Amid the rising popularity of mass torts, Camp LeJeune’s Water Contamination Lawsuit has caught the attention of many law firms and, most recently, big corporations. In fact, it seems that Wall Street is more invested in the entire mass tort operation than lawyers themselves. Why is that?
After attending the Women En Mass and Mass Torts Made Perfect (MTMP) conferences this fall, Grace and Liel reflect on mass torts and the importance of putting people first. While mass torts are the perfect opportunity to promote your law firm and increase your caseload, it’s also an opportunity to get to know your clients and keep open communication.
Audio ads as a marketing strategy are gaining traction, and seizing every chance to make your brand known is more important than ever. The episode explores new updates coming to Google ads, including audio ads, that will open your law firm to a wider market and audience.
Resources mentioned in our episode:
- Get started with Google’s audio ads
- Amazon Alexa lawsuit
- Camp LeJeune mass tort updates
- Women En Mass 2022
- Mass Torts Made Perfect 2022
Let us know that you enjoy the show by subscribing and leaving us a review! Don’t forget to send us your questions and comments at ask@incamerapodcast.com.
Transcript
Liel: [00:00:00] The number of ad dollars that have been invested in trying to reach the 1 million individuals that could potentially qualify for accomplishment. Settlement is rumored to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. True or not true? One thing is for sure this mass tort is said to break any previous record in ad spend for mass tort. I’m Liel Levy, co-founder of Nanato Media and author of Beyond Se Habla Español How Lawyers Win the Hispanic Market. And this is In-camera podcast, where we care about public opinion on mass torts. Welcome to in camera podcast, Private Legal Marketing Conversations. Grace Welcome back. How are you today? Good.
Grace: [00:01:05] How are you? Liel?
Liel: [00:01:07] Great. Grace I’m happy. I’ve been really looking forward to our next conversation because now that we only talk once every couple of weeks to record the episode, a lot of things accumulate. And so, you know, I really have that feeling of wanting to come and share and talk and constantly thinking in my mind, what would Grace think about this or what would you say about that? Right? So I’m building all of this expectation. And so hopefully our listeners are doing too as well. Now that we’ve changed our frequency.
Grace: [00:01:37] I agree completely. I think we have more to talk about.
Liel: [00:01:42] Yes. Grace So just for a little bit of context, because when we’ll be publishing these, some things may have already happened. So we’re right around the end of October and we’ve already been to a few conferences, some of them for mass torts, some of them for the business of law. Some other things have happened in between, right, in the digital marketing space, in the tech space. So hopefully we’re going to cover on quite a few of those things. But yeah, there’s a lot to cover in here. So Grace, I’m going to I think really the central part of the conversation is going to go around mass torts because on our previous a couple of episodes ago, we started going through some news and updates. Right? And really you started talking about Roundup, which was the least expected mass tort that I was imagining I would ever hear of. This fall already took kind of like a quarter of the episode last last time we talk about mass torts and so we have so many others to go through. And so we’ll try to go through at least a couple of those, the ones that are building most expectations. But first, before we get into that, I’d like to share with you some updates here that I’ve been seeing in news that relate to particularly Google ads. And one that really excites me a lot is the move that Google recently announced in making audio ads available to all advertisers. And I know this may sound a little bit weird because you may be thinking like most of people would. Which platform will audio ads play in Google? And the answer is YouTube. And here’s the thing that a lot of people still don’t understand. I am very well aware about it because we’ve done a lot of research on that. But maybe the average user doesn’t necessarily think about this. User use of Grace is the second most used application or platform, if you may, to listen to podcasts. Did you know that?
Grace: [00:03:45] I did not know that, right?
