But Wait, There’s More! Gavin Ballas Shares Timeless Knowledge He Learned From Ron Popeil; Murder Across America Pod; 2021 Holiday’s eCommerce Bonanza

By Gavin Ballas
EVP Growth + Joint Head of Client Services

Last week the marketing world lost a legend. The man who could sell anything, inventor, marketing genius, and King of the Infomercial,Ron Popeil, passed away last week at the age of 86.

Those of us who earn our living in the performance marketing space really should take a moment and thank Ron Popeil for helping to bring direct marketing into electronic media.

When I worked for Ron Popeil, I was also a graduate business student at USC. A Professor of Entrepreneurship shared with me how much he greatly admired and respected Ron Popeil’s efforts and success and felt there was a lot all businesses could learn from Ron Popeil. So every year when USC wanted to celebrate their Entrepreneur of the Year, my professor wanted to nominate Ron Popeil.

Sadly, this well-meaning Professor never nominated him… he just felt his colleagues wouldn’t accept the nomination and would laugh at the Professor for even suggesting such a thing.

Well, I’d say Mr. Popeil got the last laugh.

While many of his products and sales demonstrations may seem rather goofy, they were also incredibly effective. It was reported that Mr. Popeil left behind a $200M+ estate, fueled by over $1 Billion in sales of the Showtime Rotisserie alone.

There may be better measures of a life lived than the value of your estate but from a performance marketing standpoint building a $200M+ estate on the back of products like the Pocket Fisherman, Inside the Egg Scrambler, GLH-9 (hair in a spray can), and more…that’s not bad at all!

And to say what my old professor couldn’t, there is no doubt that all of us in this field have benefited from Ron’s work and can still learn quite a bit from the Infomercial King’s legacy.

So in honor of my one-time boss’s passing, I am pleased that the Influencer would like to once again share my article on the Five Things I Learned from Working For Ron Popeil. 

Ron Popeil – 1935 to 2021

The Classifieds

Dial “M” For Podcast

You might know what food your state is famous for, or maybe what your state flower is, but do you know your state’s most popular murder? Thankfully, our friends at Audioboom are here to help answer this burning (but mostly stabbing) question with their all-new savage podcast, Murder In America. This true-crime podcast (one of Oxford’s top-performing genres) takes a state-by-state look at the most infamous homicides across the United States. Hosted by Courtney Shannon & Colin Browen (of The Paranormal Files), the two delve deep into the darkest tales of murder from each and every state in the union, featuring not one, but two stories from each state. For the math whizzes, that’s 50 episodes and 100 murders available for your brand’s sponsorship. Advertisers are dying to sponsor this show – click below to lock in your fate.

Get The Deal

The Podcast Grab Bag

Move over Stranger Things; there’s a new 11 in town. Cadence 13 announced their latest show called The 11th. Truthfully, it’s called that because it drops a new chapter on the 11th of every month, kind of like a subscription box – but for podcasts. Each chapter tackles a completely different topic. In August’s 4-episode chapter, The Inbox features a story of people wrongly accused of sexual misconduct. In September’s chapter, The Score the show takes a look at how the Fugee’s record (The Score) changed the life of music writer and poet Hanif Abdurraqib. We don’t quite know where this podcast will go next, but like your subscription boxes, we hope there’s one that contains comfortable socks.

Get The Deal

In Case You Missed It

Retailers Rethinking Holiday Strategy

With most retailers across the country opting for a primarily online strategy, last year’s holiday shopping season was unlike any other, and this year is looking to be the same. A recent article from eMarketer shares how major retailers like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are among a growing list of companies opting out of post-Thanksgiving dinner shopping in favor of online black Friday deals. The article states that with retailers continuing to match the value that customers get in-store, eCommerce will continue to boost its share of overall sales, and like we saw in 2020, set off an earlier holiday season again this year. For D2C advertisers, this means you need to roll out your holiday messaging long before what you would traditionally plan–but as the article points out, “earlier holiday season sales should help avoid fulfillment crunches late in the holiday season.” It’s crunch time.

Read More

Everything You Need to Know About Advertising on TikTok

Over the past six months, TikTok has transformed from “that music lip-sync thing” your kids use to a legitimate influencer powerhouse, and it’s changing the way brands think about creators, e-commerce, and hiring. In an article posted this week, AdAge breaks down how brands can find success within this emerging medium, from how to work with its creators to how to actually drive sales on the platform. If you’re hesitant or unsure of where or how your brand fits into the emerging TikTok universe, this is a great first step into the future.

Read More

Spotify Podcast Bets (Seem To Be) Paying Off

We’ve been talking about Spotify’s jump into Podcast a lot, and rightfully so. The company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into Podcast acquisitions and infrastructure over the past year and is now a force to be reckoned with. According to their recent earnings call with shareholders, Spotify’s bets seem to be paying off. TechCrunch reports that Spotify’s podcast ad revenue increased by 627%, outperforming expectations. The success was attributed to a triple-digit year-over-year gain at its in-house studios (The Ringer, Parcast, Spotify Studios, and Gimlet) and exclusive deals with “The Joe Rogan Experience” and the Obamas’ Higher Ground studio. So while they may be single-handedly changing what makes podcasts great for performance marketers (personalized host reads, category exclusivity, baked in ads that get better with time, CPM’s that can work for clients with performance goals), Spotify has made themselves a de facto partner in the space. As a result, Oxford Road is actively working to find mutually beneficial ways to work with Spotify to find ways that make their monetization efforts align with our client’s goals. Stay tuned.

Read More