Walmart Launches Creator Studio | Echo Chamber

WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:12.880 Conversations from the front lines and marketing. This is B two B growth. 2 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:19.640 This is the echo chamber here on B two B growth, where we throw 3 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:23.480 in our two cents on what B two B marketers are talking about on the 4 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:28.280 internet. And today I want to talk about an announcement from Walmart, the 5 00:00:28.519 --> 00:00:34.359 launching of a content creator platform. I'll read this from Yahoo Finance and then 6 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:39.240 James and I will discuss. But Walmart announces that they're launching a new platform 7 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:44.520 designed around creators. The program is called Walmart Creator, very innovative name. 8 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:51.240 It's a one stop portal that makes it easy for creators to monetize shoppable products 9 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:56.159 from the retailer. Walmart believes anyone can be a creator, and the product 10 00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:00.600 democratizes the tools and resources needed to do so. So the idea here, 11 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:04.840 guys, is that basically Walmart is going to let anybody sign up. Now 12 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:08.239 you get access to a ton of products you can just different than Amazon. 13 00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:12.799 Yes, that is key. Amazon does have their influencer program, but you 14 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:19.359 have to qualify apply. This is saying noe, we're democratizing it. Anyone 15 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:23.959 can create, anyone can earn commission on sale and imagining that this is basically 16 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:32.400 gonna make sharing links across social like way easier and allow like barrier to entry 17 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:37.159 to be very very low. James first thoughts here, One of your first 18 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:41.400 ones was like, man, this kind of potentially does beat Amazon in some 19 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:47.239 ways. Yeah. Yeah, it seems a lot less restrictive than Amazon's program. 20 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:51.439 Even when you look at Amazon's influencer program on their website, it looks 21 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:55.359 almost like an f A H page. I mean, it's very dry, 22 00:01:55.400 --> 00:02:00.319 bland. You have to apply to join the program. They define it an 23 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:04.480 influencer as anyone who has a meaningful social media following, so I'm sure they're 24 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:07.919 looking for a certain number of followers there, where Walmart has basically said nope, 25 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:12.879 we believe that anybody can be a creator, and we want anybody, 26 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:17.560 whether it's the mom and Paduca Kentucky that's got seven eight six Instagram followers, 27 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:23.000 or Kim Kardashian who probably wouldn't promote Walmart for life depended on it, but 28 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:28.479 who knows. And so I really like this move to open it up. 29 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:34.080 I think it's going to force Amazon's hand to come back and make their program 30 00:02:34.199 --> 00:02:38.639 less restrictive. But I love this. This is why I freaking love capitalism. 31 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:42.840 Like as business as it's getting harder, but for the consumer it's getting 32 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:46.240 better and better and better. And so I think this was a nice like 33 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:49.560 all right, Amazon, we see you, and here's something that we're going 34 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:52.800 to do to force you to up your game a bit and the consumer is 35 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:55.280 gonna win. But you actually had a really interesting insight when we're talking about 36 00:02:55.280 --> 00:03:00.360 this offline, Benji on what this means for me to be come anise, 37 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:05.319 Yeah, it is fascinating to me because my mind started going to like more 38 00:03:05.319 --> 00:03:10.400 of a sas perspective and like the B two B like what this will look 39 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:15.599 like anytime B two C makes it easier for the consumer, whether we know 40 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:19.960 it or not. We take that mentality and we bring it into our B 41 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:24.520 two be our enterprise buying motions. Right, So as marketers and sales leaders, 42 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:28.400 that's why you see like the death of cold calling. That's why you 43 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:32.560 see like these crappy emails like sequences that might have worked at one time, 44 00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:38.080 they're so outdated and everyone hates on them now on LinkedIn, right because those 45 00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:40.360 ways of doing things and just like evolved. Now I want to be able 46 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:45.560 to test the product in real time before I pay. That's the p l 47 00:03:45.639 --> 00:03:52.319 G motion. That's literally like just democratizing making the entire process easier for me 48 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:55.759 as the end consumer. In the same way that is everything that creators are 49 00:03:55.800 --> 00:04:00.039 doing on social right, showing you the product before hand, showing you what 50 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:03.360 it's like, like, giving you a glimpse into it. So we just 51 00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:08.800 bring that over to be to be because we almost have to. It makes 52 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:12.639 us get better at our jobs and how we do marketing and how we do 53 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:16.319 sales, and I think this is just another evolution of that. In the 54 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:20.480 same way that like with apps like a notion where it's like all white space, 55 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:25.920 