Modern Hire Acquires Son-Who?
Take a deep breath people... The U.S. economy just posted its worst quarterly economic output on record so it's all rainbows and unicorns this week as the boys cover:
- Modern Hire buys Sonru... Son-who?
- Stack Overflow is swimming in cash
- LinkedIn's search rivals Google?
- Density $51m to count people... and what else?
- Amazon's Alexa is asking the questions
- Burger King brings us Christmas in July
...and the Brits have one helluva sense of humor.
Enjoy, and as usual, we're powered by Jobvite, JobAdx, and Sovren.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION sponsored by
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Intro (1s):
Hide your kids! Lock the doors! You're listening to HRS most dangerous podcast. CHAD SOWASH and Joel Cheesman are here to punch the recruiting industry, right where it hurts! Complete with breaking news, brash opinion and loads of snark, buckle up boys and girls, it's time for the Chad and Cheese podcast.
Joel (20s):
Oh shit. The us economy just posted its worst quarterly economic output on record. So how's your week going? Welcome to the Chad and Cheese podcast, everybody. I'm your cohost Joel GDP Cheeseman and
Chad (35s):
I'm Chad Lafayette Sowash
Joel (37s):
...and on this week show Modern Hire does its best Pacman impression, LinkedIn tells Google to hold its beer and the Brits have a special take on what it means to mask up Cheerio, hip hip. And we'll be right back after we pay a few bills.
Sovren (54s):
Sovren Parser is the most accurate resume and job order intake technology in the industry, the more accurate your data, the better decisions you can make. Find out more about our suite of products today by visiting sovren.com. That's SOVREN.com. We provide technology that thinks communicates and collaborates like a human. Sovren software. So human you'll want to take it to dinner.
Joel (1m 21s):
Basketball's back, baby.
Chad (1m 22s):
Yeah, but for how long?
Joel (1m 25s):
If it's anything like baseball four days. Yeah.
Chad (1m 31s):
What we'll do as humans, just to think we're we're back in normal. And that being said, we had a 1.4, three, I don't know where the three came from million file for unemployment. And then the GDP shrinks 32.9%. Now if, if, if we're not feeling it say, Hey, if you're not feeling it now, you know, get out of your ivory tower, open the curtains and check it out because people are, are having issues right now.
Chad (2m 3s):
And fucking unemployment is going to be running out.
Joel (2m 6s):
Thankfully yesterday was national chicken wing day and today is national corn dog chili day or our chili dog day. So, so I'm drowning my sorrow in bad food and calories.
Chad (2m 20s):
You do do whatever you can to keep away from the news cycle. That's all I got to say!
Joel (2m 26s):
I'm staying in my bubble. I'm in my bubble man. Bubble it. Stay in your white man bubble my suburb bubble shout outs.
Chad (2m 33s):
Shoutouts! That's right. Newest addition to the Brain Food Tribune. That's right. Kids, Steven O'Donnell and James Ellis.
Joel (2m 43s):
You have say it with a Scottish accent.
Chad (2m 46s):
Yeah. I can't, I ain't got one.
Joel (2m 47s):
Steven O'Donnell
Chad (2m 49s):
I'll fuck that all up. They, they have been entered into the Recruiting Brain Food Tribune section. So go to recruitingbrainfood.com. You can see the Tribune click on it. Some great stories. I have about 10 people in there now.
Joel (3m 5s):
Yeah. Explain what this is cause you've done it. So I assume, you know the reason of it and what's what's going on. So for those who don't know, Recruiting Brain Food Tribune.
Chad (3m 15s):
Yeah. So Hung Lee's a genius go figure. He wants to be able to really dig into the people that are in the industry. So that again, as a community, we know some things about others, maybe just from their Twitter feed or a little conversations that we've had here and there meeting them at events. But we really don't know the people. So he has different formats that he's put together. Elaine Valentine chose the hardest, I think, which is a letter to your 13 year old self.
Chad (3m 48s):
I picked one of the easier ones that I think James and Steven did as well, where we picked 20 questions and we answered those and Hung actually challenged us to talk more deeply about what some of these answers would be to some of the questions. So when you go to the, the Brain Food Tribune, you're going to be probably seeing a lot of faces that you already know, and maybe some faces that you don't, but you'll be able to get some real in depth information and just about those people themselves.
