Big Things Podcast
A weekly show where we talk about the big things we're watching in marketing, social media, pop culture and sports. We also talk through signals we’re seeing that could inform the future of digital marketing.
You can catch the podcast every Friday wherever you listen or watch it on YouTube. Be sure to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for updates on every episode.
Big Things Podcast
Mitzi Wants a Cow for Christmas (And Other Gifting Trends) (E5)
This week on Big Things: olive oil is the gift of the season, modern parenting is bad for your health and Instagram doubles down on group chats. We share a teaser about our upcoming holiday gift guide, a shocking stat about working moms and get annoyed about Snapchat (again).
More from us:
- Mitzi Payne @mmmitziP
- Mike Payne @mmmiiike
Timestamps:
- 01:00 – What we’ll be chatting about today.
- 01:40 – Thing 1: Olive oil is set to replace bottles of wine this holiday season.
- 05:00 – What gifts we will be giving this year.
- 8:50 – Mitzi develops an emotional connection with a chicken.
- 11:12 – The upcoming special addition of SCAN 👀 CLUB.
- 14:00 – A little teaser about our halloween costume (tune in next week on YouTube to see it).
- 18:20 – Thing 2: Modern parenting is so stressful that the U.S. Surgeon General released an advisory about it.
- 21:30 – A shocking stat about working moms.
- 29:20 – Thing 3: Instagram is adding a WhatsApp button that will allow brands and creators to link directly into group chats.
- 31:35 – Snapchat is adding advertising placements into the DMs.
- 35:30 – What we’d like to see from Instagram Broadcast channels.
Show notes:
- SCAN 👀 CLUB: https://scanclub.substack.com/p/what-digital-audiences-want-in-2024
- Snapchat is bringing ads to the Chat tab: https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/08/snapchat-is-bringing-ads-to-the-chat-tab/
Big Things with Mitzi (@mmmitzi) and Mike (@mmmiiike).
For more from Arcade, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @helloarcade. https://www.arcadearcade.ca/
Production by Morgan Berna, editing by Oliver Banyard.
Welcome to Big Things. I'm Mike and this is Mitzi.
Speaker 2:This is our show where we talk about big things we're seeing in the world of marketing, social media, pop culture and sports. You can catch a show every week on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts and, of course, be sure to follow us on Instagram for clips and updates on every episode.
Speaker 1:If you are a listener of Waves or Tea for Lunch, our other shows that we're not running anymore. We just want to catch you up on how we're pivoting and what this podcast is about Basically the Kohl's notes of it less interviews, more of the two of us and our points of view, more news and pop culture, which everybody wants.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Signals and trends that could influence the future of digital marketing, and just the ability to help you zoom out and be proactive rather than stay stuck in this reactive sort of default setting.
Speaker 2:Totally. Who wants to be reactive? Yeah. So today on the show, we who wants to be reactive? Yeah. So today on the show, we're going to be talking about a few things. We're going to talk about olive oil and how it's set to replace bottles of wine as a trending gift this holiday season. We're going to also talk about how the US Surgeon General just released a warning about how parenting is bad for your health. And then we're also talking about how Instagram is testing a WhatsApp DM sticker and how we feel about it.
Speaker 1:Let's get into it.
Speaker 2:Should we do it?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So this first one is olive oil. Set to replace bottles of wine as trendy gifts this holiday season.
Speaker 2:I know I am so excited. We're talking about the holidays. It's October and I just love holiday season, so I'm all here for this one. But in mid-October sorry, in mid-April the grocer published its finding on olive oil pricing. This is hot stuff, guys. It found that the average price for a liter of supermarket owned brand olive oil has grown by a staggering 42 percent. Can you believe it? The cost of everything is going up. But 42%, like?
Speaker 1:increase is a lot.
Speaker 2:So the combination of the combination of inflation, supply shortages, harvest theft and a series of food fraud scandals in which fake olive oil was seized by local governments, have driven up the price I know, which is pushing olive oil into the realm of luxury goods. I am here for that.
Speaker 1:I wonder what you make fake olive oil out of. Is it just canola oil masquerading as olive oil?
Speaker 2:I feel like you can instantly tell if something's canola oil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you'd think.
Speaker 2:That wouldn't be it.
Speaker 1:It would just be a little too addictive. Maybe Tastes a little too good, yeah, but much like wine people. It would just be a little too addictive.
Speaker 2:Maybe Tastes a little too good. Yeah, but much like wine, people want to know about the ingredients, like you just mentioned, like the ingredients that have gone into olive oil, where the olives were grown and who's behind the brand, which I personally, I feel like I'm also super curious about that. In another life, or maybe in the next life, we should have an olive oil farm.