come and check it out and use it before you even download the app, 56 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:29.639 like you can go on notions website and you're already playing with the tool. 57 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:32.160 To me, I just started to see all these parallels where I'm like, 58 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:38.519 yes, it makes us all raise the bar. It also if you've 59 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:41.879 sort of already fallen behind, I think this is just another one of those 60 00:04:41.879 --> 00:04:44.439 things where people are gonna be like on your website, they're gonna be like, 61 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:47.040 there's so much friction here, like, just make it easier for me. 62 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:51.480 And so there's a lot to this. The other piece I found interesting 63 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:55.160 because I'm like, Okay, it's cool. I think I saw this like 64 00:04:55.600 --> 00:04:59.920 the press release or like Yahoo finance whatever, like those types of links on 65 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:01.399 LinkedIn a couple of times, and I was taking note, like, oh, 66 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:05.120 we should talk about this on Echo Chamber. But then I saw Christy 67 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:11.040 Garcia. She's the CMO from Impact dot Com. She's a friend to B 68 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:13.120 two BE growth. I had her on a couple of months ago. We 69 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:15.519 were talking about like ways to tie revenue to our marketing efforts, nothing about 70 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:23.519 creator studios or economies. They're the ones that are powering this engine for Walmart. 71 00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:27.160 So then when you think about it, like not only does B two 72 00:05:27.160 --> 00:05:30.240 B need to raise the bar and like continue to think about ways to make 73 00:05:30.279 --> 00:05:34.439 this better for the consumer, but also B two B companies are like having 74 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:39.639 a day in the sun to get into the creator economy. Think of ways 75 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:45.480 to power this for whether it's the B two C side or like enterprise podcasting, 76 00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:49.480 enterprise video. Like there's so much that the SAS industry is doing that 77 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:56.000 those are B two B companies and that's absolutely super fascinating to us. Right. 78 00:05:56.959 --> 00:06:00.399 Yeah, so Denoor, actually the producer of this episode, I want 79 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:03.720 to bring you onto the Mike Donor because you had a really interesting insight too, 80 00:06:03.879 --> 00:06:08.920 particularly with the last episode we did on open aiyes investment in the script 81 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:14.439 that value descripted over half a billion dollars right out five million. I think 82 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:18.560 talking about how is AI going to take away jobs or is it going to 83 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:26.120 force us to to level up and denor you mentioned something about what Walmart's creator 84 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:30.800 program, because they have brick and mortar presence, what this means for them 85 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:34.439 in terms of the storytelling that their creators are able to do in light of 86 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:38.199 actually having a physical store to go to. Can you talk about that a 87 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:43.279 little bit? Sure? So I boldly claimed that this is the first time 88 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:46.959 and maybe that's the wrong part, but this is the first time that Walmart 89 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:55.160 really does have a an advantage over over Amazon in the content space specifically because 90 00:06:55.319 --> 00:07:00.120 um, like you said, James, they have democratized their platform rather and 91 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:02.680 you know, when you compare it to Amazon, you have to apply wait 92 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:06.560 and you probably won't even get it if you don't have some sort of significant 93 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:10.759 following. There's a lot of barriers, a lot like lack of clarity with 94 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:15.240 that. But something that you know, as we were discussing this episode that 95 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:19.560 I thought about was hold on a second. The brick and mortar model is 96 00:07:19.959 --> 00:07:26.279 really, really, really effective when it comes to TikTok based storytelling. So 97 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:30.639 let's say you are a creator with Walmart, the journey, the buyer's journey 98 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:35.680 that you have when you go to get one of their products can be more 99 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:42.720 specifically documented using TikTok or Instagram or whatever it is. Because you go to 100 00:07:42.759 --> 00:07:45.920 the store, you look for the product itself, by the way, that's 101 00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:49.920 a passive ad for Walmart, unintentionally even a lot of times. And then 102 00:07:49.959 --> 00:07:53.879 you get the product, you bring it back, open up the packaging, 103 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:58.040 and now you're wearing it, you're viewing it. There's just so many offshoots 104 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:03.480 that you can have. Whereas with Amazon, I think this is the first 105 00:08:03.560 --> 00:08:09.920 time that I've noticed their efficiency becomes a weakness for them because half the process 106 00:08:09.959 --> 00:08:13.439 that I just described doesn't exist with Amazon. Benji, you mentioned that the 107 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:18.560 most that you can do with Amazon is an unboxing videos. I love unboxing 108 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:22.439 videos. I've watched unboxing video since, like I was that nerd on YouTube, 109 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:26.720 watching like tech reviews before, like tech reviews were cool, trying to 110 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:31.240 get like a two thousand and nine MacBook Pro, which I definitely couldn't afford, 111 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.279 