Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 104

Why Obama Won – A Visual Slideshow

The Myth Of The Undecided Voter

Picture this: your football team is down by two touchdowns and there is only a minute left in the game. Statistically, you know it’s almost impossible that your team will win … but you watch anyway. Of course you might be a diehard fan never willing to give up, but there is another force at work here. The broadcasters calling the game are all talking about how the losing team might actually win. They are sharing obscure statistics of the unlikely comeback that your team had back in 1984. It c...

12 Powerful Ideas On Creativity & Business From The PSFK Conference

Groucho Marx once quipped, “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” I always feel his sentiment just a little bit everytime I agree to speak at any event because I am passionate about trying to share the stage with people much smarter than I am. So when Piers Fawkes invited me to speak at the latest installment of his well regarded PSFK conference, I thought immediately of Marx’s words. But then he told me I would only have ten minutes, as most of the other speakers...

What Hurricane Sandy Can Teach You About Timing

My trash cans are inside my garage. That’s one of just a few precautions they are telling everyone on the East Coast to take in preparation for Hurricane Sandy making landfall in just a few hours. The storm has dominated TV news reports for the last several days and is already historic in not so good ways. It is also the perfect reminder that most of your pre-scripted marketing you have may backfire when the world shifts around you.

Earlier this year concert promoter Live Nation got into troub...

5 World Changing Ways To Avoid BS And Be More Believable

I was on a short flight from NY back to DC yesterday and opened a copy of the NY Times to find a full page ad with the simple declaration “Marketing is BS.” Beneath that attention-grabbing headline, Adobe called this “Myth #1″ as part of their campaign to speak to marketers and business people about how to measure results more effectively. The ad was targeted to marketers, but it has an unintended side effect … a lot of people agree with the so-called myth.

Despite working in marketing for mor...

How Much Time Does Creativity Really Take?

What if Usain Bolt charged per hour to watch him race? It’s a ridiculous thought, of course. Yet we all know that the only reason he is able to run 100 meters in less than ten seconds is because of years of preparation. He has spent a lifetime training to be able to do what he is best at faster than anyone else. How many of us are the same way? I spend hours every week just reading about new marketing ideas and campaigns. I study new reports and studies of human behaviour. Why do I do all thi...

Why Every Debate Matters (Hint: It’s NOT The Economy, Stupid)

Dayton, Ohio is a battleground city in a battleground state, just like my home state of Virginia. I am in Ohio this morning to speak at a business conference, and all around the signs of this electoral battle are front and center here. Billboards promote politicians and key issues. Television ads aim to influence voters on everything from gun rights to tax policy. And everything is presented in partisan terms to make the choices seem as black and white as possible (no pun intended). But it is...

Moving On … Why I Am Leaving Ogilvy

We love legendary goodbyes. Hollywood, in particular, does a great job romanticizing that last moment before anyone walks away from anything. Jack dying in freezing water and saying goodbye to his love in Titanic. Andy playing with his toys one last time before heading off to college in Toy Story 3. Tom Cruise with his mission statement and office meltdown in Jerry Macguire. Yes, there are plenty of legendary goodbyes in Hollywood, and they always involve lots of drama.

For some reason, movies...

7 Useful Tips From Real B2B Brands On Using Social Media To Drive Sales

When it comes to social media, it is popular to talk about the importance of reputation. The better your reputation, the more likely people are to trust you. The more trust you have, the more easily you can sell anything to anyone. This logic makes sense. In most cases it works. But it has been used so often that it is starting to cause an unexpected side effect. Thanks to the steady drumbeat of discussion around reputation, more and more senior leaders are under the impression that building...

How To Tell Better Stories: 10 Profound Lessons From The Future Of Storytelling Conference

Walking off the ferry into Snug Harbor on Staten Island, there was a big motorcade of cars and police standing there. SIt was the first and most obvious clue that this first ever Future of StoryTelling Conference might not be the same as any other business conference. As the crowd filed into the auditorium, Al Gore was among them … just one of the many influential participants at this event put on by media pioneer Charlie Melcher. The earlier clue that every attendee received was an email out...