- I think Apple could come out
with a sneaker that would do well.
Based on its core size.
Apple's losing it a little bit,
but like four years ago,
six years ago, eight years ago,
Apple coulda came out with a sneaker
and fucking won.
They were cool so they could enter.
And then they innovated which is their DNA.
And then you would have said oh, my God,
what are they gonna come out with next?
(upbeat music)
(phone typing)
- Yeah, I don't think people
are thinking enough of like
who could enter.
Use this example,
nobody was thinking about Sony as a video game competitor,
to Sega and Nintendo, until they were.
Nobody was talking about
Microsoft as a video game competitor
to Nintendo and Sega until they were.
You know same reason I think BMW
should be making the biggest
and best headphones in the world.
If you heard today BMW came out with new $100 headphones,
and they worked better than Bose
and better than Beats,
and they had that incredibly iconic logo
on the circle on the outside.
I have a funny feeling that people
would believe in their engineering capabilities,
that brand has permission
to make the best headphones in the world.
- [Man] And at the core of that
is because you, it's because the brand.
Because they built brand, like a sneaker,
things like that.
Yeah, you're watching me do it in real-time.
I'm building brand
which will give me permission to
do anything that feels authentic
and I'm capable of executing against.
- [Man] Interesting, yeah that makes a ton of sense.
- I'm in the business of what can be done,
verses what used to be done.
99% are like no, BMW makes cars.
I'm in the business of, BMW can make headphones.
PBS and New York Times could become
the next generation of great agencies.
I'm building one of the most successful current agencies
in the world.
I ran a liquor store before I entered.
I've already done it.
How about this?
I'm talking in hypothesis,
and I'm actually the living example of it.
I think we should write an article called, Why Not?
Here are the brands that have permission.
And maybe we should do like 15 predictions,
not predictions, like what ifs?
What if BMW competed with Beats?
Why can't Nike compete with Gatorade?
When I say to you
if Nike came out with a sports drink tomorrow
that was delicious,
like if I say to you, that happens,
do you say to yourself,
yeah that actually can happen?
Oh, yeah I could see that.
It's one big game of yeah, I can see that.
It's brands that have established something enough
to have permission to do something that makes sense
within that same target demo,
just executed in a different product or service.
- [Man] What's something that Apple could do?
Do you think? Like a big company like that?
- Well, I think Apple should make televisions.
That's just very, and that's literal.
I think Apple could come out
with a sneaker that would do well,
based on its core size,
Apple's losing it a little bit,
but like four years ago,
six years ago, eight years ago,
Apple coulda came out with a sneaker
and fucking won in my opinion.
They said it's cool to 16-year olds.
The end.
They were cool so they could enter,
and then they innovated which is their DNA
and then you would have said oh, my God,
what are they gonna come out with next?
(calm music)
Can you send a thing to the group text?
I want to start a What If? Wednesdays.
I want to make a post for 7:30.
I want somebody on the design team
to design a product that doesn't exist in my world
that I haven't thought of yet.
Let's uh, I got it, I want to call it What If? Wednesdays.
I'll write the copy,
but I want to somebody to create the logo real fast,
called What If? Wednesdays.
And I want the first product
to be Bobby Babbans beef jerky.
There was a Vlog, where I made a joke that Tyler Babban
should make a beef jerky
and we were gonna call it Bobby, cause that's his real name,
Bobby Babbans beef jerky.
- Actually you know what, we should start a brand right now,
Bobby Babbans beef jerky.
- Oh my God, it would work.
- Of course, it would work.
I'm involved, hey guys.
I want somebody to design the package
for Bobby Babbans beef jerky.
I'll write the copy,
but every Wednesday going forward,
I'm gonna make a What If? Wednesday,
and we're gonna make up product, every week,
that we're not making
and we're gonna post it,
and we're gonna use that as R and D,
and something's gonna explode,
and then we're gonna actually make it.
- [Man] That's so cool.
So like a product that you could potentially have.
- Yes. Yes. Yes.
- [Man] That's dope, man, that's really cool.
Like no one is thinking like that.
- I mean this is, you're seeing the 2019 version of it.
But like literally bro,
this is the conversations I had with friends
when I said let's start emailing people
instead of sending direct mail.
Let's like, I'm gonna start a show
on this new thing called YouTube.
What is that even?
You can't imagine how foreign that was to a world
that had no videos on the internet.
- [Man] Right and the core of that, you're saying like--
- I'm in the business of what if?
And yes, and why not?
And, where's it going?
And tomorrow.
And 99% of the market is in yesterday.
Their entire framework
and decision-making is predicated on yesterday.