Liel: [00:03:47] So you would think that Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you know, those would be the top two platforms used for streaming podcasts. But as a matter of fact, YouTube is the second one, so it will be interesting to see which one is the most maybe Apple Podcasts, maybe Spotify. But the bottom line is that one of them is not on the top two and YouTube is actually one of those. So that’s one thing. There’s a lot of people that are using YouTube to listen to podcasts, and this means that they’re not looking or watching the video, they’re just streaming the audio. And so when you have that type of content playing, Google will allow you to run ads that are also primarily focused on the audio component of things. And so this means that on the screen there is not going to be any video. There will be some graphics, still kind of like a placeholder if you make race that’s going to be showing up. But the purpose here and what the user profile is going to be is going to be one that is not watching the video, but they’re actually listening only to what is being played. And here is the other thing and where I find it extremely, extremely relevant, particularly for the type of marketing campaigns that we run, is that it is also going to be targeting users that are using the platform for playing music. So meaning that they are playing the music, they’re streaming music basically through YouTube, but they’re not watching the actual video of it. And you can actually target users based on the different genres of music that they are listening to. So that’s amazing. Plus, you can also do many other types of segmentations that are very common on YouTube, so that’s extremely powerful. What do you think?
Grace: [00:05:35] Powerful? Yeah. I mean, when I think of these things, I think about my own use of YouTube and I’m constantly playing YouTube music out of my Google Home app, my Google home devices all over the house that I have. So this to me seems like, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s not revolutionary per se, but it is to me. You know, I think that this would be great to be able to throw. And some voice adds, because, I mean, you have a captive audience.
Liel: [00:06:03] 100%, 100% Grace. I think this is super, super massive move. And again, it’s kind of like a good reminder that audio marketing is extremely relevant and you should certainly need to be leveraging it. And the other part is podcasts as well. How many people are not spending hours every week listening to a couple, maybe two or three shows that they like on podcast and the ability of actually capturing the audience. This audience that many times can also be very, very highly targeted to particular individuals to really be able to show and be present with your brand during those moments. I think it’s super, super, super powerful. Now here are a few things, though. I find it a little bit limiting, but I think it’s still a great start. So the first thing that YouTube is setting up, kind of like as the rules for being able to run audio ads is that your creative needs to be 15 seconds long. So no, no longer than that. And so what is the challenge there is that a lot of people that would think, well, I would like to repurpose my radio spots for running them in YouTube. Unless you have actual 15 second cuts, you will have to edit your content for it to fit within 15 seconds and 15 seconds is really not that much. So yeah, that is, you know, not a great plug and play from the standpoint of like repurposing your, your existing content, but a great opportunity just to get creative with it. And you know that I love everything that has to do with sonic branding. This is a great case point for using jingles, right? 15 second tagline jingles you can throw in there your name. What do you do as a firm and your phone number? Excellent. Right. So I think it’s you know, it’s it’s an amazing channel and a great opportunity to further expand into other types of creative assets to continue building your brand.
Grace: [00:08:07] I agree completely. I mean, I love it. I love the idea of, you know, I love jingles and things like that. So when it comes to that type of audio clips and even I never mentioned to a very many people on here, but I’ll tell everybody, you know, I used to be a radio station promotions director, so and the deejay. So when it comes to music and audio, I love it. Anything that is pithy and quick and, you know, that’s why I’ve always liked to talk. So this 15 second, I mean, to me, it just gives people an opportunity to catch the attention, even though it’s short.
Liel: [00:08:45] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, and this is just kind of like one way to do a type of oil marketing. There’s many other ways to do. I like to use the example of four for one one pain, right? Because they’ve really taken it to, to a whole level. They, they are really launching songs every, every month that are basically run as one minute radio commercials. But they’re actually full songs that they’re that are putting out there and they’re extremely relevant and catchy for the audience that they’re targeting. So yeah, I definitely think that this is kind of a very untapped type of marketing still for law firms. And so by Google allowing now audio ads in YouTube, you’re definitely opening up yourself to a whole new market and audience that you may have not necessarily been able to reach or have the frequency of touch points like you like you may be able to do now. So Grace moving on with more news and updates from Google. And in this case, we are back at Google Arts. And here’s the thing. I think you probably have already noticed this Grace when you search on your mobile device, when you see the actual ads, they start to look very different. Right. So there is a few things here that Google is changing in the way that it’s presenting, like literally the display of the ad on the search results page. Let’s go through some of the of the changes. So the first thing is that the name of the business is going to be the most visual element now on the ad itself.
