Episode 14: Making Motels into a Destination People Care About

Episode Transcript

Garrett: Welcome to episode 14 of the Original Marketing Podcast.

Brady: It’s one of my favorite numbers I think, 14. It’s luckier than 13. It’s double sevens.

Garrett: And a half.

Brady: I think, the only time I played roulette, that was the only single number I chose and I hit it the first time I picked it.

Garrett: Wait, time out. You just picked 14?

Brady: I just picked 14 the first time ever putting it down on one number and it hit.

Garrett: What? That would be my favorite num-

Brady: And I went into it thinking it was a lucky number. That’s not why I thought it was a lucky number.

Garrett: Have you done that since? Usually when I go to casino, I gamble, I do 20 bucks on black or something and that’s how I start.

Brady: I haven’t played roulette since, but I’m going to Vegas this weekend.

Garrett: What are you doing there?

Brady: Baby shower, my cousin, so…

Garrett: I don’t think you’re going to be able to strip a lot.

Brady: Well, I’m golfing while the shower’s happening because all the ladies are going in the shower and then we might find our way to a casino.

Garrett: Get lost.

Brady: Yeah. Staying at my cousin’s. He lives in Henderson so we’re not too close. But it should be fun.

Garrett: That is exciting.

Brady: NASCAR’s going on so that’s going to be a crowd.

Garrett: Have you been when the rodeo’s there?

Brady: No.

Garrett: It’s got to be the same crowd.

Brady: But I was looking at hotels, I was trying to like, oh, let’s say on the strip, let’s say in a hotel, and prices were just insane.

Garrett: What are we talking insane?

Brady: Well, there weren’t a lot of rooms.

Garrett: Caesar’s Palace?

Brady: 750.

Garrett: That’s insane-

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: …because you can do Caesar’s Palace for under 200.

Brady: Holiday Inn was like 120, 150, for sketchy Holiday Inn-

Garrett: Off strip.

Brady: …off strip.

Garrett: Dang.

Brady: So NASCAR brings out the people.

Garrett: People. Do you know, I believe NASCAR is the most attended sporting event throughout the year?

Brady: I bet.

Garrett: Huge crowds.

Brady: It’s a culture I’ve never been in, but even as a kid I just knew NASCAR was massive.

Garrett: Yeah, it’s still big. Does well. They only turn left.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: But I bet you Vegas is going to be nice. I’ve done it when they do the big rodeo.

Brady: That’d be fun. I’ve never been-

Garrett: It’s a different crowd. But I bet you there’s some crossover.

Brady: Definitely some overlap on the Venn diagram of NASCAR and rodeo.

Garrett: Anything fun this weekend?

Brady: Dude, it was a weekend. It was from 8: 00 AM Saturday until 10: 00 PM last night, nonstop.

Garrett: Sign me not up.

Brady: I got to see my grandparents for my grandma’s 88th birthday so that was awesome.

Garrett: In case you’re listening, Grandma, it was a great time.

Brady: Mema, happy birthday, it’s actually today.

Garrett: Okay.

Brady: We went out Saturday. So some special things, but haircuts, family photos, dinner at Aunts et Uncles, dropping off flowers for my wife’s coworker in the morning.

Garrett: You were booked.

Brady: Dropping off the pizza oven Saturday to my uncle’s house for the Sunday pizza party.

Garrett: So this was one of those weird things where Monday’s easier than the weekend, for sure, right now.

Brady: Yeah. I tried to have…

Garrett: You know what I mean? You’re looking forward to work.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: Like this, I’ve got to grind you.

Brady: We watched 13 Lives.

Garrett: What’s that?

Brady: It’s the movie about the cave rescue.

Garrett: Oh.

Brady: It was really good.

Garrett: Elon did everything, right?

Brady: Yeah. No, so-

Garrett: How did they paint that? How did they play that side of the story?

Brady: No, they didn’t play that at all.

Garrett: Okay. Really?

Brady: It was really refreshing because I was talking to our coworker Michael, who lives in the UK and I recommended it to him because the two main divers were British. And I feel if Hollywood would’ve made the movie and it wasn’t a true story, it would’ve been USA saves the day.

Garrett: We obviously did, right?

Brady: No, the U. S. was represented and they were brought in for coms. So there was two soldiers on big walkie talkies and doing coms the whole time. But these two British divers were-

Garrett: Monsters.

Brady: …the most badass people-

Garrett: Really?

Brady: … ofthe century.

Garrett: Okay. What’s this called, 13 Lives.

Brady: 13 Lives.

Garrett: Netflix?

Brady: Amazon Prime.

Garrett: Amazon Prime.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: I was going to go through my list. I was going to get there.

Brady: No, it was Amazon. But no, I actually didn’t want to watch it because I was like, oh I know the story.

Garrett: Yeah. It’s always hard to when it’s like a documentary about Hitler, it’s like, well, he dies in the bunker.

Brady: Yeah. You know what happens. But it was really good.

Garrett: Really?

Brady: Yeah. So put it on the list, 13 Lives.

Garrett: I’m going to add to my list.

Brady: Yeah, check it out.

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: Busy weekend. Busy, busy weekend. What about you? Well, I follow you on Instagram, I know what happened.

Garrett: Caught the fish of my life.

Brady: He caught the fish of his life.

Garrett: So for those that don’t know, after I do my little day job and I put the kids down, I hang out with the wife, a lot of times I take a bath, it’s later and I just grind out fishing videos.

Brady: You fish in the bath?

Garrett: No, I learn.

Brady: Okay.

Garrett: I’m like, I’m going through-

Brady: Yeah. The little magnet that your son has.

Garrett: I’m more learning the knowledge and information of how to catch fish. I’m usually watching a YouTube video or reading a fishing report or studying the maps and learning where all the areas are, just trying to get a lifetime of fishing knowledge into my brain as quickly as possible. And then I got a new boat because I had a smaller boat and I couldn’t get out to the big fish. It was a 20- foot boat and I could get to Catalina but I couldn’t really get past Catalina and I couldn’t really get down into the San Diego, Mexico waters.

Brady: And when it was windy it didn’t go too well.

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: We had a moment.

Garrett: We’ve been on the boat where instead of taking an hour to get across the channel, it took three and a half hours. We would’ve been drier if we swam. Like, I’m talking, this was as wet as you could humanly get.

Brady: It was us on a 20- foot boat in cargo ships.

Garrett: Yes. That was it. It didn’t get bad until halfway and we went forward and I was just spitting out water. Boat did great. I actually just sold that boat.

Brady: Nice.

Garrett: Yeah. Made money on it.

Brady: You sold the car yet?

Garrett: Yeah, I did.

Brady: Oh, nice.

Garrett: I sold everything.

Brady: There you go.

Garrett: It was a great week last week for that.

Brady: Nice.

Garrett: Sold the car for 62.

Brady: Good.

Garrett: You were looking at 69, so right there in range. And then sold the boat for$8, 000 more than I bought it for five years later.

Brady: There you go.

Garrett: Great economy right now for.

Brady: It pay for the gap on the car. I know you want closer to 70.

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: So it all balances out.

