Live To Tell | June 28, 2019

Talk About It

Fantastic: Taco Bell’s Palm Springs Resort

Taco Bell is giving us something to taco ‘bout: the brand’s pop-up desert oasis in Palm Springs that was announced last month has finally arrived! The Bell, as it has been officially named, began taking reservations on Thursday. The starting rate for one of the resort’s 70 rooms is $169 per night, while a “pool view room with two queen beds” is listed at $220 per night. The brand’s latest play in experiential marketing will likely be a successful play in the engagement game, with the resort’s amenities bound to pop up on your Instagram Discover feed. 

Celebrity: The KFC Franchisee Campaigning For a Michelin Star

Humans this bold deserve recognition. And if Australian KFC franchisee Sam Edelman isn’t already a celebrity, he should be. Edelman is currently campaigning for his remote Alice Springs, Australia KFC to earn not one, but two Michelin stars. His restaurant, Edelman argues, meets the criteria indisputably: excellent cooking worth a detour or exceptional cuisine worth a special journey. Considering restaurant patrons travel up to 1,300 kilometers (over 800 miles) to eat at his KFC, his argument is pretty compelling.

Cash Money: Retailer Counterattacks on Amazon Prime Day

As consumers gear up for Amazon’s fourth annual Prime Day event, which was expanded to two days this year, Walmart is hoping to steal some of the e-commerce giant’s thunder with its own series of rollbacks and special purchase occasions in the same time frame. Walmart isn’t the only retailer preparing to mount a counterattack on Prime Day; Target, Macy’s and many others have plans to do the same. Does it ultimately benefit consumers that other businesses are attempting to cut into Amazon’s market share with their own competing day(s) of deals, or are the constraints these sales place on retailers eventually going to be too much to bear?

Forward Thinking: Airbnb Luxe

High-end travelers in need of a luxury abode for an extended vacation stay, you’re in luck: Airbnb is launching a new service just for you! Airbnb Luxe, the Uber Black of property rentals, is a new service that deals exclusively with high-end, short-term rentals. Homes on Airbnb Luxe are selected after considering more than 300 criteria, and booking through the service grants customers round-the-clock access to a professional trip designer. The service already has more than 2,000 homes available for rent in exclusive locales for an average price of approximately $14,000 per week.

Friend or Foe: The Office is Leaving Netflix

As the streaming wars heat up, Netflix has suffered another devastating blow: “The Office” will no longer be available on the platform come 2021. Recently, Netflix has lost all of its Disney content, and it appears NBC is next as both companies gear up to launch their own streaming services in the coming years. Where last year the platform put up a reported $80 million to keep “Friends” streaming through 2019, it appears Netflix has elected to instead double down on its investment in original content rather than fight (and pay) to keep fan favorites readily available. Should Netflix continue shelling out money to keep licensed content on its platform so we don’t have to shell out money for multiple streaming services?

Heating Up

Nothing lacks substance like a buzzword. In his latest column for 1851 Franchise, No Limit Agency* CEO Nick Powills rages against marketing buzzwords, “influencer” chief among them. It's one of the hottest terms in marketing right now, with brands clamoring to be recognized by anyone who’s affixed themselves to it. The thing is, influencers are nothing new. An influencer, Powills notes, is anyone who can convince someone else that their opinions are true and motivational—they’re not just people on social media who are more often than not paid to “believe” in products or services.