We have a theory that consumer purchasing behavior in the food category is evolving more rapidly than most people thought. While it’s certainly not a complete surprise, few people envisioned the growth of online grocery sales in the U.S. reaching an estimated $17.5 billion annually in 2018. That’s four times the amount purchased only six years ago.
A September Saturday in a college town has an undeniable energy. It’s hard to walk down a sidewalk without being greeted by the smell of cheeseburgers grilling at a tailgate party. Or the fight song signaling a touchdown.
Video games. They’ve been with us since the late 1950s, believe it or not, although the first video game to gain widespread popularity was the tennis game, Pong, in the 1970s. Flash forward to today and video games are a $109 billion industry with more than 2 billion gamers across the globe. To put that in perspective, the movie industry makes just over $36 billion in yearly revenues. Games are big. And they’re not just for teenage boys anymore, as anyone with a mother hooked on Candy Crush will tell you.
In the book (or movie if you prefer) Ready Player One, the protagonist, Wade, puts on a pair of virtual reality goggles and a sensory suit, steps onto an omnidirectional track pad, and he is instantly transformed into another person and transported to another world. That is the promise of VR. We’re a little way from a complete transformative experience, which is why the story is set several decades in the future, but what’s possible in the here and now with VR technology is pretty amazing stuff in its own right.
The question isn’t new to university marketing professionals. In fact, universities across the country have been trying to answer this question for decades. How do you effectively incorporate a highly acclaimed college, school or department into a comprehensive university brand?
Video as an advertising tool has been around for nearly 80 years. The very first TV commercial for Bulova Watch Company, which was 10 seconds long and ran during a Brooklyn Dodgers game in 1941, stated simply, “America runs on Bulova time.”
According to Charity Navigator, charitable giving in the U.S. increased in 2017 for the third year in a row, and experts predict the trend will continue this year. For the first time, giving exceeded the $400 billion mark, with giving by individuals accounting for 70% of the total. There are a number of theories to explain the increase in charitable giving, but one of the most intriguing explanations is the impact of the current news cycle.
