The Fed meets today, NADA Show Tickets open, and IG Backlash

SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier, Paul Daly

Kyle Mountsier  00:00

Okay All right, welcome to PBR PBR is the host of the asoto con marketing and technology breakout rooms, we're really excited to host a series of conversations, things from pitch tank to talking GA four, or social media marketing, media mix modeling, and even the technology that's coming into the automotive space, we're gonna be talking a lot of technology that's recently entered the automotive space for things that need to come into it. So what's gonna come out of this room is a lot of things that we're hoping to see crafted and created, actually, not things that maybe are just already solutions that have had but solutions that we need to have in the automotive space in order to progress and move forward and solve the customer experience. So we're going to craft the sage instead of the bull here. I know that disappoints a lot of people, but we'll have that Senator in the round, obviously, people around all the way through the space places for conversations to happen, not just breakouts and keynotes. And the really neat thing is we actually have an energetic space that allows that overflow to happen from the main space into here. We can't wait for the conversations that happen in here, as well as the solutions that come out of here because a soda con is really here for collaboration and innovation, something that pushes the automotive industry forward and gathers OEMs industry partners dealers, marketers operators onto the room and has really intentional conversation. So well. Hopefully you will join us in this room for a sort of common September.

Paul Daly  01:53

Yo, that gets me excited to check that out on a Wednesday morning. Oh man, we just rolled the preview for the PBR room. We'll talk about that more in this episode. But today we have to talk about the Fed nada show is opening in Instagram, back to the lash. They stopped. Big time backlash.

Kyle Mountsier  02:13

big backlash I posted back when they changed the whole feed thing I posted on LinkedIn. I was like this is pretty solid. This is a good thing, right? But then I was like,

Paul Daly  02:22

I literally thought of that as I was reading the article. Right? I was like, hey, like some users are like, hey, that's the experience I want. We're getting into we're getting ahead of ourselves, we just rolled if you're listening to the podcast, only, we just rolled the preview for one of the rooms at a soda con the marketing and technology room. It's in the PBR which is professional bull riding room, There literally is a bull in the middle of the stage, which kind of is pretty good. We're building a stage around it. And I think it's important, we're gonna have amazing conversations around tech and marketing and we're gonna pitch tank in there. We're gonna have dealers

Kyle Mountsier  02:54

tank we're gonna have so you have to actually pitch while riding the bull. And yes,

Paul Daly  03:01

ma'am. That'd be amazing. I think yeah. And then we'll see how much that person remembers of the questions. That'd be nice. They only take the questions when they're on the bowl. And I think I think it's important to mention, we said it yesterday, I want to say it again, that, um, you know, because Kyle, you and I are in the marketing world, people might think this is a marketing conference, it is not, it is a full, a full spectrum conference. So about 25% of the content is going to have to do with marketing. And a lot of that is going to be in the marketing technology room. So that means the other rooms, like operations is one of the breakout rooms. Another one is sales, mark our sales, culture and leadership, right. So we're gonna have a lot of conversations going on at once. So that you can pick the track that makes sense for you. And we really hope one of our deepest hopes is that you will actually go to a session that you're not really familiar with the subject matter, at least one, right, at least one because that's how we all grow is when the industry and all the pieces in the store, know what's going on and have some empathy for what's going on in the other sides of the store is because this consumer experience in this day, and age is all connected. And it all matters. And it all needs to work together. So real quick ticket, I

Kyle Mountsier  04:07

just want to say like specifically, you know, I want to talk a little bit about the operations room today to just for a second. And I'm really excited about the conversations that are going to happen in there. Because there's a lot of things that will happen around markets, you know, we're going to have some economists and m&a specialists that will be in there. We're also going to have a lot around us car operations or sales volume operations and how to track back to profits in in a changing and changing inventory structure. So there's gonna be some just like really dialed in conversations and super thankful to both upstart auto retail and Vin Q for getting behind all of the content in there. They're going to be supporting it. They are the room collaborators, they'll be a part of the content as well as hosting some of those conversations. So thank you to to Vin Q and upstart auto retail for partnering with us to make sure that that room and all the content and all the speakers can happen in.