Chad (4m 22s):
And I thought it was a, I thought it was a genius idea. Overall. He's going to be adding I'm sure every week.
Joel (4m 28s):
Just want to, I just want to be on record to say that if you're involved in this, then calling him genius or this thing genius is, is under suspicion to say the least
Chad (4m 38s):
You're just mad because you haven't been included.
Joel (4m 40s):
Yeah. Yeah. I know. I'm totally jealous. Shout out to Pine who raised 2.2 million this week. They're a corporate messaging solution founded by one of the dudes from Atlaseon who many, many people know from the Trello app popularized by this show to have Chad and I communicate with each other, but 2.2 million to take on Slack and Facebook at work. Good luck with that
Chad (5m 6s):
Seems like a Yammer. What happened to Yammer? It was bought and then nothing happened with it, right?
Joel (5m 11s):
Yeah. Microsoft kind of dropped the ball on Yammer, but yeah, the people who, who did it got pretty rich from it. It's still around. Believe it or not. Yeah.
Chad (5m 20s):
Yeah. No. And nobody uses it. I received James Ellis's book this week. You should be happy about this. The talent chooses.
Joel (5m 30s):
One other one I got left out of.
Chad (5m 32s):
So you were, you were in this one, you just, it was more toward the back. And I think you, you and Charney like shared a section or something, right?
Joel (5m 40s):
I didn't get a free copy. Let's put it that way. Thanks.
Chad (5m 43s):
It's cause he knows you don't read books.
Joel (5m 45s):
It's gotta be an audio book version, right. Or his, his annoying voice. Anyway, could you imagine him doing an audio book? That would be fucking hilarious.
Chad (5m 55s):
No, he has a podcast for that. Yeah.
Joel (5m 58s):
The ADD audio book by James Ellis. Shout Out to, to ZipRecruiter. Who's hiring. After laying off 30% of their people, they got ads all over the fucking place. Those laid off. Can't be too happy about it, but Hey, hiring again.
Chad (6m 14s):
Okay. So two things I think they, they definitely, they dropped 40% first and foremost, around 40%. That was a huge cut. Number one, number two, this was something that they should have done a long time ago. They were, they were in part, I believe, using COVID-19 to be able to, to do what they should have done. Right.
Joel (-):
Cloud cover
Chad (6m 36s):
They should have. Yeah, they should have
Joel (6m 38s):
Cloud Cover
Chad (6m 38s):
Yeah. They should have focused on being able to diversify and not just focus on SMB, just being in the SMB space and not seeing this coming obviously, but just being in the SMB space, not diversified, really fucked them. And now they're turning, as you can see with this job posting toward Enterprise, which is what they should have done a few years ago.
Joel (7m 1s):
Agreed, agreed. Shout out to Daniel O'Neill. Listeners will remember him as the Tik Tok guy who shout out to boomers said, Hey, why aren't more employers on Tik Tok anyway? He's left his, his old gig. And now he is the enterprise sales and agency partner manager at Resume Library. So Daniel shout out, man.
Chad (7m 25s):
Good job.
Joel (7m 25s):
Good on you.
Chad (7m 26s):
Good job there, buddy. Last week we talked about a job case and the 30 million and the, the change of, of equity and all that other fun stuff that was happening.
Joel (-):
So confusing.
Chad (7m 37s):
Yeah. And, and Fred actually reached out and said, Hey guys, would you like to talk about it? So we actually talked to Fred Goff, the CEO of Jobcase this week. Amazing dude. And we'll be putting that out next week.
Joel (7m 50s):
I think his exact words were, Hey, donkeys, let's get on the phone and I'll explain this to you. Something, something like that, something like that. Shout out to SMS. A they're having a good year. So far. It came out from info BIP research that messaging grew 8.5% from February to March and another 20% in April. So to all our friends out there doing the SMS text recruiting thing, our friends at Emissary Rec Text, Text Recruit Canvas Slash Jobvite, keep on, keeping on people are still using those things And that won't stop kids.
Chad (8m 30s):
Shout out to Lauren Saunders over at Circa in Brookfield, Wisconsin, Els Schafer, director of TA at FGF brands in Toronto, Canada and John Ambrosino, chief employment officer at Employing Us in Chicago. They all love the podcast and they connected with me on other socials this week. So appreciate you guys listening and thanks for the connect.
