Publications

Read Now

April 1999 (Revised September 2000)
Case

Interep National Radio Sales, Inc.

By: Benson P. Shapiro, Stephen X. Doyle and Wade Myers

Interep must mobilize sales information technology, organizational structures, and sales management processes to protect and enhance its strong position as a radio advertising sales firm. Opportunities and risks are high in this complex, rapidly changing sales agency... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Sales; Strategy; Information Technology; Advertising; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities; Fluctuation; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; New York (state, US)

Find at Harvard

February 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

The Ford Fiesta

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Executives at Ford wondered if social media could be the marketing solution for the launch of the youth-oriented 2010 Fiesta. But with social media came a ceding of control. Some at the company believed that if Ford was going to move beyond its conservative brand image... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Digital Marketing; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Standards; Auto Industry

April 2023
Technical Note

An Art & A Science: How to Apply Design Thinking to Data Science Challenges

By: Michael Parzen, Eddie Lin, Douglas Ng and Jessie Li

We hear it all the time as managers: “what is the data that backs up your decisions?” Even local mom-and-pop shops now have access to complex point-of-sale systems that can closely track sales and customer data. Social media influencers have turned into seven-figure... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Framework; Analytics and Data Science

September 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells, Carole A. Winkler and Benjamin Weinstock

In August 2019, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The first major storm of protest followed the surprise election of Donald Trump as President of the United States on November 8, 2016; many put the blame at the door of fake... View Details

November 1993
Case

Colonial Broadcasting Co.

Colonial Broadcasting, a major American television network, must determine whether fact-based television movies garner higher Nielsen ratings than movies based on fictional concepts. Furthermore, the network must decide whether to accept a fixed-fee advertising... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Advertising; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

February 2023 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Twitter Turnaround and Elon Musk

By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic

Late afternoon on Friday, October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk was the center of attention at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. The night before, Musk officially took the company private and became Twitter’s majority shareholder, finally ending a months-long acquisition... View Details

Keywords: Elon Musk; Twitter; Acquisition; Revenue; Advertising; Social Media; Business or Company Management; Public Opinion; Job Cuts and Outsourcing

02 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ‘A Social Strategy’

book excerpt What My Research Revealed, In Broad Strokes From A Social Strategy: How We Profit From Social Media By Mikolaj Jan Piskorski As I began my research, it quickly became clear that there are two major ways in which companies... View Details

30 Dec 2013
HBS Case

HBS Cases: What Warren Buffett Saw in Newspapers

advertising revenues over the past decade, as readers turned from print to more immediate sources of news. Coupled with rising printing, paper, and labor costs, the decreasing revenues created falling margins and increased leverage... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; Journalism & News; Publishing

October 2001 (Revised April 2002)
Case

America Online, Inc.: Disclosure Strategy

By: Amy P. Hutton and David Lane

Since going public, AOL had disclosed on a quarterly basis supplemental metrics meant to give analysts and investors a way of tracking growth in its subscriber base and the value created through its marketing efforts. These metrics gave management's conversations with... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Internet and the Web; Change Management; Internet and the Web; Corporate Disclosure; Media; Digital Marketing; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

Find at Harvard

March 2017 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells and Carole A. Winkler

In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016 had triggered a national storm of protests, and many attributed Trump’s victory to... View Details

23 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 23, 2015

associated with the incumbent attracting and retaining more profitable customers over time. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=39914 Build It, Buy It Or Both? Rethinking the Sourcing of Advertising... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2022
Background Note

The Future of E-Commerce: Lessons from the Livestream Wars in China

By: Ayelet Israeli, Jeremy Yang and Billy Chan

This note explores the emerging multi-billion dollar commerce trend of livestream commerce. Livestream commerce is the sale of goods or services directly to consumers via live shows on digital platforms (such as social media or e-commerce platforms). It is a form of... View Details

20 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Users Love Ello, But What’s the Business Model?

Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration, provide insights into the next generation of social networks, and what kind of network they'd build with unlimited funding. Q: How native is advertising to the social View Details

Keywords: Re: John A. Deighton & Sunil Gupta; Publishing; Financial Services

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

http://hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=809062 JWT China: Advertising for the New Chinese Consumer Harvard Business School Case 809-079 This case analyzes the business strategy and expansion of JWT China from the late... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 May 2008
Research & Ideas

The Marketing Challenges of the China Olympics

advertising boost may be less than expected. Instead of long-term preset media advertising buys, many companies are planning short-term promotional bursts that they can... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Sports

07 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

Improving Brand Recognition in TV Ads

Advertisers pay millions of dollars to air TV ads that, by some estimates, more than a third of viewers skip over with digital VCRs or by switching channels or tuning out altogether. New research by HBS professor Thales S. Teixeira offers... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Media & Broadcasting; Media & Broadcasting

March 2011 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Vestas' World of Wind

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Elena Corsi

The wind turbine manufacturer Vestas launched the industry's first highly localized and customized new product launch campaigns which used also new tools such as web 2.0 platforms. Used to operate in a market where demand exceeded supply, Vestas had lost contact with... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Marketing Channels; Internet and the Web; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Advertising Campaigns; Global Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Finance; Product Marketing; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry

April 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Background Note

Television Competes for a Digital Audience

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

In the face of major disruption in the industry television networks have sought new revenue sources, implemented cost-cutting measures and strategized on ways to monetize online access to content. Programming changes, new advertising strategies, and deals via online... View Details

Keywords: Television Entertainment; Marketing Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry

December 2004 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Hasbro Games -- POX (A)

By: David B. Godes and Elie Ofek

Hasbro's newest toy is so unique it requires a unique launch strategy. Comparing traditional media (TV, print) with a non-traditional viral campaign, Matt Collins must weigh the risks and benefits of doing things the way they've always been done or blazing a new path... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Cost vs Benefits; Marketing Strategy; Advertising Campaigns; Product Launch; Innovation and Invention; Entertainment and Recreation Industry