83 - Marketing Campaigns That Turned it Around

Rich: All right. We are back with another episode of Cocktails, Tangents, and Answers. And if you're watching on YouTube, you can see Caitlin is not here. She's home. She's a little sick. Uh, has a little sore throat, but she will be back. Uh, so Zach is filling in. It says guest Zach on the sheet, but you're really the co host.

Rich: Like let's be honest.

Zac: Yeah. I'm filling in for Kaelin for the first time ever. Actually, is it the first time ever? It's maybe it's just been a while. I think we might've done one episode together. You did

Rich: one. Yeah, we've done one together. I think where you weren't the guest. Um, and then you've been a guest with both of us a couple of times.

Rich: Um, yeah, so we were first

Zac: time on video though. So it's all right. Cause

Rich: you always cut your video. Like, so just full, full, like transparency. Zach records video of himself every time. He just never puts it in the YouTube version of the podcast. Yeah. So I think that the producer could be in there in the YouTube version all the time.

Rich: It would be fine. Yeah,

Zac: definitely could be something going forward. I'm glad I got a haircut, uh, recently for this. That wasn't planning on stepping in, but it's, I'm definitely excited.

Rich: I mean, your hair is always a topic of conversation though. Like even when it's like completely wild and out there, it's still like good hair.

Zac: I feel like every haircut, since I've been going to different barbers, trying to find, like, ones that I like, every haircut almost makes me feel like a different person, because it's just like such a different look, but Yeah, you still haven't found one that you

Rich: like down there?

Zac: I think this one that I went to last time is pretty good.

Zac: He, he calls himself the, like, a jack of all trades kind of thing, so he, he likes doing, like, different textures and, like, weird haircuts, so I think it fits pretty well, but We'll see like how I like it as I like go back next time.

Rich: Okay. Well, we'll keep tabs on it and we'll always comment So we're not talking about hair this week We are talking about a few iconic ad campaigns the guy companies from I think the zero to hero is how you phrased it Yeah, Zack in the episode title Help them bounce back and transform from being either little known brands or from like a downhill slide Uh, into household names.

Rich: So,

Zac: uh, we have three. And most things are pretty iconic too, so.

Rich: Yeah, these are things that you will know about, you will have heard about, and you should like be familiar with, I would think. Um, so yeah, so getting to that, um, my cocktail is so weird. Um, so I was reintroduced to this cocktail recently, but it's the Businesswoman Special.

Rich: Um, and if you are a fan of Romy and Michelle's high school reunion, you will remember this cocktail for them. It was, I think it was peach schnapps, um, vodka, uh, grenadine and like seven up or club soda. Um, so we've kind of upscaled it a little bit. I've seen a whole lot of variations on this. Um, some have rum now or gin, which if Caitlin were here, she would just be like, just go for the gin version, but they're actually two completely different cocktails.

Rich: Um, there's always some bubbles in it of some sort, something red, usually a little lemon or citrus. Um, there's also one that is tequila and mango Arizona tea.

Zac: I was going to ask about that one. The mango Arizona tea sounds crazy.

Rich: Yeah, there's a couple other things in it. I mean, I guess the good thing is mango Arizona tea is always a dollar, right?

Rich: Is that's one of those things like the Costco hot dog?

Zac: Yeah, I think, I think they've tried to keep the price pretty, pretty low.

Rich: Yeah. So that one, I was like, okay, like that's the only one I found with tequila in it. Um, but in the proportions are a little bit like, yes, see, but they make sense for a cocktail.

Rich: Um, so this one's based off the one that I had, um, just like a week ago or so in Washington, DC. Uh, at a little place called Little Gate Pub, which is exactly what it sounds like. Um, they have, they have dino nuggets, air fried dino nuggets as one of their bar menu. And they have other stuff, they have like empanadas and stuff too.

Rich: But the dino nuggets were so good. Like they're so crispy when you air fry them.

Zac: The picture you sent, they looked really, really good. I know, right? Honestly, this seems like a really versatile cocktail. I like that you can kind of switch things up and then still get the general idea of what it is.