Joel (8m 28s):
Joe AM-bruh-CiNO is how I pronounce it to Ambra-CinO. A shout out to Facebook Reels, a actually fairly smart strategy here. The Wall Street Journal had a story. Reels is essentially the Facebook Tik Tok competitor. Facebook has decided that they're just gonna backup the Brinks truck and pay Tik Tok's, most influential accounts and get them to come over to reels and leave Tik Tok behind. I thought this is something Microsoft should have done 10, 15 years ago when they made their first smartphone, they should have paid off all the successful apps from the iPhone and Android to come over and exclusively developed for Microsoft. Whereas they might still have a phone, whereas now they don't. So I like the strategy. I don't know how you feel about it, but Hey, if you're going to make a competitor, write some checks and get the content over in your neighborhood.
Chad (9m 49s):
Yeah. I think most of those people are on Tik Tok because they hate Facebook. And if Facebook's name's on something, they might not come. But for the cash, who knows they might
Joel (10m 1s):
Money talks, baby.
Chad (10m 2s):
Yeah. I don't talk about money Circa last week, they had a great fucking week. You remember Circa used to be LJN Local Job Network, a very old and stale brand. They rebranded as Circa. So they refresh the brand. That was pretty awesome. We talked about it last week and then they did do what we said would happen. The acquisition of America's job exchange happened earlier this week and an endorsement from the NFLs first female coach, Katie Sowers.
Chad (10m 33s):
She's an offensive coach for that, for the Niners. Now this to me is really cool because we're talking about diversity. We're talking about inclusion and she is the first NFL coach. And to be able to get her as an endorsement with a brand refresh and an acquisition, I mean, they had a good fucking week.
Joel (10m 54s):
This was a cameo video, correct? That I saw. So you, so you pay actors and famous people and semi-famous people to say good things about you say happy birthday, et cetera. So Cammie or whatever cameo is paid by Circa to say nice things about the new launch.
Chad (11m 12s):
It's kind of like Michael Jordan drinking a Gatorade.
Joel (11m 15s):
Yeah. Kinda, although you pay $50 for this chick to do your ad, like they could have at least got James VanDerBeek or somebody to do a, to do a shout out for them. They could have spent a little money and got Troy Aikman to do a, to it, to do a shout out. But anyway,
Chad (11m 30s):
You really don't understand diversity. Do you? You really don't get diversity. Do you?
Joel (11m 36s):
And I get capitalism, baby. Okay. So I will say this, that, that Cameo seems to be like the marketing, the marketing device of choice for people now. So I'm starting to see these things pop up all over and it's probably a good, a good use of a couple hundred dollars to get someone that people know to about your product. Just to make sure it's someone of color or has a vagina. So Chad approves of it.
Chad (11m 58s):
So, so everybody understands Circa is a diversity network. Joel doesn't know what diversity means because he's balled up in the fucking fetal position in a white man fetal position. And doesn't understand what that actually means. So therefore guys, let me go ahead and help him out. First NFL, female, coach = diversity. There you go, kid. So a competitor of Circa came out and their response to this whole thing was eQUEST. Just get ready.
Chad (12m 29s):
We have something coming soon. It was like, that was the worst response.
Joel (12m 34s):
That was the week. That was the weakest flex in history. That was really weak.
Chad (12m 40s):
What the fuck are you doing out there eQUEST? Oh, Hey, we're doing cool stuff too. We're not going to tell you what it is and it might not happen.
Joel (12m 52s):
Yeah, that was a weak ass flex. All right. Last shout out for me goes to Herman Cain just came across the news wires this morning, former GOP candidate for president back in 2012. I believe former CEO of Godfather's pizza, died of coronavirus complications. So our, our heart,
Chad (13m 12s):
No fuck. He died. Oh, Holy shit.
Joel (13m 15s):
Yeah. Announced a this morning. So Thursday morning is when we record. So Herman Cain rip, baby, if you didn't know him or like him, you hopefully liked his pizza. Cause that shit was good.
Chad (13m 27s):
Well, and that being said, I mean it as my, my, my last shout out, but John Lewis, obviously there's no question. He is going to be missed big, ah, big inhale, big exhale, who not, not a way to go out a shout out. So let's go ahead and just ease into events shall we?
