"Local is Power" (feat. Alistair Crane, CEO @ Hero)

MrBeast has some recent learnings in trademark legalities and how hard DTC chocolate can be, and McDonalds is not answering back Phillip’s question. Plus, was the Super Bowl really the most-watched human event or do we just have too many ways you count who is watching, more people, and more widespread and varying broadcast options? And could a giant sphere be coming to a city near you? Or perhaps even your very own home? So much to talk about, so listen in now!

“The McRib and Shamrock Shake Loophole”

Key takeaways:

- McDonald's continues to activate its brand through innovative partnerships, this time with popular anime studio Studio Pierrot.

- Mr Beast faced a trademark violation for using the term "Deez Nuts" on his chocolate packaging, leading to a rebrand.

- Las Vegas transformed its identity by shifting away from vices through family-friendly experiences, emphasizing business conferences instead.

- Companies may need to constantly reinvent themselves as competitors catch up or as markets change.

- There is a growing demand for immersive experiences like the Sphere, which could revolutionize entertainment venues and advertising formats.Rather than making the world obsolete, tech has created an opportunity for historical modalities to rise from obsolescence.

• {00:17:17} - “The algorithm thrives on the type of content that produces dopamine hits because it's stuff that people keep coming back to. So we are in the dopamine economy. That's where we live, the addiction economy.” - Brian
• {00:33:56} - “Live events are on the rise. The Golden Globes, the Grammys, and the Oscars have all posted not just double-digit, but insane growth multiples year over year since the pandemic. And so when you look at these live events, these are elements of the monoculture, the things we've been saying are dead for the last 10 years. However, they have also become hyper-cultural events where people sort of multiplayer mode their way into participating in the discourse.” - Phillip
• {00:39:24} - “Whatever you have that used to make you unique will eventually be competed away. You have to continue to reinvent yourself.” - Philip
• {00:43:23} - “You go to a movie theater because you wanna see a movie sooner, not necessarily because it's the experience that you want to consume that particular movie in. Only a few movies are worth that. But movie theaters were basically what the sphere is to us when they first came out. Really immersive experiences you couldn't get anywhere else, because your tiny little TV at home was hard to watch stuff on.” - Brian

Associated Links:

• Headed to SXSW? RSVP for our VISIONS Summit
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• The MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.com
• Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Get ad-free episodes and bonus content, including the full recording of this podcast, by joining Future Commerce+ at futurecommerce.com/plus

• Save 15% on Future Commerce print journals and merch
• Private GPT access with BundleIQ
• Exclusive invites to physical events, dinners, and priority invites to industry events (SXSW, Art Basel, VISIONS)
• Ad-free episodes and bonus content!

Has "doomerism" evolved since last year's report into something much more global? Has the wellness obsession been taken too far? Is the appeal of being a semi-luddite on the rise? Friend of the pod and cultural theorist Matt Klein discusses the findings from his annual META Trends Report. 

“Going Airplane Mode”

Key takeaways:

- A key takeaway from analyzing over one hundred trend reports spanning several years: many of the reported trends remain unchanged year after year after year.

- Language used to describe disruptive changes often relies on established nomenclature instead of introducing new terminology.

- There is an opportunity to hack trend reports by strategically seeding ideas and language that can shape future trends.

- The ranking of meta-trends in reports can differ between what is frequently mentioned and what exists in cultural data, creating a discrepancy and an opportunity for manipulation.

- Understanding the deeper human needs beneath trend manifestations is key for organizations to find success in addressing cultural shifts.

• {00:04:50} - “It's quite cliche, but it's a call to action for a little bit of bravery of not what's already being reported and said and what's comfortable, but what do we want to see, what does not yet exist, and how do we put our neck out there and really speak about the things that are uncomfortable, fringy, edgy, and strange because after all that is where change emanates from.” - Matt
• {00:12:57} - “The problem is the scant few people that are actually doing this type of work and research and will put the quantifiable and qualitative mind to analyzing trends is a small group of people that are all highly self-referential because they're all analyzing the same cohort of data because they're all kind of tapped into the same algorithm.” - Phillip
• {00:19:47} - “The meta trends act as trailheads for understanding all else within culture. When you acknowledge what's trying to be desired here… you understand beneath the surface what people actually need, that's where organizations find success.” - Matt
• {00:26:59} - “There's certainly importance and maybe I'm saying that because there's a livelihood or a career anchored or tethered to it, but I would say there are some implications and serious business consequences that come from this, but it is also fun. It is entertaining to be talking about these things and to be dissecting and analyzing.” - Matt
• {00:30:39} - “It's all from fear. No one wants to be disrupted. No one wants to be the disruptor either. That goes back to this idea of bravery, being the first to say something or sticking their neck out or reporting on the thing that no one else has reported. So you operate from a sense of, "Well, we wanna be the first to be second."’ - Matt
• {00:39:42} - “Every business is unique, everyone has their different challenges, everyone has their different audiences, and those audiences or those products interpret each of the meta trends uniquely. So what this really is is the starting point, not the answer key.” - Matt