Liel: [00:10:23] And you can see here I’m showing my screen grades. You can see that the actual name of the brand is there highlighted with an icon to the site, like a very prominent it’s basically the fab icon of the of the brand. And right under it it has the domain the URL. Right. And so it’s very different if you think about it to the way that the organic search results show. So whether this is Google responding back to, you know, criticism that the ads and the organic search results were very much identical in the way that they were noticed by the or experienced by the user or whether this is just Google trying to increase click through rate by giving users a better ad experience and showcasing more important information for them. It’s up for debate, right? It really depends from which angle you want to look at things personally. Grace I do like this move right here is what maybe some advertisers will not like. It’s the sponsored word that comes right above the brand before, if you remember. And it still if you complete some search queries on your on your mobile device, you may still see the older versions still show up. Right. This is something that is an ongoing rollout. But before it used to be towards AD and it was very discreet. Right. Like not to be kind of like to the side of the headline. Now it’s really, you know, the word sponsored in bold right above the name of the brand. So it’s harder not to understand that this is actually a paid ad.
Grace: [00:12:05] Yeah, I definitely noticed that. I have seen that. That definitely it looks more like an ad like you’re saying, right? It definitely separates the two between organic and now something that’s been paid. You know, I’m not sure yet how I feel about it. You know, I kind of like that they’re telling me that it’s an ad, you know what I mean? That I can see the difference as a user, as a consumer, obviously, as a business, it does make things a little bit harder at times because now it’s this huge sponsored link thing next to your ad, whereas before it seemed like it was part of the search results. So we’ll see, I guess, right, how it will affect the ads and. Yeah, from there. But I personally think it’s good, right? I mean, in the end you really want the users to truly understand what they’re looking at, whether it’s an ad or if it’s an organic search result that got up there for that reason.
Liel: [00:13:04] I totally agree with you, Grace. With regards to that, it makes it easier for the user to just understand what is it that they have in front of them. Now, from a strategic standpoint, I love this because I’m a big believer in brands. I like when we are competing against brands and not against just generic lead generation companies. And I feel this is a great differentiator for those law firms that actually have a brand that are actually marketing in multiple channels, that they will be more easily identifiable on the ads section of the search results page, then all other advertisers that do not have the brand recognition, because now you have an image which hopefully your fab icon, your logo is also recognizable for people in your market. They have a very clear brand name showing up right at the top of the ad. And I think this is fantastic because it really allows you as a user to to distinguish between, okay, this is these are legitimate brands that I see every single day in TV. I hear on the radio, I see on the billboards when I’m driving to and from work. And I also see them here on the search results page. And further down I see them on the organic search results and I also see them on the local pack. It’s just a very, very, very great way of just kind of like, boom, this is the brand to go for. I think it will certainly work in increasing CTR for brands that are well positioned and it will not have that effect for brands that are not well positioned. And it’s as simple as that.
Liel: [00:14:48] I think if you are a lead generation company, this will drop and decrease your CTR. And I also think that for brands that have not necessarily done a great job at growing and expanding and going after other channels of marketing, this is not necessarily going to play to their advantage because now they are not going to be as recognized as other brands. Kind of like before, it was more as it was more kind of like all anonymous brands, right? It was all text. But now with the image, now with the name of the brand showing more prominently, I think you are creating a very easy map for people to to distinguish and just to find to finalize this one like the sponsored thing. Grace I think also at this point, we are really dealing with a very, very small number of users that no longer know or they’re unaware that the top section of the search results page then tends to be reserved for advertisers. So if someone is not going to interact with ads, no matter whether the word sponsor or ad is there or not, or how big it is or how small it is, I think they will keep through it disregarding and those users who are open or they do not care, I think, you know, they’re just going to have. Clearer information to decide whether one of these hats makes sense to them. They want to go off. They want to give it an opportunity or they want to continue scrolling. So I don’t necessarily think the sponsored word is going to be that much of a of a setback for advertisers.
Grace: [00:16:28] No, that makes sense. I really do like your perspective because it’s true. I mean, we do. There’s not that many people that don’t know that the top shows are your ads. Right. So from the brand branding perspective and the our perspective, yours too. Right. Where it’s all these gen companies. I do like that. I do like that. That you’re framing it in that way. And it makes it a lot easier for brands to stand out, whereas things were just kind of getting muddled in all the listings. So you’re paying for premium position. You want people to know that you’re paying for premium position. So there it is, giving you a premium position.