Joel (13m 47s):
Events.
Chad (13m 48s):
We have a summer to evolve happening with our friends at Jobvite, August 5th at 2:00 PM, I'll be joining Elaine Orler and Peter Claire to talk about how not to make onboarding suck because onboarding in most cases sucks guys. It's dehumanizing at times. And so we'll be talking about tech experience and how to be more human in the onboarding process. You can register@summertoevolve.com, right?
Joel (14m 14s):
Automate that shit.
Chad (14m 18s):
Don't you have one of those coming?
Joel (14m 19s):
I do. It's after yours. So I have not, I, they haven't contacted me to coordinate that. Maybe they just forgot about it and I've been scratched from the sheet, but yes, I am doing one of those. It's it's something about content marketing for recruiting. So that'd be fun.
Chad (14m 37s):
Okay. Then August 27th, I'll be speaking in moderating a panel at Digital Recruitment Hackers event about optimizing recruitment for a remote workforce that connect to connect with me on LinkedIn, or follow me on Twitter for more info on how to register.
Joel (14m 58s):
Very nice.
Chad (14m 59s):
Yeah. Nice. Not too bad. And we're we're, we've dropped the first FeatureRama podcast with Andy Katz last Sunday. Got great response from that.
Joel (-):
Katman
Chad (15m 8s):
Yeah. Andy, Andy actually said, you must have dropped the podcast cause cause people are emailing me and messaging me. It's about Nexxt talent community product. If you have a talent community, you should definitely be listening to this podcast. And then this Sunday, we're going to drop the next Featurama. We have three more to go.
Joel (15m 28s):
I see what you did there. You started with Nexxt. And then the next one that's right. I like that. I like that. <inaudible> Modern Hire our favorite rebrand from 2019. Yeah. You, you may remember acquires who modern hire from the acquisition of Montage and Shaker International. Not to be confused with Shaker Recruitment Marketing. So this happened late last year, rebranded went to HR tech made a big deal. So they've made an acquisition of what I would call sort of a VRBO competitor.
Joel (16m 1s):
I won't say want to be, cause they've been around a lot longer than VRBO, but they acquired a company called Sonru. I assume I'm saying that correctly out of Ireland who does sort of automated video interviews. So they'll, pre-screen do all that good stuff. Interestingly, they've been around since 2009. So I don't even know if they've started doing, you know, automated video or they just sort of pivoted into that. At some point they, they only raised like $339,000
Chad (16m 29s):
and that was in 2010.
Joel (16m 31s):
Yeah. So they've just, I guess, been chugging organically. You and I kind of questioned why would they sell? Maybe they just got tired of running the business after 11 years. I don't know, but yeah, good on them. I hope they hope they got paid and Modern Hire gets into the automated video interviewing game, which is sort of interesting.
Chad (16m 54s):
They were already in that game. The thing is that this is more of an, a Mia and APAC expansion or at least that's what they're saying. If you take a look at, when you look at Australia, that Australia makes up most of their web traffic on similar web on Sonru, meaning that that's obviously where their, their customers and candidates are accessing the system. The thing is, I don't see anything Asia in those traffic numbers, the UK is their second most trafficked.
Chad (17m 25s):
And it is in single digits followed by France, New Zealand and Ireland. So I'm not feeling their Asia vibes, I'm feeling the Aussie vibes obviously. But yeah, I think this might be a scenario where it's like optics for more, more than anything, maybe picking up, picking up some portfolio. I mean, there, they had over 50 employees and I think six or seven different locations Sonru did. And a modern hire is like in Cleveland, in Deerfield, Wisconsin.
Joel (17m 59s):
Beautiful locations, by the way, beautiful locations. Yeah. They really, really played up the, the global expansion angle on this one. The only quote from the press release from Brian Stern, president of modern hire was quote, the combination with Sonru was compelling due to our tremendous alignment and culture and values and sunrise success in the E M E A and APAC regions. This will increase our InMarket market presence in major growth geographies and enable us to better anticipate the changing needs of our global buyers. So they really played up the global reach of this acquisition.
Chad (18m 32s):
Again, Sonru. Why sell now when remote is so big and video interviewing and remote interviewing is so big. I mean, this is, this is when they should really be pressing the pedal to the metal. And then the question back to, you know, Modern Hire, why, why acquire now you have what you have in the biggest market in the world. To me, it doesn't make sense. I'm glad they did it. Good for you guys. That's awesome.
