Latest / Talk Commerce / Live from Shopware: The future of RFPs and Synchronicity with Phillip Jackson
Transcript
- Brent Peterson (00:00.086) I've got hit record. I hit record because there's no time like now. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, cats and dogs. my freaking goodness. Phillip from Future Commerce. You don't need a last name. That's true. Well, Phillip Jackson was a hard name to have in 90s. Winkles better. The triangle offense. OK, hold on Brent. Wait, hold on. Scott Ohsman, Brent Peterson. That's right. Phillip Jackson from Top. Commerce, Future Commerce. off brand. And my new podcast is I was on brand. It's a horseshit. that he says that to me. It's just, mean. Is it not, Phillip? It's the mo it's a very Brent -coded thing, sort of, to say. I think, He's ordering, by the He's ordering. He's off mic. I'll have one of everything. Thank you. If, if I may, I'm starting to believe in synchronicity. I know that that's sort of a weird and woo -woo thing to say in these circles. Like, synchronized swimming? Synchronicity? What are you talking about? No, synchronicity. You know, like the song from the police. yes, Synchronicity, great. Have you ever heard a band like that since Police? Seriously, no one is arou I say this all the time, He has a new song out too. No, Sting does? Yes, Sting just put out a new song. Fantastic. Back to your Synchronicity, sorry. Yeah, no, Synchronicity. It's like when you start to notice things that sort of are aligning in your life. Yeah. Yeah. I'm experiencing that a lot lately. This is one of those things. I know, I just met you last month at E -Tail. Yep. I know of you. I'm like a fanboy and I got to meet you guys in live person, you and Brian. for 14 years. Hey, it's the Mutual Admiration Society. So much respect for you guys. know what's so funny? We were at this dinner with a bunch of other people who don't pod and we go to this complete equipment software nerd pod talk across this poor woman who wasn't even in the conversation. Not even in the conversation. We're just talking across. Also, she worked for Sweetwater. So you would think that she'd know more about the Well, she told me this mic I'm on is the number one seller. Yeah, it's true. It's true. Well, it turns out anything that you put at the top of the page becomes the number one seller. Fascinating. A billion dollar brand, you can change. That's e -commerce genius right there. There you go. Come to me for all the merchandising tips. What is the newest, greatest, future commerce you got? You guys are the content just dynamo. Brent Peterson (02:14.924) over there. We have a new report that we're talking about here. I'll be up in a minute to talk about it here at the show, but it's called the Honest Truth. We're talking about the least exciting subject in all of e -commerce, RFPs. hit me. Really freaking painful. it stands I can get a preview of it and it's very interesting. Thank you very much. Yeah. So our whole take on this is that there's the unspoken truth and then there's the honest truth. We all know that it's a bit of a charade. Right? 100%. And we broke it down. And we actually talked to people, 100 merchants who are software buyers in procurement, and we talked to dozens of agency leaders about what is it they expect out of an RFP, and what do they say, and what do they actually mean? And those things are very, very far apart, my friend. I like how you had merchant or buyer point of view in there. Yeah. I think that's great, because I do feel as though, and I didn't get a chance to read the whole thing, but. I feel like they already know who they're going to go with in advance, and they just put it out there for whatever. Definitely not to make things go faster. So there's that, right? But I'm right. I'm in the middle of this in several times in my life, because I've just been around a long time. yeah. And so I get hired to basically part of my scope, if you want to call it that or whatever, is to go find the right agency fit. And so I'm kind of knee deep in this so this is fascinating to me, and I haven't read the report I got the I got the what's up that it was coming out today at this big shop to over fast I'm excited about this I I'm excited about it, too It is the most sexy most exciting way to talk about the least exciting topic on planet Earth Well, I don't know I I think it's really interesting. There's a lot of data in there We could get into it, but I you know I think you could also just read it for yourself future commerce comm slash honest truth Yeah, I think it's great and I have to ask because I think it's super cool that you've done this. We're almost out of time, Where was the, like, why did you do it? Like RFP is the most unsexy thing in the whole world. Because I think it is. it's so needed what you've done. Because I think it's also the last vestige of a middleman that we have left in this business where everything else has gone direct. And there's also a... Brent Peterson (04:37.536) It is probably the most susceptible to AI disruption. What we found is that third party agencies that proctor RFPs are already using AI in that process. And a lot of the AI responses from agencies are being run via AI as well. we're already there. It's just that those two systems aren't talking to each other. And what happens in the future, and this is really kind where we end things in the report is Don't give it all away, Phillip. No, I mean, but I think there's a lot in there and sandwiched in the middle, right? There is a creamy center. at the other side of it is we don't really need people in the middle of these processes talking back and forth to each other. We could actually go deeper if we had a greater, if we had a way of connecting business needs to fulfilling those needs. I think that agencies could probably pitch at a greater scale in a marketplace. I think that software companies could find more customers through agencies if this were more automated. we kind of theorize where that's going to go. Yeah, and I've been pitched, I've already been pitched for RFPs for my company to do AI. How come you haven't mentioned that like seven times already? sponsored by ShopWare. I've already been pitched by AI companies that are... that are sending you RFPs that they are going to then do the RFP for you with their AI and send it off to get more business. This is so self, I don't know, obnoxious. People come to me