This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett welcomes Matt Lee, Jeremy May, and Colin Harrison from Ramsey MediaWorks out of Joplin, Missouri. The group discusses the evolution of marketing in the trucking industry as they explore the shift from traditional print advertising to digital strategies, emphasizing the importance of understanding and targeting specific driver demographics. The conversation highlights the advantages of digital advertising, such as real-time adaptability and performance tracking, and the role of social media in engaging potential recruits. The episode underscores the need for transparency and authenticity in marketing to build trust and attract the right talent as well as gives actionable advice to drivers about what to look for in a trucking company and how to do their homework to get to where they want to be.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Introducing Today’s Topic (0:12)
- Evolution of Advertising (3:13)
- Changes in Marketing Strategies (4:43)
- Fragmentation of Audiences (6:39)
- Challenges of Targeting Drivers (10:16)
- Common Marketing Mistakes (12:43)
- Importance of Authentic Messaging (15:10)
- Introduction to Digital Advertising (18:00)
- Local Advertising Success (19:53)
- YouTube’s Role in Company Culture (22:08)
- The Impact of Short-Form Content (25:31)
- Role of Pixels in Digital Marketing (28:34)
- Geo-Targeting in Advertising (33:33)
- Future of AI in Marketing (36:41
- Finding the Right Job (39:14)
- Thankful for Truck Drivers and Parting Thoughts (42:17)
Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com.
Transcription
Jeremy Kellett 00:12
Thanks for tuning in to the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. My name is Jeremy Kellett, and I’m your host for this podcast, which is brought to you by Oakley trucking, located in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Our goal is to inspire, educate and provide resources for our owner operators as well as outside truck drivers that may be interested in becoming a part of the Oakley family. So sit back, relax and keep your eyes on the road as we start this week’s brand new episode. Hey. Welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking business, family. My name is Jeremy Kellett. I’m director of recruiting here at Oakley trucking, and I’m your host for this podcast. On today’s episode, I have got a special one for you. I got some guys that are in the marketing, advertising business. That’s all they do. They eat, breathe and sleep it, and it’s actually the ones we use. So they’re sitting here with me, and we are going to talk about marketing, advertising, basically for truck drivers, and what it all entails. These guys are sharp at what they do. And I want to get, I just want people to understand, you know, what all goes into this? Because it’s a lot more than you would think goes into this. So we’re going to do that here in just a second. But first, hey, as always, our sponsors appreciate you guys. Central Arkansas truck and trailer do a heck of a job. We just started using them, referring our own operators to them. They’ve been doing great right up the street from us. I definitely recommend you check them out. And of course, aerial truck sales. As always, those guys have been with us since day one, and they are fantastic. Keith Wilson is doing a great job. So in the market for a used truck, we kind of specialize. I say we specialize. We know, we’re just good at it first time owner operators, and helping you get started to become an owner operator. And Keith has helped us in that tremendously by getting in that first starter truck. So all right, let’s get started. Guys. Jeremy, Matt Colin, man, I appreciate you guys driving down from Missouri, Fort Smith and hanging out with me to talk about some of this advertising and marketing. You know, first introduce yourself. So listeners have an idea who you are, Matt, start with you
Matt Lee 02:24
sure I’m Matt again with Ramsey media works. I’ve been there about 13 years with Ramsey, been in marketing ever since I got out of college, so you’re right. I do eat, breathe, sleep, you know this deal, and we’re just excited to be here and be part of this event with you today. Yep. How about
Jeremy May 02:40
you? Jeremy, yep. Jeremy May, VP of Client Services. I’ve been with Ramsey for about four years. I’ve been trucking a little over 20 at this point, and like Matt, I’m a lifetime marketer. I went to college for it, and that’s about all I’ve lived professionally.
Jeremy Kellett 02:53
Yep. About It. Kyle, my name
Colin Harrison 02:55
is Colin. I’ve been at rams for about a year and a half. Actually interned at Ramsey briefly while I was still in school. I’m actually fresh out of school. And like Matt and Jeremy over there, I went to school for marketing, and it’s been my, you know, first gig out of school. So I also eat, sleep and breathe marketing. It’s been a great experience there, and we’re happy to be here today.
