In February 2020, Time Out's chief executive officer Julio Bruno is evaluating the strategic direction of the company. Over the span of five decades, Time Out - the global media and entertainment brand - had gone from a self-published counterculture publication in London to a leading authority on the arts and culture, food and drink, music, and nightlife scenes in hundreds of cities around the world. However, the rise of the internet meant fundamentally rethinking the type of content Time Out offered, and their historical reliance on media-generated revenue put them in a precarious position amidst an industry-wide "media apocalypse." To maintain relevance and diversify their revenue, the company launched Time Out Market, a collection of sleek food halls that housed between 14 and 32 restaurants and quite literally brought the Time Out Magazine to life. As a self-described "platform-agnostic" brand, the move marked Time Out's transition to "phyigital" (physical + digital) business, and promised the possibility of synergies between the Media and Market divisions. They initially opened Markets in six cities, with a long-term plan to expand much further. However, strategic questions loom. How should Time Out manage its global brand? How could they ensure that Media drove customers to the Markets, and vice versa? More existentially, what was the role of their legacy Media division going forward?

Apex Ski Boots has introduced a new ski boot that, due to its radical design, is meeting resistance in the marketplace from many retailers, ski experts, and consumers. The company must decide how best to drive sales in the face of this resistance.

Data gathered on the web has vastly enhanced the capabilities of marketers. With people regularly sharing personal details online and internet cookies tracking every click, companies can now gain unprecedented insight into individual consumers and target them with tailored ads. But when this practice feels invasive to people, it can prompt a strong backlash. Marketers today need to understand where to the draw the line. The good news is that psychologists already know a lot about what triggers privacy concerns off-line. These norms--and the authors' research--strongly suggest that firms steer clear of two ad-targeting techniques generally disliked by consumers: using information obtained on a third-party site rather than on the site on which an ad appears, which is akin to talking behind someone's back; and deducing information about people (such as a pregnancy) from analytics when they haven't declared it themselves. If marketers avoid those tactics, use data judiciously, focus on increasing trust and transparency, and offer people control over their personal data, their ads are much more likely to be accepted by consumers and help raise interest in engaging with a company and its products.