because I know most of the people in the Amazon space. I've been around Amazon for a long time. I know a lot of the agency owners. I'm a former agency owner of Amazon stuff and we have weakness and strengths, period. And what I'm trying to do is my goal is to put the agency and the manufacturer, brand, whatever, and so it's a happy -happy. Everybody wins. But I have to do that, but I have to really know exactly what all the ugly wires are behind if you peel the wall, you know? Sure. So I guess this is, I don't know where I'm landing in this, but hopefully I'll add value of finding the right fit. It is dating though, isn't this all coming down to dating, Phillip? Brent Peterson (06:58.846) It is, it's a form of dating, yeah, for sure. I think RFPs is a different form of dating. It's a really... I know, it's a major... Vanilla, horrible vanilla form of dating. It's of an arranged marriage. Indian form of dating. And I haven't read it and don't know shit, but let's just cut to the crap. mean, basically, is it a who you know, not what you know situation? Is it a people thing? Well, I could give you the data points. The gist is that nobody trusts anybody in the process. Boom. And so if it is who you know, then, you know, I was talking to Jason earlier and he's like, you shouldn't trust any agency partner that doesn't have multiple horses in the barn, right? Like we need, you need someone who can give you good advice, not based solely on pre -existing relationships. Yeah. But I think that there's also a potential future where the... the capabilities of developing from multiple platforms is also becoming easier because software is making that more efficient. And you could say AI, you could say it's not AI. So I don't know, I think we're at, I'm trying to capture this particular moment in time. I think it's fantastic. Well needed. Anyway, enough about that. No, it's okay. Anything else on future commerce we need to plug, Always. Well, we have a summit coming up in Los Angeles. October 10th. Thank you. Wow. Gosh, you're so on top of that, Brent. That's scary. And I'd love for people to come. But let me give you a two second thing about it. You can get more than two. We'll give you 27 seconds. Yeah, so we're talking about how pop culture has become participatory. 100 %! And so the future of entertainment is actually the future of commerce. These things are coming closer together. And we have some rad folks. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! I forgot that you have this stuff. It's the greatest thing ever. my gosh, I'm going have to you play me on. Long story short, the folks who create all of the AI documentary film footage for Sora, is OpenAI's project, video project, is a film production company called Shy Kids. Shy Kids will be coming and talking about the future of content creation. are so hip. Jesus. We've got some really sick. If I could be a quarter as hip as you and Brian in future commerce. Brent Peterson (09:20.142) Grimes Grimes is manager Elon's ex -wife Grimes is manager who's coming to come talk to us a little bit about stuff Head of UTA's fine arts division. I read that and you're saying that is big time. It's cool. It is true. No, it is big time But you're but it's late. The point is so Captivating to me because I'm a big sports guy and it's the same thing all of a sudden celebrity has harnessed brand I mean my daughter my 24 hours. She's obsessed with the Kardashians. I've watched all this stuff and Say what you want, okay? I'm not judging or whatever. Those women have done a hell of a job of turning celebrity into massive, massive revenue. Unbelievable. They're deaf business people. They are. to give it to them. But this flip, this flip of control and leverage, we talk about creators and content creators now having the leverage. It's the same thing. Celebrity, sports celebrity in the United States or all around the world now have leverage. run the table. don't need agents. They don't need distributors and all these other facets. They actually can control the brand and get in ownership. On the way over here, I needed to get batteries. Yeah, hit the no. There you go. some applause for you. love that. I'll take it. Okay, so you needed get batteries. Had to get batteries. Let's not talk about the inflation about six triple A batteries, $24 at in New York City. We are in New York City. Yeah, and then I went to Target, which is the dumbest thing you could possibly do. But so I'm at Target, I'm gonna buy these batteries. Thing that really took me by surprise is there's you have the video game aisle, right? You have televisions on the back wall. Yeah. And then you have two aisles of electronics and the sign above it says content creator tools. And I think that we're at... This is at Target. This is at Target. Not Target in New York City. don't know that Target West Palm Beach, Florida has two aisles of content creator and content, right? But content creation is kind of an incumbent on all of us to take part in. Like it is truly an economy unto itself. Now the creator economy, I think, is a little overblown. I agree. Right? Brent Peterson (11:35.086) We're all participating in it in some way, right? Hi. Yeah. I mean, we're here at Shoptoberfest. mean, are we? Sponsored by Shopware. That's a new drinking game. By the way, I got to get some food or else this podcast is going to get real funny. I think we're already there. Real funny. I'm a lightweight by nature. Love it. I appreciate you giving me a moment on the mic. Good to see Love you. can't explain this. Brent's got the video going, but... You people, this is like radio road against podcast road. I am so thrilled with the setup. Thank you to Jason, president. What's his title? GM of Merck is GM now. Scott is incredibly good at accents, by the way. you need me. Phillip has been to Fargo. He's been all over. Yeah. I've been everywhere man. I they're actually calling me. I'm gonna go check on it. Fantastic. We'll talk to you later. you. Future commerce. you're not listening, reading, listening, I don't know what else. I haven't eaten since 8 a either. I had this bar from the Delta Sky Lounge. How about that Phillip Jackson though? Can we do a little wrap up here? Yes, let's do it. News guys have created a, I think really in our space, a true media company. Yes, in the show notes we'll put his report. The show nuts? Show notes. Brent Peterson (13:12.055) getting worse. Bye bye.