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Matt Klein
• Read the 2024 Meta Trends Report
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• The MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.com
• Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The allure of building a retail space is strong these days, but doing it right is critical. How do you know when to spend big bucks on fancy tech and when to equip your employees more instead? What is the special sauce to creating an environment where customers will keep coming back? It’s an exciting time in retail and Rebekah and Libby give us insight into why and their take on what is coming in the future in the world of physical retail. Listen now! 

Retail is Alive and Hot

Key takeaways:

- One critical advantage physical retail has over the digital space is human interaction, which can make or break how a customer feels about a brand.

- The similarities between theater and retail highlight the importance of behind-the-scenes work in creating an exceptional customer experience.

- Pop-up shops aren't sufficient for testing physical retail viability, but they can provide valuable insights if brands know what they want to achieve.

-  Well-trained store employees are crucial for creating positive brand experiences and building lasting customer relationships.

-  The future of physical retail lies in personalized experiences, smaller store formats, and operational agility to meet changing customer needs.‍

• {00:10:27} - “When brands go into a popup experience, they need to know what it's for. What are you trying to get out of it? Your customer is physically in front of you. That doesn't happen on a website. So how are you taking advantage of that?” - Rebekah
• {00:14:26} - “What they have in the physical space is one critical, critical tool that they do not have in the digital space, and that is people. Because at the end of the day, people buy from people. And what a customer feels about a brand in a retail space lives or dies by that human interaction.” - Libby
• {00:21:37} - “We're like, "Put down the expensive tech. First-time retail brand, put it down." Focus that, take that money, and be able to pay each one of the people that you're hiring to work in your store an additional couple dollars an hour more because that is gonna go so much farther…” - Libby
• {00:32:39} - “Inevitably, if you're gonna build a physical location, you want to do more than just sell things. You want to connect. You want to connect with the customer. You want to build brand affinity. You want to teach them something about your product that they didn't already know.” - Rebekah
• {00:34:57} - “It is about leaving a lasting brand impression and helping the customer discover something about the brand or the product even if they don't actually buy today.” - Libby
• {00:45:18} - “Brands are looking for ways to really connect with a customer and give them something that they can't get somewhere else, like with a competitor.” - Rebekah
• {00:51:11} - “Typically, we say, the first 7 to 10 stores go where your customers are. Then after that, after you've established that foundation and that base, then go where the people are who you want to be your customers.” - Libby

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Rekon Retail and Rebekah Kondrat and Libby Shani
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• The MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.com
• Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Get ad-free episodes and bonus content, including the full recording of this podcast, by joining Future Commerce+ at futurecommerce.com/plus

• Save 15% on Future Commerce print journals and merch
• Private GPT access
• Exclusive invites to physical events, dinners, and priority invites to industry events (SXSW, Art Basel)
• Ad-free episodes and bonus content!

Kyle Chayka joins us to discuss Filterworld, and the impact that algorithms have on culture and connection. Are we at the mercy of rapidly-changing algorithms and recommendations? How do we overcome ‘algorithm anxiety’ and become more intentional and thoughtful in our content consumption and decision-making? Listen now.

The Digital Front Porch

Key takeaways:

- The rise of huge social media platforms has led to algorithmic recommendations and feeds becoming the main way we experience culture on the internet.

- A personal algorithm cleanse can help reset our relationship with the internet and inspire us to think for ourselves.

- Friction is an important concept—algorithmic feeds try to eliminate friction, while slowing down our process of consumption allows for more intentional decision-making.

- Algorithm anxiety is real, particularly for those who make their living on the internet; they are at the mercy of constantly changing algorithms and recommendations.

- As consumers, our preferences are influenced by both algorithms and personal curators; we should recognize our role as tastemakers and actively participate in shaping our own cultural experiences.