Rich: Yeah, it's like a choose your own adventure kind of, uh, cocktail.

Rich: So shout out to Billy, our bartender, who was fantastic. I don't remember the nights he works. Um, I feel like we were there on a Sunday or Monday maybe. Anyway, um, so onto the cocktail. So mine is the gin version. The gin version is a little bit more herbal. If you use rum, I'll give you some subs that you can do to make it a little bit more fruity or sweet.

Rich: Um, so you got one and a half ounces of gin, a quarter ounce of an orange liqueur, like Cointreau is an orange liqueur. You can also just get things called orange liqueur, a quarter ounce of lemon juice. I'm not sure if the one I had had lemon juice in it, but typically they do. So I'm throwing that in here.

Rich: Splash of cranberry. Splash of club soda, prosecco, rosemary sprig for garnish. So you take everything but the bubbles and cranberry, uh, the gin, the orange liqueur, and lemon juice, put it in a shaker and shake it. Um, you can shake it until chilled and then strain it into a chilled coupe glass. I mean, honestly, you can use a rocks glass, you can use a coupe glass.

Rich: Um, it really doesn't matter. It just kind of depends on the volume you want. Um, you'll top it with the prosecco, a splash of the cranberry, and a splash of the club soda, and then toss that rosemary in. Um, so if you're doing the rum one, um, you just switch the gin for rum and, um, instead of using cranberry, use grenadine to make it a little bit sweeter, but still give it that red color.

Rich: And the red sort of floats in it. It's really pretty. I know I was working with Megan on the art for this one and she's like, there's so many different pictures. I was like, use that one. That one's closest. Um, The other thing, so I went back with a friend on Tuesday night and had another one and this one was in a wine glass.

Zac: Oh wow. So it

Rich: was a lot and basically they just, you just get more Prosecco in the wine glass. So you just keep topping

Zac: it off kind of thing.

Rich: Um, no, he just, it just came in a big wine glass and he had, it's just, you get more Prosecco. Obviously the coupe glass is going to be less. The rocks class would be a little bit more.

Rich: The wine glass is a lot of Prosecco. Um,

Zac: I think I'd really like to try the rum version. That sounds really good to me.

Rich: Yeah. And instead of the Rosemary, you use a lemon twist on that one. So I just, and I know Caitlin would want to eat the whole lemon and then put the twist in. Um, maybe not the lemon. I think she does that with oranges, but yeah, it was.

Rich: It was good. It was light and refreshing. And I do love that. You can be like, Oh, I'm not a gin drinker. Okay. I can do this with vodka. I can do this with rum. Apparently you can do it with tequila. Like you

Zac: can kind of just change it based on how you're feeling to like, or time of day, whatever, like. It's like, honestly, whatever sounds best, like if

Rich: you're, if you're on a budget in college, you can just use some Gordon's vodka and peach schnapps and a little bit of Sprite.

Rich: And there you go. You got your own, uh, business woman's special.

Zac: I would, I would probably go with the most more upscale version, but I mean, if that's all you have, I guess go for it.

Rich: Yeah. I mean that, that like Gordon's vodka and the big jug is just nasty. Yeah. I don't.

Zac: I don't like thinking about Jugged Vodka.

Rich: Yeah, you can peel paint with it, or clean your sink. Like, it'll work for that. True. But yeah, I do love this one. Um, but yeah, that's all I've got to say on that one. I guess we should get into it. Yeah, let's get into it.

Rich: Alright, so, uh, my special businesswoman inside of me is ready to talk about Zero to Hero Campaign, Zach. Yep, I'm ready too. All right. So let's get into it. The first one is Ray Ban in the 1980s. So this is, um, I don't even want to know how far before you were born. This is, I was born in 98. So, okay. Well, at least not 2000 that, that helps.

Rich: Um, but basically Ray Ban sunglasses brand. I think everybody knows that, um, they actually do have regular glasses too. These are not Ray Bans. These are Warby Parker. Um, but, um, yeah, they were really not doing great. They were only selling about 200, 000 pairs of sunglasses per year. The oversized frames from other glasses.