Paul Daly  05:04

Absolutely man out, we also had a conversation yesterday with the charity we're going to be partnering up with, it's actually a dealer started. We'll talk about it more another time. But it's a dealer in Texas that started a charity to help disabled veterans are opening receptions on September 11. It's amazing, they do these things with light therapy, and they train service dogs, it's awesome, we want you to be a part of it, we want the whole industry to be a part of what they're doing. So we're going to talk about that too. So get your tickets at a so to con.com, a soda con.com, there's still tickets left, they are going to go they are going to disappear. And we don't want you to be the person that logs in and just finds that sold out label on there, because it's going to happen. So and also thanks to our friends@cars.com for being our presenting sponsor, and helping us get this baby off the ground. Let's talk about a little bit of news. I guess. This This isn't in the show notes. But it is news, our friends in St. Louis had an insane rainfall, they got like 10 inches of rain in half a day when their previous high was like six inches in a full day. They're also coming off a drought. So the ground is hard and arid, and it's not as absorbing the water, called some dealer friends in St. Louis today to see how they were doing. Fortunately, the Franklin otter group, you know, their stores were unaffected, but their communities are very effective. So not affected. So our thoughts and prayers with with our dealer network family in St. Louis, and just hoping that you can leverage this opportunity to serve that community and just show them what retail Auto is all about. Because I don't think there's going to be I don't think you're gonna be a Carvana people on the ground. You know what I'm saying? That saying that the bad for not being there. I'm just saying like their model is that they're not there.

Kyle Mountsier  06:42

So they're not there. And that's okay. Yeah, just a different business model. And

Paul Daly  06:46

there are 1000s of dealer personnel in the area so that you can serve the community and let us know at a show too, if there's anything we can do to help leverage that. All right, let's talk about let's talk about the news everyone's talking about as, especially in the final year really paying attention. You logged in this morning, Kyle? And it's like, okay,

Kyle Mountsier  07:06

okay, so we got three things to talk about. And one of the three that is obtaining, like 70% of all news stories is the fact that everybody's calling today fed day. Zoom fun, you know, make it a holiday. Yeah. I mean, it's really wild, because for five years, basically, no one even talked about the Fed, they were like they do what they do over there. They just sit in like smoke cigars kind of thing. Oh, money stuff, the money stuff, right? Recently, obviously, the Fed has been in the news, because the Fed is the one responsible for interest rates, and in a time of disruption in market forces and the way that inflation is happening, that all eyes are on them. And so today they meet, there's an expected 75 basis point raise in interest rates today. So initially, when we're at the last 75 basis, point raise, there was speculation that it would be a whole 100 basis points. So a whole 1%.

Paul Daly  07:58

And what that translates 75 basis points is three quarter point seven 5% of a race just Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier  08:03

so so they've pulled that back by a quarter percent, which is good. But just kind of some of the things that are that are shaping up around this right there, we have to recognize that that the American economy is is tied tightly to global economies. So things like China's industrial profits, Australian inflation at a 21 year high, you know, gas supply concerns from a German perspective, because so much of their gas supply comes from Russia, you know, durable goods data, and euro and the euro being affected over the last couple of months are all playing into this. So it's not just GDP, and not just inflation rates in the US that are playing into the Feds decision, because a lot of the Feds lending is actually international as well. So there's just like a whole lot of balance that goes into figuring out where the interest rates are happening and how bonds are sold at the federal level. So just want to kind of like bring some perspective to it's not just a single decision, or it's not just a single factor, leading to the decision making for the Fed today.

Paul Daly  09:14

No doubt, no doubt. So there is this fear and we saw this in there that there's lagging the Feds making decision based on lagging economic data, you know, because they're talking about, like what's happening in the retail market and they have to obviously make these decisions ahead of time, which brought us back to our friend Jonathan smoke, right because you think of employment as strong spending as strong although inflation is going up all these other indicators are saying like you know what the ground it's not an earthquake, you know, and Jonathan smoke last week, we still want you to go back and listen to it because then the all things use cars room and clubhouse. He really laid out the foundation of like what actually is a recession? Right Why the basic definitions that a lot of people use are incapable of actually defining the whole situation. And he's talking about we're seeing an automotive. And I think he's, you know, we said, somebody needs to appoint him to a position in the government in charge of stuff, which we say half heartedly because that means we lose him in automotive put his level of level headedness and optimism and just intelligent approach to the recession. He's gonna, he might actually get a chance to say, and he won't say, but like, See, I told you so.

