Entertainment - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

The Tricky Task of Monetizing Esports

February 24, 2023

This week, the esports talent agency GameSquare announced that it hired Tyler “Ninja” Blevins as its Chief Innovation Officer. A famous Fortnite streamer with more than 17 million followers on the platform Twitch, the company said Ninja will “curate disruptive strategies, pursue new business opportunities, and explore next-gen technologies to accelerate the [e-sports] industry’s growth within pop culture.” This will also give Ninja another source of revenue besides streaming, which he claims to earn $500,000 a month from while keeping Continue reading →

Dog Food Brand Tops USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Poll

February 14, 2023

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When it comes to Super Bowl ads, there are two factors that usually help companies stand out from the rest of the pack: making people laugh, or failing that, being such a big brand that people cannot help but think of your ad after the game. This year, though, the spot that took first place in USA Today’s annual Ad Meter poll did not try for comedy, nor did it come from a major company that routinely tops the list. Continue reading →

Marketing, Sports, Branding, Entertainment, Advertising, Super Bowl

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion

[VIDEOS] Budweiser Will See Its First Super Bowl Competition in 33 Years

February 8, 2023

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In 1989, Anheuser-Busch signed an agreement with the NFL giving the brewer exclusive rights to advertise alcohol nationally during the Super Bowl. After 33 years of having a monopoly over big game beer ads, however, AB InBev decided not to renew their license this year. And as the video below shows, the field is now wide open for companies like MillerCoors to reach a big national audience that has previously been unavailable to them.

Questions:

Do you think it was Continue reading →

Marketing, Sports, Branding, Entertainment, Advertising, Super Bowl, Food & Drink

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Videos

[VIDEO] Why Lego Is Way More than a Toy Company

February 3, 2023

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Lego grew to be the world’s largest toymaker by appealing to many different kinds of customers, from kids and collectors to corporations looking for fun team-building activities. The Danish company manages to reach lots of people by licensing popular properties like Stars Wars and Marvel for a range of content like movies, TV shows, and video games. This video looks at how Lego drives toy sales by branching out into entertainment that reinforces its brand and grows its customer Continue reading →

Marketing, Global, Licensing, Branding, Entertainment, Lego, Television, Movies

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Videos

[VIDEO] The Multi-Billion Dollar Business of BTS

December 14, 2022

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The members of the K-pop group BTS are more than just entertainers: they’re financial juggernauts who have contributed billions of dollars to the South Korean economy. The video below looks at how BTS leverages their massive global audience to develop lucrative brand partnerships with everyone from McDonald’s to Louis Vuitton. This bonanza of cash might not go on forever, though, with the group announcing they were taking a brief hiatus that could potentially blunt their branding power.

Questions:

What Continue reading →

Marketing, Global, Product Development, Branding, Promotions, Entertainment, McDonald’s, Music, Product Distribution, South Korea, Celebrities

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Videos

Big Business Gets a Big Boost from Controversial World Cup

December 2, 2022

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The 2022 FIFA World Cup moves into the knockout stages this weekend, a nerve-wracking time when teams can be eliminated with a single loss. While the tournament’s soccer stars will experience a dramatic increase of tension on the field, the host country Qatar has already faced plenty of global pressure since FIFA awarded them the event in 2010. The Middle East nation has long been accused of using corruption to land the World Cup, leading to a 2015 indictment from Continue reading →

Ticketmaster Buckles under the Pressure of Taylor Swift Tour

November 18, 2022

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Last month Taylor Swift released her 10th album Midnights, which shocked the recording industry by selling the equivalent of 1,578,000 copies. Songs from the album also occupied every slot of Billboard’s Top 10 singles chart, the first time in history that an artist has achieved this feat. Needless to say, anticipation for Swift’s upcoming tour grew to massive proportions on the eve of a pre-sale event planned for earlier this week. Ticketmaster established a Verified Fan program to keep Continue reading →

Marketing, Ethics, Promotions, Entertainment, Regulation, Music, Product Distribution, Monopolies, Supply & Demand

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 5: Forms of Business Ownership, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

Adidas Cuts Ties with Kanye West

October 26, 2022

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A few weeks ago, we looked at the sprawling global sneaker industry and how companies like Adidas earn billions annually thanks in large part to their unique brand partnerships. The German sneaker giant’s most profitable celebrity connection over the years has been with Kanye West (now known as Ye), with whom Adidas has collaborated on the Yeezy line of shoes and clothing for nearly a decade. This partnership has been hugely profitable: one data research firm estimates that Yeezy is Continue reading →

[VIDEO] Why Oboes Are So Expensive

October 7, 2022

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This fascinating video takes a close look at the painstaking process for making oboes, a woodwind that stands out as one of the most expensive instruments in any orchestra. The artisans depicted below must contend with costly and dwindling supplies as well as limited demand from a small and selective market, factors that make this specialty business even more complicated.

Questions:

Why are the material costs for oboes so high compared to other instruments like flutes and clarinets?
How does Continue reading →

Global, Manufacturing, Product Development, Entertainment, Music, Product Distribution, United Kingdom, Supply & Demand, Artisanal production, Labor costs

Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Videos

Using Lego to Build Office Creativity

September 2, 2022

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Last year, the Danish building-block company Lego earned more than 7 billion euros in sales, making it far and away the top toymaker in the world. Once on the brink of bankruptcy in the early 2000s, Lego turned things around when it focused exclusively on construction bricks along with licensed sets based on popular franchises like Star Wars and Harry Potter. Now the company’s dominance extends even into the offices of the world’s biggest corporations as part of team-building exercises Continue reading →

Management, Motivation, Training, Human Resources, Entertainment, Lego, Office Culture, Team building

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 8: Organizational Culture and Structure, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management