Jeremy Kellett 03:13
So let me get our listeners up to date here, up to track, because how I how we got to this point. So for years and years, me and Corey. Huey works with me. We did all this advertising ourselves, but as back in the day, when, you know, we advertise it in magazines, print was a big deal, I’m talking 30 years ago, and then, you know, it keeps evolving into more and more stuff to me and Corey finally realized, okay, we’re going to have to get somebody smarter than us, because we have reached our limit, you know, and we just knew it the way that it’s going into, you know, with the internet, and what do you call the pay per click? And I mean, all this stuff is just overwhelming me and Corey, we realize we’re going to have to do something. And, you know, we got in touch with Ramsey media. Knew them a little bit beforehand, but you guys have helped us tremendously, accomplished a lot of things here in the last two years we’ve been with, you’ve been fantastic, but we, you know, that’s kind of how we got to this relationship. So our listeners understand. But I want to, you know, I want to. We’re going to have to dumb it down for me too. But you know what all you guys do for us? I mean, it’s, I look at it all the time, and it’s hard for me to comprehend some of it. The way this stuff is evolved into digital, internet. I mean, all this stuff y’all want to start with. I mean, maybe how some of that marketing has changed, you know, in the last couple years, yeah,
Matt Lee 04:43
absolutely, man. I mean, it has definitely changed in the last two years, certainly in the last 13 since I’ve been, you know, part of this, and continue to learn every day, you know, about new things and new opportunities. But you know, when I first got in this, it was newspapers, you know, you just. Basically I had to buy an ad in a certain town. And whether it was in their penny wise, or their, you know, daily, you know, paper, whatever they have, you know, we were able to kind of secure an ad and talk to those particular drivers, you know, in those in those areas, and then it kind of went to the the magazines, you know, where drivers were able to go to the truck stops and pick up the different trade pubs and be able to see what opportunities are out there. A little flashier, because you could put, you know, photos and things like that in it. And then it went to, started to get into more of the digital age. But it started out with Craigslist, you know. I mean, my gosh, you in the world thought that source, you know, was built to sell washing machines and bicycles.
Jeremy Kellett 05:41
I mean, if you mention Craigslist around Corey, he likes, you know, he just jars a little bit. He likes it, but he doesn’t, because he used to have to go in there all the time and refresh all these ads we did for so long. Yeah, he don’t mention it around Corey,
Matt Lee 05:56
yeah, they call that ghosting, you know, where they would come in, and other companies would take you down, or, you know, or whatever. And for the longest time, that was a big battle. You know, we had multiple devices that where we could submit the ads through different IP addresses. I mean, it was a nightmare. It was a nightmare, and we did a lot of it. So we, we had to do that. Now you’re right into the end of the cost per click and things like that, the pay per click model. You know your Googles, and some of your you know yours indeed, and some of those, you know type of job boards, if you will. That’s really what it’s gotten to now. And the beautiful part about it, it’s a lot easier to track, so that we know, you know how we’re how we’re performing, you guys, you know what’s your take? Jeremy,
Jeremy May 06:39
yeah, well, so I’ve seen a lot of changes. I was not in it, you know, in the print days I, you know, when I was getting out of college, it was really the, I wouldn’t say it’s the birth of Google, but it was digital advertising was certainly that was what the new guys at the job. That’s what we worked on, because, you know, we understood it, or had to learn it. And so I would say, one, I’ve been blessed and coming in, being at that right age, at the right time, and kind of growing through that. But, you know, I think the biggest thing that I’ve seen in that 20 year span is really just how much audiences have been more fragmented. That creates, creates challenges when you’re trying to reach an audience. But you know, people, you talking about the print and radio and things, I mean, it was pretty easy to get in touch. I mean, yeah, there might have been 10 different magazines, but print was just one medium, you know. And so when the digital age comes on, I mean, you know, you’ve got Google. I mean, Facebook didn’t have advertising platforms when I was, I mean, when I came into this, you know, and then it just continued and continued. But then you have all those magazines becoming digital productions, yeah. And so really, you know what happens is the, I mean, you think back with your cable channel, how many channels you have now? It was a lot simpler 25 years, 30 years ago. And so, you know, for us, you know, talking about tracking and digital, it’s, you know, finding the right you know, how do you find those candidates you’re looking for in your case? But I’ve just the fragmentation, I think, has been, what’s crazy is there’s just so many areas that you know, in your case, a driver, you know, spends their time, you know. And so it’s, you know, up to folks like us to figure out, you know, where’s that right audience, and how do you reach them, and then doing it in an efficient manner, yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 08:14
and that’s a challenge in itself. They’re having to figure that out absolutely. Colin, you’ve only been in a year and a half. Yeah, they’re
Colin Harrison 08:20
speaking kind of a foreign language more than the newspapers and even the television stuff. You know, I kind of came in. We were still doing a little bit of Craig, so we still do a little bit of Craigslist, but just the efficiency of just the digital advertising model and being able to change messages on the fly, you know, within a month, you know, they’re talking about being able to track campaigns, and that being a huge advantage of it. But you know, a company might need, you know, more drivers in the middle of the month. They might need to change their message in the middle of the month. And, you know, with the newspaper ad, at least as far as I’m aware, I’m not an expert in this, obviously, you know, you put that ad out and it runs for a certain run time. It’s in print. You can’t change it once it’s in print. But you know, the beautiful thing about, you know, Google, Facebook, indeed, and just those other job boards, is you can change that message in the middle of the month, and those needs change, you know, in the middle of the month, and you can make those changes on the fly.
