The Best One Yet
💔 “Princess *not* falling in love” — How Moana beat Frozen. The Ringtone’s resurgence. Aldi’s genius grocery.
Tue, 03 Dec 2024
Moana 2 set a Thanksgiving movie record… Here’s Moana’s 4-part strategy to melt Frozen.Aldi is the fastest-growing grocery store in America… because of an Ikea philosophy.Music ringtones for phones are making a comeback… and Soulja Boy made $20M on it.📸 Plus, the Polaroid camera was invented by a 3-year-old (sort of)... and that untold origin story of Polaroid is the next episode of our new show The Best Idea Yet. Click here to listen: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks “The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.Giving Tuesday: Here’s where we’re givin’...Covenant House: https://www.covenanthouse.org/ Children’s Aid Society: https://www.childrensaidnyc.org/about $DIS $WMT $AMZN—-----------------------------------------------------GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: How did Moana 2 break Thanksgiving box office records?
It's refreshing to see Moana sailing, not swooning. So Disney, they broke the expected plot and it worked. Another lesson here, people will pay a premium for escapism. Turns out a tropical climate beats a frozen tundra seven out of seven days. Would you rather vacation in frozen, icy Arendelle or Moana's 72 in sunny Polynesia? I'll take two of those, please.
Finally, this story proves that marketing matters. Because back in 2016, Moana underwhelmed at the box office because it got no Disney marketing. Disney focused their spend that year on Jungle Book, Zootopia, and Finding Dory instead. But now, Moana's 2024 reboot, it thrived because Moana was treated like a star. I'm not a princess. I'm the daughter of the chief.
And those four reasons are why the Moana voyage is a full-on media lesson. For our second story, Aldi is a grocery chain beloved by frugal Germans. But now it's the fastest growing grocery chain in America because they're using an idea from Sweden. But yet he's in order for us to tell the story of Aldi grocery stores. Jack, let's start with the Dark Knight Rises.
In that Batman movie, Bane explains something to Batman. What does he explain? You think darkness is your ally? I was born in the dark. Yes, that is the wonderfully delivered great quote from Batman's Dark Knight Rises. And it's the same thing with Aldi. Same kind of thing, except the grocery store wasn't born in the dark. They were born in inflation.
That's right, because Aldi was founded by the Albrecht brothers back in 1946, post-war Germany. And Jack, what was the economic situation back then in Germany? In 1946, inflation in Germany was 19,000% per month. Oh yeah, you bought an avocado for like a dollar, it was gonna be $19,000 or Deutschmarks the next month. It was hyperinflation.
It was.
It was out of control. So the Albrecht brothers started a discount grocery chain that now has 4,000 locations in Germany and 13,000 across the world. You probably have a roommate who's an Aldi addict. You definitely have a roommate who's trying to serve you like Aldi's Wink and Owl wine. You know who you are. We know who you are. Fun fact, by the way, Aldi is actually cousins with Trader Joe's.
Are they really? I didn't see that, Jack. One of the Albrecht brothers bought Trader Joe's in 1979. But today, Aldi is the fastest growing grocery chain in America with 2,400 stores and 800 coming. This year, foot traffic at Aldi's in the U.S. grow by 10 to 18% nationwide, according to Business Insider.
No matter how much you resist, that Aldi addict roommate is going to drag you into one of their stores this year. And the reason for Aldi's success in America, it's a German philosophy, isn't it, Jack? Or is it a German stereotype? You speak German. It's Deutsche Sparsamkeit, which translates roughly to German frugality. Yet is in this economy, grocery prices are up 25% since the pandemic.
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Chapter 2: What strategies did Moana employ to surpass Frozen?
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For our third and final story, music ringtones for your phone are having a resurgence. This throwback phone trend from the 2000s is driven by a shocking and unshocking age group. Oh, yetis, let's set the scene. The Sopranos had just had their controversial series finale. Rihanna's uncontroversial umbrella had hit number one on the charts.
And everyone and you yourself were devouring cupcakes at an unhealthy but healthy pace. And then your pocket vibrates and you hear this noise. Yetis, it's the year 2007, the year that ringtones peaked. Literally, the year that ringtone revenues peaked. We were in college, and just about everyone picks music for their ringtone. That was the thing.
Some ripped the music illegally on Kazaa, LimeWater, or BitTorrents. Others paid for their ringtones through a streaming company. And that was 2007. So Jack, what kind of numbers was the ringtone industry putting up? At its peak, paid musical ringtones brought in $1.6 billion in revenue, according to the Record Industry Association of America. In fact, ringtones were bigger than digital albums.
Because you were paying $3.99 a month for access to custom Jessica Simpson ringtones. My sister's sidekick was always going off with a new Spice Girls song. We all kind of loved it. Ringtones were a major part of the music industry back then. Soldier Boy says that he made $20 million on ringtone sales. Oh, and you just mentioned Jessica Simpson.
She had millions of dollars made by doing ringtones with different people's names for when different people called you. Her record label loved it. Nick Lachey didn't. But despite all that success, the music ringtone, it died for one key reason. Smartphone notifications. Eh, killed it. And robocalls. They mean that we all silence our phones.
And if you're unmuted, you could use the standardized iPhone ring, which happened to come out in the year 2007 when ringtones peaked. That's why ringtone music revenue has fallen by 99% since 2007. But here's the news. You hear that? The ringtone industry is having a resurgence. And it sounds like a lot of money. Get this, besties. The ringtone app for Android, it has 50 million downloads.
Jack, just sprinkle on some context, please. That's more downloads than SiriusXM or Tidal. And the top four ringtone apps, they together bring in $21 million a year in revenue. Wow. which has quadrupled since 2018, according to Sherwood. Side note, the country where ringtones are the most popular, it's actually India.
India is 93% of the paid music ringtone market, but the United States is number two. Now, if you think about it, Jack, it makes a lot of sense. Like custom ringtones, that is a cool way to audially express yourself. And you can set your phone to be silent for everything except calls. New feature. Which solves the notification pinging issue. you could turn volume on for your ringtone again.
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Chapter 6: How have ringtones made a comeback in today's market?
And Apoorva Adepali over in Bangalore, India, may have, statistically speaking, a music ringtone on which they're celebrating the birthday. And happy 50th birthday to Punitha Aurora in Shakopee, Minnesota. An OG bestie, if you know, you know. And a shout out to Jessica Sanchez, Arnav Sharma, and Nick Goodner for correctly guessing our TBIY trivia in the Spotify comments and on Instagram.
And the answer to that trivia, Steve Jobs' big business role model, the answer was Polaroid. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a team. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock in Intel, Disney, and Amazon. And Nick and I both own stock in Spotify.
I love your racket. It's like mildly concussed. It's like you need like a little bit of Philadelphia, a little bit of Italian, and a little bit of stage two concussion. I don't think that offends anyone. Look, I've had a couple concussions.
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