Speaker 1:I could see that We've talked about having a winery like go back to Chile and have a winery out there, but I could see an olive oil farm. I think that would be on brand for us.
Speaker 2:I actually do have a great uncle who has an olive oil. No, not an olive oil farm, an olive farm.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:Thank God, you like olives now.
Speaker 1:The connect. Yeah, I feel like I only like a certain kind of olives, but I mean, it's a step in the direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, back to olive oils. They are becoming a hot, trending gift right now. There's a lot of really cool olive oil brands that are getting a lot of activity and movement. I think social media personally has a contributor to play here, because there's all these amazing creators who are in the food space and they're using like beautiful olive oils in their kitchen and olive oil, really like a good olive oil, just really makes a huge difference in a dish. Yes, so, um, I love to see it. Also, we have seen a trend like there's a sober curious movement that's been happening.
Speaker 2:So people are drinking less in general, which, like I, even I. I don't always know if it's appropriate to bring a bottle of wine to like a dinner party, for example, unless they specifically request it.
Speaker 1:So sometimes I'll do like last night I had a dinner party and I had a bottle of wine and then a bottle of non-alcoholic wine, because I just don't know who's drinking and who's not and I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable, so yeah, and I think also, as all of us millennials age and we're in this era of our life where we're, you know, living on our own or even married with kids, and we're cooking more meals at home and being more thoughtful about the ingredients that go into the meals that we cook, then things like that become more of a top of mind factor, like something as simple as olive oil, something as simple as olive oil, but then also, of course, with the price going up, it starts to feel more like a luxury item, and then it's like, oh, thank you for gifting this to me.
Speaker 1:Otherwise, my grocery bill was going to be 40% higher just because I had to get a bottle of olive oil this time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and who knows what's going to be next. I mean, it made me think like maybe we should speculate on what the next trending gift will be for the holiday season. Okay, I think there's going to be lots of food related gifts happening and personally I'd love to see like a raw milk subscription situation happening. I think that would be a cool gift. I also was even looking into like a subscription box at like local, like farms and ranches.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see, I'm with you on the meat thing, but not I don't really get down with the subscriptions. I feel like subscriptions is something like stores and brands have been trying to push on consumers for a long time and sometimes it works, but most of the time it just ends up kind of being like not that helpful for the consumer yeah, but I just don't know how else, like with with something like food, especially like animal-based products, like there's a finite amount, so so how would you like if you have a subscription you give someone?
Speaker 2:a certain quantity of something and then they run out of it. Well, no, as a subscription. It's a great revenue model for a farmer.
Speaker 1:You're like okay, yeah, so it works great for the producer but doesn't work great for the consumer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like the point of it is to help the farmers.
Speaker 1:And also help our bodies. The point of the gift is to help the farmers.
Speaker 2:I'm not thinking about the farmers, okay, I just think that would be a good gift.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean subscriptions are good for gifts, if that, if it's affordable, like to get like a high quality product on a subscription. I don't see that being that affordable for the gift giver and in a time when, like, things are expensive and every dollar counts. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can see what you're saying. Okay, so maybe it's more of like food related items, what?
Speaker 1:about this I'm with you on. Like, even like meat, specifically Like let's talk about raw meat, or like red meat from a farm. Like, what if we, what if you, instead of it just being about the product, what if it was about an experience? Instead of it just being about the product? What if it was about an experience? So, going to this like farm to table experience with someone where they enjoy like grass-fed, like high quality, high grade beef in like a multiple course dinner yes, I like that.
Speaker 2:But or what if you know how you could gift someone like a goat and it was like a charity gift in, like a, like a?
Speaker 1:charity organization no no.
Speaker 2:So what if you but a twist, what if you gifted someone a cow and you're like I bought this cow for you at this farm and all year long you're going to have these cow products like? Milk and ground beef and things like that. So the cow?
Speaker 1:is going to get butchered.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay, that's a little bit of a gruesome gift.
Speaker 1:But I like the idea of it being at the farm, because then is the farm storing it for me and just sending it to me in real time as I need it and I don't have to store it. I don't have to buy two new deep freezes to have this cow.
Speaker 2:If this is your thing like you'd obviously be thrilled Like, but if this is not your thing, you'd be horrified but say this was your thing and like someone that's like, I gifted you this cow Tommy, and Tommy will be gifted.
