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Super Bowl Marketing Recap: The Best, Worst and Almost Ok Ads From The Big Game

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This year’s Super Bowl Ads cost $7 million – and most are being rated today based on their entertainment value. Not exactly the metric I would pick. Instead, I always look at the year’s ads based on the marketing strategy and whether the creative the team used actually delivered on what they might have hoped … Read more

Inside the New York Times Big Bet on Gaming

Inside the New York Times Big Bet On Gaming

The team of editors at the New York Times that’s currently breaking new ground isn’t one that you’d expect. Gaming has become such a major surging area for the media company that some staffers believe the organization itself is quickly morphing into “a gaming company that happens to offer news.” The brand has long been associated with … Read more

Doritos Creates AI That Silences the Sounds of Crunching While Gaming

Doritos crunch-canceling technology

Listening to someone crunchily eating Doritos is probably high on many lists of annoying behavior but imagine how much worse it must be to listen to the crunching in a headset while playing against a Dorito-eating opponent in a video game. In a beautiful example of knowing their audience, Doritos commissioned an AI company to quantify … Read more

SXSW Sydney and a Sneak Peek at the Non-Obvious Podcast

SXSW Sydney 2023_Rohit Bhargava

Next week I’ll be back in Australia speaking at the international edition of SXSW in Sydney.
In addition to doing a Featured Session, I’ll be recording two episodes LIVE from the stage for my upcoming Non-Obvious Show podcast (launching later this year).

How The Nintendo NES Game Console Changed the World

Yes, I am part of the generation that grew up with the original Nintendo gaming system … and sometimes I even feature it in my keynote talks. This year is the 40th anniversary of the console and my fellow geeks over at Engadget have put together an illuminating history of exactly why this system was so … Read more

5 Non-Obvious Megatrends Changing Our World In 2020

For the past ten years I have gone through an annual ritual of publishing a book about trends that describe our shifting culture and business environment. Over the past decade, my team and I have identified and written about well over 100 trends covering everything from the rise of the #metoo movement (a trend we … Read more

How Millennials Became Workaholics, Japan’s Big Hacking Experiment and Why People Believe Tabloids | Non-Obvious Insights 01.31.19

Millennials Glorify #Hustle,Take Unhealthy Workaholism Mainstream As we live through the rise of “#hustle culture,” this article provides a much needed reminder that we need to stop celebrating workaholism among Millennials and instead describe the workplaces which foster this culture for what they are: toxic and inhumane.   Japan Hacks 200 Million Devices In Pre-Olympic CyberSecurity Test  To prepare … Read more

Pokemon Go Isn’t Dead … It’s Quietly Dominating

Pokemon_Go

A little over two years ago, Pokemon Go was everywhere. People walked down the street glued to their phones. And then one day it all seemed to stop. Yet as this article from WIRED explores, the game is still dominating. Who is still playing? As writer Brian Barrett notes: “The game attracts proportionally more older … Read more

Selfie Medicine, Luxury Marketing And How To Get Paid To Watch Netflix

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This week my story picks range from exploring the future of luxury marketing and healthcare to addictive game design to the world of people who are paid to watch Netflix content. I have to admit, the one about the Netflix content taggers did intrigue me – as I never really thought about how all of … Read more

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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.

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