• {00:08:17} - “Not being sort of plugged into the matrix doesn't mean that your life and the things that fill it in changes, it means that you're enduring more friction personally.” - Phillip
• {00:17:13} - “It's knowing who your customer is, and cultivating a longer-term relationship, and that requires a kind of friction or slowness or patience in a way. You don't just want them to frictionlessly convert from a viewer to a buyer. You want them to actually think about something.” - Kyle
• {00:19:29} - “The digital platforms treat us as passive consumers of content and as fungible user eyeballs. And so that's how we act. We act as these passive consumers who don't think about what we're consuming until we're given a reason to, and that's unfortunate.” - Kyle
• {00:33:25} - “We're seeing another wave of Internet development happening with smaller platforms that are not so algorithmically driven. I think user behavior is changing, albeit slowly.” - Kyle
• {00:39:53} - “I also grew up in AIM-era AOL chat rooms, and those aesthetics are still captured somewhere on the Internet, and they're memorable because they stuck around long enough to make an impression on us. I don't know that anyone pines for the 2019 brief interface change on Instagram as it was. There is no era anymore because it's constantly in motion.” - Phillip
• {00:52:41} - “You kind of have to ignore that someone else has already thought about the problem that you've thought about or come up with a good book on whatever. You have to have this willful amnesia to make something new.” - Kyle
• {00:59:14} - “The sheer ability of people to move quickly and change ideas and information is going to create that homogeneity. It's just that algorithmic recommendations and feeds make the speed of that exchange even faster, even more granular.” - Kyle
• {01:04:14} - “It's about connecting with what's around you, connecting with people who are in line with your philosophy or whatever. We can build communities without everything having to be for everyone, maybe.” - Kyle

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Kyle Chayka and get your copy of Filterworld
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• The MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.com
• Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Kyle Chayka joins us to discuss Filterworld, and the impact that algorithms have on culture and connection. Are we at the mercy of rapidly-changing algorithms and recommendations? How do we overcome ‘algorithm anxiety’ and become more intentional and thoughtful in our content consumption and decision-making? Listen now.

The Digital Front Porch

Key takeaways:

- The rise of huge social media platforms has led to algorithmic recommendations and feeds becoming the main way we experience culture on the internet.

- A personal algorithm cleanse can help reset our relationship with the internet and inspire us to think for ourselves.

- Friction is an important concept—algorithmic feeds try to eliminate friction, while slowing down our process of consumption allows for more intentional decision-making.

- Algorithm anxiety is real, particularly for those who make their living on the internet; they are at the mercy of constantly changing algorithms and recommendations.

- As consumers, our preferences are influenced by both algorithms and personal curators; we should recognize our role as tastemakers and actively participate in shaping our own cultural experiences.

• {00:08:17} - “Not being sort of plugged into the matrix doesn't mean that your life and the things that fill it in changes, it means that you're enduring more friction personally.” - Phillip
• {00:17:13} - “It's knowing who your customer is, and cultivating a longer-term relationship, and that requires a kind of friction or slowness or patience in a way. You don't just want them to frictionlessly convert from a viewer to a buyer. You want them to actually think about something.” - Kyle
• {00:19:29} - “The digital platforms treat us as passive consumers of content and as fungible user eyeballs. And so that's how we act. We act as these passive consumers who don't think about what we're consuming until we're given a reason to, and that's unfortunate.” - Kyle
• {00:33:25} - “We're seeing another wave of Internet development happening with smaller platforms that are not so algorithmically driven. I think user behavior is changing, albeit slowly.” - Kyle
• {00:39:53} - “I also grew up in AIM-era AOL chat rooms, and those aesthetics are still captured somewhere on the Internet, and they're memorable because they stuck around long enough to make an impression on us. I don't know that anyone pines for the 2019 brief interface change on Instagram as it was. There is no era anymore because it's constantly in motion.” - Phillip
• {00:52:41} - “You kind of have to ignore that someone else has already thought about the problem that you've thought about or come up with a good book on whatever. You have to have this willful amnesia to make something new.” - Kyle
• {00:59:14} - “The sheer ability of people to move quickly and change ideas and information is going to create that homogeneity. It's just that algorithmic recommendations and feeds make the speed of that exchange even faster, even more granular.” - Kyle
• {01:04:14} - “It's about connecting with what's around you, connecting with people who are in line with your philosophy or whatever. We can build communities without everything having to be for everyone, maybe.” - Kyle

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Kyle Chayka and get your copy of Filterworld
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• The MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.com
• Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

This week on the podcast, Phillip and Brian discuss the debatable success of the KITH loyalty launch, the “debauchery” during the prior eCom boom cycle, and the forthcoming Apple Vision Pro’s impact on Commerce. PLUS: Save the date for SXSW 2024! Listen now!

“No one wants to make a decision about the future without data from the past”

Key takeaways:

- Incorporating tier-exclusive products into a loyalty program can provide real value and make customers feel special and incentivized to continue purchasing.

- The potential for current technology was always built into the technology itself, often requiring new ways of thinking to fully realize its capabilities.

- Pattern recognition, which is necessary for successful commerce, can be mentally exhausting, leading to reliance on algorithms and machines for assistance.

- Building a standout loyalty program requires an understanding of the shifting landscape of commerce and media, and adapting to new technologies and mediums.

- True loyalty programs should focus on customer engagement and long-term success rather than solely relying on historical data or familiar strategies.

