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Earlier this week I posted on LinkedIn about a project that my team and I have been working on for nearly a year. During the pandemic, I created a video show which many of you watched. After a smart suggestion (and fair criticism) from Chhavi about how two heads talking wasn’t really compelling on video … I … Read more
Brand partnerships can be tricky. One partner may eclipse the other. It can be hard to stand out or make the right commitments. I’ve always admired the way LEGO used partnerships to leverage the content and stories of their partners but add their own unique lens through the various items you could build through co-branded … Read more
It’s time for another review of the best and worst of the Olympic Games marketing. This isn’t a complete list but some of my initial impressions based on reading and what I’m seeing here on site in Paris too. Let’s start with the winners. Best of Paris 2024 Olympic Marketing: Worst of Paris 2024 Olympic … Read more
Freelance artist Beth Spencer had a brilliant idea that went viral. She suggested that artists hand draw their own version of a “created with human intelligence” badge to put on their work to distinguish it from AI-generated art. The idea caught fire among other designers presumably also looking for a way to separate their art … Read more
Last year when Henry and I were writing The Future Normal, we wrote about a trend we named Unnaturally Better and profiled Solar Foods, a company that had created a protein called Solein synthesized from carbon dioxide. Literally food from air. This week, I came across another story of a similar company called Savor that can create fats from air … Read more
For the 12th year, the Core 77 Design Awards have spanned 22 categories and showcased product, branding and conceptual ideas from students and professionals imagining solutions to global challenges. This year’s range of winners span from shape-shifting fabric concepts to speculative design of a dystopian capitalist future. The entire site and descriptions of winners is the … Read more
Fandom recently released the latest edition of their annual Inside Gaming Report where they survey 5,000 “entertainment and gaming fans globally.” The data this year found that the top reason that people play games continues to be to unwind or relieve stress, followed closely by a more surprising motivation: self-expression. Nearly 50% of the gamers surveyed suggested … Read more
One of the group conversations I had last weekend required each participant to share something that we think is bullsh*t. My choice was political advertising, which David Ogilvy famously suggested ought to be stopped because “it’s the only really dishonest kind of advertising that’s left.” Someone else in our group nominated modern art … and … Read more
Just in time for the feast of Saint-Honoré, a day honoring the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, La Poste in France released a limited edition set of scratch-and-sniff stamps featuring a baguette wrapped in the national colors of the French flag. The effect was achieved through “microcapsules of fragrance embedded in ink” and … Read more
The future of entertainment will be driven by more immersive experiences. This week, there was a story about how the Meta Quest VR headset will be accessible by passengers on long haul flights. The possibilities to tie this into tourism, destinations and the overall travel experience are vast. Also this week, Airbnb has been getting some attention … 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.
