Marketing Match Game: Episode 20

Addie: It's no secret that Sean, Julie and I get along like gangbusters. We work well together, often have similar tastes, and complement each other's work styles. After nearly a decade of working together, it almost feels like we can read each other's minds. Well, today we're putting that connection to the test. Keep listening to hear us play the marketing match game. But first, a word from our sponsor.

Julie: Are you tired of endlessly scrolling? The arguments, the noise? Take a breath. Welcome to Breads, the new platform where people only talk about carbs.

Sean: Is this a social network?

Julie: Yep, it's called Breads. One topic, Loaves of fun.

Sean: So what do people argue about?

Julie: Hydration ratios, proper scoring technique, whether bagels are elite or just boring donuts. No politics, no drama. Just crust crumbs and community.

Sean: This is weirdly soothing.

Julie: That's because it's baked to be better. Breads, the social network that rises together.

Narrator: Welcome to Almost Productive A. Ah, podcast, Mostly about marketing.

Sean: I'm Sean.

Julie: I'm Julie.

Narrator: And I'm Addie. And we're all marketing professionals at New Boston Creative Group in Manhattan, Kansas.

Addie: Okay, welcome to the marketing match game. Uh, before the competition starts and the gloves come off, we can start with some easy, nice, fun questions. So, first of all, what competition show would y' all most like to appear on? Or which one do you think that you would be most likely to actually win?

Sean: I think Wheel of Fortune would be really fun. Similar with. With prices. Price is right. Just doing one of the silly games would just be fantastic.

Addie: Big wheels, lots of flashing lights, the whole shebang.

Julie: Yeah, I can think of a lot that I would be terrible at. Like, I'm definitely too dumb for Jeopardy. Too, uh, tone deaf for the Voice. Like, well, I guess that's not really a game show. But yeah, I would be terrible at a lot of them, and I feel like I would.

Addie: Like.

Julie: Wheel of Fortune is a good entry level, but sometimes you see pictures where people get the guess horribly wrong based on what. What's out there, and I feel like that would probably be me.

Addie: So for fear of not wanting to turn into a meme or like a viral clip, you're just abstaining.

Julie: Although, years ago, Wheel of Fortune used to have a shopping segment. So you'd win your prize money, and then they'd, like, pan around this display and you'd be like, I'll take the ceramic dogs for 500, and you'd spend your winnings. This was ages ago, but I used to love that part and be like, no, don't buy the dogs. Good times.

Addie: That's so fun. I'm going to Google that later. This is no longer on to my knowledge, but I always loved watching with my sister. Deal or no Deal? Uh, yes. I think that would be just a really good time. Zero strategy involved. Pure luck. Just playing the odds. Howie Mandel. Yeah, I think that would be fun.

Sean: Yeah, that is a good one, because it is. There's no, uh, skill, no intelligence, frequency. You're just presented sums of money that you then have to say yes or no to.

Julie: And what could be better?

Sean: I do feel like I would be off that show real quick. You'd open up her briefcase, It'd say, like, 30 grand, and it'd be like, the second one I open, I'd be like, deal, deal, deal, deal, deal, deal.

Addie: I take it.

Sean: I take it.

Addie: I think there's something to be said for that, because that was always my beef with people. They would play too long and then end up with nothing. So I think that, yeah, making a deal too early is better than too late. Okay, so this is related, but do you have a favorite competition or reality show? Not one that you would necessarily want to be on?

Sean: I think I'd go with prices. Right. That's always been my favorite sort of, like, game show.

Addie: It's a great answer. It's a classic.

Julie: I don't watch a lot of reality tv.

Addie: I don't really either. Competition is definitely Jeopardy. I love Jeopardy. So much. My husband and I watched a lot of that during COVID Um, and it's fun. It's fun to play along, but to Julie's point, I definitely do not have. I do not have the trivial knowledge to win, but it's fun to just play from the comfort of your own home.

Sean: Yeah, I enjoy a simple trivia sort of situation. Um, I think that's a good time when you're just with a group of people, is not to keep score or, like, do an actual game, but just, like, read off trivia cards and just, like, do that bit. I think it's fun.

Addie: Yeah. Agree. I do have qualms with not keeping score. I think that that takes away from the fun. Addie.

Julie: Of course. Of course you want to keep score.

Addie: Always. And to that end, now that we've gotten the civilized portion out of the way, let's dive into our contest. So here's how it's going to work. I have two questions written for each of us. First, I'll ask one person, for example, Sean, a question and tell them to write down their answer on a piece of paper. To prevent cheating. And then the other two contestants, for example, Julie and me, will guess what the subject wrote down. Anyone who guesses correctly gets a point. And then after all of the questions have been asked and answered, the person with the most points wins. And I do have a special tiebreaker for producer Nick if needed. So we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Okay, so we're going to start with Sean. Sean, your first question that I would like you to write down the answer to. What is your favorite national logo? And then once you've decided, please give Julie and me an industry to kind of guide guesses. So maybe it's like fast food. Maybe it's clothing. Maybe it's, you know, you. You get the idea.

