Latest / WOI Unfiltered / Fun Friday - Episode 10

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Fun Friday - Episode 10 · WOI Unfiltered

• Jenna Matthews: Alright, I just hit record. Wait a second, wait a second. Let me grab coffee. We're recording. And I have my coffee already. So what are the game this Friday, Jenna? So happy Friday. I'm coining this one fun Friday because it has been a little bit of a crazy ride for the last two weeks. It has in a good way, the best part of our job way, but it's nice to take a little breath. Yes, I agree. Okay, so. We're mixing it up a little bit today. I think we're going to do a couple quick hits on just like fun things we've seen in the news lately. I feel like the news environment and the political environment is still a little bit heavy. Very heavy. I was going say not a little bit. It's still heavy and we're seeing it all over the place. So we're going to lighten it up today. So I have a couple of favorite things that I've seen lately. I think you do too. You also took a trip recently, which will lay into one of the things we want to talk about. Yes. Okay. So first thing is first, can we start with McDonald's and Burger King? Because we had Renee on last week. We did. about Burger King and their great campaign and they're just on fire lately. So, and let me pause and actually say, we do have some friends who actually work at McDonald's too. We do. their corporate headquarters. We're equal opportunists here. and actually have a lot of fun things to say about both of them. But we just watched the clip that has officially gone viral of the McDonald's CEO tasting their new burger, which is supposed to be, think, their biggest burger ever. It's like more meaty and two burgers and it looks delicious. And he took arguably a small bite. Burger King fired back with just the best. Way to Fireback, which is just a short video of their president taking a massive bite of their revamped whopper. Nothing about McDonald's, nothing else. Just an awesome video of him doing that. And it has gone viral. It's on every morning show, every big news outlet. Like it's all over the place. It's hilarious. So well done. We need to follow up with Renee on that too, because I'm sure it's just a gangbusters. mean, they had already gotten on Colbert for their Burger King CEO answering the phone program or president, I should say. So hilariously, here they go again. And that's just good PR. It's owning a moment. It's making it work for you. It's news jacking at its finest and just having your antenna up to understand how you can make the landscape work for you. Amazing. I agree with you on Burger King and they really knocked this one in the park. I will say though, McDonald's is not to be outdone because something else that we were just talking about was the latest McDonald's news about the All American Games and their new limited edition little crock key chains that they have in their Happy Meals. Which the second I saw that I was like, ⁓ my gosh, my kids are going to want all of those. Like that's just, that's a really cool collaboration. that they're definitely going to want to take advantage of. Absolutely. And I love it because the marriage of McDonald's and Crocs makes so, so very much sense from kind of a brand to brand partnership as well. I will be honest, if you quickly read the headlines, you think it's a McDonald's jibbit that's going on a croc that you might have at home, but it is, it's a little bit different with the croc key chains. But again, to your point, Jenna, It's sort of that whole piece about, want to collect them all. The Happy Meals of Yore, where you do want to get out there and collect them all. What is it? Six? Is it six variations? It's six. And honestly, what you just said would have been a great idea to do Little Jibbitz. I'm sure there are reasons they didn't go with that. My kids would have collected them all and would have put them all on their shoes. Yes. But what I will say about McDonald's is just they know how to do an always on news engine. Better than many, many, other brands. have worked with hundreds of brands that want to do this always on News Engine and McDonald's, I mean, they have perfected it with just a constant stream of conversation and news. And it's not the same stuff. We were chatting about this before and I know they have their share mark shakeout, but like that's something you could use to drive news. I'm not seeing news about that. I'm seeing them go into different areas and have different campaigns running. So it's not just a rinse repeat. They are being creative and innovative with their conversation, which is really cool. Yeah. And we just talked about the nuggets and caviar for Valentine's Day as well. But then they do have the annual things to look forward to like the Shamrock Shake. I have quite a few people in my life who look forward to that green thing every year. And so yeah, it's always just fun to see what they come up with. Okay. So some other things that caught my