Kyle Mountsier  10:30

Yeah, right. Well, and he's pointing to the fact and there's some reports this morning, even just looking at in in all of these where people are going recession is imminent, or it's coming. But the check in that is both consumer demand. So the the volume of, of purchasing is still very high, as well as new jobs. So in June, the new jobs created was higher than any month and 2019 pre pandemic. So you still got a very, very fast accelerating job market. Now, the news is telling you that some of these startups are high tech, everybody's laying off, right? If you just read the headlines, you'd be like, people are losing jobs. Yeah. But if you think about, and I saw this report, we're just diving deep. But if you think about it, companies like Shopify leaned in heavy when the pandemic hit, because they saw a sharp uptick in things like E commerce or attachment to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. So all of those are the ones that are starting to lay people off, because that sharp increase was actually not in line with a, like, an easy Danmark growth curve. It was not standard growth curve. And so you're seeing the the news of layoffs there, but the rest of the job market is still maintaining a standard growth curve. And so recognizing that both of those things, both consumer demand, as well as the employee index, and the new jobs created, are still on the rise is saying like, hey, look, everything's not you know, hellfire and brimstone when it comes to the the current market.

Paul Daly  12:03

It's such a conflicting time to try to navigate through like all those things. I said, it's why we have a pandemic, and it triggers all these, all these events. And you know, companies make bets on how long that's going to last with their hiring, they make bets on you know, how what they think is going to stay as the norm or what is going to be the new norm. And so much of what we've seen from consumer spending and ecommerce has reverted back to pre pandemic trends, right people like went heavy on econ big bets. And so what a wild time right all the headlines are about people being laid off this you know, the jobs report is actually more jobs being created. The Fed has been like we have to raise inflation high to curb and you know, or raise interest rates to curb inflation. A lot of other economists and industries are like actually things are looking like there's still a lot of consumer confidence and so dang thing well look hopefully you get a little bit of levity at least when you come when you come and you pay attention to us because we're gonna give you all the stories of not just the headlines. Speaking of

Kyle Mountsier  13:05

the headlines

Paul Daly  13:12

when you go to our show

Kyle Mountsier  13:16

actually, nada show has opened up ticketing there room blocks you can only get tickets to room block information if you actually purchase stick they've all got that on gated they dialed it in, but they also announced their headline speaker see I did that I pulled that together. It was really good. You did know you got a couple you know, I honestly the one that I recognized that wasn't automotive was Deion Sanders, and then you know a couple other people but Dre had killed it last year. I know and I Deion Sanders, like that cat can be on a stage I'm telling you there's gonna be a ton of fun now here's this is the only reason why I wanted to talk about this today because I was on the website yesterday which one and I was looking through I was like okay, what have they announced? Okay, obviously education sessions aren't out there our very own Paul J. Daly got invited don't tell anyone All right, yo, but check this out the welcome reception this is like I don't know if someone's like yo, we gotta do it more like sounds like a three ring circus go ahead read them off believable So obviously we're gonna be in Dallas Texas and they're throwing they're throwing down

Paul Daly  14:24

gonna make such a great piece of social content I'm saying this right now I know Yeah, like literally we're gonna be there with like cell

Kyle Mountsier  14:30

phones and video we're gonna we're gonna lay this out right? You won't want to miss this is right straight off the website. You won't want to miss this fun and festival welcome reception featuring. I'm gonna try and make it through this.

Paul Daly  14:43

I need I need I need a ding we need a counter. Okay,

Kyle Mountsier  14:47

all right, well, adventuring. Trick ropers line dancing, a honky tonk band mariachi music flamenco dancing mechanical bulls. We Wait for it. Armadillo races.

Paul Daly  15:04

I've always wanted to race for.

Kyle Mountsier  15:09

I like

Paul Daly  15:10

I gotta call, I gotta call red Pascall right now is yi Han his way.

Kyle Mountsier  15:16

I'm like, This is nuts. I'm so proud of them. I like this. For me, this is this is so proud of classic automotive. They are going to tell stories about this night for years to come, like hell or high water. I'm there. We're luckily we're not having another kid this year around January. So I know. Yeah, we can say that with certainty. Now you can say that with certainty at this point. So yeah, look, I'm telling you what that I think, you know, if if, like my note for this is whether you're coming to a soda con, or a name at or modern retail conference or nada. The fact that when we get together, dealers banding together, no crisis, whether that be market forces or anything like that can win because there's an energy around automotive and people inside and outside of the automotive industry are recognizing it right now. And even an IDA recognizing that they got to throw a party like this means hey, look, we're over here we're doing things this is a place to be Automotive is the right place to be

Paul Daly  16:19

my gosh, I'm just thinking of how to how we covered the event in the Raider stadium. Let you know like walking around with the microphones live oh,

Kyle Mountsier  16:31

we need to like live. Yeah, we need to like go to be live commentate the armadillo race. This