Sean: Okay. This, uh, this was surprisingly hard to. To choose. And maybe, maybe that's not surprising that you asked the designer a logo question and it took him a while to figure it out. So there's a lot of great options. But I did, I did end up choosing one. It's maybe a little off the beaten path, but I think if I give you the industry, that will help a lot. So the industry is fashion.

Addie: This is not off the beaten path. But maybe, uh, maybe you're lying to us and you're trying to throw us off.

Sean: I think I meant, I don't know if you'd have guessed beforehand that I would have chosen a fashion brand as the logo.

Addie: Okay.

Sean: Is kind of what I meant. Like, if you're giving this clean, I don't think you would have thought Sean was going to pick a fashion brand.

Addie: No, probably not.

Julie: Well, you are a man who wore a zebra striped shoes, so I, uh,

Sean: know I am very fashionable.

Addie: We should have known. This is hard. Okay. I, I'm gonna go with my gut. I don't know that I would describe this as fashion, but it's kind of in that world. I'm going to say Nike, because I think the swoosh is just like, classic.

Julie: I was thinking the same thing.

Addie: Wow. Okay.

Julie: Yeah.

Sean: What if. What if I said high fashion?

Addie: Okay.

Julie: Then I have to look up fashion logos on the Internet.

Addie: Okay. If we're going like, designer Y or esque in that realm, maybe Burberry. I feel like they have like a cool. Again, fairly classic, but it's also, like, designed. It's not just like, letters. So maybe Burberry.

Sean: It's a decent guess.

Addie: But now, shoot.

Julie: And then I was gonna say Chanel

Sean: M. Another close, but not it. No.

Addie: Okay, so no.

Sean: You want more? You want more guesses or do I get the answer?

Julie: You want to keep making an ass out of yourself or let's. Let's.

Sean: Uh, so I really like Lacoste. I like the little crocodile.

Julie: Interesting.

Sean: I think it's. I think it's classic and, but also fun in an interesting way for. Especially for that industry that is. Can be very sort of stuffy. Um, and yeah, I think like I said, there's a lot of great classic national logos, so Nike, Target, IBM. Um, like those are some really solid ones. But you asked favorite, so the little crocodile just sort of wins on favor.

Addie: It's a great, It's a great logo. Okay, now we know. All right, your second question, Sean, what bugs you more on a website? So you have two options. A, an outdated copyright or B, the inclusion of home as a main navigation option as opposed to just allowing people to click on the logo to be taken back to the homepage.

Julie: Uh, I know what Addie's pick would be. I know what my pick would be, but I don't know what Sean's pick would be. And I'm gonna say copyright.

Addie: I might be clouded by my own bias, but I'm going to say home as an option in the main nav.

Sean: Addie is correct.

Julie: Yeah.

Addie: Nice.

Sean: Yeah, because I feel, I feel like the home. The home link is a choice someone made to include it versus the copyright is something someone forgot to update. And I can understand that.

Julie: Okay. Empathy. Nice.

Sean: Yes. Fashionable and empathetic are words that describe me.

Julie: Mhm.

Addie: Those would have been my top two words.

Sean: So easy. Top five.

Addie: Okay, great. So now it's Julie's turn to be in the hot seat. So Julie, your first question. Which issue would you want addressed first on a client's social media account? A, and this is assuming that they take equal time and effort to fix. So A, fix their profile picture that currently gets cut off because it's incorrectly sized, or B, fix their bio because it's filled with typos.

Julie: So I want a little scribbling sound effect here. Okay.

Addie: Okay. I think I'm going with A, because everyone, like the profile picture is more visible, that could just show up on a feed, whereas the bio. Not everyone who sees a post from that page would see the bio. Like you have to be on their page to see that. So I think I'm going A. I

Sean: agree with Addie's logic, but I'm gonna go the other way and say the typos in the bio are maybe more an affront to Julie's sensibilities and she can understand. Yeah, the logo is weirdly. Cropped. And that's not ideal, but we gotta fix the. You know, you're missing these commas and these periods and these words that are supposed to be. I'm just saying, like, you know, English words now. So people just fill in details here.

Julie: So I went back and forth. You all both make solid arguments and know me well, but ultimately I came down on profile pic for that very reason. If someone gets to your bio, then they're in the weeds, they're already engaged with you. I think those are more egregious errors. Like how Sean was, um, talking about with the website stuff. Those are, like, really bad errors versus you see everyone with a messed up profile picture. But that's everywhere.

Addie: Like, get your.

Julie: Get your more prominent piece taken care of first. And it also said first. So do both.