Jeremy Kellett 09:11
I tell these recruiters out here once in a while, when I was doing print, I’d be in a truckers connection ad, a one page ad, and the guy would call, you know, the number on the page, and I would answer it, well, you had to sell that guy right then, because you probably wasn’t getting back in touch with him. I mean, you had to really put it on him, back in and figure, you know, because, I mean, there wasn’t any cell phone. You couldn’t call him back. You know, you call his house. We called his house, but he was there, you know, I mean, he’s, you couldn’t call him back, so we had to put the sale on back then, you know, just how it’s grown and how it’s changed over time is amazing. And you know, it’s you guys, though, explain a little bit about how, I mean, you. You know, like a company like ours, we’re specific, you know, on who we’re looking for. I mean, how do you target what ways, without giving up any you know stuff, how do you target some of these owner operators that we’re looking for?
Jeremy May 10:15
Well, I mean, there’s a lot that goes into that. I think one, you know, when you know who you’re looking for and who you are, that makes our job a lot easier, right? Because, I mean, you know, we’re not walking into an unknown, but you know the technologies, I mean, all these digital platforms, there’s so many targeting tools, and to be honest, I mean, 10 years ago, they were too good. There’s been a lot of the tools that we had that made it even easier have been, had been removed, just privacy laws and things like that, but there’s just a lot that goes into it. I mean, there’s everything from the messaging, right? You know, we’re not trying to, I mean, like you said, you’re trying to attract owner operators, but you look for a specific type of owner operator and certain geographical areas. I mean, these are all things that would go into a campaign. So it’s understanding and having good communication with our clients. So, you know, that Speed of Trust, as we’ll talk about, I mean, if you have a job need in a specific market for a specific haul type, you know, we’ve got to make sure that messaging is right. Because we don’t, we’re not trying to track somebody that’s, you know, for dumping that pneumatics, right? I mean, so there’s some of that done just in the messaging and making sure that when, you know, we put an ad in front of, you know, 1000 drivers, if you will, 100,000 doesn’t matter. The number is, does the message resonate with the ones we want to attract? And then obviously, there’s a whole lot that goes into that, you know, through your processing to make sure they’re going to be a good fit from the guidelines and all that. And so
Jeremy Kellett 11:39
I tell them, Well, I just did every Thursday, I talked to them, and I was just down there before we all got here, talking to the six owner operators there. And I tell them, I don’t think you guys understand how hard you are to find. And they look at me like I’m crazy. Like, what do you mean? I’m a truck driver. You know, there’s truck drivers everywhere. Well, no, you are hard to find. And I try to tell them a little bit why. You know, because the specific one we’re after is hard to find, and you have to we have you guys generating all these ads for us out there in the areas that we want, and we’re receiving phone calls all day, every day, trying to weed through them to see who qualifies and who doesn’t, for us. And there’s a lot that goes into that, a lot and expensive, you know, you know, to get on Google and pay for that kind of stuff. It’s not cheap. What’s the biggest marketing mistake trucking companies make as it relates to drivers who want that
Matt Lee 12:43
I can so, you know, I think the biggest mistake that people make is that they over promise and under deliver. You know, a lot of times, through their ads, through their ads, yes, through their ads, through all of their messaging that they have out there. You know, they’re saying one thing when they very well know that’s not accurate, just to get them to call, you know, just to get them on the hook, so to speak, and then, and I’m not saying you guys do you guys did a do a fantastic job with your messaging, and your message is the same when it gets to the recruiter. But there are carriers out there that unfortunately, don’t and they don’t tell the full truth, you know, up front in the ads that they have out there. And then they don’t tell them the truth when they actually get them on the phone, you know, and it’s just over-promising and under-delivering, you know. They say, Well, yeah, we’ll get you home, you know. But that home might mean I’m gonna get you home every month or every two months. I mean, you know, they don’t break that down. And so what happens is that a lot of times, that’s where that turnover, you know, happens. And as an industry, we see that. I mean, that’s a massive issue, you know, that we face is turnover, and a lot of that stems from carriers doing just that. They’re over promising and under delivering. Well, you
Jeremy Kellett 14:02
got a bunch of truck drivers right now shaking their heads, yes. It is. Yes, it is, as we hear that a lot, you know, that they are not to get off on the work history. Then it affects their work history. Then it, you know, makes us look bad when they go to these companies, and I tell them in orientation, look, there’s just as many bad trucking companies out there as there are truck drivers. So you gotta Yeah, you know you want to be able to match and make sure you’re both gonna be successful 100% yes, you have a comment on it? Well, yeah. I
Jeremy May 14:36
mean, I think kind of in the spirit of what Matt said, where you know. So, I mean, the over-promising is a good point, but I think the thing I see that often happens is that, you know, in recruiting, more specifically, they’re just trying to meet not everybody, but I think they’re trying to meet a quota, right? They’re just trying to, you said earlier, they’re hard to find. So when you get a phone call, yeah, I mean, you’re in. And it’s in your blood. You got to sell that guy now. And I think that where companies often go wrong is they don’t really just make a list of what they’re good at, like, what’s their core, what’s their culture? When I walked into a company, when I walked in here the first time, you can learn a lot. I mean, I learned a lot in the parking lot. I can learn a lot when I walk through the door, through the front desk, and you start to learn about those companies and so, and that’s established generally, by the President, the owner, you know, the founder, top down, and how they believe is at the end of the day, that’s how a driver is going to be treated if, but if that ever gets disconnected, that’s when the wheels start flying off the thing. So I think it’s so important that you know, a recruiter or a carrier understands that we’re good at as a carrier, we’re good at these things. You’re not one company’s the best at everything, but no one driver wants everything, right? I think some people you know want to pay. Some people want home time, some people want acceptance and community. What does your company have? And understanding that, and selling to that? And it goes back to the campaign, you know, how do we attract them? It’s getting all that story lined up. You know, if you’re going to promote that you’re one of the top paying companies, then we don’t need to be finding people that have families that want to be at home, right? But if they have families that want to be at home and they need insurance, right? That’s probably not a great fit if they will be an operator, if they’ve put a high value on that company’s insurance. But again, you find both sides of that, because if they’re good business men, if they’re good with a wrench, they can make up, I mean, make a good living as an operator, and then insurance is very affordable, and so it’s really finding a good fit.
