Beth Gladstone owner of Built By Content joins this weeks future state of podcast with Danny Denhard & Nick Walter. We discuss everything content related, and go deep into the future state of content, including channels like TikTok, YouTube Shorts aka micro content, why video is a must for most not all and what we can learn from Paris Hilton, the rise of long form content and why automation and SEO will always be essential channels. 

Connect With Beth

• Check out Beth's agency - https://www.builtbycontent.com
• Her instagram filled with recommendation - https://www.instagram.com/bethbycontent/
  Or 
• On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-gladstone/

Take Away Moments 

Beth's Quotables 

• Brands need a mission to guide all content (look at Oatly & Olio for brand inspiration) 
• The questions to ask if you are struggling with content: 
  • Q. What is the aim here? Q. Why do you want to do that? Q. Does that map back to the overall company goals? - Beth 
  • Vanity metrics seem great but don't get obsessed by them and what they need  

Danny's Quotables  

• Make art not content - make art that is not lost in social feeds 
• E I E Framework: educate, inspire and entertain. The core pillars that people should build content around

Nick's Quotables

• "the normal kind of VR production for example, is like producing a video game. Or a short film or something like that. It's very, very labor intensive, very expensive. You're talking 50,000 upwards to create a one-off VR experience that doesn't really live on. You know, it's an experience you have and once you've had it, once you're very unlikely to return to it, unless it's significant" 

The Future State Of Content Predictions

Beth's 

• Longer form content 
• Content automation
• Mini docuseries for B2C brands (B2B brands have led the way for years)
• Programmatic SEO
• More experience based content - multi touch content 

Nick's 

• AR & VR content creation tools 
• A lot more interactive content that we will be engaged with and seeking out 
• Content that drives the physical not just the digital 

Danny's 

- Experiences

- Creator editor role

- Live stream come and go for most

- Live debate — duet remixing

- CCTV style content

- Art not content. NFTs prime example

- Search vs discovery vs paywall 

Want to listen to the future state of content again, jump tp to 43 mins for the predictions  

Thanks for listening this year. Nick and I return to help recap 2021 and help you think about where 2022 is going and how to shape some of your thoughts: 

The 2021 Wrap Up Episode 

The most listened to The Future State of podcast(s) of the year:

Listen to the previous podcasts here

1. The Future State of NFT's
2. The Future State Of Social Media & Social Networks Podcast
3. The new email client 

• Riverside - Why? For recording podcasts, webinars etc
• Canva - Why? Easy design
• Fiverr - Why? For cheap resources
• Apple podcast app - Why? For listening to podcasts

• Product: iPad Pro 2021 - Why? Replaced my laptop and brilliant for multitasking and removing the need to have multiple devices.
• Apps:
  Podcast tool - Descript Why? Edit podcasts by word and phrases not
  around.co - Why? App that helps to shape an organisation around communications and effective comms, like sending notes post meetings to all attendees.

The Future State of 2022 

Nick’s Predictions

• Life: Staycations
• Tech: Work - Private members clubs & branded workspacesMetaverse future - Apple's AR & VR (mixed) headsetTikTok continued dominance, NFT's become usable, Improvement in NFT's, Improved audio.

Danny’s Predictions

• Life: First super app, New UGC platform, a boom in Payless stores, contactless and innovation in online purchases, BNPL moving towards digital banks and going after food space
• Work: Consolidation (Danny's consolidation blog post referenced) In banks, food delivery, shift to third place, hybrid future of work, huge IT hacks (Danny’s brother’s IT support https://www.ittroublefree.co.uk/business/ and solutions company)

Contact Nick and Danny

Contact with ideas you would like Danny and Nick to record podcasts on dannydenhard+futurestate@gmail.com

Contact here to apply to appear on the show as a guest 

This week Danny Denhard and Nick Walter return with another instalment of the future state of podcast. 

We discuss the future state of savings and discounts not just the craziness of Black Friday and cyber Monday. 

The Good

• General savings for consumers
• Often makes expensive seasonal gifts more affordable

The Bad

• The strain it places on logistics
• The work environment in many businesses becomes more stressful, creates more issues with internal teams and many businesses actually lose money rather the traditional Black Friday where businesses started to make money

The Ugly

• Consumerism crisis
• The cost of delivery on the environment
• Material gifts at Xmas

======

We quick 5 second favour:

Please do rate and review the podcast, it takes 5 seconds and it helps the podcast to spread to more people and make more people informed. Happily hit the review in your player or Rate On Apple // Rate on Spotify.

