News Roundup – Pepperdine Professor Talks Nostalgia TV Trends on NPR, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including a Pepperdine professor discussing the allure of nostalgia TV, and more.
NPR Podcast Invites Cristel Antonia Russell to Discuss Nostalgia TV – Pepperdine Graziadio Newsroom
Dr. Cristel Antonia Russell, Professor of Marketing at Pepperdine Graziadio School of Management recently spoke on the power of nostalgia TV on the NPR podcast On Point.
Along with Eric Deggans, NPR’s television critic, Dr. Russell discussed the phenomenon of the wide popularity of all things 1990s in current culture. A major topic of Russell’s research is the reasons behind why people tend to consume and re-consume certain pieces of pop culture. Take Friends, for instance, the rights of which was recently purchased by TimeWarner Media for $125 million. There has been a massive resurgence in the last five years or so of Ross, Rachel and the gang’s popularity.
Russell says, “Twenty-five years is a huge chunk of time to anyone. Nostalgia is a double-edged sword where a part of you wants to go back to these earlier times but a part of you is glad you are no longer an 18-year-old watching Friends. It allows people to reflect and realize how they have grown.”
For more on Dr. Russell, read here, and to download the On Point podcast about the nostalgia TV revival, visit NPR or listen below.
Dean Amy Hillman Drives an Unprecedented Year of Giving – ASU Carey News
Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business, led by Dean Amy Hillman, reached an unprecedented fundraising goal this year.
A $25 million donation from the W. P. Carey Foundation kicked off the $50 million campaign, and overall the school raised $43.7 million in fiscal year 2018-19. Alumni and current students helped to round out the gifts, with 615 individual donations from them and other private supporters. In all, alumni gave an impressive $11.7 million.
Hillman says of the campaign, “Of course what we do at W. P. Carey is business, but I always practice that ‘business is personal … What donors share with us, no matter the gift is about the people who are impacted through a scholarship, research, or career opportunity.”
The gifts came at a welcome time, as the state of Arizona has reduced funding for higher education in recent years. The money from the campaign will help to improve student resources, enhance research, and fund scholarships. For more on Dean Hillman and the fundraising campaign, read here.
‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Writer’s Dilemma Illustrates How Hollywood Pay Gap is Alive and Well – Kellogg in the News
Nancy Qian, Professor of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management recently weighed in for an article in the Chicago Tribune on the massive pay gap in Hollywood for non-white writers and actors.
The most recent event that prompted this discussion was the departure of Adele Lim, one of the screenwriters for ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ from the film’s sequel. Her white male counterpart was offered considerably more for his contribution to the sequel’s script—nearly a million dollars, compared to Lim’s offer of $110,000.
While a comment in The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Lim’s offer was based solely upon her experience and past accomplishments, her supporters believe otherwise. Professor Qian says:
“The Warner Bros. response that they have a formula for determining pay seems like an excuse, since they can always build in more components to the formula to give it more flexibility, such as take into account expertise on the subject, the number of other people with similar expertise, the success of the last project, and the evaluation from co-workers.”
“Every situation is different,” she adds. “But it wouldn’t be crazy to see this as Lim getting hit by two forces—on average, for the same level education and work experience, 1) women get paid less than men and 2) Asians in the U.S. get paid less than Caucasians. The question of why is subject to debate.”
Read here for the full Chicago Tribune article.
NYU Stern Receives $5 Million Gift from Alumna Entrepreneur Elizabeth Elting (MBA ’92) to Support the Advancement of Women in Business – NYU Stern News & Events
NYU Stern alum Elizabeth Elting, founder of translation firm Transperfect, recently donated $5 million to the school with the goal of nurturing Stern’s female entrepreneurs.
The gift, which is the largest ever from a woman entrepreneur in the school’s history, will fund Elizabeth Elting Women’s Leadership Fellowships for a total of forty female MBA students. Students who demonstrate both academic merit and the desire to build their own businesses will benefit from the fellowship.
“Starting my own business is the best and most rewarding decision I ever made for my life,” Elting says. “It gave me the resources I needed to provide for my family and influence the world for the better. That’s why I’m so excited to provide this gift to NYU Stern. This money will not only make Stern accessible to a greater number of ambitious young women eager to create their own futures, but will also help the best and brightest launch new enterprises and carry out visions that could transform the world.”
You can read more on Elting and the fellowship here.
Avolio Ranked #2 Most Influential Researcher in Leadership, #3 in Organizational Behavior – Foster School of Business News & Events
Bruce Avolio, Professor of Management at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, was recently named one of the globe’s foremost thinkers on leadership and organizational development by The Leadership Quarterly.
The publication named Avolio the number one scholar in the world at forming networks in the field of leadership research, and second best in productivity and influence of his leadership studies.
Another industry publication, the Academy of Management Learning and Education, lists Avolio the third most influential author since its inception. Avolio’s wide list of accomplishments include the 2013 Eminent Leadership Scholar Award from the Network of Leadership Scholars in the Academy of Management, the American Psychological Society, the American Psychological Association, and fellowships in the Academy of Management, and the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology.
