NerdBrand Podcast
The NerdBrand Podcast is at the intersection of nerd culture, branding, and advertising. Nerd culture is no longer an isolated subculture; it’s THE culture of the day and makes its way into our daily lives through the entertainment we seek and the technology we rely upon. Listen as we discuss our views on visual design, branding, and advertising for movies, comics and novels, video games, technology, and other nerdy passions.
NerdBrand Podcast
Unmasking Reddit's Rebrand: From Link-Sharing to Gamer's Paradise and Pickle Sandwich Craze
Ready to discover the secrets behind Reddit's bold rebrand and what it means for its vast community? This episode of the NerdBrand Podcast promises to take you on a journey through the platform's evolution, from its humble beginnings as a simple link-sharing site to a bustling hub of diverse subreddits. Expect a deep dive into Reddit's unique user interface and community regulations, alongside some funny mishaps like a sinking chair and a dad joke to lighten the mood.
Join us as we delve into the dynamic world of Reddit, particularly its appeal to gamers and the impact of new user profile customizations. We also reflect on the significant shifts in mobile technology from 2005 to 2010, discussing how devices like the iPhone and iPad have reshaped ad sizes and user interface design. Our conversation draws parallels to our podcast's growth and the fascinating advancements in AI-generated content, making it a must-listen for tech enthusiasts and marketing strategists alike.
But that's not all—get ready for a taste of the latest foodie trend sweeping New York: cucumber pickled sandwiches. We'll explore the viral craze, discuss potential marketing strategies, and tackle the logistical challenges of meeting skyrocketing demand. Plus, we extend an invitation to an upcoming event in Louisville, Kentucky, aimed at connecting the nerd community. Packed with humor, insightful discussions, and heartfelt thanks to our listeners, this episode is an exciting blend of tech, trends, and community spirit. Don't miss out on the fun!
ABOUT NERDBRAND
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so let's do a podcast. So on this episode of the nerd band podcast, we are talking about another rebrand. I found an interesting one and I I admit this I feel like I'm at double a, but anyway, you guys uh want to stay tuned. We're going to talk about a rebrand of reddit. Coming up on this episode of the NerdB Brand Podcast, we're going to start talking about a rebrand of Reddit. Are you a Redditor?
Speaker 2:No, I'm not a big reader, so I probably haven't read it.
Speaker 1:Okay, thank, you for that. And that is we need to have like a timer where it's like ding one pod, one dad joke, wait, there we go. Yeah, one dad joke down 70 more to go in 20 minutes. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Uh, I went to go ahead sorry, I was gonna legitimately answer the question. Uh, I'm not. I don't use it too much, uh, random stuff, uh, more video game stuff, if I want to kind of see blog posts or anything. Yeah, um, I do have a good friend that he loves reddit and he falls into that. That's his tiktok, that's his black hole, that he just oh, I do, yeah, I do the news.
Speaker 2:I mean um, I mean it's probably safer news than any of the actual news sources. I mean, to be honest, everyone's like, oh, I got to get my news from social medias. But I'm like, yeah, but as long as you can take that stuff with a grain of salt, it's probably better than your actual news source, because that stuff is actually more funded by lobbyists and stuff. In my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's some healthy cynicism, I think, with mainstream media, which is why the alternate ones are picking up. Reddit, though, has been around forever. It's always the social media network that I think everybody forgets exists, kind of like Gen X, which is fine by both, I think them and Generation X Because, quite frankly, it's you. You know, everybody's gotten enamored with facebook and the tiktoks and everything now, and so it's like yeah but this has been pretty steady.
Speaker 1:It's a threat. You don't you start a threat. You can't self-promote. You can't go into somebody's thread and promote yourself. Yeah, you will get banned from that thread and you can have a thread and start one, or you can start a subreddit. There's certain regulations. People need to if they want to try to get on there and advertise themselves. They really should know the platform well, because it does not work like Facebook or Twitter or TikTok or any of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to understand the UI implications with that kind of platform because of how it is so much more different, and you have to, for sure, have your why, down your target audience, who and why?
