NerdBrand Podcast
Nerd culture isn't just for a select few anymore; it's everywhere! It's in the movies we watch, the games we play, and the tech we use every day. Join us as we share our thoughts on how visual design, branding, and advertising shape our favorite movies, comics, books, video games, and other nerdy interests.
NerdBrand Podcast
Grogu is Gizmo with green paint. May The Fourth Be With You!
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Yeah. That's nifty. Yeah, it's a nifty little nifty little thing, nifty little board. A lot of people use them and be surprised, you know. So but anyways, on this episode of the Mer Nerd Nerd Bird brand.
SPEAKER_01It's been a hot minute, huh?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's been a hot minute. And on there, there you go, coming up. And lately there's been a lot of activity in the movie industry.
SPEAKER_01I think good news. It was really slow and dead for a minute.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's well, it's gonna probably go back to that because um there's a lot of news with Star Wars, with well, with just Disney in general.
SPEAKER_01Also, may the fourth be with you belated.
SPEAKER_00Yes, may the fourth be well, revenge of the fifth is the revenge of the yeah.
SPEAKER_01So you revenge of the fifth, may the fourth be with you, all the things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So um, but they're having a bad time. And you know, that's just something that uh we've kind of seen for 10 years go downhill. Uh last year uh they put out the listing of like what's the typically the most watched on streaming on Disney Plus. Um none of the new trilogy movies are listed on there, none of the new shows. Actually, at the top was and uh um and dork. Uh and then after that you get the classics.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00And uh I think the own as far as movies go, none of them were there. You had um the third one. Let's see, you had uh Phantom Menace was the first, uh Empire Strikes Back, and then you had um whatever the third one was, episode three, where we see Anakin turn.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00And um, yeah, then after that, you know, you have Rogue One, and it's like, whoa, that's not what anyone thought.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So this year they don't think it's gonna be much of any different.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so there's that, and then you have the Marvel side with Avengers Dooms Doomsday, and do you even care?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I do care, but the problem is is that like trying to figure out the phrasing for it, I definitely care about it, and I'm so glad that we are getting a little bit of a spike in the movie stuff because like for the longest time I'd see trailers and commercials, I'm like, none of this seems interesting. But I feel like right now the Hollywood and movie industry is in two slumps. The first one being they are just stuck on, hey, this was successful, let's remake it, slash, let's make a sequel, and then it ends up trashing. And then the second problem is all the streaming services. I mean, you've got all these rights to streaming services where like certain TV seasons you get one through five on the cable war is all over, right? And then you get six through ten on another, and then you know, Netflix is going back up now, and apparently they're saying that like if you have the if you're on the same account, but if you're watching two screens simultaneously, it's an extra fee and like all this other BS. And it's just like, well, now you're dealing with those battles because you know, people wanting to watch your movies and having the accessibility to watch those movies are now facing you know hiking prices. And in this economy, people aren't gonna pay for it. I know at least seven people who, you know, canceled their Netflix subscription in this past like December or January, because they're just like, this is this is BS. I can't.
SPEAKER_00I haven't had I haven't had for a year just because I think the content's been garbage and for many other reasons.
SPEAKER_01But I you know I still live at home. It's kind of been one of those, you know, hey, the parents will pay for certain subscriptions, I pay for certain subscriptions, my brother pays for certain subscriptions, so then we all inadvertently have access to everything. Um, but I mean, if we didn't have that method and that process, we I sure as heck wouldn't have them.
SPEAKER_00Well, the thing that I that the thing with the movies, and people are like, well, I'm not in in the movies, like this is a six billion dollar a year plus industry that's that's cratering, and it's not good because it's layoffs. But so people would treat not really think of it this way, but brands were in the theater. You go, you're investing two hours of your time to go to the theater or more, and you're investing, you know, on average 12 to 20 bucks for a ticket.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And so back in that products, yeah, and then the movies doing it.
SPEAKER_01And that was reasonable. I mean, I remember as a kid there'd be five dollar Tuesdays, and then my parents would go get like a large popcorn and we'd all split that and right.
