In this episode of Do This, Not That, host Jay Schwedelson dives into current events and their impact on marketing strategies. From navigating crises like the California wildfires to exploring the potential TikTok ban, Jay shares insights on adapting to shifting landscapes. He also sprinkles in some lighthearted pop culture updates.

=================================================================

Best Moments:

(00:58) California wildfires and their impact on marketing

(02:56) The importance of "reading the room" in marketing during crises

(04:14) The potential TikTok ban and its implications

(06:52) Possible beneficiaries of a TikTok ban (YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels)

(07:36) Discussion of Triller as a potential TikTok alternative

(08:19) Cameron Diaz's return to movies with Back in Action

(08:55) Unusual collaboration between Dunkin' Donuts and Native for donut-scented personal care products

=================================================================

Check out our FREE + VIRTUAL EVENTS! -> 

EVENTASTIC.com

GuruConference.com

DeliveredConference.com

=================================================================

MASSIVE thank you to our Sponsor, Marigold!!

FREE Guide → The Loyalty Program Optimization Guide

Building customer loyalty today means going beyond traditional rewards. Successful programs engage customers at every touchpoint, creating experiences that feel personal, valuable, and worth returning for. With nearly 70% of consumers willing to pay more for brands they love, your loyalty program can significantly drive engagement and revenue.

In The Loyalty Program Optimization Guide you will learn:

• Customer Loyalty Today: Explore the latest loyalty trends and why customer loyalty remains a crucial growth driver in today’s market.
• Key Strategies to Optimize Loyalty Programs: Discover must-know tactics to craft a loyalty program that’s engaging, personalized, and impactful.
• Turning Loyal Customers into Superfans: Learn how to cultivate emotional connections that make customers feel more like brand advocates than just shoppers.

Get the FREE Guide today and create better loyalty programs that drive revenue and engagement:

jayschwedelson.com/marigold

Foreign.

Welcome to do this not that, the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately.

You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins, and pitfalls to avoid. We'll also dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwedelson. Let's do this, not that.

We are back for what's up this week from the do this not that podcast presented by Marigold. This is our super short episode. We'll break down what's going on this week and in business and marketing and life.

And then we still have our ask us anything episode later in the week and our big tips episode at the end of the week. So what's going on this week? Well, first I want to mention how devastating it is to see everything going on in California.

To watch people lose their homes that they've been in for so many years is crushing. My heart goes out to them. And it is beyond inspiring to see everyone rally together.

And from a marketing perspective, there is something that we really need to consider. First off, nobody should be trying to capitalize on on this tragedy. If you're doing that, you just stink and you're a horrible person.

But beyond that, you really want to make sure in any situation where really all of us are rallying together when there's something really horrible that takes place. You want to read the room?

And something my own company did this week that actually was a mistake was that we didn't do a good job of, quote unquote, reading the room. And what do I mean by that? So on one of our social accounts, one of our team members posted a meme.

It was a meme of a cartoon character that was on fire. And it was about how, you know, marketers are running around crazy to start the year off.

And it was this image of a cartoon character that had flames coming off of them. And, you know, at any other time, this would be a nothing. Nobody would care. Great. It would get some traction.

But in this moment, we got a lot of negative comments that we were really just not thinking properly. And that's totally fair. And I agree.

We should have gotten that negative feedback and it caused us to really take a pause and say, okay, we need to do a better job of understanding what is going on and what we are actually doing and what we are putting out there, because that's how you can hurt your brand. So right now, anything that you are promoting this, using this as an example and you should use this for any situations that come up.

Anything that you're promoting right now, whether you're a business market or consumer marketer, there are certain things that you shouldn't be doing. There's certain imagery, obviously, like what we did, you shouldn't be using that imagery.

But there's also certain words and phrases right now that you shouldn't be using. You shouldn't say, there's a hot new arrival, right? You shouldn't say this is going to spark your interest or you have a fire sale.

You shouldn't be saying these things because is it going to destroy your performance? Not necessarily, but it's going to destroy your brand with the audiences and communities that you're marketing to.

And it should, because it just shows that you just are not aware and you don't care. And that's terrible and it's probably not true. Hopefully you do care. And there are other things, like don't use the word lit.

Don't use the word lit at any moment because lit is an embarrassing word to use. Now, if I say lit to my kids, they think I am a nerd and I am a nerd, so don't do that.

And I would go as far to say don't even use a fire emoji in your marketing right now, because again, it's a little bit off. And is that the most important thing, what I just talked about? Absolutely not. It's a ridiculous element to even bring up all of this marketing stuff.

But that is our job, right? And our job is to make sure that we are being involved in what's going on on the planet and we're not trying to take advantage of it.