Speaker 1:yeah, because that's your thread base and otherwise, yeah, you're just gonna get like I've seen threads go up where they talk about one thing and it just veers off and rabbit trails for hours into something else and so you have to be prepared to moderate it yourself, and then, set up.
Speaker 1:It does does have an engine to kind of set up certain responses automatically, and my chair keeps sinking because I think it's broke, but anyhow, there's a behind the scenes for everybody. So, anyways, I thought I would ask ChatGPT to give us an overview, because Reddit has rebranded and for some reason it does host one and two, and you'll notice in the copy that I sent you. Apparently do you want to be Alex or Jordan, and I don't know how it came up with Alex or Jordan.
Speaker 2:I didn't call me air. I didn't.
Speaker 1:I did not Thank you again. I did not tell it those names, so I don't know why it did that. So, anyways, I guess I'll be Alex UB Jordan. So it says welcome back to the Digital Pulse, the podcast where we dive. I don't even know, that's a pretty good name.
Speaker 2:Digital Pulse Probably does exist. Someone might want to get a chance on that.
Speaker 1:That could be trademarked. So careful, everyone. Maybe tell might want to get a. Yeah, that could be, that could be trademarked. So careful, everyone. We tell the gentlemen maybe she'd be interested in them.
Speaker 2:I don't know, uh, the podcast where we dive deep into the latest trends, updates and stories from the tech world. I'm alex and I'm jordan. Today we're talking about something massive reddit's new brand, new rebrand love it or hate it. Revit's overhaul is making waves, so let's break it all down.
Speaker 1:That's right, jordan Reddit, often referred to as the front page of Reddit, has unfailed a comprehensive rebrand. For a platform with such a distinctive identity and loyal user base, this is a bold move. Let's start with some background. I have to add Tome in here if I'm playing this character, alex, on this episode, because you know it's, it's kind of very flat well, I was also thinking.
Speaker 2:I was like someone's gonna jump in and be like alex and jordan. Is this the right podcast?
Speaker 1:yeah, no, no, this is jason and jacob and uh, you know we're just having a little fun here with chat, gpt and and reviewing brands, because I really like how jet chat does it, let's call it chat yeah chat, chat, chat, chat, chat, ggpg, I don't know. Whatever we'll call it, it's called bob you know, say bob, so anyways you're next sorry, oh yeah reddit has always been a unique corner of the internet.
Speaker 2:Launched in 2005, it's grown from a simple link sharing site to a sprawling network of communities or subreddits quote unquote where users can discuss virtually any topic. Despite its growth, Reddit's design and branding have remained relatively unchanged for years. That is, until now.
Speaker 1:Exactly. The rebrand is part of Reddit's effort to modernize and attract new users, while staying true to its core community. The changes are multifaceted, involving everything from the logo to the user interface. Let's break down the main components of the rebrand Dum-dum-dum.
Speaker 2:First up the logo. Reddit's iconic alien mascot, snoo, which I didn't know that was his name, I didn't either has been given a facelift. All right, look out plastic surgeons facelift. All right, look out plastic surgeons. The new SNHU is sleeker, more modern and designed to be more adaptable across different media. It's a subtle change, but one that reflects a more contemporary aesthetic.
Speaker 1:Yes, and with that the color palette has also been updated. They actually did. Looking at it earlier, it's kind of like they did a Coca-Cola thing. This is is not scripted by chat gpt. This is jason and jacob here. Um, it seems like they just kind of tweaked the I don't want to say red because it's it's kind of a reddish orange yeah, it's like a red orange.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like that, like a blood orange almost something like that.
Speaker 1:And then they have the, the character snoot, which we just now learned. That I mean after being a redditor for all these years. You would think I would know that, but I didn't, sorry, I'm not a faithful one, I guess, but anyhow, he's more 3d looking and they're kind of turning him into more of an emoji type uh, I compare it.
Speaker 2:To be honest, just looking at it really quick, was it felt like what they did with the android icon, the android logo and everything which wouldn't be a bad idea for another?
Speaker 1:I kind of feel like what they did.