Liel: [00:17:07] Yeah. And be able to showcase yourself with with more in a more distinguished way. Right. Because I’m not like before that there have been image extensions already available that would allow you also to further showcase your brand. But the bottom line is that we’re impressed with the extensions, which by the way, they are getting renamed assets. That’s another thing that has recently changed is that you don’t get to decide when those ads show up or not, whereas in here you’re going to have that consistency of being able to showcase your brand to your logo right next to your ad every single time that your ad gets an impression. And I think that’s valuable. So Grace. I have one last one last piece of information here that I want to share, and it’s not really that specific for the legal marketing space, but it’s just interesting, you know, from from from the privacy and digital world in which we live to see how these things ends up playing out. So here is the thing. There are some users that are Amazon Alexa users that are initiating a lawsuit somewhere. I think it’s Massachusetts. Yes. So they’re initiating a law firm again, I’m sorry, they’re initiating a lawsuit against Amazon and they’re saying that Amazon is using their voice recordings that Alexa is capturing in order to then serve them ads. Right. And what it’s not too clear for me is whether the plaintiffs here are saying recordings of commands that we give to Alexa and then Alexa goes in display ads.
Liel: [00:18:53] Right. So if I say Alexa, please order toilet paper or whatever. Right. Then Alexa will use that information to pass it on to Amazon. So when I go to Amazon, I start seeing ads of toilet paper. Right? And so what Amazon is saying, it doesn’t matter like we going to target you with ads no matter what. Like if that information gets to us because you typed it in Amazon, we’re going to get you. We’re going to serve you ads if that information gets to us because you’re giving a command to Alexa, we’re also going to serve you ads so you are not like we don’t feel we’re doing anything wrong. And I think it’s the position of Amazon that they’re kind of like trying to brush away the lawsuit and they’re saying, like this, this should get dismissed because it doesn’t make any sense. That’s what’s a little bit irritating, in my opinion. Is that kind of arrogance, right, Or feeling that, yeah, like we can do whatever we want with the data that we were collecting through Alexa and which by the way, it’s going crazy here in the background because I’ve already activated it every single time that I’ve mentioned it. And so what are your thoughts?
Grace: [00:20:06] Grace It’s kind of funny that this is coming up because I you hear murmurs right amongst everybody. And it’s not just Alexa. It’s pretty much all voice search. I feel like a lot of people believe that they pick up our audio even when we’re just talking, not just specifically giving it voice commands. And then you get an ad served that you were talking to your friend or your wife or your kids about toilet paper as an example, and you didn’t order any. But all of a sudden, your phone, your laptop, you know, everywhere you go is getting ads about toilet paper. How did that happen? I don’t know. Hmm. Now, I don’t think people realize that the obviously the privacy concerns there is a checkbox that says, do you want your stuff to be recorded? You pretty much have tacit consent. You’re giving implicit, tacit consent to Google, Alexa and all these systems when you use them 99.9% of the time, you don’t realize you’re even doing that when you log in. So most people gave them permissions a long time ago and they’re just used continue to use those permissions despite privacy updates on other things that have been out there. So people I don’t think they realize what permissions they’ve given because it’s just natural to sign up for something and log in and not truly, truly read what they’re using the audio for or your searches for or so. Yes, I agree with you in the terms of I don’t like the attitude. I think that that’s they need to understand that privacy is a concern and everybody has that concern. So they need to address that. But. They should be taking a different tack. You know, they should be saying when you go in and you log in and you ask, you know, Alexa to record you so that it can give you the best results, that you have the option to change permissions in terms of what it is recording that.
Liel: [00:22:17] And it is truly Grace what you are saying, right? Kind of like when you are setting up these type of devices, you need to consent to whether you allow Apple or Amazon to use your voice recordings for a whole range of different things. And getting some of that might be one of them that people may not necessarily have been paying a lot of attention to. I just think that as we are transitioning into a world where by 2024, cookies will not be allowed, we are really kind of like contradicting ourselves by still allowing for personal data to be recorded through these types of devices. And it’s just kind of like also a contradiction to, you know. For Amazon, I think to even though that they are saying they are very transparent about how do they gather and what do they do with the data that they collect through Alexa to feel that what they’re doing is perfectly fine. But there is the thought, right? There is a thought that says, you know, users don’t care that much about privacy. They care more about convenience, and they’re going to be fine with this as long as they can continue giving commands to Alexa. And when they’re running out of things in the kitchen or wherever they are in their home, rather than having to pull up the phone, going to Amazon, searching for the item and placing it on the card, just giving a command and say, order this or that, play this, play that and that convenience, you know, comes at the price of getting served ads later on.