Jeremy Kellett 16:44
They got to do their homework. Yeah, they got to do their homework too, you know, to find it. I mean, I tell them that in their calling all the time. Hey, you got to do research on us, just like we’re doing research on you, absolutely, and that, and nowadays, I mean, you can find out a bunch about a company, can’t you? Oh, absolutely,
Colin Harrison 17:03
absolutely. I mean, just with you we were talking earlier about the digital age and having you know so much about who we are, you know, who you are as a company out there, it’s a simple, you know, search away from finding out, you know, everything you know you need to know about a company. And I think about it from the question that we were posing with, kind of the dangers of misleading drivers. You get a driver on the phone, or you advertise to a driver that you’re offering a certain pay scale or home time that you’re really not advertising outside of digital word of mouth, advertising is still a pretty big deal. So now you’ve ticked off that one driver, and now that one driver is going to go out on job boards. Maybe he can go on a message board and he can say, hey, you know, I just talked to so and so. I mean, their ad says they’re offering this much money a year, but that’s all a lie. And now you’ve lost that one driver, and you’ve also lost many more by that one driver going out and spreading the word. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 18:00
I didn’t even think about that. But that is, uh, they’ve got power when it comes to this internet and all the reviews and put things, I mean, put whatever they want to on there absolutely whether it’s true or not, yeah, and that can affect big time. You know, your company. I mean, you back what you said a while ago, Jeremy, you came down here two years ago and visited us, you know, sat down with us, we toured the yard, we had some conversations. You found out who we were. So you know how to advertise for us, and that, you know, I’ve never had any other marketing companies do that, which we say that we have one, I guess we don’t ever use any. We never used any, I mean, but I mean, you guys got to know us so you could, and we want to get to know y’all too because, you know, this has got to work. This deal is not easy. And we want to make sure we put out that right message of who we are, because we got a reputation. And, you know, you just can’t turn it over to an advertising agency, marketing firm, and they’ll put out whatever they want, just to get phone calls. Now, you guys have done a great job helping us dial that into where we’re getting some good phone calls. I appreciate
Matt Lee 19:15
that. I think you know that communication is key, you know, and the fact that we are on a phone call every week, the same day every week, that we know that we’re going to get current updates, we know we’re going to be able to change on the fly. If we’re seeing something goofy, we’re going to change it right then, you know, and that’s and you’re able to do that now absolutely this internet advertising, you’re able to change stuff,
Colin Harrison 19:40
yeah, move budgets around, pause ads, make new ads. I mean, instead of having to wait, you know, in a newspaper for the run date to start, you can start it the next day or that moment. It’s fantastic, well,
Jeremy Kellett 19:53
and for our listeners, a good example was, we’ve got this place in St Louis, and we were needing it. You know, an ad in St Louis looking for some more local guys up there. So, you know, we called Yaw and said, Hey, this is what we’re looking for. And then you change it, and then all of a sudden, we’re getting calls from St Louis. You know, that’s the way it’s supposed to work. That is crazy how that works now. But, I mean,
Matt Lee 20:17
I’d like to put a plug in right quick, all listeners out here in the St Louis area we’re looking for that’s
Jeremy Kellett 20:22
right. That’s right. What about social media? You know, we do some of that. You guys do some of that for us, too. I mean, how is that playing a part in all this world of advertising for truck drivers, whoever,
Matt Lee 20:35
