#AskGaryVee Episode 92: Tidal, QR Codes, Instagram's Evolution, & Star Wars vs. Star Trek

– This question because
of a couple of reasons. One, the answer’s no; not in America. Two, I took the question because I want to give the VaynerNation
the answer to why. The early use of QR codes in America, the first time we all saw
them, with smart-phones. Have you ever done a QR code, India? – I’ve never really used one
’cause they’re all in subways, and I don’t see what’s
goin’ on underground. – And, so, you’ve never done
it, you’ve never done it? Staphon, have you ever done it? For what? – We had, back in the
business-card’s days, we had, like, one of them.
– [Gary] Got it. So, what’s interesting to me is it took off in South
Korea, and other places, where the early execution,
the first 10,000 executions of QR codes in that market, brought value. It was like you could buy
stuff from the subways. You could get really
interesting exclusive content. It was utilitarian, it was entertainment. In America marketers ruin everything. The very early QR codes
where you would take a shot of the QR code from a branding standpoint, the big-mass early stuff that
we saw a half-decade ago. And it would show people a YouTube video of the company’s television commercial. So, the reason QR codes won’t take off is they’ve been branded,
ingrained in our collective heads, as something that doesn’t
bring us any value. And, so, when something
establishes itself as not valuable, we don’t go back to the well. If email started off as just
being spam and marketing, we wouldn’t be there; and
it would have never evolved. At first it was a
communication social media. It’s on, and on, and on. So, QR codes, unfortunate
for the QR code gods, did not have the right
execution in the US market. And the hill is too big
to climb, in my opinion, for it to really take off. Now, look, could a QR execution come along in the next 24 months that’s so incredible and resets the value-prop around it, a la Snapchat, which they just did it. Let’s throw up my Snapchat QR code so you can follow me, real quick. (camera snapping) You know, but even that I
think was really significant. The hottest app doing it,
a lot of us are doin’ it. Maybe right now it’s bubbling
up, and that will happen. So, it’s not far-fetched
that it has a prayer based on something like that. But, in general, my prediction is no. And if somebody does something great, we’ll replay this answer,
and I’ll eat crow. – [Voiceover] Matt asks, “What’s your take

“on what Jay Z is trying to do with Tidal? “Do you think it will work?” – Matt, what Jay Z’s doing with Tidal is what every good entrepreneur
that has brand-equity in the consumer marketplace
should be doing, which is leveraging
their brand-equity to bring enormous
exposure to something that they disproportionately
make more money on than if they were using
somebody else’s thing. This is something that
should always be going on with the pseudo, triple
A-list celebrities. They should always own. They shouldn’t be the face
of a cognac or a champagne; they should own it. They shouldn’t be a face, or
beyond a platform for music; they should own it. Whether it’s gonna work
or not; I have no idea. Because the truth is for me
to give a really good answer, I need to see the team that’s actually executing the business. Just because you’re a big-time star, and you bring your big-time
star friends along, doesn’t mean the business
is gonna succeed. What’s gonna happen is, if the operators, and I don’t know what Hove
is doing with his time; but I have a feeling he won’t
be the CEO of the platform. So, you know, he’s an executor. The management team that’s in place is going to determine its success. I have personal brand-equity
as a social media voice, at a very small level. Trust me, I’m not tryin’
to compare myself. But I was a triple, Z-list celebrity. But within a little world,
that social media world, I had a little equity. And if my management team, if I, if we didn’t execute
properly, we would have lost. There’s a lot of people that
use their fame as the match. (flesh smacking) The match, to make something happen. It all comes down to the steak. The sizzle’s there, there’s exposure. We all know what it is. There’s a million music-services without a frontman like
Jay Z and the other people that we’d never know,
so, it’s got a chance. A lot of people check it out. A lot of times it’s not as strong as what’s in the marketplace. Spotify, and Rdio, and
all these other things have big legs up. ITunes, they all have much longer time. So, they’re further ahead. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I’m sure everybody’s gonna write it off; people are already writing it off as dead. We’ll see what happens over
the next 36 to 48 months. A tremendous lesson for everybody watching and listening to the show is, it doesn’t matter how you start; it matters how you finish. And, so, what I’m most curious about is that there’s cynicism
around its success because a lot of famous people try to put their name on things. I look at Jay Z as a
uniquely strong businessman. If he’s got infrastructure underneath him, or the right players
are in place for Tidal, in the next 24 to 48 months, it has a chance of doing something. I just don’t know what’s under the hood.