Garrett: It all bounced out. And then the fish, it was a big fish. Can we pull up the fish? I just want to make sure the listeners get to appreciate this fish. There it is. So that’s the monster.

Brady: Oh, man. You could have just Googled biggest bluefin ever caught, it would’ve been number one.

Garrett: I know I did call it three weeks ago when we were at lunch. Remember that? I told you I was going to catch a big one.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: I didn’t caught anything all summer by the way. Literally, I’m a professional at driving my boat, throwing my line in the water and pulling up nothing. And this time I got something, so…

Brady: That’s crazy.

Garrett: That’s why they call it fishing, not catching.

Brady: That’s a unit.

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: Got to post it on Reddit. Absolute unit.

Garrett: Absolute unit.

Brady: I posted my uncle, there was a bear in my cousin’s backyard in Aspen and I see this photo and it was so big. So I posted it on Reddit, absolute unit. And it got over 100,000 views.

Garrett: Really?

Brady: It was crazy.

Garrett: Oh that’s-

Brady: People were commenting all over it. You know Reddit.

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: They’re like, is that a black bear or grizzly? And someone’s like, well, black bears have a spot on their shoulder where the skin’s exposed. They were talking about black bears haven’t been seen in Aspen since 1979. So no, it’s not black… It’s funny to read the comments. But you should post it there.

Garrett: This fish actually never existed in our local waters until we just recently, I believe it was 2005 or 2007, we had El Niño. It pushed and changed the migratory patterns of the bluefin and when they got pushed up here, they never left. We used to have interesting albacore and now the albacore are so far offshore that we can’t get them unless we go up to Oregon. But we got bluefin. So these fish are now in our waters and I guess it happens every 15 to 17 years. So this was unheard of, you could not have caught a roof in until only, I think, seven years ago is when it showed up. Yeah, 2015, 2016, that was it right there.

Brady: That’s crazy.

Garrett: It was one of the strongest of the last 145 years. And that, El Niño, completely changed our local fishing environment and we now have these massive sport fish that you used to travel the world to get.

Brady: Yeah, someone told me they saw a sea turtle at Doheny and I was like, ” No way. We don’t have sea turtles.” But it must be because of that. Or not must be, it could be something else.

Garrett: No, but yes, there’s been serious migratory pattern change from El Niño.

Brady: Because I probably stopped surfing a ton around that time, so I never saw a sea turtle ever surfing growing up. And so when someone told me that, I’m like, there’s no way. I’ve spent so many hours in the ocean and I’ve never seen one. But it could have been post 2015.

Garrett: So the whole podcast crew-

Brady: Learning something new every day.

Garrett: …they’re going to get some bluefin tuna meat, and we’re going to have some fun. Brady, I’ve got to get you out there, get the whole crew out there.

Brady: Oh yeah.

Garrett: Maybe catch some fish soon. So it was awesome. It was a great weekend and it still feels like a dream. I’ve been working so hard, every weekend I’m fishing, every night I’m studying and I finally pulled it off on my own boat with my own rod and reel, paid a captain to help me find them. Felt really good. As a lesson to everybody watching, pay people for their expertise. There’s nothing that can fast forward you more. Struggling with something in your marketing? Don’t hire a generic marketer, hire a specialist. Hire someone who’s niched. The captain, I didn’t hire a fishing captain, I hired the guy who’s known for bluefin. And he taught me how to catch B bluefin. And by the way, it was really simple. Once I saw what he did, it was obvious. But sometimes you need someone to take the complex or the unknown and just make it simple for you. And what an awesome use of your time and money when you’re really committed to something is to just pay for expert insights in a very specific niche way.

Brady: Yep, I agree. So cool. I’m going to hire a plumber next time I have a problem-

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: …because I’ll probably cost myself more money trying to do it.

Garrett: Oh, you definitely will. That’s a perfect example. Well let’s talk advertising jealousy break.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: You’re starting us today.

Brady: Okay.

Garrett: Who do you got?

Brady: So. I got Susan. I love how all these ads have names that we don’t really know the name but now that you know it, even in the background, the ad, she works at Susan and Susan.

Garrett: Susan and Susan.

Brady: But it’s a Zillow ad that I think does a good job at channeling the inner thought process when dealing with the house, whether it’s selling it or buying it. And I thought it was funny. I like these funny ads.

Speaker 2: Okay, listen up. Selling our place, buying this place. Thoughts, negative me? No. Shouldn’t have started with you. Spontaneous me? Already ordering drapes. Paranoid me. Why are you asking me? Antisocial me? Wow, I’m rude. Lazy me? Lazy me? We’ve got to sell our place, sort out finances? Stress me? Wow, okay, does anybody have anything helpful? Helpful me? Hi, we don’t need to stress about lining it all up, Zillow can help with that. And that’s why you’re my favorite me. I thought I was your favorite me. Oh, you totally are, gullible me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.

Speaker 3: Did you say something to me?

Speaker 2: I didn’t say anything.

Speaker 3: Oh.

Speaker 2: Me. Me.

Brady: So I liked it. One reason why I like it is because I tried to find a story on it. But I really think it’s inspired by Inside Out, which is my favorite Pixar movie.

Garrett: I haven’t seen it.

Brady: It’s about childhood development. But the premise is, it goes into this girl’s brain as she’s moving to a new city as a kid. And the characters are all core emotions. So Joy’s the main character and there’s sadness and anger and so I think it was inspired by that.

Garrett: Okay.

Brady: And it’s one of my favorite movies but I think it’s realistic.

Garrett: Which one did you say was you?

Brady: Well, everyone has all of them.

Garrett: Which one was the one you read? You said Lazy me, is that the one?

Brady: No.

Garrett: Finances? I thought this was the one you was…

Brady: No, I was calling out-

Garrett: Oh, sorry. That’s what I missed.

Brady: …the details of the commercial is, there’s a lady who walks in late and that’s late me.

Garrett: Oh.

Brady: So I was reading the comments-

Garrett: So I thought it said lazy me. I was like damn, Brady, I didn’t really see you like that but maybe with your homes you’re like, financing…

Brady: No, there’s definitely some things I put off, prioritization is what I call it.

Garrett: I like that we all put stuff off.

Brady: No, I thought it was good. I thought it was realistic. I think the only way I think it could be better is actual home buying examples like what lazy me did was like, oh finances, that’s going to be hard. I think anxiety me could have actually said something related to housing.

Garrett: Well, actually…

Brady: “Does someone just die in there?” And Zillow might give that information or whatever. So I thought they could have tied it.

Garrett: Oh yeah. Worrying me it’s like, ” Is the home in good schools?” Or something like that.

Brady: Yeah, is the drainage going to be good or what’s the flooding rating or something like that, is it going to flood? So I thought they could have maybe tied their reactions and still been really funny.

Garrett: They did a good job though when they showed the app with the four categories.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: I thought they did a good job. I think it was buy, sell, rent, what was the fourth, loan? I think it was loan.

Brady: Yeah. I don’t remember.

Garrett: I tried to catch them all.

Brady: But the woman’s very independent in the decision too.

Garrett: Yeah I did-

Brady: And so it gave her ownership on a big thing for their relationship or family is dealing with the house. And so I think everyone going through this process, it’s a crazy process.