attention this week. One was Target, I saw a headline about Target investing $2 billion in revamping some of their stores. What I could see was that they're leaning into kind of the busy families and making their stores really, really helpful for them, almost creating a one-stop shop. So we know that a lot of primary caregivers and primary shoppers in the family go to different places to get different items. Some of it has to do with preference. Some of it has to do with availability. Target is really trying to lean into that and say, we can be the one place you go and be more convenient for you. they're increasing the volume of fresh groceries they offer. They're increasing high-end makeup. They have a partnership, I think it's with Ulta. Yes, it is Ulta. Yeah, and so our store already has like a special section that has like Ulta, more expensive products that I would normally buy for myself. Traditionally, I would have gone to like Ulta to get stuff for me. and Target to get kind of like fun play stuff for my daughter. And now they're really trying to mix those two together, again, to make it that one-stop shop. So it is a cool model. It'll be interesting to see kind of how that plays out for them. And then you mentioned to me this tooth fairy thing I wanted to check out. Yes. And a quick note on Target, because to me that is a retail brand that does no wrong. I fell in love with it years and years ago. And in fact, you know, kind of projected. When I first met Jake in New York City, I was like, did you outfit this entire place with Target stuff? And at the time he wasn't a brand loyalist and he was actually really offended because it was actually like Eames, designer Eames stuff that was all over his walls. I thought it was Target. And that's a great, it's also like totally our relationship, which is amazing as well. But point being, they've always been my one stop shop. So the fact that they're investing a couple billion in this is pretty huge because it's just going to be, it's going to take that much more of my time when I go in there. So whereas I walk out with 150 worth of stuff, maybe it'll be 250, who knows, but thank you, Target. Whatever you're doing to improve, I'm here for it. ⁓ Yeah, but the Tooth Fairy piece, super duper cute, Delta Dental, which is a Chicago based business headquartered here. They have run this annual survey with parents of, let's call it, youngs and tweens who are still losing their teeth about the price of a tooth and the inflation rate year over year. And so going into 2026, it was actually up by about 5%, which translates to cents. It's a little over five bucks a tooth. And trust me, when I was younger, we were still getting coins and you were lucky if you got like a silver dollar, right? Yeah. Yeah. So good on the kids these days for running over five bucks per lost tooth because that can, you know, that can lead to some, some riches by the time you lose 20 teeth. But I just thought it was so cute. So ownable by Delta Dental. And it actually made waves in the news as well, even though this is something they've kind of done, I think for at least 10 years. They even have a price index, which shows the ebb and flow of that per tooth cost. There's a great little methodology behind it with the survey that they run. So again, something truly ownable that a brand is taking and just making some fun news, right? Getting their brand out there and making some fun news about it in a splashy way to raise awareness. think the other thing that it really speaks to is the tried and true tactic of survey and stats. and year over year, you know, numbers. Just, it works no matter what brand you are, it consistently works. People want to see numbers, they want to see changes in data. We actually, just had a conversation with a client about this this week. We're trying to break through on something for earned and, you know, we're pushing to do it in a couple of different ways, but we had said, look, your little golden nugget here is if we do run a survey, you will get. coverage. So let's try it these other ways first, but just know that that is going to break through. Okay, so the other thing I wanted to bring up is United Airlines. So United Airlines came out with a new rule regulation on their airlines that you must wear headphones if listening to something. Now, Let me tell you, as if I am traveling independently or with my husband, I love that role so much. I cannot stand when you're on an airline or, you know, when you're flying and you can hear what somebody else is watching. I just, there's a level of it that I'm like, that's a little rude. Like put your headphones on. Yes. That said, I think that United may have just made themselves the least child-friendly airline that exists. I have three kids. I have flown with them many times. always bring their headphones and always try to get them to use them. But it doesn't always happen, you know, like, especially with my youngest sometimes, he just doesn't want to wear them. He won't wear