Rocket launches are synonymous with countdowns (T minus), but this wasn’t a scientific invention. Austrian filmmaker Fritz Lang invented the countdown in his 1929 silent film Woman in the Moon, as a way of building suspense for the fictional launch. NASA adopted it as common practice decades later.
All Threads
The tennis superstar won 80% of the singles matches he played, but only 54% of the individual points. Not all points are made equal.
Christmas might be the most magical time of year but it’s still motivated by profit: Rudolph the Reindeer was originally a promotional tool. Retailer Montgomery Ward had been buying and giving away booklets for Christmas every year and decided that creating their own book would save money. So in 1939 copywriter Robert L. May created Rudolph as part of the first published book, eventually selling 2 million copies.
Michael O’Leary removed the add-ons that make flying pleasurable. Ryanair routinely ranks bottom in airline surveys. Its social media is full of complaints about cancelled flights and extra baggage fees. But it’s a ruthless provider of low fares and high punctuality, and Europe’s most profitable airline.
There are 15% more same-sex couples in US places that had gold rushes (e.g. California) than counties that didn’t: rush counties were isolated, mostly uninhabited and lacked strong formal institutions, which helped shaping pro-LGBT attitudes.
The Frame TV from Samsung highlights a fascinating and ever so simple approach to innovation that we often forget
As Benjamin Braun on Uncensored CMO explains couples would often argue over the size of the TV for their living rooms but that didn’t happen when they launched the new Frame TV
Why?
Simply because the Frame TV was used to display famous artwork or family photos when it wasn’t in use. Suddenly the conversation was around what you want to display in your living room rather than the maximum size acceptable in the space
Samsung has history doing this
Their first break into the TV market happened when they launched a TV as a piece of high quality furniture using the same principle
Rather than deciding what you want to make perhaps decide what your customer wants to be made?
Seeing your TV as a display for your most loved things in the world is suddenly making what was a highly rational decision into a highly emotional one
It’s a common piece of advice to juniors entering the workplace: the best way of getting stuck in and learning from those around you. At the same time, people love to cite Steve Jobs’ teaching that “innovating is saying no to 1000 things.” The reality is that both have merit – it just depends on the context.
The world’s greatest playwright was a serial borrower. All of Shakespeare’s plays were inspired by original source material; Hamlet comes from the Old Norse Saga of King Rolf Kraki, while A Midsummer Night’s Dream was based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.
Shein sells clothes for every need and occasion, but it was originally a portal to buy wedding dresses; branching out into womenswear in the early 2010s and to all types of fashion a few years later.
Rewe, a German supermarket, places baskets at the back of stores for people who have picked up too much to carry in their hands.
In surveys, shoppers tend to say they visit most of the supermarket. But observational studies show that most cover a small fraction of it, and only 2% visit more than ¾ of the total area.
Supermarkets sell more when they allow consumers to buy quickly. Conversely, a slow shopping experience limits sales.
In the film Sicario, Josh Brolin’s character pauses and looks away before he reveals the big plot twist: the FBI is trying to create single Colombian-run business that the US can more easily control. But the pause only came about because Josh Brolin forgot his lines.
The Sidemen channel recently released an eight part ‘Big Brother’ style YouTube series, which gained over 10 million views (more than the Prime Minister debate and Love Island combined). TV in disguise.