Chad (19m 2s):
But to me it doesn't make sense. You double down, especially right now in the biggest markets, you kick the shit out of everybody else here where the money is. And I mean, I would think that Sonru would want a bigger price right now because there's much more of a need. I just, to me again, it's just, it's kind of weird.
Joel (19m 20s):
Yeah, It is tough. But you mentioned Fred Goff in our shout outs and you know, Fred talked a lot about how the M and a market is heating up. And the number of calls that he's getting, you know, for acquisition and partnering and whatnot is, is, is scaling up for sure. We are still in a global pandemic. People aren't hiring layoffs are still happening. So if you're a smaller company with a lot of, not a lot of money, good money could have run out. I mean, this could have been a, a fire sale. I don't know Jack about Sonru I can't say, but, but we are, we aren't, we are in strange times.
Joel (19m 53s):
So it's not, it's not crazy to think that, you know, Hey, financially the pandemic, the bad, bad timing, like we need to, we need to get out of this. And a Modern Hire was a logical buyer. Right.
Chad (20m 5s):
And I tell you, the funding is stack overflowing.
Joel (20m 12s):
Pretty good, man. I like that dude. You are on with the zingers man. Yeah. What happened to stack overflow? They raised a little cash, apparently.
Chad (20m 22s):
Yeah. 85 million in series E 153 million in total funding, which is reported by Crunchbase. Stack Overflow for teams, which is really what they're pushing now. A knowledge management platform that allows developers to collaborate with one another with, with other departments or within your department, or obviously with other departments, it's really been interesting because they're going to use this, this money to broaden into new markets. Now, when we spoke with Hacker Ranks, CEO, Vivek they're heavy, have HackerRank is heavy in India.
Chad (20m 60s):
I remember Vivek actually saying in our interview that we have plenty of tech talent. Because we were kind of pushing him, you know, Hey, tech talent is short and he's like, no, it's not, it's not short. Not if we look at this in a global way. In India, we have plenty to be able to fill the gaps that we have here. I'm wondering with stack overflow, the kind of broadening what that actually, what that actually means. They're not like a Hacker Rank to an extent they're more of kind of like a Help Index type of a system.
Chad (21m 35s):
But I mean, I don't know how that works and if they're really just pressing the teams module, because that's really where they're seeing revenu.
Joel (21m 41s):
Yeah. I think, I think all that is opportunity stack overflow also has a job board component to it. So, you know, I have to think that part of the money is going to be used to sort of build out geographical footprints in terms of a hiring angle. And you mentioned HackerRank, we talked to a human predictions, founder Elliott, his last name escapes me, but he, he talked about,
Chad (-):
Garms
Joel (22m 6s):
yeah, he talked about how, you know, the hiring and engineering and software and everything else, everyone else that got furloughed from that period is all hired back. So when you look at like where's hiring, going to still happening and happened sooner rather than later, right. And only get hotter. I mean, the, the tech hiring is where all that stuff is. So I got to think this is going to be a multipronged approach in terms of where they're going to spend that money, but they'd be stupid not to build out some of the employment, the employment features of the site.
Chad (22m 36s):
I think this segment is really missing an opportunity still here in the U S. I think that that corporate America is still going to want local talents, maybe not a hundred percent, but they're still going to want the lion's share of that to be the local talent. Those organizations really need to tap into and start manufacturing talent pipelines. I mean, these are the perfect types of organizations who could turn a huge void into a huge opportunity, especially in the diverse segments.
Chad (23m 11s):
When companies are looking for diverse developers, any type of, of tech talent whatsoever, they could be doing that instead of trying to go out there and find the same person over and over and over. So it is interesting. Broadening might be the key, but I really think we need to look a little bit more local for many of these issues.
Joel (23m 34s):
Agreed. Well, let's take a break and we'll talk about, we'll talk about LinkedIn, wanting to compete a little bit with Google.
Jobvite (23m 42s):
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Jobvite (24m 13s):
There will be a chance to share tips and ideas with your peers. And we may even have some surprises for you along the way. I love surprises. So visit thesummertoevolve.com to register for this summer tool evolve sessions that suit your needs, Peak your interest or float your boat. Starting June 16th, it's the summer to evolve the way you attract engage hire. Onboard and retain talent. Recruit with purpose, hire with confidence.
