Publications

December 2018 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Brand Activism: Nike and Colin Kaepernick

By: Jill Avery and Koen Pauwels

Nike's selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the 30th anniversary of its iconic "Just Do It" campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint for consumers across America. Would the choice... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Entertainment; Politics; Activism; Brand Equity; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Sports; Advertising; Social Media; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America

December 2010 (Revised March 2011)
Background Note

Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries

By: Anita Elberse

A note for educators describing an elective course for second-year MBA Students at Harvard Business School, "Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries." which focuses on strategic marketing challenges for firms in the creative industries, defined as industries that... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy

January 2002 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Valuing the AOL Time Warner Merger

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Rena Miller and John N Rei

On January 11, 2000, AOL and Time Warner announced their intention to merge, creating what AOL CEO Stephen Case and Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin called the 21st century's first fully integrated communications, media, and entertainment company. This case, prepared from... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Valuation; Situation or Environment; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

May 2007 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Maria Sharapova: Marketing a Champion (A)

By: Anita Elberse and Margarita Golod

In July 2004, a then 17-year-old Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon, arguably the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. Max Eisenbud, Sharapova's agent at International Management Group (IMG), knew the championship would lead to a flood of new opportunities. What... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Advertising; Gender; Product Marketing; Sports Industry

07 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

When Celebrity ‘Crypto-Influencers’ Rake in Cash, Investors Lose Big

disclosing compensation. Despite these concerns, more research is needed to determine the overall value of crypto influencers’ investment advice on social media, they write. Some top influencers in the space, such as Coinbase CEO Brian... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

21 Mar 2016
Lessons from the Classroom

When Your Classmate is an NBA Superstar (or Fashion Model, or Movie Actress)

It’s one thing to look at the entertainment business from an executive’s point of view. It’s quite another to see it through the eyes of a professional basketball player, supermodel, or actress. That mix of perspectives is exactly what... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Entertainment & Recreation; Entertainment & Recreation; Entertainment & Recreation; Entertainment & Recreation

Research Summary

Research Focus

By: Anita Elberse

My research focuses on "creative industries," defined as industries that supply goods that we commonly associate with artistic, cultural, or entertainment value -- including book and magazine publishing, film, music, television, video games, the performing... View Details

11 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

In the Future of Sports Investing, Media Is the Best Bet

"Selling tickets isn't where the money is," says Higgins, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, a veteran venture capitalist, and an owner of the Portland Pirates hockey team. "Sports media content is such a big part of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Sports; Financial Services

10 Nov 2011
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Making Lincoln Center Cool Again

New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the School of American Ballet, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The leadership structure is complex. In 2010, Lincoln Center's... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

January 2016 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Whither the Weather (Company): Forecasting 2016

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

CEO David Kenny led the transformation of the Weather Company from a television business to a Big Data technology company from 2012 until 2016, when IBM acquired its digital assets. This case discusses major decisions taken by Kenny starting in 2014 as he sought to... View Details

Keywords: Weather Company; IBM; Digital; Technology; David Kenny; Television; Weather Channel; Legacy Business; Mainstream; Newstream; Reorganization; Acquisitions; Transformation; Information Technology; Television Entertainment; Acquisition; Consolidation; Change; Leadership

January 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Lean Forward Media

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Victoria Winston

Jeff Norton and Michelle Crames, the co-founders of Lean Forward Media, face several options for producing the world's first interactive DVD film for children. Their vision is to build a company whose products simultaneously entertain children, engage them actively in... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Early Childhood Education; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Creativity

Find at Harvard

January 2011 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Mochi Media

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Amit Jain

In late 2009, the management of Mochi Media, a venture-backed startup, must decide how to invest scarce resources to achieve continued growth. Mochi has developed a three-sided platform, connecting Flash game developers, sites that aggregate these games, and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Network Effects; Multi-Sided Platforms; Partners and Partnerships; Competition

October 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

By: Sunil Gupta and Kerry Herman

In September 2010, faced with increasing threat from social game companies such as Zynga, Ben Feder, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive Software. Inc., had to decide the long-term strategy of his video-game company. As a publisher of traditional video games for Xbox 360,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Leadership Style; Marketing; Competitive Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

November 2018
Case

Sportradar (A): From Data to Storytelling

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karen Elterman and Oliver Gassmann

In 2013, the Swiss sports data company Sportradar debated whether to expand from its core business of data provision to bookmakers into sports media products. Sports data was becoming a commodity, and in the future, sports leagues might reduce their dependence on... View Details

Working Paper

An AI Method to Score Celebrity Visual Potential from Human Faces

By: Flora Feng, Shunyuan Zhang, Xiao Liu, Kannan Srinivasan and Cait Lamberton

Celebrities have extraordinary abilities to attract and influence others. Predicting celebrity visual potential is important in the domains of business, politics, media, and entertainment. Can we use human faces to predict celebrity visual potential? If so, which... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Personal Characteristics; Analysis; Entertainment