Speaker 2:The reason they did it is for merch well, yeah, definitely, because it's definitely more, has more of a character to it. It's more friendly, more open. It seems more um, not in the low of maturity, but it just seems more childish.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know if they're trying to reach a younger audience even though those audience may be in the teens and twenties. Still, it's one of these things where it's a bold move in the fact that now you've got merchandise, so you're humanizing the brand more by doing that, I feel like um, very, um, that just feels icky, but you know, because it's social media, but I don't think that comes from an icky place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's where I think the Reddit like users. I don't know, I like that crowd better but, like I said earlier, I'm more of a gamer, so and I associate Reddit with gaming topics and conversations and I'm not saying that's all they do there, because they do. Reddit's ridiculous with how many topics. I feel like it's a Wikipedia of social media topics saying that's all they do there because they do. Reddit's ridiculous with how many topics I I feel like it's a wikipedia of social media topics oh yeah, they'll like.
Speaker 1:I mean, you couldn't be more like existential and reddit when it comes to like things that are discussed, so you can get lost.
Speaker 1:Like you think, youtube is a rabbit hole, you know, dive into reddit for a while. Um, anyways, one of the most significant updates is the new emphasis on the user profiles. Reddit wants to give users more control over their personal spaces on the platform. Profiles are more customizable, allowing for better expression of individual identities. You know, this is something that MakeSpace did and it didn't go well and, thank God, facebook never allowed customization.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, also, one of the topics we it actually brought up is when they're saying how the design of the new SNU was more adaptable across different media, which is something that a lot of people don't think about when they're doing their brands in the first place. I'm certain in 2005, it wasn't. Hey, how is it going to look as a thumbtack or as an app icon logo? I mean 2005, I mean that's iPhone 4, 4s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's about right.
Speaker 2:Because iPhone it's, whatever year it is, from 2000, just about. And then that's your 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, to my knowledge.
Speaker 1:Well, they had the 3G, and then they had 4, 4g.
Speaker 2:That's when they started doing that, and then that's for Siri. Yeah, then they started doing S?
Speaker 1:yeah, because Siri yeah, and so it's like the evolution between 2005 to 2010 of technology, because 2010 was when the iPad came out. A lot of people fun fact is the banner ads that you see, display ads on Google or SaaS for mobile devices. So a lot of the squares. When you see 320 by 320, that's about how wide the iPhone originally was 320 pixels wide screen. It got a little bit smaller with the four. That's why you see 250 by 250 as a screen, as an ad size, and then I'm pretty sure, and then you have the banner. So when you turn the phone into like you literally physically turn the phone landscape in your hands, you end up a elongated, shorter or it's not as tall ad.
Speaker 1:It's the best way to describe that. I suppose for audio listeners here that the banner ad is that size because of that, so that because there wasn't responsive, then it was just like I just need a different ad because the orientation and you could write that in. So interesting then you had the bigger ones for the ipad, so you'll see 768 by whatever, and then you'll see the tall ad that's in sidebars on sites and that's because of the iPad in portrait oh, interesting yeah. So mobile drove banner ad sizes for display ads which is why we always say mobile, we still say mobile display.
Speaker 2:Oh, so don't really say.
Speaker 1:I don't really say, like you can say banner ads and people get it, but I mean, come on now, this is 2024. People are on their mobile phones or devices a lot. Sometimes we just say mobile display. So when you say mobile, everything's mobile, but at the end of the day, yeah, that's what drove all that. Also because of the iphone and its invention. Your thumb apparently is 44 pixels. So that's why spacing is recommended between objects be 44 pixels. So that's why spacing is recommended between objects to be 44 pixels, so you don't accidentally tap something when you're swiping up Snap.
Speaker 2:All right, there you go yeah.
Speaker 1:All that's documented on applecom and their brand guides, which are the kind of thing that we do, so it's kind of funny. So everybody's like what's a brand guide do? And it's like, well, more than colors, it does all that.
Speaker 2:Well, I, I guess you just couldn't put your finger on it then, right.