(upbeat music)
- What's about to happen in America with cloud kitchens,
which is a start-up being built right now,
by Travis Kalanick the CEO and founder of Uber.
In the next 18 months, 40 of the major cities in America
are going to get delivered anything they want
within five to seven minutes for free.
I couldn't short 7-11 more,
than the next decade.
I mean it, I mean it.
Unless they're able to execute that capability.
Chicago residents in 18 months,
will have an app that
lets them get toothpaste or Oreo cookies or Mountain Dew
in five to seven minutes for free.
They've built contemporary kitchens
and seed stores underground,
in warehouses, in parking garages,
it is unbelievable,
how much destruction is coming.
The only thing that is going to be left,
is the brand, the affinity the consumer has for the brand,
and that's it.
Just like in entertainment,
if you're following along
with what's going on with Disney and ESPN
and all these things.
We went through 80 years,
where the pipes had the advantage.
Now the pipes are dumb and the IP has the advantage.
Our only move in that environment
is to create such affinity
and brand with the actual end consumer
that when Mom says hey Alexa, send me some cookies.
She's saying hey Alexa, send me some Chips Ahoy.
The tollbooth that voice activated AI devices
are going to have in buying product
seven years from today,
is going to scare this collective group,
in a way that they can't even imagine,
because humans don't care about privacy,
they care about convenience.
And the convenience is coming
at a scale that we've never seen.
The only thing left, will be brand.
And so, I couldn't be more passionate,
as you could imagine, in making brand the forefront.
But if you're yelling at people
where they can't hear you,
you're craving nothing.
And so, that is my passion.
That is my framework.
That's how I see it.
And for me that's only about the consumer.
Not about any other variable,
because that is the only thing that ever matters.
Thank you.
(clapping)
- What is the future of media?
Like how will people connect with brand?
- You know what's funny, that's not what I do well.
I don't, it's not that I forecast,
I observe the current
and create capabilities.
So, for me one thing, that is current enough
that is maybe feels a little bit more in the future,
was why I talked about voice.
I think audio, is exploding.
It's why podcast consumption is up.
Voice devices.
It's the passive nature of the consumption of audio.
That doesn't restrict you from multi-tasking,
that gives it a very nice next decade.
Audio, but back to being a greeting company,
just for two seconds,
if you're looking to acquire a new client to work with,
I highly recommend you
become immersed in what's going on, on LinkedIn.
- I recently have.
- It's very powerful, good.
Keep doing it, it's fault leadership, the whole-nine.
It's there, and it will be, take care.
- So, I'm going to be talking next,
about consumer insights,
and of course, it's all about relevance,
right, so I wanted to ask you about,
you talk a lot about crafting messages for relevance,
but for my job, it's uncovering relevance.
- I think both matter, tremendously.
Where I think we're advancing the conversation,
is creating output for the purpose of uncovering insights.
So much of the content I put out in the world,
as a human, to your son,
and what I do for brands,
is actually for them to get the feedback to do smarter work.
We lived in a world where strategy worked,
and then you had a singular insight,
and then you had an interpretation by a creative,
and you kind of like threw this big brick,
on the world.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- My point of view, is a bunch of little stones.
Oh, wait a minute, they're resonating to this.
The reason I can get to so much truth,
and I'm getting goosebumps,
is cause I'm putting so much out there,
and then I'm qualitatively reading what they're reacting to.
- And you are reacting to there like--
- It's an infinite loop.
I actually don't love coming across motivational.
It's that I realized as I was talking about tactics,
the biggest reason people don't do
what they want to do, is insecurity.
Which then lead me to, why are they insecure?
Which then lead into parenting,
and you know so all of the sudden,
I've become as a personality,
an output of my thesis.
Which is I started with tactics,
couldn't understand why people logically understood,
that I was right about what they needed to do
but they weren't willing to do it.
And then built insights to what led me to more macro.
Which is there mom, made them feel insecure.
I mean it gets, that's why they're not posting.
- They care too much about what other people's opinions--
- My passion, and why I started Vayner Media
is to actually buy nostalgic brands.
Which is why I haven't started otherwise--
- To buy 'em and sell 'em or?
- To buy 'em and refurbish them.
So, my big thing, is I want ultimately,
and it's mostly as a form,
I want to build the reverse of private equity,
in a private equity machine.
Meaning, when I buy a brand,
Tootsie Rolls or Mug root beer,
at Pepsi I want, that's good one.
Everybody buys brands from big food companies as PE firms.
You know, orphan brands, and they cut costs.
And they create operational efficiencies.
And then they flip it.
I want to triple revenue in 48 months.
That's the machine, the whole point.
Oh, shit.
Love you guys.
Take care, bye-bye, thank you.
(upbeat music)