them. And so he ends up, you know, it'll be on low volume, but there are times that it just doesn't work or there are children with special needs that are bothered by having headphones on. And so I do think there's this extra level of stress that parents now will encounter on United. where they're trying to get their kids to conform to this rule and maybe they won't. And then there's the worry of like, am I getting caged off the flight? Are they gonna find me for it? Like, what's gonna happen? So I think it is great for one subset of the population, but may have made them a little less family friendly. Yeah, I agree, Jenna. At first I was like, ⁓ good on them. Cause I do find it, you know, just greatly aggravating when that happens. It happened to me the other day with an older gal that I was seated next to, but sadly she didn't realize that her headphones weren't playing the sound. So was like very loud. I actually had to, I know it was so, and I know, I had to ask the flight attendant, cause I didn't, I didn't want to have to do it. You're kind of seated next to this person for several hours maybe. And I didn't want to make any waves, but I knew she didn't realize it wasn't actually functioning. So God love her, the flight attendant fixed it for me. But I have to say, wow, it was so disruptive for the, you know, probably 20 minutes it was happening. Oh, that went on for 20 minutes. Went on for 20 minutes. 20 minutes before I got up the Moxie to ask the flight attendant and then the flight attendant, you know, kind of actioning. However, I think that it's an unwritten rule, right? So to formalize it, I'm not really sure what that's getting United. And also that then there's the enforcement policy. There is a gray area, as you've said, Jenna, especially when you're talking about kids. So while I like the essence behind it, I'm not sure. It's great to make a full on policy. Yeah. I'm curious about it, but okay. So speaking of your flight. Yes. Different flight. Okay. You recently, as in like a couple of days ago, flew Southwest, right? Yes. It was my first time. Flying Southwest, which is basically my airline because it does Chicago, Baltimore really, really well. It's like a commuter bus. I have the credit card. So yes, that's where my personal loyalty lies. And so, yeah, I wasn't tracking that the implementation of seat assignments was January. And so it was kind of a woe moment, but I didn't mind it at all. So Jenna, what are you saying out there? Well, I was going to say to back up. Southwest announced last year in 2025 that they would be abandoning their open seating policy. We talked about this a little bit in our Super Bowl episode because they did some new ads. So they announced that almost, I would say, six to eight months in advance, at least. Yeah. They have historically always had open seating, right? When you check in the 24 hours in advance, you get A, B, or C. I am used to fly Southwest almost weekly. when I was traveling to you guys and in Nashville. So I'm a fan of them. I liked the open seating policy. I did see though that they had some research saying that 80 % of people did not like it. So great, good on them. They're actioning what they're seeing from consumer feedback. I did a deep dive into this this morning because I had seen some negative news about Southwest and I wanted to better understand what they had done from a communication standpoint. What I found in my cursory research was, so I think it was way back in June, they started coming out with what I thought were really cute, fun ads, similar to what they did for the Super Bowl, but kind of showing what can sometimes feel like a little chaos in securing your seat at Southwest or what could have previously, and saying that the assigned seating was coming. So they got ahead of it. They were open with consumers. They put the messaging out there. I didn't read a lot about cost implications, but I do think that they put some information out there about that. So in terms of us looking at it as like comms professionals, they checked the boxes, they got to implementation, which happened at the very end of January. And since the very end of January, I have just seen a slew of articles talking about it being chaos, basically them trying to do what other airlines do, but not doing it well. So it's the execution of the assigned seating and the overhead bin space and their new policy around what larger passengers may need to do in terms of buying two seats that seems to really be getting them into trouble. Right. And I've seen, you know, certain adjectives like draconian policy in terms of you can't bump over one or go to an empty row. which absolutely is legacy carrier policy, but also Southwest was really great about that. Sit in the seat. If there's open ones, just move around. And look, as a society, we do not like change. It doesn't necessarily surprise me that people are online griping, that there are negative skewed articles about it. And frankly, the only trip up I saw in my one