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.
All Threads
Graduates of top universities earn more in the future, but how much of that is down to the teaching? After all, the top universities are more likely to receive applications from people who are already bright. A US study got around this by analysing students who got into top universities, like Stanford and Yale, but decided not to go. These students didn’t seem to suffer by attending less-selective schools. Apparently, an acceptance letter from Stanford was as good as attending Stanford.
According to UK law, graffiti “is an act of criminal damage, and those found guilty can be punished with a maximum fine of £5,000.” But when Bansky does it, and tourists flock to see the work, it’s considered artistic genius.
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The hospital consulted with the Ferrari F1 pit crew team to improve its ICU handover process. After all, who better to copy than a team replacing four tires and filling a tank of gas in a matter of seconds? The hospital eventually created its equivalent of a pit crew ‘lollipop man’ – the individual who only waves a driver through after making sure everyone else on the team has put the tires on. After changing its protocol, the hospital’s error rate dropped from 30% to 10%.
Greggs has focused on occasions to expand its customer base. Although traditionally a breakfast bakery, extended opening hours means the evening (post 4pm) is now the business’s fastest-growing meal time. It even won a licence to open its Leicester Square branch until 2am on weekends. And with sales up by 20% in 2023, the ambition to ‘mean more to more people’ is certainly paying off.
Before his fame and as a young student in New York, Tom Ford visited the townhouse of a fellow designer Halston. “I copied everything, the long, low grey couches, everything, from Halston’s apartment for the Gucci store design.” Ford loved the actual Halston place so much that he bought it in 2019.
In the 80’s, regulations meant Guinness could no longer say it was good for you. So the brand responded in style.
In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, the then managing director of the Guinness Breweries, became involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the red grouse. He realised that there was no book to settle the argument, and knew that there must have been numerous other questions debated nightly among the public. So he created the Guinness World Records.
The pandemic was supposed to kill off gyms: who would want to pay when there were so many free alternatives at home? Yet 5 years on, gym memberships are at a record level (at least in the UK).
When business travellers were asked which hotel facilities were most important in their choice of hotel, 70% said the gym. But in reality, only 17% use the gym when they stay.
The brand was born online, but Gymshark is now heavily investing in physical marketing; recently opening its flagship store on Regent Street in London, and routinely hosting live events where hundreds of fans exercise together.
Reuben Mattus coined the name “Häagen-Dazs” to make the (American) brand sound more Danish. Interestingly letters like “ä” and digraphs like “zs” do not actually exist in Danish.
Halo Top was started by an ex-lawyer who, in his own words, “just wanted to eat an entire pint of ice cream and not hate himself for it.”