The Coup

At the beginning of this season, we looked at the advertising industry’s coup from my perspective. To bring it full circle, today I’m looking at it from a different angle: Yours.

Content — editorial, entertainment, what have you — and advertising have been unified to the point — where often — it’s hard to see the line between them. And while that blurring has inspired high-quality and entertaining branded work… it has also spawned, what I call, the largest breach of trust in consumer marketing, in decades.

What was once the work of the Infomercial Man and the Celebrity endorser, influence is now embedded within our daily world of online living. Thousands of people, every day, take to social media to post photos and videos that attempt to humanize the brands paying them — and some of them are making a killing doing it… Meanwhile, authenticity is still the world of the day.

So — how did influencing go from being a side-hustle to the hustle? What role have our social media overlords played in creating this controversial industry? And is a new generation of Influencers on its way… or is this business a bubble ready to burst?

In our season finale, we’re stepping into the murky, billion-dollar business of online influence, to find out.

Welcome to The Influencer Show.

If you live in Canada, it’s likely that you bank with one of the ‘Big 5’… and it’s also likely you inherited that financial relationship from your parents.

And whether you liked banking with them or not… how different were the other 4, really? For decades, there weren’t any other meaningful options… but today? We may have too many.

From local startups to the biggest social platforms in the world… it seems like every day another tech company announces its bid to become our next bank.

Financial technology — ‘fintech’ — has been around for years… but it’s only in the last few, that we’ve seen mass adoption of third-party finance apps and services — from budgeting trackers like Mint.com to Robo-advisors like Wealthsimple. And now, ‘challenger-banks’ and ‘neo-banks’ are beginning to capture part of the market here in Canada.

And while slick, fee-free services are democratizing who can access financial advising, planning, investing, and even low-cost bank plans… without federal regulation and oversight of new players, some say our data may be at risk.

So — with an influx of new players, is the balance of power shifting away from the Big 5? And are these neo-banks disrupting the incumbents… or is this industry actually “too big to fail”?

Today, we’re cashing in on this reality cheque: We’re taking a look at the impact of Canada’s fintech darling, Wealthsimple, sitting down with KOHO’s CEO Daniel Eberhard, a Vancouver-born neo-bank, which is calling out big banks’ high and hidden fees… And we call the head of innovation at the country’s largest bank, to see what he thinks of it all.

20 years ago, two teenagers brought the music establishment to its knees. And a decade later, a startup was launched halfway around the world that’s reinvigorated it.

The recording industry has experienced a whiplash of change, and has somehow come out on the other end of it… still standing. It’s one of the few categories we can look to that’s gone through the full cycle of a coup.

First we bought. Then we “shared”. And now… we stream.

And with changes to distribution and format, have come changes to everything— from how we listen, to the way popular music sounds.

But with artists struggling to make a living — and the industry’s biggest streaming still not profitable— who’s this new model really working for?

How has music’s old establishment faired? And where is it’s new one taking us next?

We’ll be back with a new episode of The Coup next Tuesday, November 12th!

Stand up comedy’s second boom feels less driven by punchlines, and more by comedians’ introspection and vulnerability.

Nearly every week, another special comes out that mines the personal narrative and struggles of another comics. While some comedians have managed to make this kind of vulnerability funny, others… have made it easy to forget you’re watching a standup show. And that tone change has led to style and format shifts as well.

The traditional format — the laughs/per minute structure, on-stage-every-night, and the need to appeal to the masses — is all but dead. Taking their place? Comedians as TED talkers, as performance artists, as prophets and pundits.

And while what’s shared on stage is more varied than ever, some think the form is being constrained. You can say anything, but you can’t just say anything.

So, what are comedians trying to do other than make us laugh? How is this trend of vulnerability and experimentation changing standup’s tone, format and purpose? And what complications arise?

We often think of disruption as this mythical struggle of David and Goliath — the scrappy start-ups rising out of nowhere to take down the established players, who are as powerful as they are out-of-touch.

In business, as in life, people tend to root for the Davids… and I’m not always sure why.

Today we’re turning our attention to the big guys, and taking notes from the leaders who broke rank to ignite the coup from within the castle walls.

But here’s the thing: It’s men and boys who Gillette’s ad needed to reach… but nearly all of its detractors were guys! So what are advertisers and brands missing here? And really, is it our job to figure it out?

Five years ago, Uber launched a food delivery service that disrupted the food industry. Since then, there’s been a wave of innovations changing the way we eat and cook. Companies like UberEats aren’t just transforming restaurants… they’re building a new arm of the food industry to compete with them, too.

Oh — and the new food establishment paving the way to the land of milk and honey? Well, they don’t make food… and increasingly, neither do I.

Today some are predicting the end of the home cooked meal altogether… But beyond our own kitchens, what is the rise of even faster food doing to the cooks at our favourite restaurants or the farmers we pass by on the side of the highway?

And is all this convenience actually making our lives better, or just quicker?

We’re going from table to kitchen to cyclist to farm to table to find out.

It’s been about a year since recreational weed was legalized here in Canada, and after loads of international coverage, celebrations, and dozens of startup announcements… what’s actually changed?

This wasn’t a coup brought about by plucky upstarts — but by legislation. So, how are cannabis entrepreneurs disrupting inside of a forced disruption?

And with all the buzz about the legal marketplace, how lucrative has it really been? Who’s getting the short end of the joint?

More than ever, we’re buying everything — from our beds down to our shoes — sight-unseen.

In every category, startups are bypassing retailers — and their markups — to sell and ship their products right to your door. And they’re giving industry heavyweights a run for their money, doing it.

No middlemen — just them, and you.

But how are online-only brands, like Glossier and Dollar Shave Club, convincing consumers to buy into one-on-one relationships? And if there’s no independent retail worker helping us make the right choices, how are they gaining our trust?

Host Ron Tite goes door to door to find out how these companies are eliminating an entire channel —and how it’s transforming service and marketing, too.