Rich: I mean, this was like the blue blockers age to like, which was ridiculous. Those things were so awful. Um, and then there were just cheaper alternatives coming in. Ray brand was like the premium brand and it didn't have like premium cachet. Um,

Zac: they're definitely starting to struggle around this time. Yeah.

Zac: It was something to kind of kickstart like their sales and everything like that.

Rich: Yeah. Cause before that they were like the sunglasses, like they were what you would get for sunglasses. So, um, luckily Tom Cruise saved them. Tom Cruise, his underwear, a white shirt, and his Ray Bans. Um, so Risky Business came out in 1983.

Rich: Uh, Cruise wore Wayfarers. Uh, Wayfarers are a Ray Ban product. Um, and the sales increased about 50 percent from 200, 000 to 300, 000 pairs a year. So, that's pretty good. Um, but it just kept going. Like, I think part of it is, you know, you'll still see people doing like the Tom Cruise risky business, like outfit, at least I will at some parties I've gone to at like Halloween parties.

Zac: Well, and I read, uh, that I don't even know if necessarily the Ray Ban had anything to do with this specific, uh, this first movie that Tom Cruise was in. I think Tom Cruise really just liked their sunglasses. And so when the sales started like going up, I think. Top gun was more of like, okay, this is something we should focus on.

Zac: And like, because it's shown like a positive, uh, impact on our sales, we can maybe actually try and like formalize this a little bit.

Rich: And it just fit right. Like the wayfarers were that cool sunglass that you could wear that style. And then in Top Gun, I mean, of course you wore aviators. Like, why would he not wear aviators?

Rich: Yeah. Um, and those became, um, extremely popular as well. So, um, by 1988, they were up to one and a half million pairs a year. And then, um, Top Gun fueled it even further, up to four and a half million pairs a year. That's up from 200, 000 as they kind of entered 19, the 1980s. Um, so accidental product placement can help purposeful product placement can help.

Rich: Well, sometimes that's

Zac: how you figure out, like, sometimes you accidentally stumble upon stuff like that, right? Like you're not necessarily trying to like, they weren't necessarily trying to make a huge impact. Tom Cruise just liked the sunglasses and it made it, it made them iconic. And with, uh, the 4. 5 million, that's total sales with the 1.

Zac: 5 million, that was just wayfarers. So, so just them being in that movie, everyone wanted to wear those sunglasses. So it like heavily boosted sales for just that one pair and then the aviators, same thing. It actually helped boost all of their sales. And it's funny because my dad actually has a pair of like Ray Ban aviators from the 80s and he's like, he has his pilot's license and everything, but I'm almost like a hundred percent sure.

Zac: Top Gun was like probably the reason he ended up picking them up. So

Rich: it could have been, and our aviators, the ones that are always in like cop shows too, isn't it? Yeah.

Zac: Yeah. I would say they're the most iconic of like all of probably, well, rave wafers are honestly pretty. They're probably neck and neck, but for me, it's always the aviators that really stand out with Ray Ban.

Zac: I

Rich: wonder, um, did he wear wayfarers and cocktail? Cause that would make sense, right? Yeah. And cocktail. Um, that's something we can look up. I bet. I mean, he, he may have been like the sort of accidental non spokesperson for the brand just because he liked them and then they fueled it. Yeah. I think that's a really good example of when something you sort of stumble into something.

Rich: I had a boss who used to say, if you, um, if you step on the gas and it moves, step on the gas harder. So like, if you accidentally find something that's driving sales, if you can fuel that in a real way, like, right, these are both great product placement because they make sense. Like, forcing your product in is, um, a little bit rough.

Rich: Yeah,

Zac: that's

Rich: definitely

Zac: a

Rich: no

Zac: go.

Rich: Yeah, it reminds me of, um, so now our laptops, when you're looking at the back of the laptop, the logo is right side up. And when you set the laptop down, the logo is upside down, like when it's closed and you're looking at it. Um, but I'm going, I'm watching the West wing again and they had somewhere in like season three or four, I think it was gateway computers started sponsoring them.