Chad (24m 42s):
Go learn something. People go learn something, float your boat, float your boat, learn something. Summertoevolve.com.
Joel (24m 50s):
So, so they've been fairly quiet in this pandemic, but Google's hot. You know, Google's March unemployment still continues and you and I have always been big fans of their search API. We did an interview with Steven Rothberg some months ago about how, how it's positively impacted his business. And we kind of wondered like, well, Google kind of owns the game and you could certainly have that perception, but I for one was, was sort of happy, pleasantly surprised and, and sort of happy that Google is going to get a little bit of competition on this side of the house.
Joel (25m 29s):
Announced this week by LinkedIn via their, their corporate blog. They're going to open source D text, which is their deep text learning framework for the NLP or natural language processing tasks. So basically LinkedIn said it is made it's detect D text or deep text, natural language processes technology available in open source. One of Dtext features is how it allows AI. Researchers use multiple NLP models, train on their own specific language data to power different tasks via one system.
Joel (26m 3s):
So in plain speak the same technology that LinkedIn is is using for its sort of job search it's people search it's recommended searches. You can now start looking at an open source and potentially plugging into your apps and sites.
Chad (26m 20s):
So in using LinkedIn myself, I'm always perplexed on why their search sucks so bad. So they're actually saying that they're going to use this same search that I use all the time and, and that they're going to open source it. And I'm I, so why it's like, I can get shitty search anywhere and you can say it's deep learning, but if it's not giving me what I'm actually looking for, if it's not, if it's not recommending per se, then I, I don't care.
Chad (26m 52s):
I mean,
Joel (26m 53s):
okay,
Chad (26m 53s):
Just, just from my usage of the platform itself, I think it sucks. So this to me, this is a, so what now I do like the competition model and we also have to remember that the AI and deep learning process doesn't happen overnight. This isn't overnight. Obviously they've been doing it for a while, so I don't want to give them a pass when they're coming out saying that they're going to make this open source. Because again, I wouldn't want to use that code.
Joel (27m 23s):
Fair enough. But I do think it has a long way to go, I think, know, open sourcing this stuff. They're going to learn a lot from, from developers that are building on top of the code. I still think Microsoft is a formidable opponent to anything that Google or Amazon or anyone else is doing. So for me, this is simply a step in the right direction. And I like to see LinkedIn sort of slowly open up things that it's doing because they've been such a closed system for so long. So we'll see.
Joel (27m 54s):
But to me, it's a, it's a positive first step in, you know, in the ecosystem.
Chad (27m 59s):
Well, think of this. We had four tech giants on Capitol Hill this week, right? Yeah. Guess who wasn't there? I mean, Microsoft, Microsoft was not there. They were there. No, they weren't. We had Zuk, we had Cook, we had Pennchar, we had Bezos. Those were the four You're.
Joel (28m 25s):
Right. And what does that tell you?
Chad (28m 28s):
That's telling me something. They're either, they're either incredibly fucking stealthy and nobody's paying attention or they're starting not to matter as much anymore.
Joel (28m 39s):
Yeah. They've also fought their antitrust battles a couple of decades ago, but that's an interesting point. Chad Sowash.
Chad (28m 47s):
Well, one thing that is scary that I hope does not fly under government radar. Yeah. But it seems like it is, is Density raises $51 million to help count employees in offices. A social dense distancing is perhaps one of the most prominent guidelines for the CDC and prevention to combat COVID-19. So when companies look to reopen their offices and buildings limiting the number of people in a room is key.
Chad (29m 20s):
This is, this is from Crunchbase news. Yup. Density was actually growing 30% quarter over quarter, last year, but did more in business in the first 75 days of COVID 19. So my question is, what the fuck were they using this technology for before COVID 19? Because this company has been around since 2014.
Joel (29m 46s):
Yeah. I mean, and I don't know much about the whole counting people business. I mean, I'm sure there's, there's elements like foot traffic. I mean, cause it's, it's, it's used in a variety of industries. Right. So casinos use it, schools use it, other businesses use it. So for me, it's, it's, it's probably originally more of a, just a data point to say, you know, what's the traffic coming into our Walmart and how much does like what's our overall revenue based on how many people come in and how does that, how does that revenue fluctuate based on, you know, who's coming in and how many people are coming in and leaving the store.