Addie: Trick answer C. Do both. Uh, yeah. That's good reasoning. That was a tough one. Okay, Julie, your next question. If you had to choose, do you most enjoy reading stories with heavy, witty dialogue or expansive prose? Sean, do you want to take the first stab?

Sean: Yeah. Not feeling confident anymore. Oh, Sean, I think I gotta go with my gut, which was the witty dialogue. I'm not. Not super confident in it, but that's my gut. Said witty dialogue first.

Addie: I think I'm. I'm going to say the same. That strikes me as something that Julie appreciates the most. Like, just the word witty, I think, Julie. So I think, yeah, for that. That reason dialogue, you both get a point.

Sean: Yay.

Addie: Very nice. Great job. Okay, so no more point options for me. Let's see here. So these are the questions for Addie. What is your social media platform of choice in your personal life?

Sean: I'll go first. And I'll go. I'll go Instagram. Yeah.

Julie: I was gonna ask for a qualifier to use or to like, to observe or to post. Um, and I was gonna guess Instagram as well. But since I'm already the lowest number of points, I'll go different. Like, I don't think I have any points. So I'll say TikTok

Addie: it is Instagram. Yeah, I actually deleted TikTok a while ago because it just. I don't know, it was too much.

Julie: I thought it was, but I thought we need a really big winner and a really big loser. And.

Sean: Yeah, sometimes you gotta take a chance if you wanna win and just make.

Addie: That's all part of the game. All part of the game. Okay, the next question for me is, if you're not beholden to a certain style or style guide, do you prefer to Write with an Oxford comma or without?

Julie: Golly, I don't know. I'm gonna say, uh, why is that so hard? I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say. You would write with one.

Sean: I'm also gonna say with one.

Addie: You both know me so well. Great job. Y. With the Oxford comma. That was the biggest hurdle to jump, getting this job, because New Boston uses ap, which does not use an Oxford comma. And that. Yeah. That really took some learning.

Julie: Yeah.

Addie: Yeah. Okay, so after all of our rounds, we have a tie for first between Sean and me, so. All right, we both have three points. And the tie break is a question for producer Nick that we will guess. And the question for Nick is, who is your favorite film director?

Sean: Oh, man.

Addie: So write down your answer, Nick.

Julie: Yeah. How is anyone going to get that

Addie: right and if no one gets it right? I didn't think about that. I think of all time. Yes.

Julie: Addie's had this conversation with Nick. That's why she chose it.

Addie: I promise. I've not.

Julie: Hey, Nick. Just wanted to pick your brain and cut out a couple of things.

Addie: Yeah. Just curious. Like, out of the blue, scribble, scribble, scribble.

Sean: I've written it down.

Addie: It is.

Sean: I just jotted down.

Julie: Okay.

Addie: Did you know immediately? Yeah. I think I'm going Christopher Nolan. It's tough, but I think, like, he has a very specific perspective.

Sean: My gut also said Christopher Nolan. And I don't have a strong pull to another director at the moment for Nick, so I kind of have to go to go with it, because I feel if I go another way, Addie's just going to take this, and I can't allow it.

Addie: That's fair.

Sean: Christopher Nolan. Okay.

Julie: Yeah. Okay, so then it's not a tiebreaker. We're still in a dead heat.

Addie: Shoot.

Sean: You had to kind of like five more tiebreaker questions.

Addie: Exactly. I can't. Let's see. Um.

Julie: All right, Nick, which is the better office supply implement a paperclip or a staple?

Addie: I feel like paperclip. I don't know why, but I think paperclip.

Julie: Sean just picked.

Sean: I'm, um. Julie, I'm on board with this. We're at the point where we just got to draw a line. And so team staple over here. Addie's got team Paperclip. This is for the winner.

Addie: I'm nervous.

Sean: Congratulations, Addie. It is paperclip.

Julie: She loves to win.

Addie: I do. I hate to win a game that I wrote, because that does, uh. That takes the sweetness of victory away. Just a tinge but there was no cheating, so I'll take it. Thank you all for playing.

Sean: That was great.

Addie: And I can't give myself a raise, but I am going to claim bragging rights for at least a couple of months. So thank you all for playing and thank you for listening.

Sean: Yeah, we'll take it under consideration for your next, uh, salary increase.

Addie: Foreign.

Narrator: Thank you for listening to this episode of Almost Productive. If you'd like to learn more about what we do at New Boston Creative Group, you can reach us, uh, @newbostoncreative.com you can also follow us on social media, ewbostoncreative on Instagram and New Boston Creative Group on Facebook and LinkedIn. If you liked this episode, please like follow, subscribe, leave a review and subscribe and share the podcast with your friends.

Addie: And if you didn't like the show,

Narrator: feel free to recommend us to your enemies. Tune in next time for more office shenanigans, thoughts on trending topics and marketing adjacent insights. Until next time, we hope you have a productive day.