Rich: They really don't exist anymore. Um, and gateways logo was. When you lifted the computer up, it was upside down. Um, and they figured that out. And then partway through the logos, I'll flip, they'd put stickers on them. And then it just became common that they're like, Oh, like if you're sitting in a coffee shop and you have your laptop open, it's advertising for other people.

Rich: When it's closed, you don't care what it looks like. You already bought the thing. You don't need to worry about it.

Zac: So it's just.

Rich: It's funny to see how some of those things happen with product placement, where they're like, Oh, this works for like how we were thinking of it, but not for product placement.

Zac: Just like thinking of product placement, I didn't even think about this for the episode, but um, I saw that there's this YouTube channel that exists that creates like content for like, like almost like what's it called? Like. Teenage like TV shows, you know what I mean? Like kind of like the grassy stuff like that But the youtube channel actually makes videos kind of like geared towards like that target audience where it's like Really cheesy like not taking itself very seriously But it's almost like almost 60 percent of the actual content is product placement and ads and it's like very It's not like native where it's like blending into the show.

Zac: It's like they actively take like Five minutes of the 15 to 20 minute, like YouTube video to showcase this one product. It's like Reese's I've I'll probably like try and find it and link it up, but it

Rich: would actually be an interesting one We could also like we should just do a product placement episode We could talk about extreme makeover home edition when that came out.

Rich: Oh, yeah 2000 I worked on that.

Zac: Yeah, that'd be a great story like back. Yeah,

Rich: and it's so much product placement in that from Sears like so much Alright, uh, so let's get into Got Milk.

Zac: I think this honestly might be the most iconic of the episode, or at least it's the most iconic to me. I was telling, uh, you before the episode actually started, but Got Milk, like, posters were all over my high school growing up, so, like, Every book or magazine I'd read too, because I mean, I was before smartphones still, so I'd still read that stuff, but yeah, it's very iconic.

Rich: Zach is younger than paper magazines and younger than smartphones, so. I know. Wild. Um, yeah, so, uh, milk used to be like, everybody was drinking milk, like, because you get your calcium and whatnot and all that, like, all the way through since I think people started drinking milk and it was pasteurized and all that.

Rich: Um, but it was declining because we suck at good dietary habits and, um, we were into soda, bottled water, coffee drinks, basically anything but milk. Um, people were also worried about the fat content, which just makes me roll my eyes. Um, and then lactose intolerance, like, yeah, you don't want to drink something that makes you farty.

Rich: That's just like, not great. The fat content though, like, here's what kills me, is everybody's like, oh, like 2 percent milk is so much better. Do you know how much fat is in, what the percent of fat is in whole milk? No, I don't. 3%. Oh my gosh. So you're, it's like, and so I started like, when I learned that, I was like, I was like, I'm just going to do whole milk in my coffees and stuff because why not?

Rich: Like it's not that much worse for you. And skim milk for me just tastes like watered down milk, which I think is exactly what it is. It's just,

Zac: how do you feel about like almond milk? Because I kind of like almond milk and coffee because I feel like coffee can already kind of like upset your stomach if you drink a lot of it.

Zac: Or like just really strong and really rich. So like, I don't really like whole milk if I'm getting like a latte, I kind of go for the almond and oat.

Rich: Yeah. And the almond and oat have like, I don't know that like almondy and oaty taste to them. They've got a little bit of flavor to that. So yeah, I do like them in my coffee, especially if you're doing like, like a hazelnut coffee with almond milk or oat milk, you just get a little bit more nuttiness in it.

Rich: Um, but yeah, so milk basically had a bad rap and so, um, in 1993, the California milk processor board, and there's a board for like all of this stuff. There's the Iowa pork processors and beef processors and all those kinds of things. Um, we could do a pork, the other white meat too. We could have done that one.

