Think again. Over 55s are leading the charge in alcohol and drugs usage, sexually transmitted diseases and arrests – a result of having more disposable income, looser social attitudes, and fewer childcare responsibilities.
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A decade of innovation around special flavours has boosted Red Bull’s penetration and increased overall sales by 9%. They’ve also helped to position the brand as a fun and social drink; now, 1 in 4 Red Bull drinking occasions are because it is “fun to drink”.
When Dietrich Mateschitz visited Thailand in 1982, he discovered Krating Daeng: a locally sourced drink that helped to cure his jet lag. He was so impressed that he decided to adapt it for a western audience. He called it Red Bull.
1% of Reddit communities start 74% of all conflicts. In other words, most people are nice and friendly. It’s also a reminder that opinions on social media don’t reflect the general population.
At Noma in Copenhagen, René Redzepi restricts himself to using ingredients that grow in Nordic countries even there vegetation barely grows due to the cold weather. The result is that Redzepi works with ingredients other chefs wouldn’t think of touching – rotten seaweed, red ants, and fried fish scales – to create a menu of unexpected flavours diners can’t find elsewhere. As Redzepi says, “the best discoveries are hidden somewhere in insanity.”
Jennifer Fleiss, co-founder of Rent the Runway, had no background in fashion. But she says that “being naive is one of the best secrets of first time entrepreneurship. So we were naive enough to reach out to Diane von Furstenberg and to ask her advice and her time.” The meeting gave Fleiss important pointers for shaping the business.
What causes riots? A study of unrest in 50 African and Asian cities found that “peak levels of unrest occur in the upper 20s [degrees centigrade]”. In short, heat makes it nicer to be outside at night. It’s not a coincidence that the 2011 London riots started in peak August.
During Covid-19, the public was inundated with dates for lifting specific restrictions. To make things easy to follow, a developer created a handy timeline based on beer consumption (the number one priority for most of the UK).
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.
Samsung’s new product enabled customers to display artwork or photos when it wasn’t in use, reframing it from an item that took up unnecessary space to a key part of the decor. Suddenly, the conversation was around what you want to display in your living room, rather than the maximum TV size you found acceptable.
To address the issue of children in India not washing their hands with soap, Savlon created Healthy Hands Chalk Sticks. So when children put their hands under the tap before lunch, the chalk powder on their hands turned into soap on its own – a great example of starting a new behaviour off the back of an existing habit.
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.