[Voiceover]: Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous guests of Add to Cart, where we ask them five quick questions to understand more about them and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday. Today's checkout features Michael Beveridge, creative extraordinaire for brands including Koala, Bailey, Nelson, and Good Pear Days. There's no doubt that you would have seen some of Michael's work, such as the koala billboards that were placed right outside ikea, the Clive Palmer ripoff ads, and Ian Huey Hewitson sexpo commercial. This is the world we're going into. All right, Michael Beveridge, welcome to the checkout. We're going to learn more about you and I can't wait. All right, number one, what is the weirdest thing you've ever bought online?
Michael Beveridge: I saw Love Honey. We're having like a 70% off sale and God, I hope my partner doesn't listen to this, but I bought a king sized vinyl sheet.
[Voiceover]: Wow.
Michael Beveridge: Just to lay down on your. On the. On the. On the root rack. So you don't get it all. I got nice sheets, you know, so it was like. Yeah, I can't believe I just said that. Jesus. Why don't you make up that I went to Wish or something and go with like a weird.
[Voiceover]: You'll be surprised. That's the second Love Honey reference in a row on this podcast, mate.
Michael Beveridge: Love Honey do. Well, they've got. Their CRM is fantastic.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, absolutely. Why aren't Koala selling those mattresses or those sheets?
Michael Beveridge: Well, you can. We've actually got zippable removable covers.
[Voiceover]: There you go.
Michael Beveridge: So if you get them dirty a little bit, just chuck them in the wash and you'd be good. I didn't say anything. You made it up in your head what that was.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, I thought it was like a mosquito or something.
Michael Beveridge: Yeah, slap it Sweaty is all I really have to offer. All right, question two. What do we got?
[Voiceover]: Who's your favorite retailer?
Michael Beveridge: My favorite retailer. Oh. It's really dumb and basic, but I get great joy out of doing my Adore beauty order. I think the simple, the simplicity of the Tim Tam is just like. You know what I mean? Like, I get a. Like. Like that's a chemical reaction every time I get it. So, like, there's something science a Dr. Carr would be like. That's right, Michael. Yeah, I enjoy a Adore beauty order, but I also really love skincare, so maybe that's why.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, beautiful. They're doing so well. They just launched their loyalty club too. So maybe more coming your way.
Michael Beveridge: I want the whole box. Chuck a big box in there. That'd be like a 1 in 100. That'd be such a treat.
[Voiceover]: The Willy Wonka effect. I like it.
Michael Beveridge: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: Number three, which retail fad do you wish was history?
Michael Beveridge: Buy now, pay later for items under $50. I just think it clogs up. Look, I don't want to gatekeep people buying stuff, but it just seems like, like buy now, pay later is so great for like my sister. My sister's dog ripped out its toenail and she's 21, she didn't have enough money and they had zip pay at the vet. And I'm like, that's what it's for. Yes, I know I've paid for heaps of stuff. My love honey order was done on afterpay. But like, I think there's a propensity for community just to get into credit. And I know, I don't think that's a net good, but it should be available for nrma, should be roadside assist, like for vets, for doctors, for insurance, for. Wait, no, you do spread that payment across. That's fine. Like, yeah, you know, things that matter that are going to stress someone out.
[Voiceover]: So you're worried about it more from an ethical perspective.
Michael Beveridge: I just think, you know, and like, look, I'm not educated enough on this to speak confidently, but I just think the idea of lots of people getting in debt. So I have a mantra is. My mantra is if I don't have the money, I can't get it. But that's what I do. And I use afterpay sometimes when I know I have the money. But this will take all my money and I get paid in a week, so it'll be fine in a week. So that's fine. But I think from a cultural like foundational standpoint, I think this will put in kids heads. Like I know that banks will be like, oh, so you've mastered afterpay. Why don't you master Commonwealth Bank's new everyday rewards card? Like, like we've got like Afterpay is limited 1500. We've got a massive $5000. So you can get the stuff you really want without anybody saying no. And it's just like, what? No, no, they can't afford it, so. And because it's a gradual incline, like going from no credit to a $5,000 loan to get up a Datsun 180B, that's a scary choice. But when you've like been on credit for a Long time, I think. And we're in an uncertain economy. I just think, you know, save up
[Voiceover]: and buy now, pay later is still really young. Right. So what it is now is only it's not going to even represent what it is in 10 years time.
Michael Beveridge: Yeah, we still haven't seen what, what PayPal like what they're going to do because, I mean. Yeah.
[Voiceover]: All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should get into?
Michael Beveridge: I. I've got Scribd and what I do is I go to Every Scribd free 30 day trial and then I just change to my girlfriend's phone number and then to my mom's phone number and I've just had it free for like five months. But I've been listening to a lot of productivity apps, so if you're someone who can't get things done, there's a book and I can't find. It's called like eating your frog or something. Okay, do you know which one it is? Hold on, I'll look in my scribd and I'll tell you what it is.
[Voiceover]: So what's scribd? Is that like, does it shorten books or something? What's.
Michael Beveridge: No, it's just audible.
[Voiceover]: Just audible. Okay, cool.
Michael Beveridge: Audible. But books. Yeah, it's Spotify, actually. No one that I've been listening to at the moment that I really enjoy is called Lead and disrupt because I'm sort of expanding upon my leadership role at work now. But a lot of leadership literature is based around being a leader. But when you're a creative director, you need to be disruptive. So you've got to have a disruptive leadership style which has the key tenets of like, empathy and caring and all that, but also like, let's fuck it up. Like, yeah, we're not managing accountants here. We're managing people that need to feel like, comfortable asking for 30 grand to do, you know, 10 foot sculpture of some sunnies or something.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, cool. Cool.
Michael Beveridge: Awesome.
[Voiceover]: I love that because I really fight against corporate leadership. Corporate management training that is disguised as leadership because they're very different things. And I think sometimes we take the goodness out of people's natural leadership styles. So I love hearing that.
Michael Beveridge: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: Number five, finish this sentence. The future of retail is quicker.
Michael Beveridge: It's on TikTok. It's VOP, it's. It's One Touch checkout, it's Face ID checkout. It's Shopify. I don't know, like, it's. Yeah, it's limiting it's not going to be add to cart anymore, bro. It's going to be bought it already. I think. I know if you didn't think, bro. Scale, scale, scale, scale. Yeah, I just think it's going to be quicker.
[Voiceover]: Cool. Michael, you are an absolute legend. Thank you for joining us.
Michael Beveridge: Thank you very much, my dude.
[Voiceover]: To hear more from Michael, jump back into episode seven where Michael shares his approach to getting creative in performance advertising, how to bring creativity in house. And perhaps this was directed at me. How to avoid middle aged bitterness. It's not fair. I mean I'm down with a TikTok. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep adding to cart.