Rich: Yeah. There's a lot of good options. Honestly, there are. We have to just pick three though. Otherwise we'll be here for an hour. Yeah. Um, so anyway, they aimed to reverse that train by basically. Um, emphasizing that milk is a part of your key moments and a part of like, um, what your everyday life should be and life will be better if you drink milk and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Rich: Um, so it was probably one of the most iconic efforts. I believe it was technically a PSA campaign. Um, the California milk processing board is a nonprofit on behalf of the industry. Um, but yeah, started in California. Um, and what happened, Zach? Like, tell us what they got. I

Zac: mean, it was very successful. Milk sales rose significantly in California following the campaign launch, with a 7.

Zac: 7 increase in the first year, which

Rich: That's huge.

Zac: Yeah. For

Rich: a beverage brand, it's enormous.

Zac: It's kind of like what we were talking about with the product placement, too. Like, one state decided, oh, this might work for us, and then all the other milk processing boards were like, okay, uh Let's push this like nationwide.

Rich: Yeah. It became a nationwide campaign and then it became like parodies of it would exist, you know, like, and people would do got whatever, you know, with a question mark in that similar font. Um, I can't think of one right now, of course. Um, but that does help fuel.

Zac: Yeah. It had an extremely high recognition.

Zac: Like you said, it was very iconic, 90 percent awareness in California by 1995. And then, I'd be curious to see how much and fast it's spread across the U. S. Because, that's a big, like I said, that was a big part of my childhood, seeing those ads on TV. And it

Rich: was all celebrities with like the milk mustache,

Zac: um,

Rich: and you know, that wasn't milk on their milk mustache, right?

Rich: To film it because milk is too runny. So I, I, I believe they used yogurt or sour cream.

Zac: I think I saw that. I couldn't, I was going to say, I couldn't remember what it actually was, but I knew it wasn't milk.

Rich: No

Zac: way it would actually, it wasn't

Rich: milk. It would just like fall off. Um, yeah, it was like yogurt or sour cream, but the idea there of that kind of iconic milk mustache and the, you know, celebrities are drinking milk, you're having milk at these key moments of your life.

Rich: Um, it. Really did, um, help. I keep scratching my nose. Um, but yeah, like increased recognition. And like you said, the campaign went, um, went national because it was just so popular. I don't think many people even know it started just in California. Yeah. I

Zac: don't even think I honestly didn't know that until I started doing research for this episode.

Zac: Do you have like any like vivid memories of like seeing this, like during like the early days of it or.

Rich: Um, I remember that it was one of the simplest campaigns because there was almost no copy and it was just got milk There was a little bit of copy on him. I think I don't have any specifically that stick out with me That I can think of right now.

Rich: I could probably google it and see

Zac: yeah, because honestly like I don't know It's just like almost ingrained in like American culture a little bit because like you said it's been like parodied like so many times just like Honestly, it's just everywhere. It's still like relevant today, too

Rich: Yeah, and there's I mean i'm looking at like just if you just google it and go to images So many celebrities Like the cast of friends did it I wonder what the first actual Got Milk ad was.

Rich: Um, there's, uh, I think I know which one it is. It was titled

Zac: Aaron Burr installed Sean Whalen as a historian who can't answer a trivia question because he's full of peanut butter. What? And then, uh, it was directed by Michael Bay, apparently, too. So that's interesting. Oh wow,

Rich: so that's the first TV ad.

Rich: There were print ads before that, I think. There was one that was just a splash of milk that said, Got Milk? But I think the one that came with that, There's a print ad that's a bite out of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Yeah, I'm looking at that one, too. It just says, Got Milk? And that one is Yeah, that is the original.

Rich: It was formed around peanut butter and like how He was stuck without milk and lost, um, yep, there it is. I found it. 1993 debut commercial for Got Milk. Um, so funny. That's great. All right. So that's number two. All right. So number three is a little different, right? You want to just pop us into number three?

Zac: Right. So number three is actually Dollar Shave Club. So this is less about a company facing a decline and more about changing a company's trajectory completely. So in 2012, uh, they released a viral video. I'm sure some of our viewers have seen it. Uh, I watched it before this episode, but basically, um, with just a 4, 500 marketing budget, the co founder, Michael Dublin created a humorous, basically to the point, uh, video, basically like saying that he's like, We as consumers should be tired of overpriced razors and presenting his entire like business plan in a video.