Speaker 1:You can't name him if he's going to get butchered. Come on, didn't you ever watch? Was it Charlotte's Web? Yeah, where they were going to kill the pig.
Speaker 2:That actually happened to me in real life when I went to Chile.
Speaker 1:And my family had not a pig, just reliving childhood trauma they had a chicken and I got close to this chicken.
Speaker 2:It's not really on brand for me. I was more so fascinated by this chicken.
Speaker 1:What does it look like to be close to a chicken? I think, Like I was more so fascinated by this chicken. What does it look like?
Speaker 2:to be close to a chicken, I think Like relationally. For sure, we had a moment we had an emotional connection.
Speaker 1:To be honest, what was the chicken's name?
Speaker 2:You know, I can't remember.
Speaker 1:Fernando.
Speaker 2:I don't always remember the names of the people I've had emotional connections with, wow.
Speaker 1:That's savage.
Speaker 2:Okay, wait Back to what other gifts could be trending this holiday season. We were talking with a few people on our team. Another one that came up was thrift packages, where people go. They create a customized box of things that they've thrifted. I would love this because I have always wanted to get into thrifting I just don't have the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, clothing, I just don't have the time. You like, you really need to be like in the thrift stores in multiple locations, like looking for specific things, and you have to be so picky like I just don't have the time for that. So if someone could do that for me as a gift, I think that'd be amazing and pick out things that they know that you would like so it's like very.
Speaker 1:It's not just the utility of like, the practicality of it right, it's a utility or the even the utility of the usefulness of it, it's the utility of the like, personal element of them understanding what you like yes, it'd be a very hard gift to give someone, but it'd be really cool if someone likes a lot of those thrifters have incredible taste so it's not like that hard to like.
Speaker 1:If they like it, someone else like it, you know yeah, I'm thinking about in the lines of like, similar to what I said about an experience, but just like activities, like last episode we talked about hobbies and how people need hobbies and we're kind of in this exploration arc of finding new hobbies that they can do that they would otherwise have to pay for.
Speaker 1:You know that there's a barrier to entry, like whether it's like a spa experience or access to like a pickleball club or whatever it might be. You know stuff like that. I also remember we noticed some signals around cassette tapes having a bit of a resurgence. So maybe there's something to be said if someone, if your friend, likes music, getting them a Walkman or like something like that again, and with a couple cassette tapes of their favorite bands or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or like an iPod one of like our creative director's son, who's Jen Alpha, wants an iPod for Christmas.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's so cool. Well, that actually reminds me. It's very important for me to share with you, listeners, that we will be working on a special edition of Scan Club, which is our newsletter, where we track the trends that are happening in social media and digital marketing, and we'll be doing a special edition that's all about a gift guide based on some of the signals and trends that we've been tracking, so keep an eye out for that Hitting your inbox.
Speaker 1:Coming soon.
Speaker 2:Which I love. Talking about gifts, what has been the best gift that I've given you, besides my love?
Speaker 1:You read my mind.
Speaker 1:You're good at giving gifts, but the first one that comes to mind that meant a lot to me was, um, recently you gave me a camcorder and it wasn't just out of the blue, it was because you had heard me talking to some friends about how I felt like as we were raising our kids, we were kind of missing out on the beauty of those like home videos that our parents, many people our age, their parents captured through their childhood and that you could watch later. And that's one element of it, and I was also talking about it in the context of potentially getting into some sort of vlogging that could be more of that like home video style vlog where it's just capturing kind of the quiet in between moments of like life, even specifically on the weekends. All that to say, when you gave me that camcorder, it was a really special gift and it wasn't like an old camcorder, it was like it looked like that and but it's really small and, um, it works like digitally, like it's easy to transfer it to your phone or your computer or whatever.
Speaker 1:So really handy, and I've been trying to figure out how it fits into our life and where I should bring it out, but I've been enjoying it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a really good gift that I gave. I do say so myself.
Speaker 1:What's one of your favorite gifts I've given you?
Speaker 2:I love the jewelry that you get me, especially when you get me jewelry that I request like, like like you're so nice about it.
Speaker 1:So it's the prescribed gifts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, no. I love the jewelry that you've surprised me with. I will give you credit, like you are a man who surprises me with jewelry which is very sweet, so I'm grateful for that. But I really I feel like when we first got married, I didn't have like any high quality jewelry, just like cheap trash. And then we've I've been slowly building up a collection of it and it's kind of like fun to be like oh, this is what you gave me for my 32nd birthday. You know, like things like that, it's like sweet nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like you often value the card as much as a gift oh, I love your cards.