Garrett: Especially now. Home values are dipping, interest rates are going up. You don’t want to be on the wrong side of it, but if you’re stuck in between, you need to get into the game. And so, it’s a nasty time for a lot of people and it’s cool to see them, I think, humanize it and to show that it’s okay to be lazy, anxious, checked out, whatever. Because I know I go through those phases of I’m really committed to buying a house, then you lose a couple offers and you’re like, ah, it’s not really for me. You get a little apathetic.

Brady: Yeah, you get beat up a little bit, then the anxiety is always there with the market, is it going to go up? Is it going to go down? Did I time it right? Is my interest rate the right one.

Garrett: My buddy got 2%, why am I paying 5%?

Brady: Oh, I freaked out about my interest rate and it is now… In looking back.

Garrett: You look like a genius.

Brady: Yeah, but at the time I was like, well, my dad just refied for 0. 02% lower, should we really lock it in here?

Garrett: Yep.

Brady: I was freaking out the whole time.

Garrett: Everyone does that though, because it’s trying to time the unknown, which is really hard to do. But what I love about the ad, to your point, is it creates a human buying experience. How do they brand Zillow during the funny part? Could you tell it was Zillow? So can you go back, scroll it for me and just go into it, I’m curious about this.

Brady: So when they talk about buying the house, Zillow is tossed up on the screen.

Garrett: Okay, let’s play that one more time. Now I want to look for the Zillow part and the humor and see how they did it.

Speaker 2: Okay, listen up. Selling our place, buying this place. Thoughts, negative me? Shouldn’t have started with you. Spontaneous me? Already ordering drapes. Paranoid me? Why are you asking me? Antisocial me? Wow, I’m rude. Lazy me? Lazy me? We’ve got to sell our place, sort out finances, ugh. Stressed me? Wow, okay. Does anybody have anything helpful? Helpful me? Hi, we don’t need to stress about lining it all up, Zillow can help with that. And that’s why you’re my favorite Me. I thought I was your favorite me. Oh you’re totally-

Garrett: Go back, I just want to break down the ad a little bit. So about what, 30 seconds in-

Speaker 2: Yep.

Garrett: …they mention Zillow for the first time?

Brady: Yep. And it’s tied to helpful me.

Garrett: Yeah, that’s smart. I wish, I think, on that first TV screen they could add Zillow because maybe someone doesn’t catch that.

Brady: Yeah, it just shows Atlanta. So I don’t know why they wouldn’t have Zillow because she’s talking about selling her house.

Garrett: Correct, on Zillow.

Brady: So I don’t know why.

Garrett: I think they do Zillow on the first TV, that could have been a little subtle, maybe one of the Women.

Brady: Well, they don’t know about Zillow yet, I guess, so maybe she wouldn’t have-

Garrett: But They have it on the other TV.

Brady: But because she naturally, to buy a new house, found it on Zillow. So it’s just showing…

Garrett: Well, you should, surely you can sell it on Zillow if you finish the ad with buy, sell, rent, loans.

Brady: Yeah. But they don’t know about Zillow yet. Helpful me introduces Zillow as a solution.

Garrett: But Zillow is on the TV one second in.

Brady: But that’s because she was looking for a house of buy and it happens to be on Zillow. I could see this going down in a meeting about it with-

Garrett: Jesus, I’m having the meeting right now.

Brady: …we should have it up there. And then I come in and say, well, technically-

Garrett: I disagree. I think we should have Zillow and I think-

Brady: It’s not listed yet so it’s impossible for that to be Zillow yet because she makes a decision after this whole thing to then hit the sell button and now it would be on Zillow. But in this point in the timeline, it shouldn’t be on Zillow yet

Garrett: Because she hasn’t decided…

Brady: Because they haven’t decided to use Zillow to sell it in the first place. So the whole thing would implode if it was Zillow up there.

Garrett: But she’s buying it.

Brady: No, she’s selling the one on the right.

Garrett: Yes.

Brady: And she’s buying the one on the left.

Garrett: I Know.

Brady: And so it makes sense that the one on the left is already on Zillow because that current owner is using Zillow.

Garrett: Can you sell homes on Zillow?

Brady: Yeah, your home is listed on Zillow, Redfin, it pulls from the MLS.

Garrett: That’s what I’m pointing out.

Brady: But she hasn’t listed her house yet. So that’s why it’s just a photo of Atlanta. I’m just saying-

Garrett: Do you think story accuracy is more important than product placement? That’s, I guess, where I’m going to start.

Brady: I don’t.

Garrett: Okay.

Brady: No. But I do. I’m just trying to-

Garrett: You’re taking the devil’s side.

Brady: … unpackthe reason why, in the creative process, they probably talked about having Zillow branding there.

Garrett: You know there’s someone from Zillow listening to this podcast record going, ” Yes, I know!”

Brady: “Itold them it had to be Zillow!” But I like the details, Susan and Susan is the company name, and the late me coming in late without even introducing to us-

Garrett: They’re all wearing blue and all the colors of blue match the Zillow blue. So that’s some of the stuff I like. Notice the cup is blue and the notebooks blue. I think these little things matter. See that iPad or something else, I wish there was more subtlety of the Zillow website integrated on the technology that’s being used other than just the two TVs.

Brady: And the technology overlay, I was thinking that too, is like can you show the platform during some of this? And that’s tough. I know Adobe, they have a Billy Eilish series and they initially had it to where there was no product overlay and I actually talked to the Adobe marketing team about it.

Garrett: What did they say?

Brady: They said they were working on different tests and they understood my point of view because it was supposed to represent Photoshop and Lightroom and their products and it was Billy Eilish changing outfits in the mirror. And so they added, later on, an overlay of-

Garrett: I like her music by the way.

Brady: Yeah it’s fire.

Garrett: She’s great.

Brady: But they added a dotted line around her as the background was changing and it just looked cheesy. I don’t think they got it. So they had the idea of, okay, we need to integrate a bit more of the interface that people know to connect the dots and it just wasn’t done well. So I think it’s tough to do but I definitely agree.

Garrett: Well, I think the videos I’m going to show in online, they crush product placement. Oh yeah. And that’s why I’m like in this one, it is really good. I don’t think I can say-

Brady: The comments are good too. Now, when I find these on YouTube I go down to the comments and that’s how I learned about late me as someone mentioned that detail. But people are saying they love the ad, they want to see more of it. I think they will.

Garrett: Did anyone else notice late me walking in during the meeting?

Brady: Yeah, I didn’t catch that naturally. So I like going through the comments to see just how people react to the ad.

Garrett: Oh, the receptionist. Let’s go see that again. I want to see that Susan is the receptionist, go. Scroll up. Scroll quick to the very top to the video. That’s not Susan.

Brady: No, they’re calling out that it’s Susan and Susan at the desk.

Garrett: But it should be Susan as the receptionist, actually. I agree with that comment. That’d be even funnier. See that lady in the background? That should also be Susan.

Brady: Yeah. Is that not Susan? I don’t think that’s Susan.

