
00:33:49
allocation of creative fees to social so
00:33:52
I have I have a CEO and three of the
00:33:54
four three of the six board members who
00:33:56
I've known for 15 years in one company
00:33:57
we like take it help us and they're like
00:34:01
what they're like but and they like to
00:34:04
blame their people they're like but
00:34:05
they're not listening to us Gary we've
00:34:06
been telling them to do the thing you're
00:34:07
saying I'm like no you haven't I'm like
00:34:10
if you believe in what I'm saying if you
00:34:12
if 50% of their
00:34:15
bonus was based on them allocating 50%
00:34:18
of their creative fees to social I have
00:34:19
a funny feeling every brand would
00:34:21
allocate 50% of their
00:34:24
fees that I think at the top the tippy
00:34:28
top we have to have the discussion of
00:34:30
how we're scoring it because we will all
00:34:32
go towards how it's scoring because
00:34:34
that's how we justify our jobs keep our
00:34:35
jobs get promoted we've got to change
00:34:38
and force the organization to spend
00:34:42
accordingly to what we if we believe
00:34:44
these things we have to do it that way
00:34:46
so I think kindness is your strength I
00:34:49
think how we justify success what
00:34:52
reports hold weight what structures are
00:34:55
we putting in to incentivize Behavior
00:34:57
avior will change the best part of a
00:35:00
corporation is I if I bought this
00:35:02
company tomorrow I can make everyone
00:35:04
change how they act I just changed the
00:35:06
bonus
00:35:11
structure uh I did that my company Nick
00:35:14
will and Katie will tell Nick will tell
00:35:15
you I we put in bonuses or p&l did all
00:35:18
of a sudden I wake up like last year I'm
00:35:20
like my company is what I make fun of
00:35:23
I'm watching all of them completely make
00:35:25
their decisions based on the p&l
00:35:28
so this year I'm like that's scrapped
00:35:30
now 100% of the bonuses is my subjective
00:35:33
opinion if you're doing it the way I
00:35:34
want you to do
00:35:39
it let me tell you what's amazing about
00:35:41
that John Team all of a sudden the inner
00:35:44
Department Politics the inner company
00:35:46
everything vanished because people know
00:35:49
how much I value kindness all of a
00:35:51
sudden funny thing happens I think we
00:35:53
can do that too I know I promis but one
00:35:55
more Luke I have to get one more in all
00:35:57
right one more
00:35:58
what 4 to 500 companies do you think are
00:36:01
doing a good job at what you talking I
00:36:04
think Wendy's touched on it I think slim
00:36:08
jim the brand in that portfolio touched
00:36:11
on it but this is the whole conversation
00:36:15
K Fortune 500 companies are getting
00:36:18
outflanked by Fortune 10,000 companies
00:36:21
they have no money and they're beating
00:36:23
us
00:36:24
up I don't like
00:36:26
it it's especially bothers me because
00:36:28
they're my friends like like Logan Paul
00:36:31
and KSI and and definitely liquid you
00:36:35
know death as you can imagine and um Mr
00:36:38
Beast and beables like all of a sudden
00:36:40
now Hershey's gives a [ __ ] you
00:36:43
know and so what I would tell you and by
00:36:46
the way I don't have to tell the diapers
00:36:47
team in here stuff's
00:36:49
brewing and by the way this is the most
00:36:52
important thing I need you to hear in
00:36:53
this cpg category every brand is
00:36:58
next every day an influencer with a lot
00:37:01
of followers that has pure organic reach
00:37:04
is trying to figure out cogs on what
00:37:07
category they're going to go and just
00:37:09
like technology doesn't have any
00:37:12
feelings it just continues to evolve and
00:37:14
so unfortunately for people that had
00:37:16
bookstores in the 80s and 70s and early
00:37:18
90s they got unlucky that Jeff Bezos
00:37:20
decided that's where he wanted to start
00:37:22
but eventually got to everyone right and
00:37:25
so what I would say to people in this
00:37:27
room is is right and this I do this for
00:37:29
a living as an investor there's not a
00:37:31
cpg category that people aren't looking
00:37:35
at to disrupt because you set up a
00:37:37
Shopify we outflank you on social media
00:37:40
with a million dollar budget to your $50
00:37:42
million budget and then we have the
00:37:45
leverage with the retailer because they
00:37:46
want new customers so they take your
00:37:49
money and they give it to your
00:37:51
competitor they pay them to be in their
00:37:55
stores do you know like you're watching
00:37:58
right we have to get better at marketing
00:38:01
you can you can have big data and text
00:38:03
taxs all you want if the creative is
00:38:05
wrong you will lose mitigating creative
00:38:09
risk is the number one task at hand
00:38:12
social media is sitting there willing to
00:38:15
help you do it for free but your
00:38:17
disrespect and misunderstanding of it is
00:38:21
putting you in a secondary spot and I
00:38:23
want to change that for anybody who's
00:38:25
worth willing to listen to it and I
00:38:27
appreciate the opportunity to go on this
00:38:29
journey with all of you it's really been
00:38:30
enjoyable and I I'm on LinkedIn if
00:38:32
anybody wants to say hi I got a four-h
00:38:34
hour flight back to LA right now I'm
00:38:35
happy to talk to you so please connect
00:38:38
and thank you thank
00:38:42
you everything starts organic I'm not
00:38:45
guessing if the creative is good I'm
00:38:46
letting the AI algorithms show me that
00:38:48
it's good the algorithm only works by
00:38:50
showing people stuff that they will like
00:38:53
like if you go my algorith right now
00:38:54
it's just all Jets football a little bit
00:38:55
of wine a little bit of business you
00:38:57
know this [ __ ] gotten good you know this
00:38:59
all of you are like oh I'm getting rid
00:39:01
of Facebook they just showed a watch ad
00:39:04
in front of me and I was just talking
00:39:05
about it watch it's listening to me it
00:39:07
wasn't listening to you you've been
00:39:09
liking and looking at watch content for
00:39:11
the last week on the platform
