The $0 Box Office Hit, a Virtual Summit on Book Marketing and How To Explore a Buried City | Non-Obvious Insights #223

Dear Newsletterest,

For the past few weeks, I've been recording a series of interviews with some of the most successful people in the world of publishing. On July 8th, I will be hosting my own Non-Obvious Virtual Summit on Book Marketing entirely for FREE (see more details below).

Register for the Virtual Summit NOW >>

Aside from the summit, there are some great stories this week - from the $0 budget film that topped the box office to hit product that lets you pee in a bag. If you want to hear me talk about these stories and more, make sure to listen to the recorded version of my YouTube show ...

Watch a replay of last week's Non-Obvious Insights Show >

The Non-Obvious Virtual Summit on The Future of Book Marketing

For the first time, I'm going to take people behind the scenes of our launch and everything we did. In addition to my live session, the summit will feature over 20 interviews with bestselling authors, bookstore owners, book publicists, marketers and a behind-the-scenes LIVE webinar where I will share for the first time the full strategy I used to launch Non-Obvious Megatrends to become a #1 Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller.

Whether you are an author, or you're just curious about the world of publishing and marketing - this is going to be an amazing virtual event and I hope you can join us on July 8th!

Register for the Virtual Summit HERE

No One Wants American Tourists

It's been major news this week that Europe may issue a ban on tourists from American due to health concerns. As Rafat Ali points out in this article for Skift, this may become the policy for other countries as well. Even the Lt. Governor of Hawaii said he would rather open the island to travelers from other countries than the mainland of the US. This is bad news for any Americans who love (or need) to travel. In the short term, what this also means is that the All-American road trip is about to get much more popular ... which probably explains why Fast Company thinks the summer's "sleeper hit product" might be a bag that you pee into.

Frustrated by PPP, Small Businesses Are Ditching Their Banks

In a time of crisis, people tend to reevaluate the things that they ordinarily don't think about. Like banking. For most of us, changing banks is a major inconvenience - but as more banks fail to actually show up and be helpful for their customers when they need them most, those customers are fed up. As American Banker reports, many of them are acting on that frustration and switching banks - often to smaller local, and more customer service oriented banks instead. It is easy to blame disruption on a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic ... but sometimes the reason your business is failing is because you're not actually giving your customers what they need.

The $0 Budget Movie That "Topped the U.S. Box Office"

What does it take to become the "#1 movie in America"? If you're two clever dudes with a big idea during a global pandemic when every Hollywood film release has been delayed and most theaters are closed - the answer is: not much. Over the past several weeks, films topping the box office every week have been earning a measly $10k to $15k in ticket sales. So two filmmakers saw the opportunity, enlisted the help of some actor friends, and filmed their movie entirely on Zoom over 5 days. Then they used a "four walling" strategy to buy out every seat in a theater and managed to have the top movie in America with a one week grand total ticket sales revenue of ... $25,488. Now this is how to make a name for yourself during a pandemic.

Art Basel Engages Patrons with Online Viewing Rooms

Attending one of the world's top art festivals may not have been in your plans, but like most other events - Art Basel was canceled this year and the organizers have turned to creating Online Viewing Rooms instead. Looking at the work, watching videos and listening to interviews with the artists, it struck me that there is something desirable about experiencing some of the world's best art in this way. I'm sure the in-person experience is amazing too, but the online experience let me spend way too long browsing amazing pieces of art and dreaming of $54,000 sculptures I can't afford. Of course I could have gone in past years to do this in real life ... but I didn't. Until now. So I wonder how many other new fans Art Basel might have attracted with their virtual experience besides me.

How To Explore a Buried City

A story that captured my imagination this week was about a team of scientists who explored a buried Roman city without digging anything up. They used ground penetrating radar to map an entire city buried for more than 2000 years. Alongside this story, there was another one this week about the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project which has been working to map the ocean seabed for that past three years. When they started, only 6% had been mapped. In the past year alone, they have done an additional 15%. Stories like these remind us just how much we still don't know about our own world. Thankfully, there are still people with the curiosity and resolve to try and understand these big questions.

Want to hear even more stories?

Watch a replay of my weekly YouTube Show where I discuss the insights from this week's email, as well as several stories that didn't make it into my email this week.

Watch my LIVE Non-Obvious Insights Show >>

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Every week I go through hundreds of stories in order to curate this email. Your attention is important to me and I always do my best to share only "non-obvious" ideas with you to help you be more interesting.

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The $0 Box Office Hit, a Virtual Summit on Book Marketing and How To Explore a Buried City | Non-Obvious Insights #223

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What Boxed Mac & Cheese Can Teach You About Disruption and How One Brand Quietly Embraces Its Racist Name | Non-Obvious Insights #222

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