Garrett: That’s a different hair color. But it’s a great ad, Brady. I love it. It’s definitely inspiring, because you could have been corny or cheesy and frankly there’s nothing corny or cheesy about the ad. It’s just genuinely hilarious.

Brady: And I’m curious what it does with gender roles in our society overlapping more than they ever have before. I felt it was communicating to women, me as well. Like I said, all of those emotions and thoughts were relatable but women are so good at decision making, but on something of this size, I think historically this decision was maybe handed off to the man of the house.

Garrett: Yeah. You guys changed a lot.

Brady: I think that’s changed a ton and I think this ad channels that really well.

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: And I’m curious how many households, maybe the male in the household was the one owning this process and an ad like this can get the woman of the household on the phone on Zillow and being like, hey.

Garrett: I think women own a lot more of the Zillow discovery process these days than men, to be honest. I think the men might get more involved in the mortgage process and in the closing process and maybe the final decision. But I would argue women have taken over so much more of the discovery process and they’re probably the ones at night, at dinner while they’re eating, being like, ” Hey, have you logged onto our account? I have a bunch of saved favorites, any ones that you like? I could totally see women dominating the discovery process of the home, and then, I would say, the current general roles are still the male maybe making the final decision or doing the mortgage or doing maybe the financing. But I would say it’s no longer the male chooses the home. I would argue women are choosing a lot of the homes right now and this is a really good ad because I think… I know my wife, if I tell her, ” Hey, I want to target this region,” I might say, ” Hey baby, we have some money. I would like to make an investment in this area. Here’s what I’m looking at. You find any you like,” And then she loves going through Zillow and just finding all the good ones and favoriting them. And I feel we have a good team like that. But I would argue women are really, really good at that feed discovery. Ironically it’s a lot like social media almost, I feel like, these days, buying a home. Because there’s a feed when you put it in list mode, you’re in a feed and you’re scrolling and you’re discovering. And I’ll have my map wrong and she’ll be like, ” dude, you’re missing all those areas.” She’ll come in and she’ll fix my map or something. So I would say women are, I would say, taking over this process.

Brady: I think it piggybacks on that movement in society. And then behind the scenes, if you do work through Zillow, list it, you go through the Sell process, you list your house, then you get your agent through Zillow. And if you get your agent through Zillow, Zillow will blast you out as a lead and then agents will capture it. But they then have to pay Zillow a cut of their commission when the lead is given through Zillow, so it-

Garrett: It’s a way for up and coming agents to get their self established.

Brady: Yeah. So I think just having that as the call to action on the sell button and listing on Zillow, that just ties directly into the revenue, if they get more people owning the process through Zillow.

Garrett: And loans.

Brady: Yeah, I don’t know if they have mortgage. I just know through a friend that’s how his wife got started was working the Zillow leads. And so I was asking about what… I know she pays the brokerage, but what does Zillow take? And-

Garrett: What are they taking?

Brady: I don’t know the exact percent but it’s pretty-

Garrett: No, it’s awesome.

Brady: …big.

Garrett: It’s a great ad and I think it’s very accurate. I do think women are completely owning the discovery process now on Zillow because they’re frankly better at it. And it’s exciting to see an ad that, I feel if you look at the comments, it’s mostly women too. And I thought that it was interesting to see a lot of the ladies are relating like this is me, this is it, this is stressed me. And I think they crushed that. It was super relatable. So love it. Let’s go to mine real quick.

Snoop Dogg: Yo, Martha, I didn’t know you was into this.

Martha Stewart: You mean smoking a Turkey? It’s simple with my BIC EZ Reach lighter.

Snoop Dogg: It’s perfect for hard to reach places. This BIC EZ reach lighter would be good for lighting-

Martha Stewart: Candles? It sure is. And it helps keep my fingers away from the flame.

Snoop Dogg: We should try this BIC EZ Reach lighter with our favorite activity.

Martha Stewart: You mean…? The ultimate light.

Snoop Dogg: The ultimate food.

Martha Stewart: And the ultimate lighter.

Snoop Dogg: BIC EZ Reach. The ultimate lighter for candles, grills and more.

Garrett: Okay, so I think we showed, last week or two weeks ago, the Snoop Dog, Andy Sandberg combo with Corona.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: Oh, hiphop real quick. They stink compared to Martha and Snoop and the BIC, the fit.

Brady: Their trifecta is perfect.

Garrett: It’s perfect.

Brady: It is perfect. That’s all I have to say, it’s perfect.

Garrett: It’s the perfect ad because think of your BIC, you know what a lot of your lighters are used for, especially with the legalization of weed. Biden, I think, last week-

Brady: He was talking federal.

Garrett: Federal. So I think anyone who got caught with minor possession is being led out of jail. Bravo.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: Bravo. People are locked up for something that’s legal now. It’s crazy.

Brady: It’s crazy.

Garrett: So excited for that. But if you’re BIC and you can’t say, ” We’re the best product for smoking weed,” but you want people to buy more of your product and you know what one of your larger use cases is… If you had a circle in a chart, what percent of the pie do you think is going to weed for BIC? Cigarettes, weed.

Brady: Yeah, I was going to say maybe just-

Garrett: Smoking in general.

Brady: …smoking in general. 70.

Garrett: 70. Yeah.

Brady: Maybe even 70 on the lower end now that I say it out loud.

Garrett: Yeah. I don’t think people are using a lot of BIC lighters, ironically, for their-

Brady: Because a lot of people have the actual long household lighter, which I think I saw on YouTuber or Reddit, when you open it up it’s an actual small lighter encased in the big one. So I thought that was funny. Yeah.

Garrett: It was awesome. So I love that one. Now let’s go to the next one because they do the whole series on it and I want to show you this one too.

Snoop Dogg: Hey, Martha, pass me that BIC EZ Reach lighter and that bowl.

Martha Stewart: Bowl of strawberries.

Snoop Dogg: Thanks. This is perfect for hard to reach places.

Martha Stewart: And it helps keep your fingers away from the flame.

Snoop Dogg: Whoa. Do I smell…?

Martha Stewart: That’s right, fondue time.

Snoop Dogg: BIC EZ Reach, the ultimate lighter. Perfect for candles, grills and so much more.

Garrett: Candles, grills and more. I love that. It’s just so clever. It fits so perfect. The world has needed this product. I love it. There’s nothing else I can say. It’s just literally the perfect ad.

Brady: I think the product’s perfect too.

Garrett: Yeah, the product is perfect. That’s such a big part of it.

Brady: I’m curious, the margin, if they just have better margins on that style of lighter, to the point earlier, 70% of those, whether it’s the little mini BICs or just BIC lighters are used for probably smoking. And then I think the longer one is used mostly in the household for the candles and stuff. And so they might be taking bad margins on that and better margins with this new one. And then for the smoking, I wonder, just financially, if they just make more money on that lighter to where I think this ad is massive. I was lighting candles at my grandma’s birthday and I almost burnt my finger off.

Garrett: That’s so annoying.

Brady: Yeah, it was annoying. It was a bad light or two, and the tilt and the deep candles. The deep candles are terrible.