Speaker 2:I need to be better at cards with you, sorry. Well, I don't, you don't care.
Speaker 1:I like cards when you give them to me, but I don't have as much of a connection to them as you do. Cool yeah.
Speaker 2:I keep them coming. This reminds me I was watching Friends and there's an episode where Chandler and Monica were celebrating Valentine's Day. Had they decided that they would give you to their gifts that they could make by hand, and it was a really funny episode. If, what would you make me if I said we're only giving you to their handmade gifts this Christmas? Put me on the spot with that one I actually don't think there could be like anything that I could give you.
Speaker 1:Like, actually I'd probably make you a sourdough Just like any other Saturday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, what else can you do?
Speaker 1:Like you can make me a bouquet of flowers. Well, it's reminding me of you talked about friends. It's reminding me of an office episode when Pam and Jim were getting ready for their wedding and they're trying to get a sense of who's going to come to their wedding and Phyllis I was blanking on her name, but Phyllis was asking about a registry and Pam said they don't have one and she was trying to get people to give her money but she didn't want to say it and Phyllis didn't really take the bait and she was like oh wonderful, my friend makes these amazing birdhouse mailboxes or whatever it was.
Speaker 1:So maybe I'd make you a birdhouse mailbox for all your mail.
Speaker 2:You would actually hate if I had something like that. I know.
Speaker 1:You just hate clutter. I couldn't think of anything.
Speaker 2:No, it's okay. All good, you could make me a little video.
Speaker 1:Okay, sure.
Speaker 2:With your camcorder.
Speaker 1:Sounds good.
Speaker 2:It's handmade, but before Christmas is Halloween.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my favorite holiday, I know you hate Halloween.
Speaker 2:You're not like a person who likes to dress up in costume but I'm actually really excited about this year because I think we've got some good costumes at least costume ideas.
Speaker 1:I think it's the perfect costume for us because it's like kind of like a couple costume or like a team costume but couples costume, don't give it away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, but it's low lift for me, yeah, which is really nice that is honestly the secret to a great couple's costume is you gotta, like, lean into the person who's most excited about the costume? Yeah, like, I'm obviously the one who's more excited about halloween, so I have to put in more effort and I just have to be an accessory to your. Exactly.
Speaker 1:You as like the focal point, which is exactly how I want to show up for Halloween.
Speaker 2:Totally so. It's great, I'm excited.
Speaker 1:The worst thing to me about Halloween is like putting so much effort into a costume to go out and be cold while you're trick or treating To get a bunch of candy that you're only going to eat a little bit of it and then to come home and have to warm up and recover from all this time you put into the costume, especially if there's like paint involved or like makeup or things like that.
Speaker 2:It's just so much effort for what I perceive to be such low utility. Yeah, I don't really have any memories of Halloween as a kid, so we didn't really do much as a family, but I feel like Halloween as a young adult was really fun and it wasn't cold for me.
Speaker 1:I think by the time I was a young adult, I already had feelings about halloween, so I just like it was one that I just kind of didn't show up for and it's kind of like a holiday for the girls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to be honest, yeah, I was dora the explorer for like three years in a row and it was an iconic costume, if I do say so myself. I literally looked like dora, like I had the short hair and the wig, I got the actual backpack and then it's really just like a t-shirt and shorts. People would stop me and take pictures with me yeah, so easy it was. I was like in my prime easy win.
Speaker 1:I remember when you were the cloud. That was a good one.
Speaker 2:I was the clouds I was. I was like, um, I had just like like Like iCloud, right, I had like a black shirt and black pants. And then I went to the fabric store, like my first and only time at the fabric store, and I got the like like the cushion inserts and I like pinned them all around me with like glue and stuff. And then I cut out and made like PDF files and JPEG files and I pinned those to me. So like PDF files and JPEG files and I pinned those to me.
Speaker 1:So I was like the iCloud. Yeah, that was actually so creative. You're creative, you're good at that stuff.
Speaker 2:Anyways, it'll be a good one this year. Yeah, yeah, I'm excited. But should we get into our big thing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, this next thing modern parenting is so stressful that the US Surgeon General issued a health advisory about it. So the US Surgeon General issued a public health advisory recently about the impact of modern stresses on parents' mental health. Considering that previous Surgeon General advisories have included the risks of gun violence and smoking, the public is paying attention to this one especially, I think, because it was a bit of a curveball.