Zac: And uh, yeah, I get a lot of views and actually like really like vaulted them in like a whole other stratosphere of success.

Rich: Yeah, it's um, and it's a minute and a half long, like it's not a normal, like 60 second or 30 second or today, like everybody be like, you can't put out a minute and a half video.

Rich: Nobody's going to watch that. It has to be 15 seconds or less. Um, but yeah, and he delivered it. So like straight faced with like, you know, you're being ripped off. Like you just need to change this. Um, Yeah. And I think that this one, it hit a nerve, right? Cause if you before like a dollar shave club or now there's Harry's and there's other ones, um, Gillette and Schick dominated the market and you could get the razor for super cheap, but the blades were ridiculous.

Rich: Like even at Costco, you'd pay like. It was like 25 for 10 blades or some stupid thing. Like it was insane. And so them coming in and I believe if I remember right, they actually bought a razor factory, razor blade factory in Germany, which is part of how they got out of the, by the, the, the chain of the, um, Oh, the supply chain basically created their own supply chain.

Rich: Cause so razors were like that. Glasses frames are like that. There were only two companies in the world that made glasses frames. Um, and so unless you were making your own. You were SOL and that's why I like stuff like Purcell's and things were more expensive because they made their own But yeah, they just put this video out there and it resonated.

Rich: No TV ads No other ads just a video online

Zac: It was really like kind of a perfect storm too because it was just around the time that YouTube was starting to gain traction with like like viral videos and that becoming more of a consumed content It was also just around the time that, uh, subscription services were starting to become a thing.

Rich: Mm hmm.

Zac: So, like, basically putting all that together, they really, like, were kind of ahead of their time with what they were trying to do with it. And now, like, Dollar Shave Club is huge.

Rich: Yeah, I mean, they're in Target, um, you don't have to subscribe because it was a subscription and that's how you had to do it.

Rich: I actually, I actually did subscribe and I've still got a razor from there. And I have so many razor blades because their whole thing was like, the other thing was you should change your razor blade once a week for a really good shave. Um, and so you would get like either four or five razor blades a month.

Rich: Um, but I'd never changed. I mean, I have really fine, like I don't have a lot anyway to shave, but, um, I didn't change mine as often. So I've got a stack of those razor blades. So I finally just stopped and was like, I'm good. I'm good. Um, but yeah, I mean, getting to 48 percent of the online razor market, like almost 50%, uh, by 2015, um, It's, it's insane, um, and what's really interesting is they got caught in the battle of the, not caught, they benefited from the battle of the big holding companies, right?

Rich: So Procter Gamble owns Gillette, um, Schick is owned by a smaller company, um, Edgewell Personal Care that owns Playtex Banana Boat and some other stuff. Um, but really it was P& G and Unilever had been fighting with each other forever and like trying to, they have brands that directly compete and Unilever really needed a good razor brand so they bought.

Rich: Uh, Dollar Shave Club for a billion dollars in 2016.

Zac: And they went from a 4, 500 marketing budget. To being acquired for 1 billion. That's insane.

Rich: Well, and that's also part of how you get distribution, right? Cause Unilever was in Target and Walmart and everywhere. And so they can get a new product in there because they have leverage with everything else they've got in there.

Rich: Um, yeah, it's just, I love this one. And, but the problem with this though, is everybody's like, how can I make a 4, 500 viral video that like, how can I go viral into a billion dollar company? There's a great book on it. Um, And it's, it's, there's a lot of things that have to come together, um, for something to go viral.

Rich: But I think this one, because it hit a nerve. And it was, it was pretty sincere. It was also irreverent. I mean, he swears in it. Um, and it just resonated with people because it felt like somebody was actually speaking up for the man who'd been ripped off by razor blade companies for his whole life.

Zac: You really spoke, they really spoke well to tell your audience and really did a good job of describing the problem and giving the solution.