you know, take that. Matt, yeah, I can, you know. I mean, Facebook, as far as getting folks to interact with us, it’s definitely Facebook. Facebook’s still the elephant in a room. I mean, it’s still the one that performs. As far as getting folks to take action, to inquire, to send in a lead form, Facebook would be number one. But if you’re talking about building your culture and talking about being able to have it, I’m a big believer in testimonials. I believe and correct me if I’m wrong, put comments on this podcast. But I think drivers want to hear from drivers. They don’t want to hear from us, you know, because they’ve been told different stories, and so they want to hear from their peers. And so a way to do that is through testimonial videos and having your drivers interact. And YouTube is a great platform to be able to communicate with drivers about what your culture is like. So you mentioned earlier about doing your homework. That is definitely easier to do today, and it’s paramount to the success of your future. You know, as a driver, is to do that research, and so you go out there and look at YouTube and find videos of some of the current drivers that are with those companies and talking about, you know, how long they’ve been there. I always recommend, when we’re working with companies, we get somebody that’s fresh, and we get somebody that’s been there a long time, because they’re each going to have different perspectives, you know. And so as far as social media goes, those two are the big ones. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 22:09
yeah. I mean, it’s, it works great for us, and Annabelle does a good job on our social media with especially with the TikTok and the testimonials, just like she goes out every week and about every day and tries to get a testimonial from a driver, you know? And those, and, I mean, that’s what they want to hear, yeah, you know, we do podcasts on our owner operators and talk about the success that they’ve had. They want to hear that stuff. And it’s not made up, you know, it’s true. So, yeah, though those do work really well, absolutely. Yeah, well, you just got to stay ahead of it if you’re going to talk
Matt Lee 22:43
about TikTok. Let’s get Colin involved. On that. He does a dance every Tuesday, I think on
Colin Harrison 22:48
there, yeah, for the whole office, I’ve actually, man, I missed the TikTok train. Instagram reels is the train that I hopped on. And unfortunately, the Instagram algorithm is a bit behind TikTok, so I’m about three or four months behind what’s popular on TikTok right now. I’m kind of out of touch with my generation, I think so I need to do a better job. Hop on that TikTok
Jeremy Kellett 23:09
train. What’s next, though, TikTok? I mean, we, I know us three all said here and two years ago, TikTok. What is that we’re not Trucking is not going to get on TikTok. And now, I mean,
Colin Harrison 23:25
They’re trucker influencers on TikTok. I mean, I don’t know much about them. I just know of a couple of folks in my circle who are aware of those influencers, and they, I mean, they’re posting their day to day routine, and it’s going live for whoever to see. And I mean, that’s really just kind of shown folks what the day in the life of a trucker is, at least in that sphere. Yeah. I mean, it’s instant.
Jeremy Kellett 23:47
Now it is instant. Yes, it is, you know, the YouTube we talked about a little bit, but have you ever seen that going away? No,
Jeremy May 23:57
I’m it to that point I made earlier about audiences being fragmented. I mean, and the channels on your cable. I mean, everybody can create their own channel now. And you know, 15 years ago when, and I say 15, give or take, but when Google bought YouTube, I remember we used to have a rule of thumb when it came to getting into SEO. Getting a little off topic here, but the rule was, if you want somebody to read it, don’t put an image on it. On your website. If you want somebody to see it, don’t put a video on it, because that was just where we’re going to go. Our attention spans. We would rather consume the video. We’d rather consume the picture than reading it, and so, but you had to kind of understand what the goal was, and so video is not going to go away. But what’s happened is we’ve gotten more fragmented. We want to consume more content. And so what you’ve seen is, and really, Twitter X kind of shortens our attention spans, right? I mean, Facebook, you could post a dialog on it, and Twitter, you had so many characters, well, you. TikTok. YouTube was kind of the same way. Originally, it was just put a video out there, and you’d have 30 minute videos. Well, TikTok, I mean, you bet I’ll get to the point. Get, you know, get make it. So is it? Is
Jeremy Kellett 25:11
this Mike, and is all dumber?
Matt Lee 25:15
I mean, I don’t know. I’m gonna take the fifth on that.