Paul Daly  16:36

is gonna be next level, Yo, I got by two feet. Let me break this down for you. So really what you're looking for in a good armadillo? is motivation, motivation, oh, my goodness, thinking of speaking to things that you post on social media. segue to real? Hello back to the story we alluded to at the very beginning of the show Instagram changes in their feed and the way they're presenting content in the feed is sparking backlash from its largest users on the platform, namely, the Kardashian sisters who have over 685 billion followers. I mean, that's that's over half a billion followers. And they've actually reposted a change.org petition started by another user to quote unquote, save Instagram specifically asking the platform to hear the demands, bring back chronological timelines. Hey, Twitter, stop trying to be tick tock. Ouch. An algorithm that favors photos. And I missed one. I doubled that one. I missed the last one. And one more thing that I forgot to put in the shownotes.

Kyle Mountsier  17:46

Well, here's what's interesting is, you know, I, and we'll get to kind of the public response from Instagram. But I posted back when kind of the feed got updated. I was like, wow, this is a really immersive experience it Yeah, it felt a lot better to me personally. And honestly, I'm not I'm not a tick tock user. So I only know the platform from a business perspective. So I've scrolled through, and I understand it, but I'm not on there to watch anything. And so and then from Instagram perspective, again, kind of a business like some personal stuff, and but when I was on there, I was like, wow, this is actually something that I could get to get used to scrolling through. It's immersive. There's, there's not a lot of distractions. And even the way that content is getting laid out by really savvy creators that have flipped the switch on how they create content feels more natural to me to engage with, but I can understand how like, this is a whiplash for creators that have like made a brand on one way of posting content. And then, like, literally a week later, Facebook decides to do almost a similar thing. No. But you know. So it is it's an interesting play to, you know, kind of like, align with what they're seeing as this like, mass move to tick tock in tic TOCs. What eighth or ninth year, right? Yeah, yep.

Paul Daly  19:07

Wow, that's weird as an eighth or ninth year. But yeah, so real is feels like tick tock. And obviously, people like that format right now. Um, so what happened is this actually made the CEO release a real of his own to respond to this up pretty quickly within like, one or two days, right. So this is like a big thing. And kudos to Adam mosseri. For for like, kind of addressing it head on. He said, we're experimenting with a number of different changes on the app. And so we're hearing a lot of concerns from all of you. I want to be clear, it's not good yet. But he was like, our algorithm. And the thing is, like, it's not good yet, but it's gonna get good. He said, we're gonna have it have to get it to a good place if we're going to ship it to the rest of the community. So that means they're kind of rolling it out. It's not available to everyone. I guess I have it. You have it. Kardashians have it? Yeah. He says, I want to be clear, we're going to continue to support photos, which indeed was one of the biggest concerns cited by people that became They go on the platform by posting great photos. It's part of our heritage. He said that said, I need to be honest, I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time we see this, even if we change nothing, we see it, even if you just look at the chronological feed. So he's like, look, it's going there. They have the data, they know what people are into. And these platforms are designed to give you that quick hit of dopamine. And it just when you're scrolling through reels and you're laughing, or you're seeing something interesting, it just, it just makes you focus and gives you that reward center versus looking at a still image and copying. So I don't know, my thought is that Adam knows what he's doing. But whether or not he loses or gains users or viewers or minutes, like they're not making the decision, because people are looking at Instagram less. Yep. Out of that. Well, and

Kyle Mountsier  20:47

here's here's the encouragement from a business perspective on this type of on this type of move is recognizing that actually, I was having a conversation this morning, that that, and yesterday, I think we had a conversation as well, that the volume of updates that platforms are pushing on in a 12 month basis right now is somewhat staggering, whether that be a social platform or Google, whether that be organic or paid search, or OTT platforms, like the speed at which these are ticking off. So being ahead of that or being at least on the curve is the the opportunity to gain market share, impression share. And so wherever you're placing or prioritizing content, recognizing that being aware of the shifts in the algorithms or the layouts, is important to grabbing and obtaining market share. Like yeah, that's, that's just like business 101. Now, you can't just like toss that to someone else. At this point. You have to be savvy on that.

Paul Daly  21:45

No doubt. And so like, look when something changes someone else's, always disrupted. And if you're a creator, like you just need to understand like you lean in as hard as you can when you have something good. But if you're not willing to change and shift, like even the Kardashians can't throw a big enough fit to get this one. So I said it. We hope you have an amazing day out there. We hope that you lean into the things that truly make automotive automotive, which is really namely fundamentally serving other people. So go out there and just do that.

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