Speaker 1:Okay, I apologize to the listeners. Let's go back and be Jordan and Alex a bit.
Speaker 2:First up the logo. Oh wait.
Speaker 1:I would start with the interface overall.
Speaker 2:The interface overall is another big change. Reddit has introduced a cleaner, more intuitive design aimed at improving usability. The navigation is smoother and the overall experience is more streamlined, making it easier for users to find and engage with content.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of the most significant updates is the new emphasis on user profiles. Reddit wants to give users more control over their personal spaces on the platform. Profiles are now customizable, allowing for better expression of individual identities. I want to pause and say this, because we're almost through this. Actually, um, compared to our skittles episode, which is about after this episode three, two episodes back, yeah, um, you can listen to that, and jacob and I actually did this same thing with skittles.
Speaker 2:You can tell the robot got better yeah, I mean, this is we haven't shifted like from london to the east coast, to the west coast, to mid-states, to yeah, the term and jargon, yeah, the tone is very much more like a, like a podcast, like an interview yeah, and then like nothing is like in the middle, like saying like, yeah, yeah, yeah you, every word started was awesome, hang loose, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now I'm not saying that this is an advocate say, hey, have chat, gpt, do your podcast. No, because you're actually listening to us, sort of I guess I'm going to use the word again existentially, or maybe post-modernity, whatever they call it Third person, um, or maybe post-modernity, whatever they call it third person, doing a podcast in third person. Here is what we're doing. I don't know if anybody's doing that, so maybe we're the first. I hope so That'd be fun. Yeah, because Alex and Jordan, they're not real people Shocker.
Speaker 2:I mean, you could say we're probably the third person. Okay, moving on, along with these visual and functional updates, reddit has also revamped its marketing strategy. They're launching a series of campaigns to highlight the diversity of communities on the platform, emphasizing that Reddit is a place for everyone, regardless of their interests, essentially break that mold of the brand that they were already put, which, like I said, I I always felt like it definitely leaned more towards a more nerdy crowd of hey, kind of shooting a question out to I don't know fandom almost, and being like hey, um, does anyone else know about this? What's going on with this? I mean, that's why I always used it was hey, is there something going on with, uh, the servers for this game or this Xbox or whatever? And they're like oh yeah, this is down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know this podcast episode is not brought to you by ChatGPT. I actually had to come up with this idea, so I didn't ask it to create this, I just told it to create it around. It's all in the prompting, but at the end of the day, I want everybody to know no, actually this was the plan. So you talked about the marketing.
Speaker 2:Where was that at? Because I'm picking up, it's a classic scenario.
Speaker 1:It's interesting to see how Reddit balances modernizing its platform while maintaining an essence that is a long time user's love. The rebrand aims to make Reddit more inviting to newcomers without alienating its core user base. I don't feel like an update was required uh, I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't feel like it was needed. It wasn't like people were asking for it, but I understand the thought process. Considering it's you know, 20 years and you, you should probably do some type of rebranding or touching up, and it seems like they weren't trying to make too big of a deal out of it, but they want to build off of it, kind of thing, yeah, it does hint that there's something coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they want to be like all right, we want to rebrand it. They're probably just touching things up, finalizing things right now. I wouldn't be surprised the next six months you hear something huge coming from Reddit or some crazy partnership or whatever.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't doubt it. I mean, that's typically what happens when you start seeing these things addressed, because you're like, well, it's kind of a non-issue and the audience is geared in a way where it's like you know they don't care, so why do you? What are you doing?
Speaker 2:You know so how do you? What are you doing? You know so there's some, there's some, you know, secret r&d stuff going on, probably something people can probably look in and or start a reddit thread about yeah, absolutely probably hey, what is right?
Speaker 1:probably gonna do yeah, yeah, everybody's on this conspiracy thread right now, like reddit's trying to become the new chat gpt or whatever.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, it's something we're actually, since you phrased it like that, like it's cleaning itself up, almost so just reminded me of like I know there are a few times my parents, when I was younger, that my grandparents were like are your parents gonna move? Because they're like cleaning the house and the yard up and all this.