Jeremy Kellett 25:21
Oh, a, you know, it’s just making us more the microwave generation of gotta have it now, you know, now instant gratification. That’s it. Colin,
Jeremy May 25:31
Yeah, thank you. Here’s what I can tell you, I don’t feel like going down a rabbit hole on TikTok or YouTube shorts or anything like that. I don’t feel like when I’m done when I put the phone down because I’m usually doing it from my phone. I don’t feel any smarter. Yeah, true. So maybe we are, I don’t know. Yeah, the jury’s still out. Yeah, yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 25:47
Well, I’ve learned all kinds of things from YouTube. Simple,
Matt Lee 25:52
Hey, it has it. It has its
Jeremy Kellett 25:53
place. It does. It ‘s the only social media I’m on. If I do YouTube videos, you know, for whether it’s fishing, how to tie a fishing knot, or whether it’s how to fix something at the house. You know, that’s what I do, that’s absolutely. But I have caught myself going in those shorts. Thank you, Annabelle and I’m like, What? What am I doing? You know, there’s one after another. And I’m like, What is this? And
Colin Harrison 26:18
you could find yourself like an hour or two into just scrolling through those shorts, and you won’t even realize it. I mean, you’ve gone through hundreds of videos, and then all of a sudden, it’s 1030 at night, and you wonder where the last two hours is
Jeremy Kellett 26:30
a dang devil. Yeah, all right, let’s think about truck drivers listening to this, okay, and they’re wondering how did, why did this ad pop up on my phone? Why is this ad on my Facebook page? What you know, can you tell a truck driver how that happens in a sort of bad way? Yeah, I’d
Jeremy May 26:53
probably take that one that’s gonna be more my area here. Well, I think one, it’s gonna matter on the platform. So something like Google. There’s really a couple big components of Google, YouTube being one, but when you’re just doing a Google search, if you will, that’s going to be more of an intent driven type ad. They’re actually searching for some sort of solution, or they’re looking for Oakley. And so those ads are going to show up that one. They’re probably not asking how that showed up. But it’s important to know that if you did that on Google, and you have a Gmail account and you’re logged in, well, you’ve essentially given Google information about who you are and what you’re looking for. And so Google Display would be another product on Google, and that’s going to be more like Facebook now, Facebook obviously people getting into their feed and scrolling, but sometimes you’re just on a random website, and, you know, well, I was just talking about that. Now those ads follow me around. Well, that may be because your device that you looked at was pixel at a pixel set when you went to that website of that company, or you just told Google you’re looking for something. And so when that’s happening, you’re now being built into what we call a lookalike audience, or a targeted intent audience, or something of the likes. And so that just puts you into an audience type that we would utilize as a marketer to put an ad in front of you because we think that there’s interest there. Or Google sometimes, you know, Google’s just saying, Well, we’re going to put the ad in front of them because we know they’ve done these other searches. So that’s an example of it. But you know, a lot of companies will have on their own websites, they’ll have pixels set where, if you visit it, they know that you visited that
Jeremy Kellett 28:30
website, that page. What’s a pixel set? You mean? What do you tell
Jeremy May 28:34
so it’s just that’s put into the website so that when a device, whether it’s your computer, your tablet, your phone, visits that Web site or web page, then it’s just whatever that action sets that the pixels are like cookies. Sometimes you cook your machine, so that’s that’s being set on that device, and so that that particular website. So if it’s, you know, Bruce Oakley website, and you go to that site, well, if it’s on a page on careers or owner operators or opportunities like that, you could that pixel set follow them around, you know, put an ad back in front of them, because, you know, they came to that website, but maybe they didn’t take the action you want. And so that’s a way to target these folks. But, you know, on Facebook, it’s very, you know, it’s comparable, and this is with any ad platform, but it may be that you’ve joined certain company pages, or you’ve visited just within Facebook itself, you’re searching for something there, and those are all flags to Facebook and their algorithms that allow us to go and target people that we’re looking for. Now, it’s very broad targeting, but yeah, you know, it’s a numbers game a lot of times in marketing. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 29:42
it sure is, I mean, but you guys got it figured out. I know that when it comes to that, I mean being able to target people so, you know, and produce good phone calls for us, or good leads in general for us. You know, knowing what. Be one helps, yeah,
Matt Lee 30:01
and I think there’s a couple of different ways to target that’s one, the digital you know side of it, so you know, your footprint basically, whatever sites that you’re going to visit, or you know, whatever you’re doing on your phone is going to generate ads that are going to pop up for you based on what you like, what you what sites you visit, things like that? That’s that you’re going to create a profile, a digital profile, if you will.
Jeremy Kellett 30:24
All right, so hang on. Let me stop you right there. So here’s the question that nobody’s answered. This is really probably for my wife. Can the phone hear me? Because everybody’s had a conversation, and then all of a sudden, this ad pops up. These phones got to be listening to us. Y’all act like, you know, and you don’t want to tell anybody. Well,
Jeremy May 30:46
it gets complicated, but it’s complicated, but it’s big data. So big data has been the story the whole time. What we don’t realize is how many signals that we actually send that phone like so and I said, I was talking to tar President Garrett the other day. I said, “Have you ever had an Apple iPhone? I said, Have you ever, honestly, Garrett? Have you ever just read the whole Terms and Conditions policy when you get an update on your iPhone and he’s like, No. And I said, me either. I said, and nor am I ever going to, because if I don’t like it, I can’t change it. I’m so hooked on that phone. But what we don’t realize is that every app that we’ve downloaded that we’ve probably accepted their terms and so what’s happened is your Facebook and Googles are these big ad platforms, because that’s really what they are. Those companies generate ad revenue. I mean, they and so they have, I mean, 1000s of points of information on us that we don’t realize that we’re sending it. And so they have so much data about where we’re at that when we walk into, you know, we walk into a shopping mall that our phones are pinging cell phone towers. That’s information to them. That’s location information. So we, you know, we, you go to a truck stop and get a fueling station. They, if they got Wi Fi, that phone’s pinging something that lets us know we are you. That’s information guys like us are going to utilize, because I’m not going to try to run your ad at the Super Bowl, you know, unless you’re, you know, yeah, selling something athletes or somebody likes the sport, you know, and so, so there’s that’s, you just gotta tell your wife that she’s told the world a lot more about her than she knows it real life, because it’s everything from what you’ve engaged with and, like, it’s your friend’s comments. And, I mean, at this point, you know, AI has been the big buzz word for the last couple of years. You know, so large language models, LLM it, it’s, it’s crawling content, and it’s consuming all those reviews that are on those Googles and indeed, websites, all that is information that’s out there. And she left a review at a restaurant, good or bad. You know, they know something about her. She likes that kind of food, or she doesn’t like that kind of food or that kind of service. And so it’s all data points, and these companies have, I mean, I don’t know you don’t you’re not really so much in the construction business. But if you look at a lot of the construction happening in America right now, it’s intense. The infrastructure that’s being built for data systems, really, that’s to store all that data they know about us. So that’s really what it comes down to. It’s just an information agent. Why? I
Jeremy Kellett 33:18
guess just a sale.