======

Important Topics Discussed: 

• Black Friday has been undone in the UK - The biggest retailers are all doing it differently. It’s causing confusion and chaos for consumers
  We saw ‘fake Black Friday’ a week early (19th) in the U.K. - devaluing what Black Friday and Cyber Monday was designed for
  Many are pushing Black Friday week and Black Friday month.
  We have seen huge year on year growth of sales for Black Friday
• Singles Day
  The West has adopted Single Day, which is traditionally an unoffical Chinese singles holiday. Singles Day in the UK is actually in March
• Amazon’s Influence
  Prime Day - The day(s) where Amazon drives savings across the marketplace - the biggest brands can drive attention and savings to their customers as part of their brand moat
  Amazon are reportedly planning to open 260+ stores over the next few years aka they truly know UK are hybrid shoppers 80% in store - 20% online so shopping in the U.K. has to be considered to have retail presence + online.
  We now have Prime expectations, subscription enables us to have: fair prices, quick delivery, free returns.
• Brands using biases against us: Cashless Effect (contactless transactions drive 8% more spend as seem like you are not spending as much money, this is why casino's use chips... seems less than cash),
• Brands that don’t discount might actually win the long game, brands include - Apple, Peloton, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co, Lululemon
• Unsung Heroes - Forums and groups
  Many saving related forums are super popular
  Thousands of Facebook groups dedicated to it
  The science behind why Aldi and Lidl surprise aisle
  Many groups dedicated to how to gain an extra saving, use certain points schemes, leverage the best deals

Watch the Decarbonising The Art World Video Nick mentions.

Tell Us What You Think: Let's us know what you think of the future state of saving on twitter... @dannydenhard or @nickwalter23 

Or Connect with us 

Danny on LinkedIn == Nick On LinkedIn 

TLDR: Why Facebook is moving to Meta and its quest to the Metaverse? 

For full insights and analysis sign up at www.thefuturestate.co.uk

• Nick and Danny dive into the Meta brand, the Facebook rebrand that has a wave of memes (here is the Iceland Tourism example https://www.facebook.com/inspiredbyiceland/videos/182101337445400/), the PR machine created quite a buzz but as many questions trying to understand what it means.
• Danny takes you through the history of the brand, the reason why its journey is so important and why the fights and bets made by Facebook’s leadership team have led to one of the biggest rebrands in history.
• Danny answers Nick’s question of why the rebrand was so important and the other potential it had
  • Important notes: You have 4 master brand types you can: monolithic (FedEx), endorsed (Virgin), free standing (unilever with dove, wall's etc), hybrid (coca cola company, coca cola - diet coke - coke zero + sprite, fanta etc)

What is Meta? Group of businesses - Facebook (big blue), Instagram, WhatsApp, - VR and experimental. Money making (facebook app, instagram) vs money losing (whatsapp, VR, metaverse building). Is comparable to Alphabet (Google's parent)

• Nick dives into the metaverse and the VR and AR side of the rebrand and repositioning (well worth watching the haptics ​​https://twitter.com/boztank/status/1460668829789351936
• Danny and Nick answer a listener question: From James Sinfield @ Nestle“In your honest opinions, will Facebook (Meta) succeed with their aim of building a new version of Internet? Is there a flaw in their thinking?”
• Then comes the future state of Facebook and Meta (including the breakdown of the metaverse)

6 Ways To Help Shape Your Thoughts

1. Facebook has turned into email 2.0 - necessary evil for many
2. Facebook was the gateway to the internet for millions of users - particularly in Asia and Africa
3. Facebook isn't a social network it's an ad's network - Facebook's biggest challenge is their algorithms and controlling how content spreads. This is not under control and they struggle to do so, so why will people rush to the new Meta products, software or hardware driven
4. Meta has to shape and control the next generation of platforms. They never shaped the iPhone or any android device.
5. "Our biggest competitor by far is iMessage" - Mark Zuckerberg on 31st Oct 2018
6. Meta is a brand rebuild alongside a new ten year mission

What do you think, let us know @dannydenhard and @nickwalter23 on Twitter 

Danny pitches (Nick) his latest idea of improving social media to improve social media with a dedicated commentary and reaction based social media site. 

A teaser of the full idea - read the full breakdown on newsletter and site.  