Speaker 1:Well, that's happening across the entire internet, like the internet archive, aside from some other issues that are going on with it. There's sites that are disappearing from the search engine. Now, a lot of that has going on with it. There are sites that are disappearing from the search engine. Now a lot of that has to do with penalizations over using AI to write your content. Google's like no, you're just not going to get on the index anymore. So imagine you take an ad out in the yellow pages. That's one thing, but imagine if you just kind of yellow pages is like well, we know, this business exists, we're just going to put it in our directory and then exists, we're just going to put it in our directory and then one day you're not in there anymore. It's pretty bad. Well, that's kind of what's happening with google. They're just looking at websites. Now they're like this is spammy, this is a robot, it's not a person. This, this isn't useful. You know it's over 20 years old.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I mean that's where I feel like if it's something's not being used for a handful of years, like unless it has a reason and time. I mean there's the phone number that you can call to get the weather, temperature and the time.
Speaker 1:The time is 7.42 am Wow all right, well, I got here a little early For the record.
Speaker 2:that is not the time. That is not the time.
Speaker 1:No, we ain't up this early doing podcasting. You gotta be kidding me. Anyways, it's not the time. No, we ain't up this early doing podcasting you gotta be kidding me. Anyways, it's a classic scenario. I'm going to jump ahead. It's a classic scenario in the tech world. Change is often met with resistance, but it's also necessary for growth, kind of what we just hinted at. So we read the robot's mind. How scary is that. Oh man For growth. Reddit's challenge will be to continue listening to its community and adapting based on feedback.
Speaker 2:So what's next for Reddit? The rebrand is just the beginning. Reddit has hired more updates and features in the pipeline, focusing on an enhancing community. See how how hard that is to read everyone. It was very interesting.
Speaker 1:This is not a jacob problem, this is a. This is a great example to highlight about ai writing sentences yeah, that's a hard sentence to read yeah, that looked weird and I was like wait what?
Speaker 2:focus on enhancing community interactions and further improving the user experience man, that was a lot of yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's like tasmanian devil would be more understood than that. Their experience, man, that was a lot of blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that was interesting. Yeah, that's like Tasmanian Devil would be more understood than that, or Animal from the Muppets. Well, that's just my usual speak, so I guess it's an exciting time for Reddit and its users. We'll be keeping an eye on how these changes will unfold and how it will impact on the platform's future.
Speaker 2:And that wraps up today's episode of Digital Pulse.
Speaker 1:That would be like by a view of the music.
Speaker 2:That or I would be like keeping your finger on the pulse, Whether you're a seasoned Redditor or a curious newcomer. We love to hear your thoughts of Red Rebrand. Drop us a comment or tweet.
Speaker 1:Almost sounded like you were going to say like a like if or if you're a curious cucumber like yours.
Speaker 2:I know, I thought about it, it did, it did.
Speaker 1:It's a curious newcomer, cucumber anyways, don't forget, thanks for tuning in blah blah. Anyways, it closes out the show and we're not nearly done yet um but yeah, that's sort of something about reddit to see a social media platform rebrand because Facebook does it. They don't really make an announcement on it, but there's actually some press releases out there on Reddit that did this recently, about like six days ago or something. They started putting it out so I don't know why I brought up cucumbers.
Speaker 2:So it's a new comer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, anyways, side story and we'll close out the show here. Yeah, so, anyways, side story and we'll close out the show here. There is a deli in, I think, new York or somewhere that's doing cucumber pickled sandwiches. So they get the cucumber-sized things but they're pickled, they cut them in half long ways and then they treat the cucumber basically I keep saying cucumber they treat the pickle, even though I know that's not right. They treat it like a bun, like bread but it's not, so there's no bread.
Speaker 1:So they're putting like in between the two cuts of the pickle the meats, vegetables, whatever. You can imagine the lines around the block that this guy deals with. He was selling five a day, now he's like 500. It's just insane. You can go look it up it's pickle sandwich or something like that, anyways. Um, this guy's doing that and it's a huge hit. What do you think the demographic is? That's in the line.