SPEAKER_00Now though it's it's becoming uh I don't know if I want to go see it because I don't know if it's gonna be any good. And that's a brand issue, and Marvel's now having it because you know, after doing this podcast for like six years now, when first started with it, it was like, okay, so you know that when a DC movie comes out, you're like, uh maybe I'll wait until it comes out later. But if it was a Marvel movie, you were pre-buying and pre-purchasing your ticket because you knew you were gonna get a good film, you were gonna get a good story, and you kind of knew if based upon the way the brand was run, you know how and what you were gonna get. Now that's not the case.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think too, it's been like, you know, you knew that you had Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr., you know, you had um Captain America with Chris Evans, and you like you had all these like A-list actors, but then once we kind of closed out Eden game and everything, it's like, okay, well, where do those stories go?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We're kind of having to either create new heroes, do origin stories, and you know, other things like that, if that even applies to that specific hero. And so we're kind of having to loop in new actors and actresses. So then it's kind of like, okay, you're losing that that big name and you're having to kind of reinvent. I don't want to say reinvent the hero, but you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_00Well, they're making products we don't want to see. Yeah. And and that's the big problem that I see is like, you know, there was like this thing done, like we all know that Mandalorian and Girl Goo is coming out. We'll get to this in a second, because I got a big gripe about this thing from just the logo alone. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's garbage, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna look it up while you're talking.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you should look it up. Um, and so but uh anyways, they make products that we don't want to see and or they don't make any sense for the audience they expect to show up. And nerds and people who are not familiar with certain stories and brands like Mandalorian, for example, they don't understand the story, so they very likely will not buy a ticket at the theater. So your branding is tied to this, um, that hey, it's a Marvel film, and you know, they'll go see it, or it's a Star Wars film. Oh, I'm I trust this, I'm gonna go see it because I know it's gonna be good. Now it's just like it's completely tank. Um, and they've done this on purpose, I think.
SPEAKER_01Is it this one?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I got all kinds of issues with that. Yeah, um, so we'll get into that. But yeah, so movie theaters, you know, movies have to make money. When they make a movie, they're not doing it because of the art. There is a financial game, it is a product. It's like you as a business owner have a product, you sell a product or service, you want the audience to enjoy it, buy it, come back for the next thing that you're gonna do. They do this, they're in the same boat. It's a business. And everybody involved with the business is really, really having a difficult time. And uh a lot of that has to do with I think this the financing, like people don't want to maybe invest in movies as much as they used to. Many people would jump in like, yeah, I want to put my name on that as an investor, as a producer, as a no, no, they I don't think they do. Uh and I think that's causing problems as well. So the industry is really Hollywood, and there's all kinds of articles out there of it bleeding talent and also kind of going away.
SPEAKER_01It really is, because then it makes it to where at least in California. Right. And it's making it to where that, you know, sets and crews and directors, they're having to focus more on the budget and the finances than they are the creativity and the excitement. And so, and that shows. I mean, when you can tell that it's something that's budget centered and not like excitement centered, then you can see it.
SPEAKER_00I've seen several trailers, and trailers are cut by marketing firms. Yeah. So marketing gets involved, they may cut a trailer and they cut it in a way that really, you know, they're trying to get clicks, they're not really worried about whether or not if it gains attention or builds a brand. They're more or less like just trying to sell tickets.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And then they move on to the next one. And so there used to be this time when a mar movie came out, you did the marketing on the movie, everything went quiet, and then the movie sold the tickets, yada yada yada. And then, okay, now we got to do another marketing push, maybe a year later for DVD sales, and they would go out and they would do the push. So you'd have actually two marketing pushes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And then uh go see it in theaters and then go buy it on DVD.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And they wouldn't happen back to back. I mean, they were they were a year apart at least. And of course, with DVDs gone away in streaming, now it's like, oh, do we just put it out on streaming? And one of the things that's starting to irritate the audience is you pay, let's say, 20 bucks a month for Amazon Prime and you want to go watch a film, and now you're paying for the film, or you have to rent the film because they're different. Um, video on demand.
SPEAKER_01And it's like I remember when on demand first came out. Like, I remember when on demand first came out, like that it was great because it's like, okay, you can watch TV episodes for free with your cable subscription, and then you know, certain movies you could rent for like two bucks. But even with the Netflix model, or not even Netflix, with um the Amazon model, like renting a movie is like four or five bucks.
SPEAKER_00And I'm just like they have a lot of new movies coming out right now that are gonna be great, but it's like I I'm already paying 20 bucks a month, and you want me to spend the extra money? And then the thing that gets me is that you kind of just watch it once and then you just say, hey, next time got a cost.
