The Economist Group believes that only the people and brands with great ideas are successful in today's ideas economy. That's why we are constantly searching for key trends and insights that will help to stimulate fresh ideas.
Below is a selection of articles, presentations and research from The Economist that we hope will ignite your thinking.
If you have a specific request for insights or require further information, please contact your sales representative.
The Economist's Lightbulb Factory spotlights key insights from the pages of The Economist and other publications and blogs from The Economist Group for people in the communications business, to help them spark ideas. Readers love The Economist for the inspiration it gives them. It stretches their horizons, makes connections they may not have thought of and sets them thinking in new ways. At The Lightbulb Factory we highlight some insights that we believe will inspire advertisers and marketers and could have an impact on their future plans and campaigns. You can visit The Lightbulb Factory here.
The Lightbulb Factory is currently being updated and will be up and running again soon.
USEFUL ARTICLES FROM THE LIGHTBULB FACTORY
October 2nd 2012
Forget Facebook. Business software start-ups are sexy again
Can the spirit of enterprise be taught?
Some sensible ideas for reviving America’s entrepreneurial spirit
September 25th 2012
High-tech fashion: Burberry goes digital
July 24th 2012
Advertising agencies: The lion’s Dentsu
The music business: Universal's gamble
Advertising on mobile phones: Attack of the covert commercials
July 3rd
Google advances its plan to bring smart glasses to the masses
Fighting for the next billion shoppers
June 26th 2012
Do high quality products simply sell themselves?
Q&A with Twitter's boss Dick Costolo
An A-Z of business quotations: Advertising
June 12th 2012
The scent of a city, in a bottle: could you market it?
New York’s flourishing Yotel scene
Internet forces magazines to get smarter
May 23rd 2012
Interview with OgilvyOne London's Annette King and Anthony Marris
Advertising on Facebook: outdated logic
The world's most exclusive social network
May 14th 2012
Vegemite abroad: how do you market a product people hate?
Is it better to be a copycat in business?
Fly anywhere, any time, for life
Zuckerberg's rocket, ready for lift-off
May 8th 2012
People are travelling less often within Britain – is online shopping the reason?
When clever one-liners go wrong
February 27th 2012
Shopping and the internet
Retailers are striving to combine the advantages of physical shops with the benefits of online selling
Enhanced e-books: Truly moving literature
The next frontier for nervous publishers
Platform wars
Is the PC’s dominance coming to an end?
February 20th 2012
Apple in China
End of the iPad?
European carmakers: Too many cars, too few buyers
Luxury cars are speeding ahead; lesser brands are stalled
Google and online privacy
A cookie monster?
This time it’s serious
America is becoming a less attractive place to do business
February 13th 2012
Social networking for scientists: Professor Facebook
More connective tissue may make academia more efficient
Monitoring movements
Gestures of intent
ZuRich
The cost of living across the globe
Groupon
At a loss
February 6th 2012
Floating Facebook: The value of friendship
Facebook is likely to become a gargantuan company. That will bring risks as well as rewards
Press regulation: Guarding the guardians
The phone-hacking scandal has led to calls for stricter press regulation. Publishers are scrambling for a solution before one is imposed on them
Mapping Facebook
Dominant social networks by country
Social media: #AfricaTweets
A new report details the use of Twitter in Africa. Here is the short version
January 23rd 2012
Flat-panel displays
Cracking up
Urbanising China: A nation of city slickers
A first in Chinese history: city-dwellers outnumber the rural population
Web statistics
How many people saw the SOPA blackout?
January 3rd 2012
Too much buzz
Social media provides huge opportunities, but will bring huge problems
Ethnic advertising: One message, or many?
The uses and limitations of ethnic ads
Insulting advertisements
When rudeness sells
December 19th 2011
Sex and advertising: Retail therapy
How Ernest Dichter, an acolyte of Sigmund Freud, revolutionised marketing
Big and clever
Why large firms are often more inventive than small ones
Advertising: Four more years
The doyen of French advertising shows no sign of slowing down, still less of standing down
The future of film
Going to the movies again?