Matt Lee 33:20
It’s all about the dollar. That’s what it is, all about the dollar. And we’re always, I’m always amazed, too, of how we’re able to put geo fences around locations, yeah, specific locations, you know, explain that to our listeners. So, you know, if you are at a specific location, you know, let’s just say mats, because it’s coming up, yeah, you know. And you’re out there walking the floor there in Louisville, and you’re scrolling through your social media, or, you know, open up ESPN, or whatever. You might very well see an ad from somebody who has a booth at Oakley in mats Oakley, and it says, come visit us at booth 1807, you know, we’re getting it for a free chance to win an iPad or whatever. You know, the message is, but that’s based on you being there. And so we can, we, we do have the ability now to target folks that are in specific locations, which is which, I think is good, because it is a recipient of that. And let’s just say I’m at one of the ports, and I’m not currently happy with where I am, you know, as far as the company that I’m with, and you’ve been kind of hearing about Oakley, you know, and you’ve listened to a few of their podcasts, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to have that easy button that you could just click and come in and visit us, you know, on a website. So I think that it has, I think it has value for sure, yeah, yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 34:50
yeah. So you can get down to a location, like a one mile location, one mile
Matt Lee 34:55
location, yes,
Jeremy Kellett 34:56
where you think all is called, I don’t know. I mean, you don’t know. Anything else, do you know? I mean,
Colin Harrison 35:01
This is what I grew up in. This is all normal to me. You guys are, you know, talking about something that I’ve been around my entire life? I’m like, Yeah, for sure. Yeah. They know everything about me. They don’t worry I’m at all times, and they don’t bother you. Get used to it, you know, just learn to live with it. I guess there’s, I guess, in the sense that it can be negative to it? For sure, if you value, you know, your personal privacy, yeah, I guess. But you know, the positive side to it, kind of, as Matt was mentioning it, it caters to, you know, our needs based on what we’re interested in. So in a way, it makes, you know, our user experience, whether we’re shopping or, you know, looking for a new job, anything of that nature. It makes it easier, because it caters those, you know, the things that we’re interested in, you know, caters in there to us. There’s no
Jeremy Kellett 35:46
getting rid of it. We can’t go, we can’t erase it. They’re gathering this information, and we can’t stop them. I say them. I mean, I don’t, you know, oh,
Matt Lee 35:57
it is them.
Jeremy Kellett 36:00
But touch on. But before we get too far, 40 minutes, we gotta go here in a minute. But what about you? Ai, I mean, that’s what’s happening. I was in a Zoom meeting the other day, or team meeting, and they had on the screen up there a. It’s like a person, but evidently, AI is recording the whole meeting, and then it can break it down for them. And I don’t know what it can do. I mean, what is this? Are y’all using this stuff now, and what’s it looking like in the future?