SPEAKER_01Right. And then the thing that gets me too is that, you know, these all of the whole big reason people wanted to do streaming services were were for two reasons being able to watch whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, and then not having ads. That was the whole ideology that made, you know, you know, insight on demand and all that stuff kind of fall off the radar was because, oh, we you don't have to watch ads.
SPEAKER_00Valuable. Well, let's take a look at what's happening at the MCU because the Wasp herself benched, she went out and smashed. I don't think she's gonna be doing any more Marvel or Disney films because of this, but honestly, she spoke the truth. Um, so there was a massive layoff, about a thousand people across Marvel. And uh this touched comics or whatever, but the creatives behind, even the main guy behind what we have seen for the last, I don't know, 20 years almost, was let go. And so, you know, this has been very surprising. Um, so if you start to notice that what's going on with Marvel, why does it why do things look a little less polished? Well, this is why they've moved to a freelance model for this, and I think it's a it's very bad. So um one post came from Wesley Burt. Um, he was an artist with Marvel, and he said the irony of having a one-on-one HR layoff meeting in the conference room with my Loki mural on it. So, yeah, so you can see on camera in this uh studio here, we've got some hanging on the wall, and it's like these are not done. These are done by people that are professional designers.
SPEAKER_01And so speaking of which, if you're watching this episode, we got a new desk and we got a new setup.
SPEAKER_00Yes, we have a new setup. We have a Thundercat sword, a couple transformers, some things hanging on the walls that weren't there before, uh, a little bit of swag and some pop-ups and the screen and just all kinds of stuff. And yeah, I uh everything short of putting down new carpet and walls is what I've been up to. But I did fix the ceiling.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I noticed that light's fixed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the light's fixed and the ceiling tiles are fixed. So, yeah, so there is that. But uh yeah, you know, those are things that uh but this the I want everyone to get into this Star Wars logo because I know you're gonna have opinions. Um so switching from Marvel to Star Wars, because we know how this I don't like the fact that we're going to freelance. I don't know how you feel because I know you're a freelancer yourself, but I just think it's a terrible idea to take a brand this big and just put a bunch of people behind it with no creative direction.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I completely agree. I think when you have a brand or a business that is that large of scale, you need to have a dedicated team toward creative, you know, because at that point, you know, you're gonna have these people in internal meetings that freelancers don't. You're gonna have people that are much more dedicated to your brand because that's your primary client, is who you're being hired by. Whereas with freelancers, you know, we obviously freelancers have dedication to the client that they're serving and the brand that they're, you know, working with, but they've also got, you know, five other brands, ten other brands, depending on what they're doing. So sometimes it can be tricky. Um, and a lot of it is also dependent on the freelancer. I mean, I have a friend in New York who she does, you know, art directing and freelancing. And, you know, she's done huge campaigns for like L'Oreal and places like that. And, you know, they're super success successful and they're great. Um, but then, you know, I also know other freelancers who are like, oh, you know, I'm gonna go to California, I'm gonna go to New York, I'm gonna go to some bigger area. And then a year later they're moving back to Louisville because they're just like, yeah, just the business is tough. And, you know, it's tricky. It really depends on the freelancer. But like we like you even said, like, even L'Oreal has dedicated marketing people and dedicated creatives. Yeah, they'll hire freelancers for other aspects, but like there's at least a creative team to dictate that structure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's somebody on point, and right now it kind of feels like there's not. So kind of getting into why I think this is that um and if you're like a small business or a local place, that's fine.
SPEAKER_01You know, hire freelancers, hire an agency. That's the point, you know. But once you get to like corporate level and once you're getting to where you're putting at least I'd say after two years of business, you need to button and tighten up.
SPEAKER_00It's gizmo without fur, everyone. That's what Grogu is. This is not a baby Yoda. Yeah. I'm sorry. No.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_00Stop calling him Baby Yoda. It's gizmo with green face paint at the very least. Um, so that's my gripe. It's a great series. Now they've turned it into a movie, and it's already getting terrible reviews, expectations. I mean the worst. It's the at the bottom of the barrel right now.
SPEAKER_01And this is where I I fall into that whole leave it as a TV series. If it's going, if it's going great and it's going successful, keep it in that lane. Yeah. We don't have to expand on everything.