November 28th 2011
E-commerce in China: The great leap online
China will become the world’s most valuable market for e-commerce
Facebook and social connectivity
Closer friends
A world of bluestockings
Women are now more highly educated than men, but they don’t get the jobs to match
November 21st 2011
Social networking
Online pecking order
A guide to goodness
Want to know if a product is virtuous? There’s an app for that
Google Music: Battle of the bands
The web giant launches a rival to Apple’s iTunes
Retailing in America: ’Tis the season to be frugal
Some retailers will thrive this holiday season, but most won’t
November 7th 2011
Personalised news
The struggle to make money out of news on tablets
(This article refers to a Pew Research Center report into the tablet revolution and what it means for news, commissioned by The Economist Group. To download this report, click here)
Retailing: Spies in your wallet
Loyalty cards do not make customers loyal, but retailers are devoted to them
The reality-television business
Many of the world’s most popular television shows were invented in Britain. But competition is growing
Wikipedia’s fund-raising
The online encyclopedia needs its users’ money and volunteers’ time. Gaining the first is the easier task
October 31st 2011
Be afraid: machines can now see what we are thinking
Mind-reading - the terrible truth
Nokia’s new phones: Not drowning, but waving
The struggling phonemaker shows off its first Windows handsets
IBM’s new boss: Steady as she goes
A smooth transition at Big Blue
Human decision-making: Not so smart now
The father of behavioural economics considers the feeble human brain
October 24th 2011
Webcams can now spot which ads catch your gaze
Facial monitoring can make advertising more effective by reading your mood and checking your vital signs
The economics of Groupon
Cursed by copycats
Blog: Streaming video
How the film studios are now desperate to rewind their video businesses back to better times
Schumpeter: The art of selling
The death of the salesman has been greatly exaggerated
October 17th 2011
Branding Japan as “cool”: No limits, no laws
The beautiful people join hands with the bureaucrats
Blog: Popular concerns
Making the monoculture
Blog: Text messages
The end of an affair
RIM and its troubles: BlackBerry blues
Research In Motion can ill afford embarrassing service interruptions
October 10th 2011
Digital newspapers: Another brick in the wall
The rapid rise of newspaper paywalls
Steve Jobs: A genius departs
The astonishing career of the world’s most revered chief executive
Alcohol in Africa: Keep on walking
Persuading Africans to switch from beer to Scotch
October 3rd 2011
Social-media
Making sense of a torrent of tweets
Amazon: The Walmart of the web
The internet giant’s new tablet computer fits its strategy of developing big businesses by charging small prices
Samsung: The next big bet
The world’s biggest information-technology firm is diving into green technology and the health business. It should take care; its rivals should take notice
The fashion industry: The glossy posse
Catwalks in the West, action in the East
Marketing tennis stars
The Djok’s on the sponsors
September 26th 2011
Hidden Persuaders II: Secrets of the marketing profession
A marketing guru reveals some of the secrets of his profession
Catering to Chinese tourists: Have money, will travel
A billion pairs of itchy feet
Women and jobs: What women do
Economic growth has surprisingly little effect on the wage gap
Showmanship in the tech industry
The fight for Steve Jobs's crown
September 19th 2011
Microsoft and Intel: Wintel swings
The marriage that dominated personal computing becomes more open
Schumpeter: Green growth
Some emerging-world companies are combining growth with greenery
The revival of independent film: Scripts, not effects
Independent films are at last recovering from the slump
Frankfurt Motor Show: Autoficial intelligence
Where does the car end and the phone begin?
Pet care in Latin America: Man’s best amigo
Profits from pooches are more than petty cash
September 12th 2011
The books business: Great digital expectations
Digitisation may have came late to book publishing, but it is transforming the business in short order
Tablets
Forking Android
Bookselling: Spine chilling
Mass-market retailing changed publishing before the e-book
Schumpeter: Long walk to innovation
South Africa has been slow to innovate. That may be changing
More trouble for Yahoo!: Portal exit
The internet company boots out its boss. But it will struggle to reboot its business
September 3rd 2011
E-readers and magazines
It's still good to have gatekeepers
Doing business in Brazil: Rio or São Paulo?
For the first time in decades, Brazil’s Marvellous City looks attractive for business
Blog: Innovation
To boldly go where no start-up has gone before
Schumpeter: AT&T's big merger blocked
Tripped at the altar
August 29th 2011
Tablet computers
Does the tablet market really exist?
Against the tide
Faced with the menace of the internet, Asia’s censors are not yet giving up the ghost
Steve Jobs resigns: The minister of magic steps down
Can Silicon Valley’s most disruptive firm prosper without its maker?
The internet in China: Bashing Baidu
State television fires on China’s Google
August 22nd 2011
The future of pay-television: Breaking the box
The pay-TV model, principal generator of profits and good programmes in the media business, is coming apart
Tata’s Nano: Stuck in low gear
A brilliant, cheap little car has been a marketing disaster
Illegal downloading and media investment: Spotting the pirates
File-sharing rates vary hugely from country to country—with consequences for local media industries and global cultural trade
Google’s takeover of Motorola Mobility: Patently different
The battle in the mobile industry takes an unexpected turn
August 15th 2011
British newspapers
Who benefited from the phone-hacking scandal?