Liel: [00:23:55] So I guess just, you know, interesting to see something to watch and keep our eyes on because it’s it’s the evolution advertising online that we’re seeing play right in front of our eyes. So, Grace, those are the three things that I just wanted us to cover up. I’m very excited to move on to talk about our second topic for this conversation, which is mass torts. And Grace, you went to women in Mass, which is very, very well established conference that also teaches and discusses mass torts. Earlier this month I went to mass torts made perfect and that’s also widely known and regarded as a big epicenter of everything that relates to mass torts. And you know, I’m really interested in hearing what was the like when you were heading towards the conference and when you got there. Did you fail the. Excitement and high anticipation on Camp Lejeune that I experienced in mass torts made perfect. Was that something that was evident to you?
Grace: [00:25:20] Yes, it most definitely was. There were even some hallway conversations about Camp Lejeune while I was there because people were just trying to understand all the different things and elements that are going into this particular bill, the law, you know, the fact that it’s a fund, there’s so many little things that are different enough about it that people want to discuss it. Yes, there’s tons of excitement behind it in terms of like, let’s help these people. There’s there’s a ton of these people out there that need the help. And how are we going to go about helping as many as we can in the time frame that we have?
Liel: [00:25:58] Yes. And I really felt the same Grace that you’re saying. A lot of anticipation and a lot of interest in it to the point that let me just start the conversation by painting the picture of how things went in mass torts made perfect during the opening remarks from Mike Papantonio, which were on Camp Lejeune. So. Just by starting that the main ballroom, the biggest ballroom of the entire conference was 100% packed like people were standing. Grace There were more people for the opening remarks of Camp Lejeune that there were for the comedian later that night. And I think I’m right at saying the mass torts usually see its biggest crowd for The Comedian show. Right. I mean, that’s really when when nobody skips the session. Not this time. Camp Lejeune Opening remarks from Mike Papantonio, Fully packed ballroom. Here is the wild card. What? Mike Papantonio focused on his opening remarks was about the fact that the way that the mass tort is being handled is completely out of control. He was worried. I would say he was concerned. I would say he was upset. Grace He was literally upset. But he’s not upset about the legal side of the things. He’s there to encourage lawyers and law firms to get involved in mass torts and to do good by signing up cases and then, you know, being able to help these people. What really upset at him, Grace, was that? As he calls it, Wall Street is taking over. The entire. mass tort operation, if you may. So what is happening here and this is now I’m adding here information that was discussed during other panels, is that there is that feeling that the founding that’s coming into the mass tort of Camp Lejeune is no longer backed up by law firms.
Liel: [00:28:37] It’s now majority backed up by Wall Street. And his main concern is that we are now at the point where the companies that are advertising the companies that are actually. Taking things to the level that they are because things are out of control. And our other conversations with people that I’ve had about it, they said I’ve never in my life seen anything like this. I’ve never in my life seen so much interest on one single mass tort. And they’re saying now that there is potentially half a billion dollars. Invested in marketing for Camp Lejeune in more than half of it is not money that is from the legal industry, is all money from Wall Street that are trying to acquire cases and just, you know, take over these assets as if as if it was stocks. And obviously, he’s not happy. He was very, very, very disappointed by it. And then he also talked about the complexities of of of dealing with with the cases. Right. I mean, it’s not it’s not easy. It’s not it’s not going to get solved in one day. And so. Being there in the room. It was interesting because there was a complete shift in mood, right? Like all from the sudden you have like almost 2000 people realizing at the same time that maybe Camp Lejeune is not going to be their ticket to early retirement, as many of them thought. And so. It was a wake up call to what really Camp Lejeune may potentially be. But at the same time, about where the entire mass tort industry is heading to. So Grace, after this very long prologue. Please enlighten us with what’s really happening.