Speaker 2:Yeah, keep it going well. It's just like when I first saw this, I'm like not surprised. Yes, parenting is so stressful and hard. But it's also like so, what am I going to do about it? Like, if they're like, oh, the us surgeon general issued a public health warning around smoking, it's like, okay, so the point of that is like, don't smoke, you know. But it's not like you can just stop being a parent. It's just like solution, like there's no solution to it yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 1:It's funny timing that this came out, because we've already been, like you especially have been listening to some podcast episodes that have introduced ideas around changing your mindset about some of these parenting things and giving your kids more freedom and space to learn things on their own, without kind of helicopter parenting them. Um, and I think that's more of the context of this advisory is less about oh, parents made a bad decision becoming parents and they shouldn't have cause it's healthier not to, but more like this is a good prompt to change the way you think about parenting. Maybe that's feeling less guilt, that because you also have a career that you care about, um, and letting your kids be bored at home sometimes, rather than feeling like you have to come home and entertain them. Maybe it's about being like motivated or driven less by fear of like an abduction or them falling and getting hurt or things like that, and letting them operate more independently, obviously with constraints and boundaries, but so that they can learn things on their own instead of us having to hold their hands.
Speaker 1:You know, it's more stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I think, yeah, I think it needs to like to like. I think, as parents, we need to like get in communities where we all adopt this like new mindset of unbothered parenting, because it's important for our kids, but it's also important for us.
Speaker 2:So basically, this like whole surgeon general warning came because traditional parenting, or like parents right now have a lot of challenges, like protecting their children from harm finances. There's additional stressors that didn't exist before that we have to start to consider, like social media, the youth mental health crisis, increased financial strain, cost of child care so it's like all these things have factored into a very stressful time to be a parent. So there's like impact to parents' mental health. That's what is so shocking about this news, because it's talking about the impact on parents. There's also long-term impact on kids, which is starting to get tracked as well. But yeah, we've been talking about a lot about this, this, but one stat that really stuck with me is that working moms today spend just as much time with their kids as stay at home moms did in the seventies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a shocker.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's like how is that possible?
Speaker 2:It's like working moms today are expensing their their time and their sleep and their hobbies and their friends for the sake of spending more time with their kids with.
Speaker 2:And you would think like is it so bad to spend more time with their kids with? And you would think like is it so bad to spend more time with your kids? And it's not necessarily bad to have time with your kids. It's more so like kids aren't getting free play or independent play, which can have long-term impact on how they develop self-confidence and could lead to things like anxiety and depression and things like that. But also, for a parent is like you don't become or you don't have the chance to become and explore the other sides of you, like your hobbies, which we talked about in our last episode, and like the other things that make you who you are. So it's so important to like understand that that's what's happening and maybe like make some boundaries and have discipline, to like protect yourself and like still make sure that be that person you were before you had kids, that you can arrive at your best for your kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100% Quality over quantity. Yeah, and I think some of you listening or watching might ask why are you talking about parenting on a marketing and pop culture podcast? But I think the truth is this affects all of us. Not everyone is going to start a family, but many of us will, and many of our listeners and subscribers are entrepreneurs like us. Even more of them probably are dual career households.
Speaker 1:Um, and whether you have kids now or not, it just becomes a huge, obviously a huge part of your life and it's a priority that you need to weigh against all of those other plans and hopes you have for your life.
Speaker 1:Totally, yeah, it affects us as we run a business and build a business together and then come home and have to navigate what it looks like to be parents as well and partners in parenthood as well, and where we like really are hands on at our work and like drive the bus and and are involved in a lot of the layers of what we do. It's easy for us to then go home and kind of have the same sort of approach with our kids, where we want to really be driving them forward towards a goal and we want to kind of micromanage the way that they get there. But I think we've already started to see it. But I think we've already started to see it Like our daughter has been thriving when we give her space to explore and try things and even to fail or to fall down and scrape her knee or, you know, go around the block on her scooter or go to her friend's house and knock on the door without us. Even just little things like that go a long way.
Speaker 2:So yeah, the other thing that is interesting, like if we put our marketing hat on, like this, does tie into a lot of our work. Because knowing that, like parents are really stressed right now, like parents and I'll just speak for moms like moms, I think, are such a huge consumer base they hold the purse strings of most households, so when you think of that as a consumer base, it kind of helps. It reminds me of this trend that we've been tracking all year, like less stress, more rest is like we're all stressed. So as a marketer, I'm thinking, knowing that, like how can I make maybe this consumer group a bit more less stressed or how can we make their life a little easier? And I think, if we had to put our marketing hat on, we should think about how we can approach that as a brand. Like that's an interesting problem to solve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, how, how can you provide relief to these people that are juggling so many important priorities all at the same time and really running on low levels of energy and low amounts of available time?