The What

• A social network based on communication and commentary, with an ability to reply with video, loom style videos, screenshots, mock ups, commentary (like in notion and Google docs) and scores of relevancy.
• Think slack or discord with threading and interactive timelines.
• Reddit on steroids
• Allows you to embed or bookmark links and play natively could - what twitter should have offered

The Why

• The current options have existing users who are used to using the platform as it is, almost all networks are very basic 
• Many people want to discuss with people with similar or importantly differing views 
• We are getting bored of influence based social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or being filtered by algorithms
• It's time we found a different way to express ourselves

The How

• New mobile and desktop experience
• Private vs public --- Private for invite only and communities (Trust) --- Public for bigger reach and conversation (Reach & Fame)
• Built on an idea you are sharing, a piece of knowledge or an insight nugget you want to share

—The Business Side—

• TAM - 💰💰💰💰 (Large)
• Difficulty - 👎👎👎👎👎 (Very Hard)
• How to make money - Subscriptions & contextual advertising &/or charge brands to interact
• Competition - 9️⃣/🔟 - social networks, YouTube, Medium & blogs

Alex Moss from NFTU.io joins Danny and Nick to discuss the future of NFT's. 

Whether you are new, have some knowledge or have experience with NFT's, ETH and art, this podcast will help guide you through the current wave of NFT's and prepare you for the future of ETH, NFT's and web3. 

Alex breaks down: 

• What NFT's actually are 
• Why NFT's is so misunderstood 
• What are the current NFT use cases 
• Why there is so much hype around Bored Ape, Evolved Apes
• What artists need to know and how think bigger 
• Why the NFT world lives on Twitter and Discord and why you need to really understand why the world of NFT's evolves so quickly
• Why music, art and brands have to get into NFT's and not lose out early 
• Why Nick is right on his quest to use NFT's

Nick (Walter) and I (Danny Denhard) return with a pitch episode, this week I pitch the best email client you have ever heard of. 

The full breakdown of the idea and framework is available at thefuturestate.co.uk - sign up to the newsletter for full breakdowns, free content, a newsletter and deep dives.

I introduce new features, optimising modern technologies and breaking down why and how to use email vs using millions of browser windows + desktop app + a mobile app - just to get work done. 

If you like what you hear, let me know by tweeting @dannydenhard or sharing and tagging (links to our LinkedIn => me & Nick) the podcast on LinkedIn! 

If you are listening on Spotify, complete the poll to let us know if you would use the new email client. 

So TLDR on email?

• Email is still the most important communication tool
• Email is where you still sign off work, gain approval on budgets, headcount and often where bad news arrives, etc
• Email shapes businesses and will for years to come
• Even with the move to chat and the chatification of work, email still is where clarity lies within business and is the primary channel for communication with external people, vendors and clients
• Email clients are rarely updated and although there is Spark and Superhuman, these are not built for the modern workplace

Love the podcast - you know what to do... add 5⭐️ ;-) 

Nick and Danny discuss the future of mobile phones, whether they will be something we have in our pockets or bags or whether it might be an on head or over head device or could it be smaller and something embedded in us? 

The Mobile Phone Story: 

History & Journey 

• Handsets
• Phone calls
• Text messages
• Cameras
• Apps
• Location
• Chat apps / food apps / Voice
• Video and front face camera first activities
• Devices evolution from large phone to glasses to watch

• 1b iPhone users
• 2-4b android users
• The average usage of mobile is well over 3hours per day - some suggesting their usage is over 10 hours per day

Think about: Every year Apple updates a core set of features and millions update every year and the brilliant job Apple Product people and Marketers have done in convincing millions to upgrade every 12-18 months.

Why Listen Today: 

With the latest iPhone releases & latest iOS updates, we are seeing devices become more useful and more personalised, we are looking at the best ever devices and they are getting smarter for us as users and for the businesses connected to them.

Huge Milestone Hit! TikTok hitting 1b users in record time - it wouldn't have ever been possible without the smartphones and the addiction engines that they are to us now.

As we previously discussed, is AR / VR the future? Is it feasible really?

There has been a lot of talk around the metaverse and the future of living in a metaverse, but will a mobile device be essential in this always on digital world?

Jack Dorsey (Twitter & Square CEO) only uses his mobile device never uses a PC or laptop 

Links From This Episode

• The future of VR / AR podcast episode 
• The newsletter to sign up to - The Future State Of Podcast Newsletter
• Danny's presentation fan clubs, community, tribes and herds  
• Steve Jobs & Apple changing the face of computing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7qPAY9JqE4

Chat To Nick & Danny 

Want to talk to Danny or Nick or provide feedback? @dannydenhard @nickwalter23 on Twitter