Garrett: It just fries that top part of your-

Brady: Yeah, probably have a callus from doing that. So I just think the product in general is brilliant. And then the delivery on advertising, it’s perfect. It’s the perfect fit. They’ve already built up this brand together, it’s not like it was random, Martha Stewart and Snoop, they’re already a brand together. And so, good on BIC, it probably cost them a ton of money because that brand, Martha’s not cheap, has a ton of value already. But I think it was worth it.

Garrett: I think it was amazing. And I think there’s another angle on why they did it. So 70% smoke and 50% lose their lighters every time.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: What do you do about the 50% that don’t lose their lighters and they’ve got four or five BICs lying around the house, how do you get them to buy another lighter?

Brady: How long does it last? They’re pretty small.

Garrett: I don’t smoke much. I don’t smoke cigarettes and I don’t like smoke weed just-

Brady: Turkey.

Garrett: …on a lighter.

Brady: Just talking turkey.

Garrett: So I would say, my long house lighter runs out faster.

Brady: Because it is the small lighter in the house lighter. The big red handle ones.

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: It’s just-

Garrett: It’s the same.

Brady: They just stick-

Garrett: An end on it.

Brady: …a smaller lighter inside and then it’s just a longer tube for the gas and flame to go through.

Garrett: And this is somewhere in between. So I would say sometimes, Brady people, they organizations design products for incremental sales. So I think they have, obviously, a large segment of their audience that, if they had two options, would pay… How much more do you need them to pay for it to be worth it? 35 cents. 75 cents. Let’s look that up, Scarlet. What’s the EZ Reach lighter cost versus a normal BIC lighter?

Brady: Because that’s what I was thinking is-

Garrett: That might drive some of our convo.

Brady: And then we probably won’t know the difference in making it, but it’s only that one metal piece on top.

Garrett: Okay.

Brady: Oh you can get the Snoop lighter.

Garrett: Not only that, but they’re like, okay, three for 10. They’re all different brandings, so they make them cool. They’re not cheap. Not at all.

Brady: What’s a normal…? They have the mini ones.

Garrett: Okay. So let’s see, just classic. Classic. Yeah. Play the hits. Okay, let’s see.

Brady: Back when I was really into candles, the really light blue mini one was really-

Garrett: You did have a big candle.

Brady: …cool lighter for candles.

Garrett: Yeah, candles are great, man. I think we’ve all gone through our candles phase. So let’s just look at a Apples’ apples. So let’s go a 12 pack. So a 12 pack is 13. 74. How much is a EZ Reach 12 pack?

Brady: Wasn’t that EZ Reach individual 10, 11 bucks. Or is that a three then?

Garrett: No, there’s six pack. Go up for me please. If we can go to find a 12 pack. Do they have a 12 pack? Oh, they don’t. Okay, so then give me apple’s apple, let’s go back and find a six pack so I can just see the… Do we not have a…

Brady: It’s like a 30 pack of lighters.

Garrett: I know. Okay, go to page two. Let’s see if there’s a six pack on page two, scarlet.

Brady: We’re going to do math?

Garrett: All right, I’m breaking it out. Let’s do the math. But they got to have unit economics that are different every once in a while. Okay. So we got, let’s say, 13.74 divided by 12.

Brady: Yep.

Garrett: So we got$ 1. 14 a unit. And then let’s go over. Brady, tell me what these ones are. Let’s do our closest one. So let’s go off the six pack. Okay. Right there.

Brady: Am I doing the calculator? You have your phone out already.

Garrett: All right, I’ll do it. So I got 1. 145. I still don’t want to forget.

Brady: Okay, I got that.

Garrett: Okay. 2. 99, almost three.

Brady: 1. 145 versus 2. 99.

Garrett: They’re almost charging triple.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: Yeah I would say that’s-

Brady: And their adding what?

Garrett: Colors?

Brady: No, not even. I guess, the themed ones. But I think on the classic lighters I’m sure you can get a Snoop Dogg classic. They’re just adding that metal tube and it looks like it’s not the wheel mechanism, it’s that pushdown.

Garrett: Which Is also, I love the pushdown, you don’t get that weird callus on your thumb.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: When it’s wet out and it’s raining and you’re trying to get the thing to go. I don’t know, it’s a beautiful ad. They’re charging almost 3X-

Brady: 3X more, probably cost them barely nothing-

Garrett: 25 cents.

Brady: … moreto make.

Garrett: Maybe 10% more to manufacture, 3X more to sell.

Brady: So that’s why I think it’s worth advertising is because I’m sure they have way better margins on this product. And the product makes sense too. It’s not like, ” Oh, man, that was so funny. I’m going to get this.” You legit think, this is perfect, this is…

Garrett: No, it’s a better version of a lighter. It’s true lighter innovation.

Brady: Didn’t think we’d see it here in 2022, but here we are.

Garrett: Here we are.

Brady: We are innovating lighters, still.

Garrett: I love it. Well, that’s advertising jealousy. And I am 1, 000% jealous of that BIC campaign because it’s amazing. Yeah. Market This. I think this might be both of our favorite segment. Maybe it’s just my favorite segment.

Brady: I like it. Well we need to talk more marketing because, well, we’ve talked about it, we dive into the business model and it’s because that’s what you market in the first place.

Garrett: Well, I’m trying to make my job easier over here.

Brady: So I think we spent a ton of time there.

Garrett: You don’t think deeper holes in the trays with guarded arm- rails aren’t going to be do my marketing for me?

Brady: No. That’s why we spend time there. So we just want everyone to know we’re talking marketing when we talk business model and product.

Garrett: Yes. And for an important reason. As a professional marketer, how easy is it to do marketing when the product ain’t marketable?

Brady: It’s terrible.

Garrett: It’s impossible. It feels dirty. I literally tell our sales team, if we can’t be successful, don’t close the deal. Because some people are not ready for performance marketing. And I want to make sure everybody understands, we as marketers, we’re really not that impactful. And I’ve dedicated my life to this, but we are not more impactful than a good product. We’re just not. We’re not more impactful than sales, we’re codependent. If sales doesn’t monetize the leads we bring, we fail. If product is undesirable, we fail. If customer service is poor and we can’t retain accounts, we fail. As marketers, we are not that important. But without us, there isn’t the opportunity for everything else to shine. And so I think we fit squarely in a world of pure co- dependence. And that’s why when we do Market This, I’m so passionate about decreasing as much of my codependency as possible by making the product or service intrinsically marketable.

Brady: Yeah. Oh 100%. We see the extremes, to your point, if it’s a bad product and if you hold yourself accountable to revenue as a marketer, it’s not going to work.

Garrett: I like that last part. What’d you say there?

Brady: When you hold yourself accountable to revenue as a marketer…

Garrett: That part’s important, because everybody likes to think-

Brady: If you can take a bad product and you can drive traffic to the site. Yes you can get a lot of people, maybe even to add it to the cart.

Garrett: Preach, Brady.

Brady: You can get leads in for them to call-

Garrett: Preach.

