As Featured In:
Webby
AdAge
HBR
WSJ
The most famous portraits in history are all painted from the torso up. That was the interesting insight from Ogilvy that led to this campaign for shoe polish brand Kiwi which recently won big at the Cannes festival. By commissioning artists to draw the bottom half of famous paintings like the Mona Lisa – this … Read more
How do you get attention for a sleepy little Swiss ski resort town that few people have ever heard of? Ban photos and promise to fine tourists for sharing them online. That’s the genius strategy behind this move from the town of Bergün, but the explanation of why is even better. “We don’t want to … Read more
This week a theme that emerged in the stories was that of the many faces of failure. There is a new museum in Sweden celebrating product and cultural failures of modern times. A former Silicon Valley darling chat app called YikYak failed and lost hundreds of millions of perceived/bloated valuation. The Met Gala stuck to … 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
As I am sure you have noticed, yesterday was International Women’s Day and it was hard to miss all the stories about women’s empowerment and marches and political statements. For me, the most powerful stories (and the ones I selected for this week’s email) had little to do with politics and much more to do … 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
It was an international sort of week these past few days as the stories which most captured my attention came from far outside the US. From the fascinating leadership lessons of Uniqlo’s Japanese CEO, to a very cool pavilion in Korea that celebrates the historic birthplace of print (which didn’t make my list of stories … Read more
Greeting from New York and the Future of Storytelling Conference! This week I’m at one of my favorite events of the year learning about the future of VR, interpretative dance and lots more at this wonderful gathering of creative people and innovators. If you happen to be in NY this week, check out their upcoming … Read more
Content featured big this week as new initiatives from GoPro and IBM both received a lot of coverage and discussion. Brands moving into content is nothing new, but the depth and importance of these forays into content are clearly getting bigger and bolder. In other news, the “Millennial Whoop” was sadly unavoidable as a consequence … Read more
My mind has been on startups and new ideas lately, as I spent most of this past week at Collision in New Orleans learning about what is new and listening to several dozen startup pitches. And so the stories this week are also influenced by this lens as I feature articles about Google’s latest move … 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.
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.
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.
