Cross-category; most widely applicable tag
Confession: I can’t handle a seven-course tasting menu anymore. Not because I don’t want to. Because I physically can’t. Roughly 8% of U.S. adults are now on GLP-1s (I’m one of them). Many projections suggest this number will at least double before the end of the decade. Meanwhile, restaurants are leaning further into longer formats:…
How influencer-shaped expectations are creating a perception gap in Las Vegas tourism The 2025 LVCVA Visitor Profile Study (download PDF here) surfaces a meaningful shift in visitor behaviorfor guests who plan their trips using influencers. This “influencer-led” visitor arrives with a highly curated, high-expectation version of the destination already in mind. What stands out is…
Nearly 30 years later, this ad for Impulse Body Spray remains one of the most effective spots I’ve ever seen. I came across an old (2010!) post on here this week and realized the video link was broken. Fixing it sent me back to the ad I’d written about. It’s even better than I remembered….
Vinyl records. Craft spirits. Hand-knit clothing. Memorable meals. As tech becomes more powerful and pervasive, the appeal of things that feel human, tangible, and personal tends to rise alongside it. Futurist John Naisbitt gave this pattern a name in Megatrends: “high tech / high touch.” In The Experience Economy, Pine and Gilmore argue that as…
How a rapid shift in appetite is reshaping food, hospitality, fitness, and lifestyle demand GLPs aren’t just a weight-loss story. They’re a consumption-reduction story, with downstream effects well beyond food and drink. For people using them – recent Gallup data reported by NPR says 12.4% of U.S. adults today, more than double the rate from…
At SW14 Group, we pay close attention to shifts that affect travel, tourism, hospitality, and major events. A newly proposed CBP rule has surfaced with the potential to reshape inbound travel to the United States. The rule would require nearly all foreign tourists, including those from visa-waiver countries like the UK, to submit five years…
The reasons people travel to Las Vegas today are more intentional, more varied, and more specific than you might think. Traditional leisure is still here, of course, but tens of thousands of visitors now choose Las Vegas for reasons that didn’t exist a decade ago. And while Las Vegas is the most visible example of…
Yesterday Apple pushed us a step closer to something that not so long ago felt like science fiction: a post wallet world. It began rolling out US passport support in Apple Wallet, joining the digital drivers’ licenses already supported in more than a dozen states. We’re at the inflection point where for many, a physical…
This is the time of year when agencies and brands start thinking about their corporate gifting strategy for the holidays. Some will pass. Some will default to “we’ve made a contribution in your name.” Some will send out the same branded swag as last year. But those who get it will do something else entirely….
We’ve always been a city of splurges. Whether an exclusive wine dinner, a Michelin-worthy repast, or a one-night-only chef collab, there’s no shortage of high-impact, big-ticket prix fixe tasting menu experiences in Las Vegas for those seeking them. In the right context, they’re worth every dollar. But in a summer marked by slower tourism, shakier…
Spotify has “Wrapped.” We have Taste Track. Just as Wrapped rounds up a listener’s habits and highlights, Taste Track is our midyear restaurant recap, reflecting how we ate dinner out in the first half of 2025. As strategic, analytical types, we turned the lens on ourselves: when and where we dined, how often, which new places stood…
By Arlene Wszalek and Tom Wszalek The Big Picture Recent creator economy trends across media, tech, and entertainment point to a single, powerful theme: Control is the new currency. From interface updates to monetization shifts to alternative ownership models, platforms and creators alike are renegotiating who controls visibility, tone, and value. At the same time,…