digital advertising - Publications - Faculty & Research

January 2019 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

Hubble Contact Lenses: Data Driven Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

Teaching Note for HBS No. 519-011. As its Series A extension round approaches, the founders of Hubble, a subscription-based, social-media fueled, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand of contact lenses, are reflecting on the marketing strategies that have taken them to a... View Details

Citation

Purchase

September 2011 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Brightcove, Inc. in 2007

By: Andrei Hagiu and David B. Yoffie

Brightcove, a technology and services provider to content owners in the Internet television field, aimed to become a media distribution company in its own right. On October 30, 2006, it relaunched its Website—and, in effect, its business. With its new, consumer-facing... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Diversification; Digital Platforms; Business Strategy; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Distribution; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

13 Jul 2016
HBS Case

How Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy Attracted Their First 1,000 Customers

the cheap,” says Teixeira—adding that digital marketing also makes it easy for companies to rapidly iterate its advertising message, tweaking it to figure out what works best. “Only after passing the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service; Transportation

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

and services including computers, handheld devices, servers, and digital entertainment, employed 172,000 people and posted $104 billion in sales in 2007. PSG, one of HP's three major divisions, offered notebook and desktop personal... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

25 Apr 2023
Op-Ed

How SHEIN and Temu Conquered Fast Fashion—and Forged a New Business Model

digital marketing to place stylish fast-fashion merchandise in front of target customers on social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, as well as on its own website and mobile apps. Additionally, it has used email... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton; Fashion; Retail; Consumer Products

November 2017
Teaching Note

Tencent

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 718-426. Tencent had undergone many transformations since it was founded in 1998 as a simple messaging service. In 2017, it was the largest online games provider in China with a wide range of game types, China’s largest social networking... View Details

Keywords: Tencent; Tencent Holdings; WeChat; Social Networking; Social Networks; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Video Games; Computer Games; Mobile Gaming; Portals; Payments; Mobile Payments; O2O; Online-to-offline; E-commerce; Messaging; Subscription Model; Freemium; Mobile App Industry; Smartphone; PC; Monetization Strategy; Antitrust; Streaming; Cloud Computing; Artificial Intelligence; Big Data; Alibaba; Facebook; JD.com; Tesla; Bundling; Synergies; Digital Strategy; Imitation; Licensing; Agility; Entry Barriers; Online Platforms; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Joint Ventures; Restructuring; Communication Technology; Blogs; Interactive Communication; Interpersonal Communication; Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Price; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business History; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Social Marketing; Network Effects; Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Industry Growth; Monopoly; Media; Distribution Channels; Service Delivery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Government Relations; Groups and Teams; Networks; Opportunities; Social and Collaborative Networks; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Value Creation; Emerging Markets; Product Development; Segmentation; Business Units; Communication; Profit; Communications Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Financial Services Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; China; Canton (province, China)

Citation

Purchase

27 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on 2010’s Biggest Business Developments

advertisements to building their own outlets and content. Kraft Foods, for example, is now one of the largest publishers of food-related materials. IBM is launching thought leadership communities. PepsiCo uses social networks to reach... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

03 May 2017
HBS Seminar

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, The New York Times and Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

16 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million

to reach new people. Unlike traditional mass media advertising such as local TV commercials or print ads, which are expensive and time-consuming, paid digital media such as Google search ads, Facebook ads,... View Details

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira and Michael Blanding; Retail; Transportation; Accommodations

Web

Marketing - Faculty & Research

community's annual 'Oscars'. The winners of this category are the Marketing cases that were used in the largest number of organizations across the globe in the preceding calendar year. Article Minimum Advertised Pricing: Patterns of... View Details

19 Oct 2009
Research & Ideas

Why Are Web Sites So Confusing?

the most popular items (e.g., bread, milk) in the furthest possible place from the entrance; that shopping malls seem designed to make sure you get lost at every single visit; and that popular magazines drown the content they carry in a sea of View Details

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu & Bruno Jullien

29 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Is There a Method to Musk’s Madness on Twitter?

an influential but unprofitable business that lost money eight of the last 10 years. Now, digital ad revenues are falling pretty rapidly across the internet, and advertisers are pausing or bailing on... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Technology

18 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

'Likes' Lead to Nothing—and Other Hard-Learned Lessons of Social Media Marketing

a direct connection between a social media chat about a product with the actual purchase of that product. “The biggest challenge right now is that all this money is shifting into digital marketing, but there are still a lot of questions... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Advertising; Advertising

11 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Doing Well by Doing Good? One Industry’s Struggle to Balance Values and Profits

transforming how work is done and how people are paid for it. This heightened tension between moral and material goals may be nowhere as intense as it is in journalism, a field with strong ethical convictions at its core, but whose business model has been decimated by... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

17 Jan 2024
HBS Case

Psychological Pricing Tactics to Fight the Inflation Blues

pricing is everywhere—because it still works Charm pricing is one of the most familiar pricing techniques out there: setting prices ending in 99, whether it’s a supermarket advertising fruit at $2.99 a pound or a streaming service... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Consumer Products; Retail

08 Aug 2022
HBS Case

Building an 'ARMY' of Fans: Marketing Lessons from K-Pop Sensation BTS

What would it take to attract customers who are so loyal that they would not only buy your products, but would also lavish your distributors with flowers and purchase advertising to elevate your brand? Ask the minds behind K-pop sensation... View Details

Keywords: by Shalene Gupta; Media & Broadcasting; Music

2021
Working Paper

The Value of Data and Its Impact on Competition

By: Marco Iansiti

Common regulatory perspective on the relationship between data, value, and competition in online platforms has increasingly centered on the volume of data accumulated by incumbent firms. This view posits the existence of "data network effects," where more data leads to... View Details

Keywords: Online Platforms; Data Network Effects; Analytics and Data Science; Value; Competition; Digital Platforms

Citation

SSRN

Read Now

17 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 17

self-reinforcing during the sample period, which, in turn, has implications for the consequences of IFRS adoption. Publisher's link: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1590245 August 2013 Journal of Advertising Research Optimizing the Amount of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Profile

Pam Chan

Her role: advertising sales for Southeast Asia. "All companies say they want to be transformed digitally," Pam observes, "but most are struggling. It makes sense to start with digital View Details

Keywords: CPG; Tech

July 2023
Case

Crocs: Using Community-Centric Marketing to Make Ugly Iconic

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

In 2022, the Crocs Classic Clog was the best-selling item of clothing on Amazon, the brand was one of the fastest growing brands in the U.S., and global net revenue had increased to approximately $3.6 billion. By most accounts, Crocs had become the “it” shoe. Crocs... View Details