Jeremy May 36:41
Yeah, well, the future is coming fast. I can tell you that it’s used. Yeah, I think it’s used. Every organization is using it daily, and lot of different applications, like you said, recording, you know, a conference call or a phone call even, I mean, that’s, you know, and talk about recruiting, using these to record calls and give analysis on it. It’s the speed in which it can operate is incredible. You know, people are using it to, you know, produce content, right, writing scripts for podcast shows. There’s just so many applications. It’s writing code. I mean, you could, I mean, jump in and have it write formulas for you to, you know, or algorithms. I mean it literally the possibilities. It’s just it’s moving so fast, every iteration of it, it’s here to stay. But I think, you know, it’s the spirit of technology. I mean, just kind of where we started this conversation, in the beginning of marketing. I mean, you know, radios and TVs were technological at one point, you know, and they made conveniences and they were distractions. And, you know, I think that the there’s a greater good and bad used with it. But from our standpoint, you know, I think it’s going to produce a lot of efficiency and productivity improvements in just corporate work life. But here’s what it’s not going to replace. It’s not gonna replace that driver. Yeah, we can talk about cameras and all the things that go into, you know, driverless trucks and things like that. But I can tell you right now, I want somebody I’m not getting on a plane that don’t have a pilot, yeah, right, getting on road without a driver. I mean, I’m just telling you, I just, I don’t see it changing that. I mean, I think that we will have, you know, I mean every I mean new vehicles now. I mean, they’ll drive for you. There’s assistance there, and I think that’s where the technology is. It’s there in ways that improve everyday life for us, whether it’s work play,
Jeremy Kellett 38:25
yeah, I mean, that’s a good explanation, and kind of so I can realize what it’s going to do. I mean, it’s here that’s going to happen, and technology is we have to use it to the best of our ability, you know, for what our purpose is, and our purpose is to find some good owner operators assemblies on it. Oakley, and you guys helped me do a great job with that, and I sure appreciate it a whole lot, because you listen to us and you understand what we’re, what specific things we’re looking for in owner operators. And it makes it so much better when that’s narrowed down, when we get that lead, then we’re able to keep it going. So good information, great information. Anything else y’all like to add on? Might not have covered everything, but is there anything y’all had on your mind that you wanted to sure enough get out there? I
Matt Lee 39:14
would just, you know, when you are looking for a new job, new career path, whether you’re looking for, you know, an owner, operator, company, driver, whatever it is, do your homework. You know, there are so many opportunities now for you to get online, to listen to what the other drivers are saying about that company. Read reviews. Just don’t get in a hurry, you know, this, this is for longevity, you know. And I think that a lot of times people are in such a hurry, that’s where that turnover happens within that first 90 days, you know, I would just challenge each and every one of you out there listening to take your time. Do the homework. Talk to other people. Find folks at the fuel Island. Talk to them. You know, before you make that move, because they’re going to tell you
Jeremy Kellett 40:10
the truth, Yep, yeah. And there’s just so many avenues now to find out, to do your homework, to find out about companies. You have all this information. You just got a way through it, whether it’s right or wrong, you know, whether it’s true or not. I guess a lot of that stuff. But I’ll tell you a big deal is this podcast right here that we do every week. It touches a lot of truck drivers, and it has helped us tremendously in recruiting and retention. It’s given us that gap we used to have to communicate with our drivers and tell them some things and to help them and try to be successful. And this thing has been a challenge, you know, to do it, but, man, it’s, it has been by far, one of the best advertising retention tools we’ve ever used.
Jeremy May 40:59
You know, what I see about it when I look at that, we’re talking about technology and all these things, you put the human element back into it. That’s why I think it’s so successful. Because, I mean, at the end of the day, it’s that interaction. I mean, yes, you’re educating them. You’re, I mean, you do a great job of bringing in your drivers, but you bring in suppliers, people that you know, that they could buy services and products from. I mean, there’s just so many things that educate them. And so it’s not, it’s, I don’t think it’s just entertainment value. I think the X factor there is that you’ve put the human element back into it. I think that’s so key. Because, I mean, in this world of fast changing technology, we can’t lose that human touch. I don’t care what we do, you know? And I was gonna say one thing I want, I mean, to the drivers. I mean, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for taking the job. It’s not always easy. It’s hard, but I mean, I mean, we’re right at, we were talking at one of my meetings, I think this morning, about we’re right at the five year market COVID. I mean, I still remember when COVID shut down. I mean, we drivers, I think at that moment, got the respect and recognition that they’ve always deserved. We were talking about them as heroes, yeah. I mean, as a group, when we became so dependent on, as a society, on everything, and the trucks slowed down for a little bit, you know, and that we’re still living in that world. So I just, I don’t want to say thank you, yeah. And I think Matt still got toilet paper,
Matt Lee 42:21
That’s right, yeah, please don’t give out my address.
Jeremy Kellett 42:26
Alright, guys, hey, I appreciate y’all doing this for it’s always good to see y’all. Appreciate you driving down from Missouri and hanging out with us a little bit, doing this podcast. And I think it’s going to help people. I really do it because you’re going to educate, educate me, you know, just to learn a little bit more about it. So great stuff. As always, I appreciate you guys listening to the Oakley podcast. Every week. We got a new one. Comes out every Wednesday. A lot of stuff going on. If you got suggestions, if you have questions about this one comment, call me, email me, and I’ll get the question to these guys and they’ll answer it for you. Don’t mind doing that a bit. So as always, let us know if you got something that we can do a podcast on. Be glad to research it and see if we can get some information out there too. So thanks again. We’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode with Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate or review the show in the podcast platform of your choice and share it with a friend. We love hearing from our audience. So if you’ve got a question comment or just want to say hello, head over to our website, the Oakley podcast.com and click the leave a comment button. We’ll get you a response soon, and may even share some of the best ones here on the show. We’ll be back with a fresh episode very soon. Thanks for listening.