but like coming back to it, it's just you cannot document that buyer's 112 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:39.200 journey when you get something off of Amazon, and that's by design. So 113 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:43.919 I think Walmart's made a very very smart move here and proved a lot of 114 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:48.120 people wrong. I'm really interested to see if Amazon follows suit or or how 115 00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:50.000 they change, because I do think, like you said earlier, James, 116 00:08:50.039 --> 00:08:52.679 They're going to have to. Yeah. So I thought, Nora, that 117 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:58.639 was a really interesting take that you had on how the in store element, 118 00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:05.000 the rick and mortar element, actually lends itself to better storytelling. And so 119 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:11.240 when you think about a creator program and opening up your creator program to everyone, 120 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:15.279 because they see humans as being you know, anybody as a creator, 121 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:20.519 and so being able to incorporate the in store experience, the going to the 122 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:24.480 store, the journey that you're on, the pigeon that you see on the 123 00:09:24.519 --> 00:09:30.919 way to Walmart becomes a part of what is keeping the audience engaged in the 124 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:37.000 story. And like you mentioned, you're obviously passively advocating for Walmart in the 125 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:41.039 story itself when you're walking into Walmart, and it feels more native too. 126 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:46.320 It doesn't feel as forced because you're just telling the story and there can be 127 00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:50.639 so many different like you you mentioned this too, so many different story elements. 128 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:54.720 Just getting to Walmart, it's like, oh my gosh. And then 129 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:58.159 you're on this epic quest to get this product and then figure out how to 130 00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:03.080 make your life better or with it. And so in the meanwhile, you've 131 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:07.759 just told your entire community of people following your content that you went to Walmart 132 00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:09.559 to buy this thing. So I think it's super smart, Benji. I 133 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:15.960 loved your take on this is just another sign that the more friction we remove 134 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:20.480 from our buying processes and B two B, like we are all consumers, 135 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:26.960 we're all exposed to things like these consumer products, and we take that behavior 136 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:31.879 with us into B two B And so I love the seeing seeing something like 137 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:35.720 this because I could see a you know, these p l G companies that 138 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:41.080 are the notions of the world, Like you know, notion is for consumers, 139 00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:45.279 but also a B two B product. It's notions kind of an in 140 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:48.000 between where companies are using it but also individuals are using it. But I 141 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:56.240 think particularly with p LG companies looking at something like this Walmart Creator program and 142 00:10:56.360 --> 00:11:01.440 figuring out, like, man, how could we get people to do storytelling 143 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:05.159 around our products? It's an interesting thing and we'll see if B two b 144 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:09.399 Land picks up on this a little quicker than they've picked up on other trends 145 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:13.480 in the past. Yeah, to me, this is the evolution for B 146 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:20.120 two be and for SASS, Like how do you essentially make the testimonial more 147 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:28.120 sexy? Like what do you do that like with your product? Shows it 148 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:33.639 off in a unique way that either lends itself to the journey that the customer 149 00:11:33.720 --> 00:11:37.320 went on because in an enterprise sales motion, that's going to include multiple people, 150 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:39.600 so it's more complex. So this isn't just like an easy creator studio 151 00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:43.600 that's like launched for in this space. But like you can think about the 152 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:48.960 content that you create and how that's displayed on your website as whether it's sales 153 00:11:50.039 --> 00:11:54.080 enablement content or it's just straight up like I've I've said it now like just 154 00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:58.080 content right, like more in the marketing top of funnel phase. But the 155 00:11:58.279 --> 00:12:03.039 way that we create that content and show it off is something that we should 156 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:07.960 all be thinking about. Leaving this episode absolutely, So that's it for today's 157 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:13.759 Echo Chamber episode. Remember there are a lot of ways to win. Commodity 158 00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:18.559 content is the enemy. Focus on affinity over awareness, and for all things 159 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:22.600 B two B growth. You can visit B two B Growth show dot com, 160 00:12:22.039 --> 00:12:37.759 connect with us over on LinkedIn. We're out. B two B Growth 161 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:41.679 is brought to you by the team at sweet Fish Media. Here at sweet 162 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:45.240 Fish we produce podcasts for some of the most innovative brands in the world, 163 00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:48.919 and we help them turn those podcasts into micro videos, LinkedIn content, blog 164 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:52.639 posts, and more. We're on a mission to produce every leader's favorite show. 165 00:12:52.799 --> 00:13:00.320 Want more information, visit sweet Fish Media dot com. Our