Brady: …but the revenue doesn’t happen until they buy or they become your customer, and that’s where the product matters. And that’s why we focus so much on it. I think the other side is, we deal with, at least in our space, is the developer founder of a technology product. That’s cool because the product is there and if you meet with this developer for a couple weekends, you will know this is incredible, this is going to change the world. But it is not translated through marketing. And so that’s where it’s not just the product, that is where the marketing comes in. Because we’ve seen that, we’ve seen the developer started tech companies where-

Garrett: You’re savage for this one.

Brady: No, I don’t think so. You learn about the product and when you’re learning it one on one through meetings with people, you’re like, ” Oh my gosh, this is incredible.”

Garrett: If you have six or seven hours-

Brady: And then you go to the website and you’re like, what the hell is this?

Garrett: No. And I think it’s translating a product from an engineer who built it and knows it like the back of their hand to a consumer who’s never heard of it before. And intrinsically, the product is now desirable to them from how it’s framed, positions, advertised, articulated, priced. Pricing is such a big part of marketing, outcomes, jobs to be done. Why do you exist? If your product or service disappeared tomorrow, who would cry and what would they cry about? And if you don’t have that type of emotion, that’s fine. But it’s a good metaphor to help you understand, why does your product or service need to exist in the world now?

Brady: And that drives product and marketing, that type of mindset.

Garrett: Yeah. And that’s what we want to do on this show. So with that being said, Brady, you said you wanted to do a motel, crappy old rundown motel and market it and fix it. And so I knew about wanting Newport Beach on PCH in one of the best surfing spots in California.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: Good fishing too, but one of the best surfing spots in the area. You got some coffee shops around it, you got markets, liquor stores, surf shops. You’re in the heart of true Newport Beach.

Brady: Right off the peninsula, so you could do all that scene if you want.

Garrett: And it’s called the Pine Knot Motel. Let’s look at some of their Yelp reviews just so we know-

Brady: It looks terrible.

Garrett: …where we’re starting.

Brady: In such prime real estate too.

Garrett: This place doesn’t even deserve one star. Take heed to the prime reviews, even though they might be old this place doesn’t even deserve to be called a dive. It’s filthy and disgusting. Not to mention the manager or owner is the rudest person I’ve ever met. Neat. But I’ll help you out. Do yourself a favor and don’t waste your time or money on this place. The$ 70 room rate is cheapest in town for a reason. This place needs to be contempt.

Brady: Yeah, I could have told you all that just from the street view.

Garrett: Just from the Google Maps view. You’re like, yeah.

Brady: But so, I originally wanted to do, because we think about what we both enjoy and experience, so that’s probably why we talk about an airline. We travel, we think about it, we care about it. And so, with traveling also comes the hotel but didn’t want to do, how are we going to market the St. Regis or-

Garrett: Redo the Aria.

Brady: And we have Airbnb out there and so I thought right in the middle is a motel. And so my mindset going into this is how do you make it a place someone wants to stay even if they live a mile away?

Garrett: Ooh.

Brady: So Coca- Cola, they have this sign in their building, we need to design a bottle to where whether you’re holding it in the dark of night or it’s shattered on the ground you know it’s a Coca- Cola bottle. So they had this philosophical vision statement-

Garrett: I like that.

Brady: …to then go design the bottle. So I’ve been trying to work that into even my day to day, whether it’s building a proposal for a client or doing a marketing campaign. And so that’s my slogan for this one, it’s a place to stay even if you live a mile away. And I think if you accomplish that, that then gets people to stay there when they’re traveling from Australia or Europe or a couple states away. I think if you accomplish that mission-

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: …the rest is history.

Garrett: So if we’re going to get people from a mile away to stay at our motel, remember we’ve got to keep it a motel, so it needs to be affordable. You got to be able to park your car in front of your room. But Palm Springs is full of these, the V in Palm Springs.

Brady: Yeah, I was thinking that too. They have those refurbished-

Garrett: Yeah, he built the V, since I failed on the inaudible anyone, I forget what it’s called now, but the V Hotel, Palm Springs.

Brady: There it is.

Garrett: Yeah, they do a great job.

Brady: Is this the one with all the colors?

Garrett: No, that’s a different one. But go to Saunder. This one, go to the website and I’ll show you. So see how it’s still motels, see there are classic motels, pool in the middle, but you add some nice furniture-

Brady: Yeah, all the outdoor furniture is modern, it’s a vibe.

Garrett: You polish the concrete, you add a nice little lobby,

Brady: Black trim and white paint.

Garrett: Black trim, white paint, couple of little cabanas you can overcharge for. You got lobster on the menu, you got a nice little eating area but you still have motel rooms. Is that what you’re thinking?

Brady: That’s exactly what I’m thinking.

Garrett: Okay. Because, look at the rooms, they’re still basic. The walls are thin as paper, you still got the wall mounted AC, it’s still a motel but you’re charging 285 a night instead of 75 a night, and you’ve got a really great experience.

Brady: And I think we have to know we’re competing against Airbnb. So I think self check- in could be a thing.

Garrett: Okay, so this one has that.

Brady: The lock on the door is by your phone-

Garrett: Yeah, I don’t love it. I’m going to be honest with You but-

Brady: Because you miss some experience with it?

Garrett: There’s no check- in in the lobby. You just download the app and then they give you your room key. And then the room key is a code that’s delivered to you privately on your app. But there’s a part of the hotel experience I enjoy with checking in and being able to talk to someone, get my room, get my room key. Because the app didn’t work perfect, and that’s the problem is I ended up having to then go to the lobby area and then get someone who wasn’t a receptionist to try to help me. So that part-

Brady: Okay.

Garrett: …I think we want to be tech enabled without becoming hospitality less-centric.

Brady: We don’t want to sacrifice like, oh, no one is here to help me answer any questions.

Garrett: I like a lobby bar, if I’m going to be at a motel.

Brady: We’re going to have a lobby bar.

Garrett: Okay, I just wanted to make-

Brady: Don’t you worry.

Garrett: Okay, I want food and drink there, so people can still come in at night, maybe the kitchen’s closed wherever they were and they can still order something. You know what I mean?

Brady: Yeah. And I was thinking e- bike rentals, things like that. So when you’re staying there, you know have access to at additional cost. But you can rent e- bikes, I don’t know if you plan-

Garrett: I love that.

Brady: …your reservations. As you book the room it then shows the top restaurants with availability during your stay and you can book your reservations and just plan a weekend trip-

Garrett: I love that.

Brady: …just through booking the hotel in the first place.

Garrett: Like a Super 73 partnerships, so everybody gets electric bikes. I think there’s.

Brady: Comes with a discount code to buy your own.

Garrett: Stuff like that. I think it’d be really cool. But I think your vision statement’s too broad, Brady, if I can challenge it a little bit.

Brady: Okay.

Garrett: Because-

Brady: The point of it is for it to be pretty broad but…

Garrett: Well, I don’t like broad. You know me.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: I like marketing specific. I don’t like marketing broad because I think if everyone’s your audience, no one’s your audience. So if anyone could stay there, even if they’re a mile away, we might be too broad. Do we want to have a theme for this motel so you and I get a better ROI in the short term, have to do less marketing and can be known for something. Do we want to be a place where surfers go? So if you’re maybe out of state out of town, and I know you also want to be local and I think we’ll still get that, but do we want to maybe do a surfing theme so that we’re a surf resort for people who want to surf 54th and 56 and walk across the street? What’s your take on that?