Rich: Yeah, and it was fun and interesting to watch. It's, it's kind of reminds me of the Old Spice when Old Spice came back with their, uh, Old Spice commercials.

Zac: Oh,

Rich: yeah.

Zac: It's just like so out there that it just catches your attention and then you know exactly what they're trying to sell you.

Rich: Part of that's like, what do you have to lose?

Rich: So Old Spice had been drowning. Like they were, they were your, not even your dad's like deodorant and aftershave. They were your grandpa's or your great grandpa's. I mean,

Zac: just the name itself, like. It sounds like,

Rich: Oh, it's in the name. Um, and so, you know, you just have to pull something out of your hat to try something new.

Rich: And same thing with like dollar shave club, you know, they just were an unknown. So spend five grand, see what happens. And, you know, it might work out. It might not. Um, and then everybody else is like, we can do that too. And it's like, no, not really. Cause you try too hard. Right. I think that one was basically more of a, you know, like.

Rich: Alright, well we have this idea, let's just tell it like it is, but be a little bit funny and a little bit irreverent and see what happens. That's a good

Zac: bonus one to throw in there too, because Yeah. It's like another great example of how you can turn it around.

Rich: I know, but we're, uh, we're like at time. I don't want to go over.

Rich: Like, it'd be really bad if you were one of the hosts and we went way over. Yeah. That would, Caitlin would never let you live that down. That's true. Oh, all right. So, uh, Yeah, so we've got the accidental product placement that becomes purposeful product placement. We've got the Nonprofit with a very clever easy to understand concept and then we've got the the startup with nothing to lose Who just goes for it and goes viral?

Rich: All really good examples I think the other thing that it shows you like the Ray Ban one and even the Old Spice one It is never too late to try to reinvent or resurrect your brand if you've got sliding sales One of two things will happen either. You'll turn it around or you'll go out of business. Like those are the two options So take a risk turn it around.

Zac: Yeah, sometimes it's okay not to do what everybody else is doing It's okay to like think outside of the box and try something new.

Rich: Yeah, most of the time I would say It's better to not do what everybody else is doing I mean the only time it is is if you're gonna do it way better than they are, right?

Rich: Like build a better mousetrap. Otherwise, like the mousetrap I have is gonna work just fine. All right

Zac: Yeah, and thanks for listening As always, you can find our agency at antidotes underscore seven one. If you have a question you'd like to send our way, head to ctapodcast. live to shoot us an email. I'll definitely be the one reading it and, uh, getting it ready for the episode.

Zac: Uh, the best thing you can do is leave us a voice message on our hotline at 402 718 9971. Your question will definitely make it on the episode. Oh yeah, 100%. Because we'd love to hear from you and honestly, it'd be a lot of fun. So I think you should do it.

Rich: Yeah. And Zach won't call you back unless you ask him to call you back.

Rich: Like, um, he's not going to like hound you or anything. We're all introverts here, except Caitlin. Caitlin might call you back, but Zach will keep your phone number.

Zac: I'll make sure that if you don't want to be called back by Caitlin, I'll be the one to, uh, Make sure that doesn't happen. And all

Rich: of those do get assigned to Zach when they come in, so, um, all good there.

Rich: Um, so, uh, we do have another episode coming up. This one was my choice. Um, I love talking about old ad campaigns and Zach knows that. So we got that pulled together, which is great. Um, my next, my choice might be product placement. We can do that maybe in six months or something, but next week, uh, I think next week is going to be Caitlin's choice.

Rich: Uh, so she chose the cocktail, um, with her in home bartender husband. Uh, but the topic of that one is really relevant. Email marketing in the AI era, smarter, not spammy. So, um, you know, this was more of a fun journey, but you kind of like, uh, you can also like learn from this and. Just understand, like maybe inspire you to do something new.

Rich: Hers is going to be super actionable. Like how to use AI to be much smarter with your email marketing and to avoid being spammy, which is really cool. We've been playing a lot with AI. Um, and, uh, I'm anxious to see what we have to say for that one. So there's a lot of cool

Zac: stuff you can do. Yeah. Tune in.