But not according to actual purchase data, which shows that the differences are marginal. And where there are slight skews, it’s mainly because older groups buy the category less often – so they simply have less opportunity to shop around!
Sam Salama
And yet, as Grace Kite shows, campaign ROI is highest when 40-50% of the budget is spent online. Just because they’re unconventional, it doesn’t mean they’re ineffective.
It’s a phrase used time and again in brand tracking, but as Andrew Tenzer points out it’s not particularly helpful: it means many different things, depending on who you ask.
Art historians have come up with several explanations for the painting’s meaning, all of which may be misguided. According to Picasso himself, “this bull is a bull and this horse is a horse. If you give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true, but it is not my idea to give this meaning. I paint the objects for what they are.”
In 2024, sales of plastic bags increased for the first time since 2015. Why? The cumulative effect of the online shopping boom, which uses plastic bags by default. Ocado, perhaps most synonymous with the practice, sold 221 million plastic bags in 2024 – the equivalent of 51 per cent of the total sold in the UK.
This group of politically engaged, cosmopolitan, and environmentally conscious people only make up 8% of the total UK population, but they account for the vast majority of Labour party members and policy employees. I’d argue the gap is a big deal, given this group is responsible for setting the entire country’s agenda.
The celebrity dating app currently has a 2.5 million person waitlist, but a user base in the low six figures. Why doesn’t it let more people in? According to CEO Daniel Gendelman this exclusivity is the very key to its success: Raya is thriving because lots of people aren’t on it – but want to be.
A clever bit of editing can turn the trailer for Harry Potter 6 – arguably the darkest film in the franchise – into a classic teen comedy. It’s surprising how well it fits, and it’s worth checking out other re-cut trailers (e.g. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a horror).
In 2022, Google adjusted its search algorithms to surface Reddit threads more often. The result? Reddit went from 57 million visits from Google US to 427 million in less than a year. Reddit’s own numbers told a similar story: its total traffic was growing by 50% with no signs of slowing down.
The most successful sitcom of the 90’s was a product of pet peeves. As Jerry Seinfeld explains, “it’s very important to know what you don’t like. A big part of innovation is saying, “You know what I’m really sick of?”” As viewers of the show will know, what makes it special is the relatability of the characters’ problems.
Social media is no longer social – we are using it less to keep up friends, and more to pass the time and to follow strangers. In fact a recent FTC filing revealed that only 17% of time spent on Facebook involves consuming content from friends, with the majority spent watching random videos recommended by the algorithm.
Spain is one hour ahead of the UK despite being, geographically, on the same time zone. The reason? In 1940, General Franco aligned Spain’s national clock with Germany’s, to show support for the Nazi regime, and it has stayed like that ever since. It’s a key reason why cultural activities take place so late in Spain.
In 1951, when the Dartmouth football team played against Princeton, undergraduates at each college saw different versions of the very same game. In a post match survey, they both thought the other college had started the rough play and had been unnecessarily dirty. An early example of confirmation bias in action: we see what we want to see.
Homes priced at £1mn or more only make up 5 per cent of total residential transactions across the UK, but they account for nearly half the stamp duty collected.
The taxi service – a poster child for technological disruption – has gone old school: it now accepts cash payments in the UK (outside London). It turns out that a significant proportion of people still find it difficult to use an app.