SPEAKER_00No, we don't. Like we can't. Don't make a thing try to do what it wasn't originally made to do.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Like I even saw something the other day that, and I don't know how old this news is, but originally they were gonna do Tangled 2. You know, because it did so well, but they ended up canceling it because they're like, yeah, we there's not really a story to tell here. So we're not gonna just come up with a narrative that doesn't make sense and and tank the whole thing. And it's like this is what this is what they need to do. You know, yes, if you can come up with a storyline like, you know, Toy Story and a Toy Story 2, works. That's great, makes sense. Both are great movies, but then, you know, but if you have a movie like Tangled where it's like, okay, we could stretch something, but it's probably not gonna be as great, then don't do it.
SPEAKER_00The logo for the Mandalorian and Grogu. And I'll just say this, and you kind of do reevaluation because you you're the one that's trained in this. It's off center.
SPEAKER_01That was gonna be my first grape.
SPEAKER_00And it says when you look at it, the Star Wars Mandalorian and Grogu is what it looks like. It says it also looks like based on the font, it was made by AI. And I'll just stop there and let you take it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I completely agree. I I look at this and I go, This is totally AI created or inspired. Um, and it's one thing for something to be in to take an AI logo as like inspiration and then create it and make it your own. That's one thing. But this just looks like they generated it on AI, gave it to a graphic designer and said, Clean it up. Clean it up.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Um, so it doesn't feel creative. Um you know, I'll be honest with you too. Most of the like the two A's that are on the the last two, you know, because the kerning is so close together, it because there's no like line in the middle for the A, it almost runs into the N. And it's like, okay, what what is this weird letter? Oh, those are two separate letters. That's supposed to be an A and an N. Like if you squint and you look at it, which that's a huge thing to do with any kind of artwork or visual, is to do the squint test. And if it l still looks pretty legible with the squint test, you're in good shape.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01You do the squint test, those that A and those N's all run together. You know, the A and the L might not, but because the A and the N have that similar, you know, mountain shape for lack of you know, simplifying it. Yeah, peaks and valleys. Exactly. It all runs together. And then, like you said, I don't like how it's a it does look like the Star Wars Mandalorian and Grogu. Um, I don't like how Mandalorian is curved and Star Wars is not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for those on camera, woman minto.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Um, I mean, hey, you know what? While while Danielle is going on her rant, Jason may as well go and do the uh the tech things. Oh, you're pulling it up. There we go. Look at us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'll get to a more uh remote version. But if you're on if you're watching the show on camera, I mean you can see where it's it's the well, I apologize. I had it backwards because that's how bad it is. The Star Wars Mandalorian and Grogu is what it looks like it says. Yeah. So it's off-center. Yeah, the the should be the the Did you agree that first of all, I don't like the waviness. You can see how it's got like a flag waving it. Right. It just needs to be straight across with the above the M.
SPEAKER_01Yes, or if it's or if anything, make it like a slant. It doesn't need to be curved. And that's where I was saying I don't like how the Star Wars is straight and the Mandalorian is curved. You can see that there's um, you know, the space in between Mandalorian and Star Wars.
SPEAKER_00And the and doesn't follow the fade.
SPEAKER_01It doesn't. It really doesn't. Like it it doesn't make sense. It genuinely does not make sense. And one thing that irritates me is sometimes, not all the time, if it's like in an accent in in certain places, it's one thing. But in this case, this is not an accent. I don't like gradients and logos.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I don't like gradients either. I used to work with a guy, we used to make fun of him all the time because we had we had a guy that would always add a gradient, and we were like, bro, cool gradient. How would you put this on a cup?
SPEAKER_01You would definitely have it curve around the cup the entire way.
SPEAKER_00And maybe it was a big ass cup.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I mean, like if we, you know, I'm gonna use your mug for a minute.
SPEAKER_00Watch the sword.
SPEAKER_01Let's not have the sword slice the computer in half. Yeah. Like your that logo would be halfway across the cup.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01So then, like, when you go to take a sip out of it, you know, here's for the camera, it would be all the way around. And if you tried to shrink it to make it fit in your print area, kind of like how this logo is, it wouldn't be legible. It would have to be so big all the way around, and then it would constantly be cut off. Right. You wouldn't be able to really here's your coffee back, you wouldn't really be able to, you know, display that well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Anyways, be sure to check out our next episode. We're gonna talk about social media, particularly LinkedIn, as they've gotten into some trouble. Wow, wow. And uh, what's going on there? Uh, and so we shall see you on the next episode. You know where to find us at neurobrandagency.com slash podcast.
SPEAKER_01Make sure you check us out on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and X as well.
SPEAKER_00All right, and after that, keep your brand strong.