Brady: Yeah, no, I definitely think it needs to have a theme like that, maybe.

Garrett: Okay, because I just think it’s in Surf Mecca. It’s like 54th and 56th Street, because I drive by there all the time, I can walk to. So now all of a sudden you and I are running Facebook ads to people who make over X amount of money and follow these surfing pages or Surfline or like to surf. Now I feel we have a slightly more targeted persona, we’re going to have higher ad resonance, we’re going to get better ROI on our campaigns. You want to talk more marketing on these shows.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: That’s where my head’s at, or we go little broader. So surf as the theme, but maybe we go into 30- something, married, no kids.

Brady: Yeah. I’m thinking Hawaii chic. Some modern Hawaii vibes because that’s something where, okay, we can’t go to Hawaii for the weekend, but there’s this motel down the street and now we’re really talking we’re taking over this Pine Knot Motel, it’s located in Newport. The local people in that area probably want to travel to Hawaii.

Garrett: Correct.

Brady: And so I think that would be why I would make that decision. And it still aligns with the surfers.

Garrett: It totally aligns with the surfers in that culture. But I think if we could add something for the women specifically, maybe a spa or just some angle, maybe… I don’t know. I think the spa would probably be a good starting point.

Brady: Well, I think even just the aesthetics, when my wife and I went to San Diego, we went to a hotel’s coffee shop because she just liked the design, the interior design.

Garrett: They do a good job.

Brady: Just like this, at this bar. And so I do think that plays into that as well. It’s just the interior design and the theme. And I like, personally, the modern Hawaii theme, not old school Hawaii, but still having the wicker rattan ceiling fan.

Garrett: Yes. I think that could totally play in here. Because you could still do modern materials, you could still do white on black but then do a better job with that. Now if you go back, I think that gym’s bad. I think we could do a better job right there. I think today’s customer does want a nice gym. And I think we could do something more creative where we don’t have a gym like this. I think we could do yoga classes on the sand. I think we could do things that… My marketing, I want to be only things that I can do with my marketing. There’s not many people who could do yoga classes on the sand as part of their marketing. And I think you can sell wellness. So for the women, you could sell wellness. So you could have smoothie bar, you could have yoga spa, you could sell wellness. And for the men you could sell activities. You could do sailboat partnerships in the Newport Harbor, you could do surfing. So you could sell that. You could sell fishing charters, ” Here’s three different charters that you can go fishing on out on Newport Beach.” So I think you could take the Newport Beach lifestyle where you have Duffy boats, fishing, surfing, you have that, let’s say, on the activity side. And then the other part of the Newport Beach lifestyle is wellness. The women of Newport Beach are very health and workout, exercise, centric. And I think if you allowed someone to live like they were from Newport for even two or three days, you could sell the experience and ironically get them out of the motel. Do you know what I mean? To a certain extent.

Brady: So the hotel is the nucleus.

Garrett: Yes.

Brady: You found all those experiences through the place you’re spending the night. Because that’s what my experience is when we go on vacation, our hotel has become the place we sleep at night. And that is it. Whenever we travel, we make our own plans. It’s all on Yelp. We sleep at the hotel. We don’t even talk to the people at the front like, ” Hey, where would you recommend going to dinner?” We just head out and we sleep there and that’s it. So I feel I’m overpaying because I know in the price of the room it is all of the things they are doing.

Garrett: Underneath the four seasons and that level of hotel, there’s a big gap on the concierge side. So if you’re staying at a five star, I think you get that concierge and you get those partnerships, you get those connections, you get those activities, those excursions. But if you’re just staying, let’s stay, at the Marriott or even a Kimpton or even a four star, it’s like the airlines, the experience has been neutered, whittled down, to almost nothing.

Brady: It’s like you need a seat in a plane to get somewhere so you’re going to fly with us or you need a place to sleep at night while you’re here, you’re going to book a room.

Garrett: I like that though.

Brady: And they get away with it.

Garrett: We can be a gateway to Newport. In other words, when you come to our motel, you have arrived at the destination, but then we help you experience the destination.

Brady: Yeah. I wonder, even on the website, if some type of personality quiz or a quiz you take and it just sets up packages for you.

Garrett: And we don’t necessarily have to monetize it so much as we just introduce you to it.

Brady: Yeah. I’m sure there could be some-

Garrett: Kickbacks from-

Brady: Yeah. If they book a reservation through the hotel, some affiliate type program.

Garrett: But I don’t think that would be our money maker. No. It’d be part of the experience we’re trying to create.

Brady: Yeah. They’re helping us by connecting their surf lesson availability to our website. That’s a benefit to us.

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: So I think probably-

Garrett: I want three of each. I think one of the problems I have with hotels, if we get real about it for a second-

Brady: Yeah. Three of what?

Garrett: Three of each options. I’ve always feel like-

Brady: Oh, yeah. It’s force. It’s like, ” Oh, cool, they’re paying each other. So I guess, this restaurant, who knows if it’s good?”

Garrett: I always feel like that when I go to a hotel. What great restaurants do you have? And they’re like, well, we obviously have our restaurant here in the lobby. I’m like, ” Yeah, I see it. I saw.” And then they’ll always be like, “And we have this one that’s great.” They don’t go like, oh, I want Italian, here’s three Italian. Oh, I want Mediterranean, here are three Mediterranean. I feel if we had it, we’d have three different Duffy boat rentals. We’d have three different surf coaches, we’d have three different fishing charters. We’d have three different e- bike rentals. Maybe a map too, a bike map where you could do a harbor ride or you could do a ride up to Huntington. I think there’s so much creativity when you really think about what if the motel was just the place you slept and we created the experience.

Brady: But because of the motel you also have the experience. I think that’s the gap to close.

Garrett: Yeah. Because who, for under$ 100 a night, gets their vacation planned for them?

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: You see what I’m saying? Because we can keep it under$ 100 a night, but done for you vacation. What about families, Brady? Because I’m running into a problem when I travel where I have to do Airbnbs, because I have three kids under three and I want it to be a vacation, not a family trip. And if you have kids, you know exactly what I’m talking about right now, going on a vacation with your kids is not usually a vacation, it’s a family trip. And if you don’t have a ton of money, family trips are really hard. You have to either stay with a family friend because they have multiple rooms. You’ve got to get an Airbnb. But it’s nice sometimes to be in a hotel, you know what I mean? It’s nice to have your sheets done for you. It’s nice to have that hotel, motel experience. What do you think about us having family block with adjoining rooms where for 200 bucks a night you could have two rooms.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: I feel that would be really special for some families to have a low income family or medium income family, because that’s who we’re targeting with our motel, could have a vacation in Newport with their kids, everything planned out we’re talking about. But I feel that would be pretty cool.

Brady: Yeah. And I think couple without kids going there and thinking like, oh gosh, there’s tons of kids here, are we going to enjoy our style of vacation?

Garrett: Yeah, I think you could totally do both because the motel has less amenities and it’s more cheaper room, done right, very safe. I think we’d have to have security on premise to make sure it doesn’t have that CD motel feel but instead that more new school hip feel.