• {00:12:04} - “Kith's got a loyal following already. This is a great way to formalize it and reward people who are already incredible buyers and give them a reason to never leave. It builds a nice moat.” - Brian
• {00:15:09} - “This is the interesting psychology of what a good loyalty program can do, and I think only a multibrand retailer can pull off, is that I started looking at what else can I buy here and shift my spending. I wound up filling up my cart with the other things that I probably would have bought anyway over the next few months and pulled it forward but away from those brands, which is what loyalty is intended to do.” - Phillip
• {00:35:11} - “We've lived through one of those cycles already, so we understand the excesses of the prior cycle, and we're just young enough to reinvent ourselves and have already begun to do so because we saw the end of the era coming.” - Phillip
• {00:37:40} - “When technology changes, context often changes, and the message changes too because it's a new medium. No one wants to make a decision about the future without data from the past. They think that that is the indicator of what to do next. And it often is from a year to year basis until things have a bigger shift.” - Brian
• {00:41:25} - “Skeuomorphism in the abstract, not in the practice of the iPhone, but skeuomorphism in the abstract is taking tangibly something that is familiar and extending it into the new media format's unfamiliarity so that there's a bridge.” - Phillip

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce + for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• The MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.com
• Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

There are some compelling storylines to follow already in 2024, and Phillip and Brian have some hot takes on X creator payments and deepfakes, why “boring” seems to cut through the noise now, and some excitement about Vision PRO. Also, are we to the point now where innovation means working with the algorithm versus working around the algorithm? Listen now for this and more.

A Boring Membership for Everything

Key takeaways:

- Deepfakes are becoming more prevalent, creating opportunities for both entertainment and deception.

- Shop Pay is helping Shopify build a strong moat in e-commerce by offering a seamless payment experience across various platforms.

- Applebee's Date Night Pass may have been sold out quickly, but was a genius marketing move that was an earned PR campaign at best. Read Phillip’s critique in The Senses.

- Memberships can still be successful, provided they offer real value to customers and are sustainable long-term.

• {00:10:54} - “If you spend over $4,000 on something unnecessary for your job or to complete anything in your life, it is a purely experiential purchase. This is just the greatest advertising play in the history of advertising. It is the most natural place for high-end brands, luxury brands, brands that are going to sell experiences that are not commodity-based to put experiences in front of people who are prequalified.” - Brian
• {00:20:34} - “The old methodology of making people pay for things and then gathering stats about how much they're willing to pay for something is a better indication of how much desire or loyalty they had to that thing, as opposed to just a quick peek at it or a quick chuckle.” - Brian
• {00:26:31} - “It's an interesting sign of the times that deepfakes are such a part of the public discourse. It's only gonna ramp up as we have a political season in a fight. - Phillip
• {00:31:06} - “Shop Pay is an unbelievable moat and has all of the consumer penetration that everybody in the one-click payment infrastructure wanted.” - Phillip
• {00:48:56} - “There are crafty ways to put together membership programs that people will wanna buy. But you need to be really careful with them, and don't do things that aren't sustainable like so many membership companies have done in the past. Make things that are smart for your best buyers and make it actually a B2B thing. Your best consumers will appreciate it, and you can reward them and lock them in.” - Brian

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce + for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• The MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.com
• Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Our Predictions episode was packed with many great insights and discussion points, but the guys had even more to discuss regarding what 2024 has in store. PLUS: Rite Aid gets a hefty penalty from the FTC, healthcare trends, “Trendcore” and “trendwashing”, and what Phillip and Brian are reading right now.

Product is Content

• {00:08:41} - “The terminally online people are the ones who are constantly trying to gain recognition by glomming onto other people's visible success, and Yotpo just didn't have that kind of brand affinity in social media.” - Phillip
• {00:28:41} - “2024 is just gonna be another really rough year in health care because we've been saying forever that a lot of the technology does exist to bring some of these technologies to homes. It could be, but the problem is adoption by the ecosystem and by consumers. And that's not gonna hit in 2024. Sorry.” - Brian
• {00:35:50} - “The Rite Aid issue {is} a great example of this where people are actually genuinely relying on technology that ultimately is able to fail in ways that no one understands. As technology becomes more and more of a black box, it's going to be harder and harder to identify what the cause of something actually is.” - Brian
• {00:39:23} - “If you look at the Hailey Bieber dress can trend because Hailey Bieber in a red dress becomes a meme, and Shein produces it within a week, and then people are buying it within another week, and then it turns on social media as a result within a couple weeks. So the meme half-life of about a month is able to reach mass cultural and commerce adoption, and then necessarily dies to whatever is next.” - Phillip
• {00:42:39} - “People who have made phenomenal monetary investments in the last cycle get left out of the next two cycles, and that's how you get old.” - Phillip

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• The MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.com
• Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!