Grace: [00:30:49] Man So it kind of goes back to remember how we were talking about we’re not going to touch it until the bill actually passes. Yes. So for me, it goes back to that, right. The conversations between attorneys is very different than the conversations between marketing companies. So the conversations that we had with the attorneys, women and masses, all female attorneys, there were some vendors, don’t get me wrong, but the conversations I’m talking about are the ones between attorneys, and that’s exactly what they were discussing amongst each other before MTP. I You may have seen one of the commercials out of the bazillion commercials on TV where the attorney says, you know, I’m sure you’ve seen all these commercials about Camp Lejeune, but I am a real attorney that that that that. Right. Well, you know.
Liel: [00:31:41] I know who runs that.
Grace: [00:31:42] I figured you would. So that that mentality and that perspective is the perspective that we have as well. Right. I’ve always felt like marketing companies, they should do what they got to do. They work for law firms or their agencies, and they do what they have to do to make money. Right? They look at it as a commodity. Lawyers are held to a much higher ethical standard. So the the future of mass torts and I’ve heard this a few times from different people, they believe it is potentially in jeopardy because of this exact issue, the mixing of marketing companies who can sign contracts with law firms that are held to a higher standard than the marketing company in terms of getting those contracts signed. So there’s this a huge disparity between law firms and marketing companies. But the the way through that is through all the things that we always talk about. And that is building your brand and yourself as an expert and a thought leader because they will come to you because you mark it properly and you’re a real company, right? So signing up for a case, they’re signing up with a law firm. They may fill out a marketing form, but I can tell you that unless that gets taken care of within X time frame, the reality is they’re not going to sign up with that law firm. Right. So it’s a longer play. It’s more annoying and it’s not fair. But what in this world is really fair, Right. So with that being said, I feel like, you know, the future is now and we need to figure out what that’s going to look like. And the only way we can help each other is through things like mass towards Made Perfect, where Papantonio is expressing his concern about what’s going on in the industry. And we keep talking about it because that’s exactly what happened at Women in Mass. So as long as we continue to talk about what’s happening and we. We keep with our ethics and we keep trying to protect our clients as a whole, I think we’ll be okay going forward.
Liel: [00:33:58] A couple of things there. Grace Mike used a very good analogy there and one that is very true. He said, like Wall Street took over the medical industry. We will not allow that to happen in the legal industry. And he he said it like these exact same words. Doctors used to run hospitals. Now it’s finance companies. Right. Who do. And we’re not going to let that happen in the legal space. So it’s not just talking and preaching and saying, right, he’s getting ready for a fight. And it’s I think it’s invigorating to hear that. Right. Especially, you know, and here now I’m looking myself as as a person living in this country. You want to know that not everything is actually played out by the big corporations, that there are still some pockets within society where there are people that are actually looking after the interests of just regular civilians that are not putting corporations before people. And so that’s why I feel I left and I felt hopeful at that. Now, I really like what you were saying here. On the other side of the thing is, like for marketing companies, this is going to be a crossroads as well, right? Because now it’s going to be all about who are you going to market for? Are you going to market for the good guys or the bad guys? And you’re going to be able to decide which side of history you want to take.
Liel: [00:35:31] Because one of the very, very, very clear conversations that was happening on the floor at the conference is the bigger marketing companies, the bigger marketing organizations. They were really making a point to let everybody know that they are not the ones running all of those unethical ads. They are not the ones that are taking the money from these other bigger organizations just to be able to make a buck. And, you know. To say. To hell with it. I don’t care who signs are not sign or whatever. So. So that’s the thing. Grace Right. I think this is this is a big moment from that from that standpoint. And I think it’s just it was kind of like the perfect storm because of the times in which we are, but also because of the media attention that just Camp Lejeune had right at the level in which it went. And I think about the willingness of the federal government to get this sorted. But but, you know, I also heard lawyers saying, you know, okay, wait, wait one second. How much money has been put aside for paying to Camp Lejeune victims? How much money is already gone to marketing and such? I mean, do the numbers actually add up? So that’s another thing of the conversation that is happening there.