Joel (30m 27s):
So to me, it was more of like a data play. And now it's more of a policing monitoring play to say, Hey, we're at capacity. Don't come in. Or to tell someone in the business, you know, control the crowd here because it's, it's, it's in red.
Chad (30m 44s):
Well, whenever I, I hear any of these types of technologies, I automatically think will Smith and Enemy of the State having access to knowing and identifying where people are at all times. I know this is more of a measurement type of scenario, but I should probably dig into this Density technology a little bit more. It's just from my standpoint, it is incredibly weird. And off-putting all at the same time.
Joel (31m 12s):
Don't you find it That they counted Pinterest as a client in the new story. Like I can see, you know, factories and bigger companies, but it seems like Pinterest was an odd one that would use a technology like this.
Chad (31m 25s):
Yeah. Meat, packing plants and Pinterest.
Joel (31m 28s):
Yeah. Schools. I get school. Totally get some casinos. I get churches. I get like those all make sense to me. Pinterest is a little bit curious. I'm not sure
Chad (31m 39s):
That is odd. That is odd. What also is Alexa asking questions? And this is a story from CNET. If you use Amazon's Alexa, voice assistant with any regularity, you might have recently noticed something new. Alexa is beginning to ask questions. These are called hunches. I call it, what the fuck are you doing? Talking to me, Alexa?
Joel (32m 4s):
Well, you've seen 2001 a space Odyssey, right? I mean, Hal has a conversation with you? And to me, this is sort of where they want this to go. They want you to have conversations and not just order, you know, voice assistance around for questions and turn off the lights and whatever else. I mean, I think that the end goal is that you wake up and have conversations with your computer. You know, I think one of the things I was talking to my wife about this week was, you know, I would say that our relationship pre COVID was probably at least 50/50 podcast stuff.
Joel (32m 36s):
And then just dude stuff and just people stuff. Right? Yep. And since the pandemic, I would say that 90 plus percent of our interactions are podcast stuff. Right? Yeah. So I have to think that we're not alone in that, right. Like relationships that you would have had at work now are simply zoom meetings and you're doing work. And then you, you, you say goodbye and you go onto something else, like the human interactions are missing. And so part of the reason of why we wanted you guys to come over this weekend at a distance of course, was to just get some human interaction.
Joel (33m 11s):
So when I think about me as a, you know, a middle aged guy, you know, craving sort of this interaction, imagine being, you know, it's a five year old or a 10 year old that does this become their interaction, their, their sort of their mentor, their, you know, shoulder to cry on their, whatever information source. Like, it's not hard for me to imagine that the world of the future, like we have this best friend and it's Alexa or Siri or it's Google or whatever, I think it's strange to us, but I could totally see the future where you interact with, with computers on a regular basis.
Joel (33m 50s):
And it's not weird.
Chad (33m 51s):
This is definitely the movie, Her and I just saw a trailer yesterday for a new TV show coming on Fox called Next where it is the Alexa it's called something different. It is the Alexa. And this little kid is, is, is asking this Alexa, like product questions. And then the Alexa asks questions back in the dad comes in and says, who are you talking to? And she said, well, I was talking to Alexa. It's like, it doesn't ask you questions.
Chad (34m 23s):
Right. And then behind it, there's this data gathering AI system. I mean, it goes further into it, but it just like, it's this whole conspiracy theory piece where much like Density what's what, what are they doing with that data? And then much like, Alexa, what the fuck are they doing with that? And Amazon is testing out more proactive behaviors for Alexa having the assistant prompt users on occasion and the company can track in real time and rate the success in those predictions.
Chad (34m 55s):
Remember Alexa listens to you all the time.
Joel (34m 58s):
Yeah. Imagine having a friend that you've had since birth that has stayed with you, your entire life is with you all the time and knows every little detail about you and the events of your life. If you're a company that sells shit, how, how crazy good would it be to have that kind of data on somebody? And to me, that's kind of where Amazon and all those guys had their, their druthers. That's where the world is going. And I think that's that, that's where they're hoping things go.
Chad (35m 28s):
I mean, target ability.