Speaker 2:Totally, but it it reminds me, I feel, like a brand that does really well with that is Walmart yeah that I would not have thought of Walmart yeah, walmart, they actually have pretty amazing Mother's Day campaigns.
Speaker 2:you can tell they have like big budget for Mother's Day and Black Friday and it makes sense for them because those are the two like moments in the year that matter to their consumers, which is like moms, like millennial moms are such a big part of their consumer base and that's who they're going after. So their Black Friday campaign actually last year was so iconic. It was a mean girls reunion, it was Lindsay Lohan reunion here in lindsey lohan uh amanda seyfried I don't think what's her name was in it the main one.
Speaker 2:I'm blanking, I know, but it was really good. You should look it up and it was like a full like video series on it and they did a great job. I also really loved their mother's day campaign. Last year, too, they had a bunch of celebrity moms, including cardi b. That was my favorite part. Basically giving advice to new moms and talking about the delivery service and, like to be honest, a delivery service is such a clutch gift and such a clutch tip for new moms like get some sort of delivery service, it'll make your life so much easier. I cannot believe that our mothers literally drove to the grocery store for everything they needed oh, I know, I can't believe.
Speaker 1:Can't believe. You're changing your tune on delivery services, though, after shading me a couple episodes ago about getting groceries on Uber Eats. Less stress, more rest, mitzi, I know.
Speaker 2:I get it Like I'm all in favor for delivery services and delivery service people, but I think what cracks me up about yours is that like I don't know what's coming. Cracks me up about yours is that like I don't know what's coming. It's like I'm at home getting like our you know dinner time routine going and then suddenly there's someone at our door with like three cartons of milk and I'm like, oh okay, like, and I can. I just know you're in the corner of our home somewhere, likely on the toilet, like doing your delivery, like it's just so funny to me.
Speaker 1:I'm being proactive. I'm assessing what we're going to need for the weekend, and I know that you are doing it as well, except you're responding to it in two different ways. I'm responding to it with a solution to the problem. You're responding to it with building, compounding stress inside of you that's going to affect all of us until it's resolved.
Speaker 2:So so that we have a good weekend. I'm adding have a good mental load is what you're saying. That is so me. I for sure I'm doing that.
Speaker 1:I don't deny that yeah, so then when that knock comes at the door and the milk is there and maybe some bacon and eggs and orange juice and like stuff like that just the odds and ends, not something you want to go all the way to the grocery store and do a full haul for.
Speaker 2:You can thank me yeah, you can just breathe a sigh of relief to take this to the next level. If you want to take it all the way, we should have a shared note of a like running list of things, because when I think of stuff I like add it in my mental note and then I'm like, oh, there's a delivery here like I could have asked for xyz you know, I don't know, I do that for groceries, and then you shoot from the hip on amazon.
Speaker 2:So true, I do shoot from the hip on amazon.
Speaker 1:I just see emails come in from amazon. Your order has been placed. You know what I love about amazon is that you don't tell me what has been placed. So when my husband gets that, it doesn't tell me, it just tells me an order that's why I love it.
Speaker 2:Oh, so you're just like oh, an order has been placed. I wonder what that could be.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You're like surprise, but I usually expect you to tell me, because you process most of the things that you do with me verbally.
Speaker 2:I am a verbal processor yes. And specifically at night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is my favorite time to verbally process with you. We're watching Netflix and you're falling asleep, and then we go get ready for bed and we're in bed and I'm on the nearly death's door in terms of like going into my coma for the night, and you're like, by the way, here's 18 things I've been thinking about. All of a sudden, I'm awake again.
Speaker 2:You know what it's? Because when I wash my face, I truly feel alive again. Yeah, it's true. Well, should we move on to the next big thing?
Speaker 1:Thing three.
Speaker 2:Let's do it. Instagram is testing WhatsApp stickers to facilitate DM conversations, so Instagram is very close to launching a new WhatsApp sticker for Instagram stories, which will allow brands and help brands drive DM connections with people through the messaging app. The new WhatsApp sticker will help prompt DM conversations. The new WhatsApp sticker will help prompt DM conversations and it'll be available to businesses that have connected their WhatsApp business number to their Instagram account. So this is super interesting because we've been also. Another thing we've been tracking all year is like people want close friends only, so the DMs are where so much of activity and engagement on social media, specifically on Instagram, is happening. It's in the group chats, it's in, you know, the DMs and so, like WhatsApp isn't really that big and popular in North America, but it's huge everywhere else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Internationally it's big.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and at first, when I was reading this, I'm like the last thing I'd ever do is DM or WhatsApp with a business. But it's super common in other countries, like in latin america. You're often dming with a business through whatsapp or calling a business through whatsapp. I remember when I I sent a family member flowers in chile, I had to dm or text a whatsapp number to like confirm my order and I was like who's this person that I'm going to be texting with? But it's like, literally, that's the business.