Liel: [00:36:53] And it’s a very, very valid point. I mean, are we overinvesting here on some? Have we’ve already gone beyond what the potential value of this mass tort has to offer. And yeah, I mean, it’s just a very, very, very interesting case study. And the other thing that I heard a lot is that a lot of lawyers were saying, you know, we’re at a boom and there’s going to have to be a lot of sit and wait. We’re anticipating there’s going to be a lot of sit and wait. And what I really liked is hearing lawyers from these big, big mass tort law firms that are there representing plaintiffs in such but are big corporate law firms. Right. They’re not necessarily you know, you don’t go to these panels to learn about client experience, but they were talking about it. They were actually saying, you know, use this seat and sit and wait time to get to know to dig deep into who your clients are, you know, talk to them, know them by name, like literally things that you said. Well, wait a second. Weren’t you doing this before? Like, you’re not doing this for other cases. But no, I mean, all jokes aside, they’re they’re really saying, you know, you need to continue earning your clients after you sign them up. I think that’s a good way of putting it up.
Grace: [00:38:14] Yeah, I you know, those these are things that we’ve been talking about, right? I mean, as it even led up to this whole bill passing, because I feel like when it comes to the cross section of marketing and law firms, we all have to be careful and fight the good fight to make sure that our clients are being best served. And that’s where the issue always lies, right? Are we spending too much money on marketing? Is is the juice worth the squeeze? Well, if all this money is going into a fund that we’re supposed to pay out for these veterans, who’s going to get hurt? In the end, it’s the veterans, because they’re going to have less per case to be able to spend or give them in compensation. It’s all going to come out in attorneys fees, marketing expenses, whatever other expenses to get the records or this or that or the other that they want to levy on their that that that they’re allowed to and what they’re not allowed to write. So, yeah, it is going to be interesting to see what happens in the future with Camp Lejeune in particular, but really the future of mass tort.
Liel: [00:39:20] As a whole. Yeah. And just final a final comment for me on this one. Another thing that I that I’ve heard in conversations is like, well, but one thing that we all need to remember and keep in mind is that Camp Lejeune is one base one. And, you know, kind of like the unspoken part is that it’s probably not the only base that has had these type of issues.
Grace: [00:39:48] And we have something to say about that. We got an email, actually, I think it was a Facebook comment about another fort that they said has been around for a while. And since 2015 it’s been on the books as to as in relation to this exact same situation, you know, heavy metals and certain things that were on the base for X number of years. They shut down that base and they were asking us, is there anybody that’s working on this? Is there anyone that can help us? And as a matter of fact, there is an MCL, a multi county litigation that they were trying to revive back in, like I said, 2015. Since then, unfortunately, again, you guys know I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know exactly what’s happening with it. But I do know that if there’s anybody still interested, please reach out to me and let me know. I will direct you towards your local bar association for local counsel because it is a possibility that they can still take this to state court. You know, so it is there are things that are still happening and happening to people across the United States and things like this that I think if there’s enough of a critical mass, it could become another mass tort on its own. If there’s not, then you could still go to your local council. And it is a personal injury case. So remember, personal injury cases, this isn’t for clients. Unfortunately, this is more of a law firm. So, you know, but a reminder of that, let them know that personal injury is contingency fee. So if you’re going to take that case, let them know that you’re there for them. Yeah, Get to know your clients.
Liel: [00:41:29] Yeah, but, but I guess, you know, that’s that’s what’s at stake, right, with all this Camp Lejeune thing is that, you know, if, if things just get out of hand here and. We must stop. Then all the chances of. Potentially being able to to to shed light into other areas that have suffered the same things are just going to go away because the whole the whole way the whole way this is going to be perceived by the general public is like. All of these mass torts is just the money grab for the legal industry. And of course, people don’t. That’s not what the goal is here. Obviously, Right. That would put up a terrible stain on the industry as a whole. All right, Grace. So really, really good conversation about the antics of mass torts nowadays. Some tech updates. I’m sure we’re going to have some good takeaways, but most importantly, we still have a lot of juice to squeeze out of the mass tort topic because we really didn’t get much into the the actual updates of a lot of what’s happening in there. And I’m just kind of like a teaser to the next episode. One of the other things that was mentioned during MTP, and you probably know more about this, is that not everything is doom and gloom, apparently. Keep up. That was looking good. That’s that was given kind of like green light going by now. So, yeah, we’ll we’re going to have you do some research on that one and let us know why is that. But yeah, this, this came directly out of. Mike Papantonio So that’s as you, as you’re probably guessing that was, that was the only session that I set in. But it was, it was, it was great. I mean it was a wonderful conference as usually they do. So great. Let’s go through some takeaways.