“you wanted to sell your services “to the big Fortune 500 companies “versus consumers first, and
then come up with VaynerMedia? “In other words, did you
choose who you wanted “to sell to first to
maximize your profits, “and then come up with
the business model?” – Sally, this is an interesting question. I’m a very big fan of counter-punching; and a lot of people don’t do that. A lot of people lay out business-plans, they know what they wanna
do, they go and do it. And they go raise money,
or they go and execute it; and that’s how they roll. In lieu of the tremendous
fight this weekend, which it was boring to the masses; but it was a tremendous fight for me. Because 13 seconds in, I looked at AJ and said, “This fight’s over.”
’cause I couldn’t believe how much faster Floyd was than Pacquiao. Watching them separately,
I thought it’d be closer. I knew a second that he
was that much faster, that the fight was over because I know what kind of defensive fighter Floyd is. And I’m sure everybody
gets bored and falls asleep rounds seven through 12, but I’m just completely,
like, infatuated with boxing. And understood the chess-moves
that he was playing out in the ring, and enjoyed that. Even though I know it’s not commercially raw-raw, high-energy. I view myself very
similar as a businessman. I react, it’s funny I feel
like I’m on full-offense. I feel like I’m 48-and-oh
because I play great defense based on reacting. I can react to the market and adjust. The market started coming to me because I was writing Crush It!, putting out videos around business, and amassing a large
social media following. And big-brands reached out to me and said, “Hey, you’ve got all these people.” You know, “Hey, we’re
a Fortune 500 company. “We have 50 followers on Twitter. “You have 400,000 followers! “We’ve never heard of you. “Come and teach us, come explain.” Plus, moments in time. AJ was graduating from BU. It was time to do a business together. We were thinkin’ about fantasy sports, we were thinkin’ about other things. And, so, between timing
and being reactionary to the demand cycle,
like, we’re responding to the demand that was in place. I was already playing in the space. It wasn’t like I just made something up, or there was demand for
me out of left-field that made no sense. My actions were setting
up my counter-punch. My actions were setting
up my counter-punch. I think it’s a very
strong model for business.

and I’m doing a 59-week,
59 National Park road-trip to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. I’m quitting my job, and I was wondering how I can use social
media to get sponsorships. Thank you. – Darius, you’re using social media to get sponsorship right now, right? Your actions are leading
you to what you want. You hacked your way into the show, and now you’re on the show, and now you’ve got a bunch of exposure, all the people watching and listening. I thought that was really clever. I’m sure five to seven of the viewers also agree that it’s clever. One of those five to seven may
have a business proposition. But I think the number-one
way for you to sponsorship is to search terms on Twitter
around national parks, and see which businesses
are already engaging by putting out content, or
engaging with content around it. And then replying to
them, in a conversation, not throw the right-hook
right away, buy saying, “Hey, here’s a picture
I put on Instagram.” I think content, Instagram, Meerkat. You know, I think these things matter. So, I think it’s a heavy-level of content, putting it out there and creating
some level of serendipity. I think it’s hacking, and
hustling, and biz-devving, which you clearly know how
to do ’cause you’re now on this show and getting that exposure. I think you reach out to every other blog that covers national parks. The top-50 big ones, and just
pound them into submission there and find with right-hooks. In an email form, or
hitting them up on social. And then in the cocktail
party that is Twitter, engaging with companies that have money to spend on sponsorship
that already talking about counter-punching. Already, that’s Floyd’s
shoulder thing he does. Counter-punching and engaging with content in Twitter as it’s going on now. So, that’s what I would do.