Speaker 1:That's how you talk to them. I like that, actually Like. I hope I would like that to catch on more here, cause I don't really feel like calling businesses to like ask a question or to confirm a reservation or whatever. If I can do it over message, that's way better. And some restaurants here like if you want to book a reservation or even ask if there's a wait or whatever, some of them will have a text number, but that's not common practice.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:So I think it's cool. I think it's something that I would like to see catch on. I often forget that WhatsApp is owned by Meta, so I was kind of like, why are they doing this with WhatsApp? But that makes sense. I don't know what a WhatsAppapp business number is, um, unless is that just the phone number?
Speaker 1:yeah, I think you connect your phone number to your instagram account and it's like goes through whatsapp yeah, and apparently I don't know if you said what you're gonna say about whatsapp, but it reminds me that snapchat apparently is adding advertising placements into their dms. That's which I think's so annoying.
Speaker 2:I am so done with snapchat. Like I know that and snapchat's not for me, like snapchat's not trying to be for me, and that's fine, but I just want snapchat to know that it's not for me either.
Speaker 1:Like the, the feeling is mutual, because I just think everything that they're doing is just so like weird yeah, well, they're also contradicting themselves because, they did this whole thing about how they're the anti antidote to social media and they're not a social media platform, which cool respect if, like, you're gonna lean into that and actually like, do that and show us that. But then really they're acting like any other social platform out there, and even more so like they seem like meta in the sense that they're looking for any opportunity to earn an advertising dollar, but even meta hasn't put ad placements in the DMs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is just so savage Like. Is there any sacred space in the world anymore?
Speaker 1:Yeah, like what? Am I going to be chatting with my Snapchat homies about how I need winter tires and then get an ad for Cal tire, you know like?
Speaker 2:I don't need that.
Speaker 1:It's nice, but outside of the DMs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Outside the DMs. I want my phone. Can't my phone do that? Like Siri, I want my phone to be like oh, like I noticed that you text your husband about wanting flour. Do you want me to add that to your shared note? Yeah, exactly like an AI system kind of yeah isn't that the job of AI is to like, make our lives easier yeah, ai still feels like a separate, almost like autonomous, unbiased tool whereas like if I'm getting an ad in a private message thread from a social platform.
Speaker 1:To me that feels like someone's in the chat listening you know.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And we all know that, like these channels are monitoring what we say and what we engage with anyway, but it just feels less intrusive because the ads that they're serving us are in more of like the public feeds.
Speaker 2:Right, you know.
Speaker 1:So it's just it just doesn't feel right.
Speaker 2:It doesn't sit right with me. Yeah Well, did you notice that on Instagram there's like that meta AI thing, when you like search for someone? I've gotten tripped up with that because I was trying to like search for someone that I want to like message or like look at something, and then meta AI will be like oh, are you looking?
Speaker 1:I'll just take it as an AI prompt.
Speaker 2:Get out of here, yeah.
Speaker 1:You're in my way frustrating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like we could talk about ai a lot, um, but specifically I just want to like make sure that snapchat understands that this is like not okay and leave the dms alone yeah, but we're here for whatsapp. Yeah, whatsapp, I can take more space in north america although, if this is going to happen, I do need to pay attention to my whatsapp you gotta turn your notifications on I know I I have a few group chats in there and I just know it's just like chit-chat banter and it's fine.
Speaker 1:It doesn't require your active participation.
Speaker 2:So I just kind of ignore it. Yeah, Same with our other one Signal.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, we're here for the WhatsApp. Resurgence or insurgence.
Speaker 2:Do you think we would ever add that to Arcade where someone could text? It would literally be you.
Speaker 1:Why me Because you're, what if they're trying to text the social?
Speaker 2:team. They aren't Well.
Speaker 1:I think we should. It could be cool to do it as like an extension to our TikTok, because our TikTok for Arcade is kind of like the point of view of the social team. So it'd be cool to have a number on there that people could text to talk to the social team at arcade other social.
Speaker 2:They haven't enough notifications to deal with, like they're the ones posting other things, probably a good source of new content but what would they text? It'd be like a lot of social media managers and marketers. And so you're saying we need a broadcast channel no, because a broadcast channel is just one way.
