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This week the FTC sent warning letters to more than 90 “influencers and marketers” as a reminder to disclose when social media posts are paid for by advertisers. The move comes in a week filled with stories about the nature of influencer marketing, the sad reality of what it takes to be popular today and exactly … Read more
Senior citizens now officially outnumber the young people in Taiwan, and there is a growing worldwide shift among brands to embrace older consumers instead of largely ignoring them in favor of their younger counterparts. This week’s stories feature brands in traditionally younger targeted industries like athletics and lingerie using older ambassadors. Meanwhile a new startup promises … Read more
First of all, thank you for indulging me for the past two weeks as I shared my favorite books of the year and also announced my latest book – this week I’m back with my picks for the most interesting and under appreciated stories of the week and they range from a brilliant new ad … Read more
Are you a member of the media? Visit our media kit to download a trend summary and more information about requesting an interview with Rohit >> This week I launched the seventh edition of my annual trend report featuring all of my research from throughout the year on trends. Many of you have already picked … Read more
The big news of Unilever purchasing subscription site Dollar Shave Club for $1B this week probably dominated your newsfeed this week, and one that I had two separate journalists contact me about for comment. Subscription commerce is back in the spotlight for this week, but the more interesting stories this week for me included an … Read more
The news of this past week was filled with highly anticipated announcements like Oculus Rift finally launching its first consumer VR headset and the expected fanfare surrounding the release of the new Batman vs. Superman movie. Amidst these big moves, the more interesting stories this week came from quiet experiments like Google’s attempts at building its own … Read more
This past week included the biggest event in mobile tech in Barcelona, the continuing #OscarsSoWhite drama about lack of diversity at the Academy Awards and our long awaited permission from Facebook to have emotions other than “Like” to describe how we feel. Going beyond the obvious is the focus every week in this newsletter, so rather than rehash the biggest … Read more
This was a big week in marketing, as the Super Bowl shined a spotlight on the best and worst of advertising (read my recap here) and there were big announcements on everything from Diet Coke’s bold reimagining of bottle design, to Amazon’s retail ambitions that are shaking up an entire industry. In this weeks issue … Read more
There are plenty of signs that the way we have typically described gender may be dying before our very eyes. In Austria last year, the winner of Eurovision’s popular song contest was a 26 year old drag queen with a beard named Conchita Wurst. Earlier this year, Sweden officially became the first country to add … Read more
I should have loved McDonald’s ambitious Super Bowl ad promoting the idea that customers could pay with “lovin’” instead of cash. Any marketer should. It’s bold, innovative, and takes a stand. McDonald’s believes we should be nicer to each other and have a little more fun. What could be a better brand message than that? … Read more
Non-Obvious Thinking is my latest book about the 4 secrets of becoming a non-obvious thinker - relesaed 10/01/2024.
Rohit Bhargava is a trend curator, founder of the Non-Obvious Company and the 3-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author of ten books.
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In addition to Non-Obvious Thinking, Rohit is the author of 10 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.