And so to be a little bit aware of this is important. All right, so what else is going on? Well, the big thing going on this week is, is, is, is, is, is TikTok going to get banned? Right.

That's the big topic. And just to do a quick rehash on what this is, what's going on with TikTok, and I'll give you my two cents what I think is going to happen.

Well, there's a few things. So if there's no intervention and nobody does anything, TikTok will stop operating in the United States on January 19th.

So I think one of two scenarios is going to probably play out, in my opinion, which is totally useless. The most likely scenario is that TikTok is going to remain on our phones. You're not going to be able to.

If you don't have TikTok in your phone, you're not going to be able to go to the App Store and download it for either Google or Apple's App Store.

It's going to remain on our phones, but because the law is upheld by the Supreme Court, there's going to be no updates or new features that are going to be allowed to be pushed to our phones, which means that the app is going to, over time, become outdated. It's going to become less secure because, I mean, less security patches that can be pushed to our app.

And then ultimately the functionality of the app is going to completely deteriorate. But during that weird period, in my opinion, as the app is sort of deteriorating a little bit, there's going to be a new administration.

And I believe that either ByteDance is going to divest completely or a giant company, a US Company like Oracle, who's very interested, is going to come in and have some sort of ownership and rights to it and get the app rolling again. I don't think TikTok is just going to go away. And that is the other likely outcome, right? The other likely outcome is that it just ceased to exist.

And if it does cease to exist on January 19, what does that mean? And in general, what does it mean? Right now, the biggest beneficiaries of this, all of this are, are Google's YouTube, right?

YouTube and Instagram Reels. I believe that this really is the year of YouTube. Overall, YouTube shorts, all right, have over 2 billion monthly active users.

Those are the short videos on YouTube. And the reason I say it's the year of YouTube is podcasts are aggressively moving on to YouTube. That's becoming the home of podcasts.

And I believe this TikTok ban, whether it goes full ban or not, YouTube shorts is going to be, to me, the number one beneficiary. Everybody's saying it's Instagram reels, but I think Instagram reels is just, it's. It's a wonky version of TikTok.

And I think YouTube has its act together. The other player out there that thinks that they're a player that I don't really think is a player is this other app called Triller. T T R I L L E R.

They're out there. They're saying that they have 60 million monthly active users, of course, Engadget, but everybody is suspect on that number.

And they launched this campaign this week because it's a very similar app. And they're trying to say, no, we're the new TikTok.

And they launched this new campaign this week called savemytiktoks.com where you could actually download all your videos that you've ever put on TikTok and then have a place to then upload them on Triller. I don't think that's going to be what happens. It's going to be YouTube, it's going to be Instagram.

So those are the big things that are going on this week that we should all be watching out for. But what are the most important useless things going on this week? Because that's really all I care about. So I'm very excited. Cameron Diaz is back.

She has a new movie coming out this week on Netflix, is called Back in Action. It's a movie with her and Jamie Foxx. And Cameron Diaz has not made a movie in 11 years. And she's awesome. Okay. And it's this like spy comedy thriller.

So that comes out this week. Back in action. Very pro. Cameron Diaz coming back. And the other thing I saw, which is really ridiculous, this needs to stop.

These food brands collaborating with personal care brands is really weird. So Dunkin Donuts now called Dunkin, they just teamed up with Native.

Native is that personal care brand, you know, soaps and whatever, to launch a collection of donut inspired personal care items. Is this something the world needs? They are launching deodorants and body washes and shampoos. Are we? Are you kidding me?

So now, okay, there are going to be four donut inspired scents. Strawberry frosted doughnut. Do you need strawberry frosted donut deodorant? Is that something that we need? Vanilla sprinkle is another flavor.

So you're going to have a body wash. I can't stand when people smell too much like vanilla. It grosses me out. Then they get a blueberry cobbler.

Who wants to smell like a blueberry cobbler? That is embarrassing. And the last one is Boston cream, which is just weird. Hi, I'm going to use the Boston cream shampoo.

There's a lot of weirdness that goes into that sentence. Anyway, this is what's going on this week. Listen, if you're awesome, you're going to register for Eventastic.

That was with1t Eventastic.com that is our new free virtual event that is about all things events. It's about webinars, in person events, virtual events, small events. You're going to want to be there. It's in June, we have limited free spots.

You want to check it out@eventtastic.com and if you want to be my absolute best friend, you would leave this thing a review. Maybe you'll share the show with somebody, but if you leave a review you are cool. I appreciate you and have a great week Later.

You did it. You made it to the end. Nice, but the party's not over.

Subscribe to make sure you get the.

Latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers. And hook us up with a five star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time.

Lastly, if you want access to the best virtual marketing events that are also 100% free, visit guruevents.com so you can hear from the world's top marketers like Daymond John, Martha Stewart and me, Guru Events.com check it out.