Speaker 2:Oh, pickle sandwiches. Um, I want to say that's definitely millennial Gen Z, uh huh, almost like, almost exclusively, I mean the almost like almost exclusively, I mean the millennials are the avocado toast people so, but the amount of women that are there, oh yeah, I would say that's your 500 right every man would see that video and be like why is my girlfriend in a line for pickles? Oh god see, and thing is, though, this would be a great tagline for him is how do you like your pickle sliced?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and.
Speaker 1:I'm sure if he's ever going to catch on to this show existing in the middle of making 500 pickle sandwiches a day. Yeah, Like he's bringing in, like these, 50 gallon buckets of pickles from the supplier. Like that uptick got their attention and they're like why, are we selling so many pickles? It reminds me of when toilet paper was just flying off the shelf for no reason and I'm like does everybody? Have to take a poop like all of a sudden no, there's.
Speaker 2:People started hoarding, which caused a supply and demand chain issue, which then caused other issues, which caused good people not to have a simple basic necessity because of arrogant, insensitive selfish uh gee, it's almost like you have an opinion very strongly about this oh yeah, did you have to uh, did you have to go to the bathroom and found yourself?
Speaker 2:without paper. I uh, I subscribe to the. Uh, when you're sitting in the woods and you don't have any toilet paper, be a man, use your hands, but uh, in that scenario it'd be fine. But it was one of the scenarios when I was working on menards and I just dealt with a lot of people that you know. They were trying to be more cautious and other people were going out for them and the insensitive people just wanted to be insensitive and not understand. Hey, you know, if you don't try to grab all of them, everyone can have them and they won't run out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Limit to per purchase, please sir.
Speaker 2:That was my life for a while. Yeah, that was crazy.
Speaker 1:So now pickles are a thing, at least in that area, with that place. So I'm not making pickle sandwiches anytime soon.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying Pickle sandwiches, pickle ball, whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. Speaking of which, sean, we are doing November 2nd, we have an event coming up. Look for more coming from us and you will have some further announcements. We've already hinted at it. Several people close to us in our network, they know about it and it is coming. Uh, we are well on our way. Well on our way with this thing, so that's a good thing. We'll be listing and talking about our sponsors over the three half months until the events here on November 2nd, and so if you are a nerd, we want you to unite with other nerds. Let us know who you are. If you make stuff or do something unique and creative, feel free to reach out, and if you're in Louisville, kentucky, around November 2nd, you know, let us know Um we also are looking for special guests.
Speaker 1:you know, whether it be celebrities, we don't care. A, B, C, D, D, we don't really know how that works, but at the end of the day, you're on like whatever and you want to come out, set up a booth, monetize yourself and sell some things. Go for it. Just pay us for the booth, please, and you are free to do whatever that is legal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. The high evidence on the yeah.
Speaker 1:High emphasis on legal, because there's other nerds, they're doing the same thing and we are a community and you should know how that goes.
Speaker 2:If one of us does something wrong, it's like the Borg, you're done. Don't be the turd in the punch bowl.
Speaker 1:And on that note, for everybody listening to our podcast thinking like these guys are a very different, strange agency. You have no idea and I have to wrangle these cats every day, not strangle wrangle.
Speaker 2:Way to clarify that yeah.
Speaker 1:I learned my lesson earlier this morning. So, anyhow, we will thank you for listening to this episode of the NerdBrand podcast. You can check us out everywhere on social media at NerdBrandAgency, or you can go to NerdBrandAgencycom slash podcast to find the latest episodes and listen to it. Please like, share, subscribe, do all those things. You know how to do those. There's some buttons there.
Speaker 1:You can hit them and everything, yeah do the beep boops and then, other than that, you know, just tune in next week. We don't know what we're going to talk about, but it's going to be fun because I think we're going to try to do this as a series. So we'll see. If you've an idea for a show, go to Facebook at NerdBand Agency, leave a comment, send a message. You know, yell at John he's watching that stuff now and let us know and remember. Out there, keep your NerdBrand strong.
