Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 74
July 10, 2017
Pop-Up Magazine Masters A New Live Storytelling Format
This story is about an event series called Popup Magazine put on by longtime media exec Chas Edwards. The event is an attempt to take the mid-length storytelling format from magazines and do them as live talks followed by enriching audience conversations. Judging by its early success, it’s a format that resonates among people hungry for new ways to engage and be part of something that doesn’t hinge on addicting you to binge from one episode to the next.
Love non-...
July 7, 2017
London’s “Smart Street” Aims To Reinvent Retail Shopping Environment
While the bold claims of changing retail from smart tile maker Pavegen may feel a bit overblown, this one small side street in London is taking an interesting approach to combining what is essentially an energy recycling idea (tiles which can convert the kinetic energy of footsteps into usable electricity) with new retail incentives like live coupons delivered to passersby via an app. Whether this is actually predicting a new kind of intrusive future for retail or something that could actual...
July 4, 2017
“Grandmakers” Teach Crafts To Millennials Eager For Digital Detox
To combat the loneliness that often comes with aging and living alone, a UK based retirement home created a festival to allow senior citizens to connect with millennials by asking them to teach a “heritage skill.” The resulting “Grandfest” (as the two month event is being called) aims to celebrate the abilities of older people and connect them with younger generations. It is exactly the kind of empowering idea for seniors that also solves a dire need for younger people … to disengage with tec...
July 2, 2017
New Mortgage For Millennials Offers Free Avocado Toast (Seriously)
Sure it is easy to poke fun at those quirky hipsters and their strange dietary choices but SoFi Mortgages is one brand taking a totally different approach. They are offering a new mortgage which comes with a month’s worth of avocado toast home delivered (with a choice of regular or gluten-free bread. Why avocado toast? The simple explanation from the brand actually makes a little sense: “Because with a SoFi mortgage, you don’t have to skip out on the avocado toast while saving up for a down...
July 1, 2017
6 Awesome Ways Canada Is Celebrating Its 150th Anniversary
As we head into a time when both America and Canada celebrate their national birthdays – this week’s newsletter takes an inside look at some of the most significant ways that Canada is celebrating it’s 150th anniversary as a country. In contrast to the “melting pot” of America which has often been criticized for how it seems to demand conformity, Canada celebrates their “cultural mosaic” through the many initiatives shared below which all seem designed to bring diverse people together, celebr...
June 28, 2017
Netflix Lets Kids Choose Their Own Adventure In New Episode
What if you could craft your own story in a television episode? Netflix is experimenting with letting kids do exactly that in a new episode of The Adventures of Puss in Boots by giving them half a dozen choices in the episode that each send the story in a different direction. It’s a bold experiment that many in the TV industry are watching with interest to see if this type of interactive story may be a feature that catches on with viewers.
Read the full story on [The New York Times] >
Love no...
June 27, 2017
Etrade Sells Everything That Is Wrong With Capitalism
Some financial services firms will tell you to save for retirement and adopt better spending habits. Others, like eTrade, will promote the idea that getting on their platform and making a few quick investments can help you buy a yacht you don’t need and behave like an asshole. That’s the silly premise of this widely criticized ad that glorifies exactly the kind of short term, me-first, Wall Street “bro” investment thinking that causes so many problems in the world in the first place.
June 25, 2017
Instagram Launches Feature To Let Users Archive Embarrassing Photos
This week Instagram quietly rolled out a feature to let users archive posts to hide them from the public. In a world where many users post things they later regret, this type of profile management is something that other social media platforms will likely consider to offer users an alternative to deleting their old posts. The interesting side effect this will create is a new category of content that people choose to keep private on the platform, which creates it own type of data of why some c...
June 23, 2017
Yoplait Bravely Tells Moms To Give Kids Sugar Because It Tastes Good
Trying to reverse its declining market share, Yoplait’s new campaign skips competing on health to focus on taste instead. The ad brings to life all the things moms are often criticized for – like breastfeeding in public or having kids later in life – and invites moms to “Do What Tastes Right” and forget about giving their kids healthy food because they’ll probably like Yoplait yogurt better. It’s one of those ads where you watch the first 90% and marvel at just how well they seem to understan...
June 22, 2017
The Surprising Brand That Won Big At Cannes
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 campaign created something unique and memorable and managed to make a brand in a category no one pays attention to relevant, interesting and worth of discussion.