Joel (35m 29s):
I mean, here at home, I mean, we have a Google home and we're like, Hey, Google lights on. And my three year old replicates that behavior and says, Hey, Google lights on. So it's a very intuitive system that kids or anybody, you know, can understand pretty easily who
Chad (35m 46s):
deep breath exhale.
Joel (35m 49s):
Our next segment will make you feel better. I think, thank God. Thank God everyone else feel better. Let's take a break.
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Chad (36m 54s):
Ooh, I'm ready for an impossible whopper.
Joel (36m 58s):
I could go for a chicken sandwich right now.
Chad (37m 3s):
So you remember Ellie Dodi Chili's cause she sent you food.
Joel (37m 9s):
She sent me a gift card, which is as good as food. Cause I, I spent that thing within 30 minutes after getting it, but yeah, when she was at Chili's, which I love of course, chips and salsa still great. We interviewed her, she, she could feel my affection for the brand, sent me a credit for some shit and I used it, but she is now at Burger King, which we talked about, I think last week on our shout-out switch. What better place to be for a marketer than the number two player in a space as big as fast food.
Joel (37m 43s):
And she's obviously having a good time. Oh yeah.
Chad (37m 46s):
Now Ellie Dodi, the C M O of Burger King starts this, this new promotion. So with the health crisis and high unemployment rates, many consumers are wondering when things will improve and a new normal will emerge. Well, obviously burger King has an answer. Burger King is tapping into this sentiment with a new campaign, including a video that shows customers admitting that they are done with 2020 and desire to be in happier times like Christmas.
Chad (38m 20s):
So the ad also tries to offer hope in reminding viewers that the things will change. This is a Christmas in July thing where it looks like, and I hope this, do they do this at every Burger King? They're going to turn the entire Burger King into like a, a winter Christmas Wonderland, because that makes everybody happy. Yeah.
Joel (38m 45s):
And by the way, Christmas is at the doorstep of a new year. So in addition to just bringing Christmas joy and holiday joy depends, you know, I know there are different religions, but clearly Christmas time for most people is a time of joy because I Mr. Diversity, Chad, it's a time of joy for people, but also the new year, a new start. I know everyone is, is itching for 2021. Although the way that it's going, it might be a lot more of the same. But anyway, from a mental standpoint, it's obviously a positive.
Joel (39m 15s):
If they do replicate this everywhere around the country and the world, I do hope that they bring the snow machine because that was a special level of Christmas joy for me when I watched the ad. So Ellie Dodi, good job. And, and keep those, keep those good vibes coming.
Chad (39m 32s):
We all, we all need it. I had a Christmas vacation vibe to it.
Joel (39m 37s):
Oh yeah. No cousin Eddie, which would have been a nice touch. The shitter's full. But yeah, it definitely had a Christmas movie. Christmas story. Big. Yeah, it was, it was good. It was good. And the people they interviewed for the, for the ad, which I assume were not paid, actors were equally joyful in the, the Christmas lights at Burger King. So yeah. Kudos.
Chad (39m 60s):
Yeah. I liked the guy. Boy. I hope they keep this up the rest of the year. I mean, it was like, he was a yearning for something good. It's like, can we just have this for the rest of the year? Please? Can something go? Right.
Joel (40m 13s):
Right. Amen. Amen. So the Brits, they have an unique set of humor, I guess.
Chad (40m 22s):
Yeah. This didn't go right. That's for sure.
Joel (40m 26s):
Well, it depend on where he got up in the morning anyway. So news out of the New York post we'll end on this, thank God in London, Tim Shieff or chef 32 year old, former Ninja warrior S UK decided to fashion a G string out of a mask. Although this is very funny and the pictures were hilarious. He was wearing it mocking a new law in that country that mandated mask wearing in public.
Joel (40m 56s):
So it's good to know that the U S aren't the only idiots in terms of when it comes to masks, the Brits on some scale are equally stupid.
Chad (41m 5s):
Yes. We're all human. We all have in our communities, idiots. And this is just another demonstration that the U S even though we are killing it, when it comes to stupidity right now, a nice, nice choice of words, the Brits have it as well.
Joel (41m 24s):
We're killing it.
Outro (41m 25s):
This has been the Chad and Cheese podcast, subscribe on iTunes, Google play or wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss a single show and be sure to check out our sponsors because they make it all possible for more visit Chadandcheese.com. Oh yeah. You're welcome.