The Non-Obvious Insights Blog. Non-Obvious Insights
The Non-Obvious Insights Blog.

Dedicated To Helping Readers
Be More Interesting
Since 2004.

As Featured In:

How 7 Basic Human Needs are Driving the New Social Web2.0

I recently read a insightful piece from Ben Hunt about the future of the web2.0 social experience.  It was particularly relevant as I am heading to the Web2.0 Expo here in San Francisco today and will have a chance to see many new technologies later this evening at the "Booth Crawl" event at the opening … Read more

Making "Fusion" a Greater Part of Your Marketing

Believe it or not, there are many people who don’t know what a mashup is.  If you ask those same people about what "fusion" means, most would probably be able to give you a better answer.  The reason is that fusion is a concept that has been around a lot longer than mashups, and it’s … Read more

Are You Marketing Your Product Backstory?

Several weeks ago, I noted an interesting story about how Dole is offering "farm codes" printed onto stickers that are placed on organic bananas offering consumers the chance to get to know more about the farm that grew the banana by visiting www.doleorganic.com.  On Dole Organic, you can see such information as a description of … Read more

Corporate Bloggers and the Rise of the Accidental Spokesperson

In the world of public relations, a spokesperson can sometimes seem like the most important element of any campaign.  Though I don’t quite understand some of my colleagues necessity to always propose a celebrity in this spokesperson role, I do understand the very real need to establish credibility and a spokesperson can be a great … Read more

The ROI of Blogging: Share Your Top 5 Stories

Two months ago, Charlene Li of Forrester produced a report on the ROI of blogging by comparing the relative spend on blogs to the spend required for focus group based research.  While some people immediately pointed out flaws in this reasoning, it was a great first step towards trying to define a model for measuring … Read more

The Death of the Invisible Agency

There was a time when, apart from industry awards shows and the occasional book from an advertising or PR industry legend – agencies were largely invisible to consumers.  Marketing agencies created advertisements, managed relationships with the press, and generated campaign strategy on behalf of a client, but remained in the background.  Since then, you have … Read more

How to Create a Microbrand Like GapingVoid

It might sometimes seem like everything is going micro.  With microlending, loans are getting smaller.  With online video, entertainment is getting shorter.  Technology devices are, of course, getting smaller. Micro is hot.  So it should come as no surprise that the next big thing coming fast into the marketing world is actually a little thing: … Read more

5 Brilliant Marketing Ideas from SxSW

Over the next week, I’ll posting some of the other insights I will be taking from the event, but in the meantime here are just a few marketing ideas that struck me as remarkable or noteworthy from SxSW: Using the tag as the tagline.  Everywhere you look there are signs posted telling you what tag … Read more

A Friday Question: Do We Need Platformism?

This idea is sure to rile some people up.  We are all familiar with the concepts of other "isms" where we are judged based solely on looks, race, physical appearance or some other subjective measure.  Sexism, Racism, Elitism … these are things no one likes, and most educated people know these are wrong.  The issue … Read more

A Recap of the PSFK Conference

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the first conference event put together by Piers and the team at PSFK focused on trends and ideas.  The agenda was very compelling going into it, and I did leave with many interesting insights and new ideas about marketing and communications.  Though I unfortunately had to duck out … Read more

The Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter. Non-Obvious Insights
Layer 97
The Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter
Layer 118

Skip the obvious and anticipate the future with our weekly newsletter. Join over 25,000 subscribers and start receiving the stories (and insights) you’ve been missing.

All Books

#1 WSJ & USA Today Bestselling Author

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.

Contact ROHIT

Have a Question or Inquiry?

Just fill out this form, and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours!

Contact

About You

What Are You Contacting Us About*:

Your Message