Apple stores are so popular that they increase sales by 10% in the malls where they’re located.
Power of brands
Brands – both people and products – are the ultimate trendsetters.
When Megan Thee Stallion released her ‘Savage’ remix, featuring a line about Beyonce joining OnlyFans. The site saw a 15% spike in traffic.
Borat’s depiction of Kazakhstan was not only grossly inaccurate but also offensive. But that didn’t stop tourists planning a trip. Then-foreign minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov admitted six years after the movie’s release that “the number of visas issued by Kazakhstan grew tenfold” before he outlined how he was “grateful to Borat for helping attract tourists to Kazakhstan.”
Car brands create status. In a study on dating website HotOrNot.com, three pictures showed the same man with the same background – the only thing that changed was the car he was next to. The more expensive the car, the higher his rating.
In the film Cast Away, Tom Hanks’ only desert island companion is a Wilson volleyball. A heartwarming friendship, and perhaps the most effective product placement of all time; Wilson paid nothing for the feature, which is unheard of in Hollywood today, and insiders say that it is still one of the top three things people know about the brand two decades later. In fact the brand still sells 20-25,000 ‘Cast Away’ balls per year.
Coca Cola is enjoyed in over 200 countries, and is available in the most remote places. Its presence is so universal that the former Zambian Health Minister complained that his country’s small villages stocked the brand but not lifesaving medicines.
It took Netflix 10 years to reach 100 million subscribers. It took Disney Plus just over one, thanks to Disney’s incredibly strong, century long, brand equity. (Though admittedly Netflix has won the streaming wars for the time being – leading the market with 300 million subscribers.)
In 2017 George Clooney sold his tequila brand Casamigos for $1 billion, and it became the fastest growing spirit brand of 2022. There’s no doubt it tastes good, but there’s also no doubt his fame contributed to its success. Clooney is one of several celebrities to create a successful alcohol brand; David Beckham & Haig Club, Ryan Reynolds & Aviation, Kendall Jenner & Gin 818 Tequila
In January 2016 Halo Top ice cream was making a few hundred thousands in revenue, but its big break came when a GQ writer detailed eating nothing but Halo Top for 10 days. According to co-founder Doug Bouton, “it put millions of eyeballs on the product” and doubled the brand’s sales within a month.
Uber may never have existed without James Bond. In Casino Royale, Bond tracks down Le Chiffre through a Sony Ericsson phone. The phone seems highly outdated by today’s standards, but it allowed Bond to see the location of his car update in real-time – an image that stuck with Uber co-founder Garrett Camp.
Don’t underestimate the influence of Lionel Messi. When the football legend joined Inter Miami FC; subscriptions to MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+ more than doubled; retailer Fanatics reported that Messi’s jersey was the top seller all sports; ticket prices skyrocketed by more than 1,700% on resale sites.
17 year old Luke Littler has single handedly changed darts. His 2023 World Championship final was the highest viewed non-football programme in the history of Sky Sports. For the Premier League Darts, which Littler joined via a guest invitation, there were 125,000 ticket sales on the first day; usually, they sell 60,000 in the first week.
The Mo Salah effect: after Salah joined Liverpool F.C. hate crimes in the Liverpool area dropped by 16%, and Liverpool F.C. fans halved their rates of posting anti-Muslim tweets relative to fans of other top-flight clubs.
Wedding dresses are synonymous with white, but we only have Queen Victoria to thank for this. For her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840, she decided to buck the trend of wearing red (white was reserved for courtrooms), and popularised a trend that has remained ever since.
After the Queen’s Gambit began ruling the Netflix charts in late 2020, Chess.com saw a 400% rise in registrations immediately, while US sales of chess sets on eBay soared by 60%.