Grace: [00:43:33] Okay. So I guess let’s start with the voice, right? I mean, because we had quite a few things about voice. Dabble in it, guys, do a jingle, do something. You know, I think that there’s there’s a lot of opportunity in the voice search space, voice ad space. You know, we’ve talked about voice search before. So I would say, you know, try to try to dabble in it, you know, take a little little foray into the Google Voice ad space. And if you’re not sure, you’re not 100% comfortable with anything like that, your internal marketing team isn’t Reach out to a company like Leo. You know, he’s done stuff like that because it’s worth it. It’s worth going into. It’s worth being in a place where other people aren’t yet, right? I mean, you kind of want to be there, there. But I would say that there’s not as many as there could be, and that’s a good thing.
Liel: [00:44:30] Yeah. Yeah, totally. Grace, I just want to kind of, you know, make it a little bit more easy for people to understand, to grasp the idea of it. Just think about how much time of your day you pass it on with your AirPods in your ears, right? Listening to things without necessarily watching. And so wouldn’t you want it to be able to make it to to the years of of your potential clients? Exactly. So I would I would think that, you know, in in the era of wearable tech, by far the most popular device are airports. So you definitely need to to give it the importance that they deserve. So yes, great takeaway. One, I’m just going to say here a little bit about Google Ads continues to change and it’s creating a product that it can be leverage based by brands that are actually not just limited to advertising, to Google Arts, but that are actually building their brand. And so this is a great reminder that in the way and looking at how things and marketing has been evolving over the past three or four years, the ones who continue to grow and see success are those brands that are going above and beyond. Just marketing through a single channel are those that are diversifying, and most importantly, they are putting an effort into making their brand known. So you see, Google Ads now is giving you the opportunity of showcasing your brand logo in your ad. And the question is, will people actually recognize it when they’ll see it or they’ll just see, I have no idea what this is so great opportunity to think about that. And most importantly, I mean, do you actually have a fabric on do you actually have like a good square version of your logo that people recognize that they’re familiar with? And if not, maybe you need to pick up the phone and give a call to your graphic designer and start working on that. So, Grace, final takeaway, and I’m obviously it’s going to be yours. It has to be with Camp Lejeune. It has to do with mass torts.
Grace: [00:46:44] So for it. Whenever you’re getting into a mass tort, especially as a law firm, look at all the factors involved. And is the juice worth the squeeze? And I’m not saying Camp Lejeune isn’t, but don’t jump in just because you think that it’s the next hot one. Get into it. Get involved in it because it means something and that that will follow through anything you do. And I know that I’d say most attorneys will do that because that’s they don’t if they don’t believe in it, they can’t necessarily get behind it. And if they can’t help, they don’t want to get behind it or get involved, which is great. I mean, that is that’s the way to take to do these things. But Camp Lejeune is the future in terms of like this. These are the things that can continue to potentially happen. So make sure you keep in communication with your clients. You keep telling your clients what’s going on with their case, whatever their case is and whatever is happening along the road, because that is one of the biggest takeaways I have to say came from women in mass is use this opportunity to get to know your clients, just like you said, Liel, Because there is a lot of wait and see in mass torts as a whole, no matter the case type. And it’s the same thing with Camp Lejeune right now. So take the opportunity to keep them updated on what is happening with the cases, what’s happening with the legal, what’s happening with their case, even if it is something simple like, hey, I’m still here, I’m still your lawyer every 30 days as a reminder, but keep the client communication open and keep the hope and the information flowing between you and your client. Because an informed consumer is going to be your best advocate when it comes to time to if it ever goes to trial or even settlement. Because the more information you have and the more that they’re informed, the better off everybody is with that particular case.
Liel: [00:48:34] Great takeaway. Grace, thank you so much for another great conversation. And we’ll be back very soon in a couple of weeks.
Grace: [00:48:40] Weeks it is. Thank you, Liel.
Liel: [00:48:42] All right. Thank everybody. And if you like our show, make sure you subscribe. Tell your coworkers. Leave us a review and send us your questions that ask an in-camera podcast. We’ll see you next week.
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