Apple and Samsung's symbiotic relationship
Slicing an Apple
Arab television: Battle of the box
Religious and political conflicts are played out on screen
Daily chart: Company histories
Corporate evolution
American business: Big Apple v Big Oil
Apple briefly becomes the world’s largest public company
August 8th 2011
Understanding the Indian consumer: The other Asian giant
Companies are scrambling to decode the Indian consumer
Internet companies: Attack of the clones
American web firms are battling foreign hordes that look remarkably similar
Innovation: Think different
Clay Christensen lays down some rules for innovators. But can innovation be learned?
Everyone’s a critic: Blogs, food and wine
Reviewing restaurants was once an art. Now people post their whims while they are chewing
August 2nd 2011
Face recognition: Anonymous no more
You can’t hide — from anybody
Chinese internet companies: An internet with Chinese characteristics
Online business in China is growing even faster than the offline sort. Local tastes and needs, as well as the state, are endowing it with distinctive features
Retail in Japan: Turning silver into gold
Stealth marketing to the elderly
Blog: High-definition TV
The Difference Engine: Beyond HDTV
July 25th 2011
3D films struggle: Flat expectations
3D films, cinema’s great hope, have become niche products
Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation: Last of the moguls
Rupert Murdoch is the last member of a dying breed. Time for him to step back
Sheryl Sandberg: The acceptable face of Facebook
Social skills for a social network
HTC's patent problems: Android alert
Using Google’s Android software has given HTC a boost, but it may now make the Taiwanese handset-maker vulnerable to costly lawsuits
Indonesia's middle class: Missing BRIC in the wall
A consumer boom masks familiar problems in South-East Asia’s biggest economy
July 18th 2011
Life in the global gutter: The popular press
Tabloids are a phenomenon worldwide, but they come in different varieties
The News International scandal: How to lose friends and alienate people
News Corporation looks likely to weather the News of the World scandal. But it may end up becalmed — and lose some crew to boot
Internet economies: Going local
The internet is not that global after all
Blog: Google's new social network
Circles and the efficiency/serendipity trade-off
July 2nd 2011
Chinese investment in Europe: Streaks of red
Capital and companies from China are sidling into Europe
Schumpeter: Too much information
How to cope with data overload
Technology IPOs: Betting the farm
Zynga may be a good business, but the tech bubble is expanding
Blog: Mobile phones in India
A webless social network
Regulating the internet: Google’s enemies
The search giant's antitrust headache gets bigger
June 27th 2011
Newspaper websites: The British are coming
Two newspapers take aim at America
Schumpeter: The bottom of the pyramid
Businesses are learning to serve the growing number of hard-up Americans
Blog: Internet companies
Beware the Hulu hoodoo
Blog: Digital music
Musical absolution
Blog: Art and technology
Knocking heads together
June 13th 2011
Internet companies: Welcome to IPOville
Social-media firms see champagne; others see bubbles
IBM's centenary: The test of time
Which of today’s technology giants might still be standing tall a century after their founding?
Music and technology: Digitally remastered
The recorded-music business learns to love its enemy
Microsoft: Middle-aged blues
The software giant is grappling with a mid-life crisis
June 6th 2011
Monitor: Can Twitter predict the future?
Internet forecasting: Businesses are mining online messages to unearth consumers’ moods—and even make market predictions
Schumpeter: The angel and the monster
Mother Teresa and Lady Gaga are the latest icons of the leadership industry. Don’t laugh
Blog: Geosocial networking
The secret sexism of social media
Huawei: The long march of the invisible Mr Ren
China’s technology star needs to shine more openly
May 23rd 2011
Public relations: Slime-slinging
Flacks vastly outnumber hacks these days. Caveat lector
Retail in China: All eyes on Chinese aisles
Who will conquer China’s rampant retail market? Probably no one
Schumpeter: The Catalan kings
The management secrets of Barcelona Football Club
Blog: LinkedIn’s initial public offering
Social sizzler
May 16th 2011
Cinemas in India: Once upon a time in the east
A Latin American giant plans to modernise India’s fleapits
Silicon Valley and the technology industry: The new tech bubble
Irrational exuberance has returned to the internet world. Investors should beware
Africa's growing middle class: Pleased to be bourgeois
A third of Africans now live on at least $2 per day
May 9th 2011
Innovation in online advertising: Mad Men are watching you
How real-time bidding will affect media companies
The global beer industry: Sell foam like soap
To maintain profit growth, brewers will need keen marketing
Schumpeter: Bamboo innovation
Beware of judging China’s innovation engine by the standards of Silicon Valley
Soap operas and development: Good trash
How television and radio shows can improve behaviour
May 3rd 2011
Corporate computing: Online reputations in the dirt
Serious glitches at Sony and Amazon have revived worries about the risks of handling data online
Advertising in Africa: Nigeria's mad men
What ads say about doing business in Africa’s most populous country
Organising the web: The science of science
How to use the web to understand the way ideas evolve
Honda's troubles: Civic unrest
Japan’s crisis hits Honda but it is not bad news for all in the motor trade
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