time experience so far is I couldn't cross the traffic lane into seating group five. So instead of like lining up ABC, it's one, two, three, four, five, and you kind of alternate that line. I myself stuck on one side of traffic lining up and needed to get to the other side. But even in group five, I had plenty of space. It was those big bins where you put it in sideways instead of flat. Plenty of space because they really want you to put your luggage where your seat is, not elsewhere on the plane. So that was fine. But what I did appreciate, and again, party of one, and I do love a South of West flight attendant very much. I find their humor to be hilarious and I'm often laughing out loud like I did the other day. But the guy was just so tongue in cheek. And he's like, hey, you know, this is our new seating policy. Please find your assigned seat. And hey, if you don't like it, go online and complain like everyone else seems to be. And I, I laughed out loud. I'm like, guys, we're going to be fine. We're own it. He's owning it. Sit down, enjoy the flight. Maybe laugh a little bit. I, you know, that's, mean, it seems like. They have done all of the right things from a communication standpoint, making a huge change like this and operationalizing it. You're going to have trip ups. So I think that's the key. Right. Like they're, have substantially changed everything that made them a positive outlier in, in aviation. They've essentially made themselves like everybody else. It's a big change. Yeah. And I think it's just a matter of time. And I'm very curious to see how they manage through this little rough patch. know, I mean, if their decision to change was backed in data, then I think you can fall back on that, but also need to be nimble and flexible. If they've come out with a regulation about, I don't know, bag placement or buying two seats. Like I think that's something to analyze is like, do we really need to make those policy changes at the same time that we're making this huge policy change. But I feel like as consumers, we have short memories anyway. you know, a couple of months from now, if they get everything kind of down pat and they're in a good groove, I can easily see people being like, this is great. This is the best change they ever made. I love it so much. completely. Because it's the growing pains right now. But you are right. This too shall pass. It'll probably end up being better, but time will tell. Yeah. All right. Well, that was our quick hits for this Friday. Our very last question, what was your impact? Yeah. So I love this question this week. We are learning every day and I will say that's both figurative, but also very real. So I'm giving us some props for the past couple of weeks, really digging into generative AI and understanding exactly how to approach that. and breakthrough with our clients and even prospect clients for that matter. It's important. We see it in our own use cases in terms of how we personally research, how we maybe conduct work research as well. It is here to stay. It's only going to get better. It's only going to get faster, stronger. It is something to be embraced and to know how to do on the communications front. So I love that we do continuing ed, Jenna, and are wrapping our brains around it too. ⁓ I just giving us a little credit on digging in on large language models and generative AI and how we can use it to our advantage. Yeah, the work that we do, there's the scary part of it, right? Of like, ⁓ my goodness, is our job going to be replaced? Which I think a lot of millions of people have that question. But on the flip side of that, it's the work that we do becomes even more important because what we do can actually impact the search. results from Gen. And so us being knowledgeable about how we can impact that and what we can do is only going to help our clients. And I think we have the benefit of being so small and nimble and the two of us as business owners being able to say, we need to focus on this and we need to focus on it right now. So we need to educate ourselves. We need to do, you know, the courses that are really going to make us feel like we are on top of it and pull in the people that can really inform us. and thus trickle it down to our team quickly versus having that small subset of experts that is going to exist in the larger agency model with the core team not fully understanding it because they've not had a chance to step in and dive into it. that is definitely a big benefit of our model and of our team. And I'm loving continuing to learn about it and feeling like we're uncovering new things and just getting in the trenches on that. I think it's been really fun for us and it's also helped to make sure that we're keeping our skills sharp. Absolutely. It ties this week nicely in a bowl doesn't it Jenna? In a bow, not a bowl. All right, well thank you so much. I'm glad we got to connect on this Friday. Yes and thank you for making it fun. really was. Have a great weekend everyone. Bye everyone.