Brady: Yeah, I think thicker walls.

Garrett: Exponentially thicker.

Brady: Noise proofing, not like Irvine company offices.

Garrett: Shout out.

Brady: Oh, yeah. I used to work right next to Garrett and we just heard everything we said.

Garrett: I’m used to being… Ah, come on, I’m pretty quiet.

Brady: I’m not, I scream. I think it’s because I don’t hear too well as is and then I put headphones in. I feel so bad for my neighbors. If I have a 7:00 AM meeting and I have a swamp cooler when it’s hot out so my window open, I’m probably heard by everyone on my street.

Garrett: Oh, you’re that guy.

Brady: I’m that guy. I can’t hear myself, so shoot.

Garrett: See that’s why we do need the noise proofing of the walls. What else should we be aware of that could hurt us? So we’re going to remodel this Pine Knot Motel. We’re going to have really great partnerships. We’re going to have health and wellness for the women. We’re going to have activities for the men. Not to gender role but something similar like that so everybody could find something they enjoy. We don’t have a lot of property so we’re going to have to do it via partnerships. We need our room. Beds need to be nice. What do you think about a Purple Mattress partnership or something like that?

Brady: When we talked about furniture we talked about what if…? I know we talked about Ikea, but if Ikea sponsored rooms. So I think that’s a common theme right now what we’re talking about is partnerships.

Garrett: Partnerships.

Brady: And I love the idea of partnerships. Even in tech, I love seeing these two big brands are partnering together on this feature or solution.

Garrett: So our rooms, let’s say, are done by Ikea and then we would give each person a takeaway that was a one card that had all the prices of everything in their room. So if they loved something, they could be like, oh, honey, this is only 49 bucks and we loved this lamp, this would go great at our house. That could be cool.

Brady: QR code just pops up a micro store with everything in your room. And it could be different per room. It’s not like every room has to be the same. But I think leveraging those partnerships is big because it probably saves money on the furniture. I’m sure that’s part of the partnership is what-

Garrett: We could have two room types. We could have a more expensive room, that was Restoration Hardware, and we could have some more affordable room that was Ikea. And then you could choose which room you wanted to stay in. Do you know how hotels, you have Master Ocean View and then you have Master Jungle View and then you have Master… Yeah. Yeah.

Brady: You have parking lot view.

Garrett: Yeah, we have all parking lot views, but with different furniture in the rooms for different prices via different partnerships. I think that could be really creative.

Brady: Yeah, because I know view is a big part of it. What do we do about the view?

Garrett: Oh, great point. Go back to the photo. I think I have an idea for us. Rooftops. So each of these we could do a rooftop patio on, we’re not obstructing anyone’s view. So see the roof.

Brady: They’ve got to be thick ceilings.

Garrett: Yes, correct. But we could put little patios on the top of each of these. They do that at Pismo Beach. They do it in Newport too, frankly. All the individual homes have a third floor, a kind of-

Brady: Private too? Would each Yeah, guest have their own?

Garrett: Yeah.

Brady: That’s cool.

Garrett: Private. I think we could do it not that terribly expensive and give everybody their own private patio and with walls between the two, a traditional.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: That would be really special to your point earlier, what could we do? I could probably make each one taller from the front of this thing to the end.

Brady: Oh, tear it up.

Garrett: Tear it up. Yeah.

Brady: That’d be cool.

Garrett: That would be cool. I think this would be really fun. The location is so prime.

Brady: Yeah, it’s just crazy, this is what has existed there. I know in one of the articles it said it’s getting shut down and turned into a homeless shelter I think.

Garrett: No, it’s going to get rebuilt to a motel I think.

Brady: Oh really?

Garrett: So I follow this woman in Newport who does interior design. She’s phenomenally talented and I watched all her stuff and the reason I knew about this for the show was she put that finally someone new is taking it over and she got selected. I think, to do the remodel.

Brady: Oh nice.

Garrett: And so someone’s got our idea, unfortunately but…

Brady: No, there’s probably so many motels out there with this potential. And even going back to the V one, if you really look at the structure, it’s pretty much like-

Garrett: It is the same.

Brady: …the same. But the way that you just use these accents to bolster it up, even the-

Garrett: King room, queen room, to my point earlier.

Brady: …interior design and then just even standing up a design based accent wall in the front. They had some big top to bottom with a cool almost tile design on it. It’s just so cool how these accents, you can keep the same structure. You don’t have to just bulldoze the motel down. You can keep it, but the accents just upgraded to an insane level.

Garrett: Fresh paint, fresh carpet, fresh walls, a little bit better customer service, a little bit of an investment into the experience, a little bit of better outdoor furniture, add a DJ on Saturday and Sunday. You want to get people from a mile away to come. If you put a DJ in that pool in Newport Beach and you were the only place in town with a pool party, because there’s no pool scene in Newport, and if you would do the pool party there… There is a way to get the locals to stay there, to your point earlier, to get people from out of town to travel in. It would crush. It just needs proper ownership, positioning and marketing. And darn it, we’re the people to do it.

Brady: Yeah, the bar’s going to make money too.

Garrett: Oh.

Brady: If you go to the Hawaiian theme, we can sell some classy, tiki based drinks.

Garrett: Like a walk- up bar where you could walk up into the motel. So if you were on PCH and you were just walking-

Brady: Yeah, it’s like a hole in the wall for locals so you don’t have to stay there, but it’s definitely like, let’s end our night here-

Garrett: Yes.

Brady: …to get drinks.

Garrett: You could crush. This could absolutely crush. It just needs a little bit of TLC.

Brady: Yeah.

Garrett: You sell with the V, they’re only charging 55, 60 bucks a night over there for that. That’s why I stayed there when I was starting this company, I didn’t have money. So I would take Mia, we would go here on the weekend. You could go all the time.

Brady: And you spend double of that at the bar and they’re making their money.

Garrett: But it’s a motel, you’re young, you’re out, want to do experiences, you’re not living in the room, you’re not there to work, you’re there for the weekend. You enjoy yourself. We had a couple family dynamics, some partnerships, some experiences. I love this, Brady. And I think it shows how once you have the location or once you have the product or once you have the service offering, now it’s time to sex it up, I guess, to a certain extent and make it desirable. Make it something people want. And I think so many of us have products or services that are functional, that have great locations like this that have a real reason for existing, but we haven’t made them attractive.

Brady: They’re just like, our doors locked and we have beds and this is a motel.

Garrett: And everything can be spectacular, everything can be desirable. And I think that’s what, hopefully, this show’s all about is taking the normal and the mundane and making it so much more.

Brady: Yep. I love it.

Garrett: I love it, man. So this is Market This, we did a motel, the Pine Knot Motel in Newport Beach, California, hopefully whoever did buy it does what we’re saying.

Brady: If you need a third party to enter the mix, just hit us up.

Garrett: Yeah. We’d love to be part of it. Thank you everyone. This is episode 14 of the Original Marketing Podcast. Like, subscribe, leave comments, be a part of the show. Let us know what we should do next. And thanks.

Brady: Yeah, see you next week.