Read more on Avolio and his research here.
Sadness Olympics: New TruTV Game Show Aims to Help Student Debt
Earlier this week, television network TruTV debuted a curious new game show to its Tuesday lineup, with ‘Paid Off.” The conceit is simple, and, very apropos for 2018: three contestants will answer a series of trivia questions with the ultimate payoff of removing their student loan debt.
Like ‘Jeopardy!’, without the mystery of where the prize-money may be going, ‘Paid Off’ will focus solely on the mammoth and ever-increasing student loan debt hovering over the U.S., which is set to topple $1.5 trillion very soon, according to Student Loan Hero.
A recent survey from LendEDU found that the average American has $27,975 in student loans yet to be paid off, in addition to $5,472 of credit card debt. Among millennial Americans, however, the average credit card debt is even higher at $6,206. And while the majority of 23-38-year old’s do not have student loan debt, those who due are carrying a heavy financial burden, which can be found in the chart below:
In a recent interview with the Washington Post, host Michael Torpey (who’s face might be familiar to fans of the Netflix series Orange is the New Black) notes, “One of the mantras is ‘an absurd show to match an absurd crisis.’ A game show feels really apt because this is the state of things right now.” The student debt game show will air 16 episodes during its initial summer run.
The show’s creators aren’t trying to offer a whole-cloth solution to the student debt crisis, obviously. Rather, the theme is to help out a few with a new, novel concept. Although the unintended message may be troubling to some: seeing that the best solutions to massive debt isn’t provided to the them by the state, or the market; instead, the best bet is more of a lottery, parading the few victors in the swelling whirlpool. A Gladiator of sorts for the 21st century, with the violence turned way down but the positive desperation on full-screen.
Or, you can make an Instagram for your pet if the novel route is more attractive to you.
MIT Sloan Hosts Talk About the Modern Value of Old-School Advertising
Even for newer customers, there is an undeniable value in the old methods of advertising, according to cycling startup Peloton Senior Brand Marketing VP Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, who recently spoke at MIT Sloan.
Founded in 2012, Peloton makes a high-end exercise bike that livestreams indoor cycling classes—sort of like your own private FlyWheel. According to Blodgett, Peloton is vertically integrated, which means that “employees design the hardware, the software, teach the classes, and even deliver the bikes.”
Largely through word-of-mouth, Peloton’s revenues exploded to $137.5 million in just four short years, which placed the company atop Crain’s Fast 50 list. Despite this rapid, significant growth, Peloton is trying to reach a broader audience beyond its base of “affluent suburban women” (see sticker price: $1,995 plus $39 per month subscription fee).
Digital advertising is just one part of Peloton’s overall marketing strategy—one that Blodgett believes becomes increasingly “more expensive and less effective” once you understand that every company is buying on Facebook in 2017.
Speaking recently at the MIT Sloan Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, Blodgett explained that Peloton has begun to “invest in offline channels” like TV commercials, radio spots, billboards, direct mail, and 29 new brick-and-mortar showrooms to build a “community of those for whom fitness is a core value.” She explains, “We’re always testing new media channels.” Especially channels that maximize the ability for consumers to have hands-on experience with the product. “Trying the bike is a really important part of the purchase journey.”
With the holiday shopping season in full swing, Blodgett explained the company’s newest commercial, saying “We spend a lot of time showing the product, but my favorite part is the scene where the daughter is riding a tricycle and looks up at mom on the bike. That’s an emotional side of the product, and we’ve never really told that story before.”
You can find out more about Peloton and its luxury services here.
VIZIO CEO To Give Commencement Speech At UC Irvine Business School
VIZIO Inc. CEO, William Wang will give the Distinguished Executive address at the UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business commencement ceremony. The ceremony will take place at the university’s Bren Events Center on June 19 at 9:30 a.m.
Wang’s journey to become the founder and CEO of the company Forbes listed as one of America’s largest Private Companies in 2016 has been far from linear. After beginning his career in tech support at a firm that sold computer monitors, Wang decided to start his own companies, Mag Innovision and Princeton Graphic Systems, with the goal to “ … build a better monitor than the IBM standard,” according to an interview in Inc. Magazine.
Almost decade later, both businesses were flailing. Around the same time, the entrepreneur survived the Singapore Airlines Flight 006 plane crash, wherein 83 passengers and crew members were killed. This trauma gave Wang a sense of clarity; within two years, he had shut down his businesses and changed industries. Wang’s move to the television industry proved fruitful. With just two employees, he started VIZIO, an HDTV company dedicated to delivering “…high performance, smarter products with the latest innovations at a significant savings…” Essentially, Wang’s team turned flat-screen TV’s into an affordably commodity, rather than a luxury for a wealthy minority.
It is appropriate that Wang, whose company began with three people and is now a leading supplier of HDTV’s, should speak at The Paul Merage School of Business. Though the school is relatively young, it has quickly earned a reputation for offering top tier education, and is now ranked in the top 10 percent of AACSB-accredited programs.