Speaker 1:That's what I don't understand about the appeal of broadcast channels, because it's just like I'm opting into another way for a brand to just talk at me, but I can't talk back. I don't need more of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wish broadcast channels. I don't really see brands being that interesting as broadcast channels, but I do see celebrities. I want athletes to have broadcast channels. Why? Because they could leave you voice notes. They could be like I'm on my way, like down the tunnel, I'm going to be wearing this. Look out for this.
Speaker 1:Why do you need a broadcast channel for that?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I just I'm like trying to think of like what would be a great, maybe they need a WhatsApp no why, because then there'd be too many people responding to stuff. You can't have it too cluttered. There's like an art to the dm or group chat. What would be? What do you think is the max amount of people that's allowed to be in a group chat like you're? You're in a ton of group chats for fantasy, like how many people are in those?
Speaker 1:well, yeah, I going to say like probably no more than a dozen, and even that's pushing it like. A dozen is a lot An ideal amount in a group chat, fantasy football aside, would probably be Four to six, but I don't know if Any of our yeah, four to six is nice.
Speaker 2:I'd say ten is too much Personally Because it could easily get Out of control.
Speaker 1:Yeah, four to six is nice opinions I want to know I'd say 10 is too much.
Speaker 1:Personally it's pushing it because it could easily get out of control, like if something happens and everyone's chatting yeah, I think people are getting better with group chat etiquette though like I think earlier in the the group chat era, people there would just be like these rabbit trail conversations that happen any time of day that just get unhinged and chaotic and with no regard for people that have jobs or other things to do. But I think it's gotten better, where it's almost like people have a better sense of like when's an appropriate time to get a little crazy in the group chat versus when's a good time to just like react to a message and then come back to it later.
Speaker 2:I like when there's someone that like leaves the group chat.
Speaker 1:That's such a move.
Speaker 2:It's such a move I love when, like Apple's, like so-and-so has left the group chat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and everyone's like was it an accident? Why did they leave? Did someone remove them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's also crazy.
Speaker 1:when someone removes someone from the group chat, yes, and it tells you who. They didn't leave on their own accord.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, it's so fascinating. I also I think with the group chat etiquette. I love when people like bow out of group chats and they have like this, like for me, as like someone who's like really it's hard. I'm like like such a people pleaser, I'm like down for whatever group chat I'm in, just like I'll silence one's letter Kind of annoying.
Speaker 1:Just take the L and just ride along. Yeah, I'm fine.
Speaker 2:You can add me to your group chat. I might not like respond, but I think when people are like, oh, like, this is why this group chat no longer serves me. I'm going to leave, take care. I just think I'm like wow, like that's not me.
Speaker 1:I'm a quiet quitter. I'll just put that group chat on mute and act like I'm still there. But I'm, I'm clued out, I'm in just ignorant, bliss.
Speaker 2:I have bigger battles to fight could not be bothered.
Speaker 1:And if someone? If so, if the group makes plans and then I don't show up, it is what it is. Or if sometimes, if the group make plans, then someone will side channel and be like, oh, are you going to that thing?
Speaker 2:and I'll be what. Thing.
Speaker 1:But then I'll still end up there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then you'll get it. I know you're like all over your notifications, but you look at every single notification for your group chats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I look at every notification, but not all looks are created equal, because I just want to get rid of the notification. That's why I open it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you's so funny before you go to bed. While you're like passively listening to me debrief, you're going through your notifications 100%. Every single little app.
Speaker 1:And then when I wake up I have to like make sure I check all the notifications so that it's my home screen is clear.
Speaker 2:I've actually been really good at not looking at my phone when I wake up Respect, mostly because I wake up too late, you're like I don't have the luxury. Yeah, and I'm like you're setting an alarm right, so I don't need to.
Speaker 1:Your alarms are loud, so I'm glad it's my alarm.
Speaker 2:You have the exact same alarm as me.
Speaker 1:No, I don't. You don't know, because you don't wake up from it. Is that it Sure, are we done for today?
Speaker 2:I guess so.
Speaker 1:Thanks for watching Big Things. Make sure you like, subscribe, check us out on Instagram, send us a message, let us know how many people is too many in a group chat. And also thank you for your recommendations for shows to watch. We forgot to mention which ones we tried, but we'll do that next episode. Bye, have a nice day.
Speaker 2:You shut it down, we're just like, not just like. We're just talking too much about like well, I was like trying to like find a segue, to like go somewhere else.