“evolve in the future?” – You know, Andrew, I took this question without really even knowing where the heck I’m going with it, because the
truth is I’m not quite sure. I think one thing’s for
sure, is if Instagram ever layers Facebook’s
targeting capabilities on its platform to users, it would become one of the
great ad-products of our time for, you know, 2016, 2017 to 2020. There’d be a two to four year run there. It would be incredible. So, that’s interesting to me. Will they use its sister company’s data to plug in there to reach
to people I wanna reach? If I could reach all wine-fans right now based on Facebook data
in an Instagram photo, (releasing air) So, that’s interesting, I also think that, I also think that it’ll
be interesting to see if Instagram goes into wearables, or into more camera-culture. There’s something about smart-cameras in a whole different way than
we’re even thinking about it. Here’s a good one, what
about smart-contact lenses? Like, if I wore contact
lenses, and if I went, it would take an Instagram photo. That’s interesting to me,
so, like how does Instagram layer into the emerging tech that a lot of people don’t talk about? That’s cool, and so, I’m not quite sure. Here’s what I do know,
it has the attention of the consumer at scale right now. They’re doing very subtle changes. They had a product-change
the other day, right, the UI changed a little bit. It was so subtle, right. I noticed it, but I didn’t
hear a headline about it. I noticed it, and it
didn’t stop me in any way. I thought that was super interesting. I see you guys are, right, it was subtle, did you like it, do you not like it? Did you even think about it? – [India] It’s just more
aesthetically pleasing. – Is it more aesthetically
pleasing for you? Yeah, I mean yeah, just super subtle. – [India] Also, it’s all in symbols now; it doesn’t say, like, on it. – Right, it just knows. We’ve just evolved,
right, in our language. Anyway, so, and there’s hashtags, emojis. From what I know about Kevin Systrom, whom I respect a ton,
and I know lightweight. I know a little bit, but I
really know more from afar. He’s a very thoughtful CEO. I think he cares about the product and the audience tremendously. Obviously, my first answer right away into commerce, business,
you know, that’s how I roll. But I think he’s really consumer-first, he understands it needs to stay sticky. Don’t spam it out, don’t ruin it. I’m interested in the
kind of contact lens thing that I brought up, and
some maybe far-fetched, far-out, I like saying far-out. You know, just some forward
thinking around the hard, something about the hardware
in Instagram makes me excited. I think it’s gonna evolve past the phone; and I think that has the potential to be extremely intriguing. I’ll make a prediction,
I don’t predictions; I only react to what’s happening. But I’ll make one for fun. I think Instagram will be
a leader in the next-level hardware version of photos. Because I think it’ll happen in the next three or four years, and I think Instagram can hold on to its leadership.

asked a very important question of “Star Wars or Star Trek?” – Green Stripes Auto, I am way, I mean, I don’t like Star Trek at all, and Star Wars is the only
thing that I like in Sci-Fi. I love the story; I grew up on it. Empire Strikes back, 1981, 82. What was I, five? 81, right, it was in 80. Movie came out 81, the toys. I think for my sixth birthday, with Misha’s sixth birthday coming up at the end of the month,
this is kind of an emotional nice thing to think about. Which is insane. My parents bought me two Star Wars figures for my sixth birthday; I’m pretty firm that that’s when it was. And I remember completely being blown away because we didn’t spend money on toys. We were fairly poor still,
grinding, trying to make our way. And I remember being stunned that they were willing to
buy me two action figures. It was a big deal for me. Star Wars was a big part of my six, seven, eight year old culture. They were my first, kind of,
toys that we could afford. I was a really, kind of, chaotic kid, so I’d lose the lightsabers immediately. I was in toothpick culture. Immediately, I used to have to use toothpicks as lightsabers. I’m a big fan. Return of the Jedi was something
I was really amped up for because, and we moved to
Edison, I had friends. 84, super pumped, opening night, midnight for when it came back. I’m not even mad at Jar-Jar Binks. Whatever, Binks, and then so, I’ve been into it, I’m into the story. I will definitely go Christmas
day to see the new one. And I don’t like Star Trek at all. I never watched any of the movies. I’ve collected some of
the toys and flipped ’em. But that’s just that Ebay-culture. But I’ve never liked that stuff. I don’t like Star Trek at all. I dislike you, Star Trek, I’m sorry. And that’s that, question of the day.