Travels from District of Columbia, USA
Rohit Bhargava's speaking fee falls within range: $25,000 to $30,000
Rohit Bhargava describes himself in three terms: “Trend Curator, Marketer, and Nice Guy.” The best-selling author of Likenomics and the Non-Obvious series on innovative thinking, he easily sets himself apart from the pack of business experts. A futurist with a solid track record, Bhargava helps companies gain a competitive edge by bringing more humanity to the ways they do business.
Bhargava is the founder of the Non-Obvious Company, where he teaches leaders and teams how to spot and act on unexpected trends that everyone else misses. He is a professor of Marketing and Storytelling at Georgetown University and a two-time TED speaker who has presented at over 200 events across 32 countries. His personal blog on brand building and leadership has been recognized by AdAge magazine as one of the top 25 marketing blogs in the world.
Bhargava served as a strategist to two leading firms, Ogilvy and Leo Burnett for 15 years. At Ogilvy, he led digital and marketing strategy for clients including Intel, Pepsi, Lenovo, Seiko, Unilever, and dozens of other large companies.
Rohit Bhargava helps brands and leaders win by learning to see what others miss. He is the Founder of the Non-Obvious Company and previously spent over 15 years leading digital and marketing strategy for global brands at two respected marketing agencies: Leo Burnett and Ogilvy. Rohit is widely considered one of the most entertaining and original keynote speakers on business trends and marketing in the world.
A popular and “non-boring” keynote speaker, he has been invited to share his insights at events in 32 countries around the world, including multiple TEDx appearances and headlining roles at high-profile executive gatherings from Davos, Switzerland to NASA headquarters in Houston. His popular talks have earned rave reviews and inspired audiences from 10 to 10,000 people to build a more human brand, transform their marketing strategy, and innovate to win the future.
Rohit is the bestselling author of five books on topics as wide-ranging as building a human brand with personality, creating marketing that earns real trust and the surprising reason why great leaders always eat left handed. His signature book, Non-Obvious, has been a Wall Street Journal bestseller, read and shared by over 1 million readers and is currently in its 8th annual edition featuring his signature method for getting leaders and teams to think different.
His insights on business strategy and disruption have changed the way teams and leaders think at the World Bank, Intel, LinkedIn, MetLife, Under Armour, Univision, Disney and hundreds more. Rohit’s original thinking has also been featured widely in the global media. He has been quoted as a marketing and business expert by the Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, and NPR. He also writes a monthly column for GQ magazine in Brazil and his personal blog has been named one of the top 25 marketing blogs in the world by AdAge magazine.
Outside of his work with companies and research, Rohit also teaches a popular course on marketing and storytelling at Georgetown University in Washington DC – where he lives with his wife and two sons. He is a lifelong fan of anything having to do with the Olympics (he’s been to five so far!), actively avoids anything having to do with cauliflower (yuck!), and has dedicated his career to helping brands and leaders win by embracing their humanity and personality, learning to see what others miss, and predict the future.
Trends curator, Rohit Bhargava explores how we tend to overemphasize logic and "the big vision" in our strategies when it is actually seemingly unimportant details that drive many of our decisions and behaviors. We choose one gas station over another simply because it's on the same side of the street we're driving on, he points out, or we keep a credit card for 20 years because we got in college so it takes on sentimental value reflective of that time.
He offers a historic example of how one man's attention to insignificant details helped comedy make the transition from live venues to television. Sound engineer, Charlie Douglass invented the laugh track to guide viewers, who for the first time were watching comedy alone in their homes as opposed to theaters or clubs where the community-experience had been key to audience members' engagement and emotional reception of the material.
"If you've ever produced a show, you don't necessarily think of that. [Laughter's] like the added thing at the end," Bhargava analyzes. "He sweetened the shows with his laugh track because it was that perfect tiny insignificant detail."
Business and marketing expert, Rohit Bhargava demystifies the art of connecting with customers, employees, and anyone else you’re looking to influence. The author of the fascinating and practical best-selling book, Likeonomics, Bhargava helps organizations systemize his lessons on building likeability – the key differentiator in a fiercely competitive landscape in which most brands boil down to the same ingredients. Walking you through a series of entertaining and useful examples, he imparts proven techniques for finding your authentic voice so that you can build trust in your workplace and industry.
A regarded futurist with an eye for recognizing the significance of “non-obvious” details, Bhargava is also one of the most original keynote speakers on how to hone your ability to filter the world around you and be that person who “saw it coming.”
NON OBVIOUS 2018 – HOW TO PREDICT THE FUTURE What if you could predict the future? It may not be as impossible as it seems. In this exclusive talk, participants will learn five “non-obvious” habits to curate ideas and see what others miss. Based on his #1 best selling annual trend series read by more than half a million people online, Rohit Bhargava will also share some specific trends from his 8+ years of research that matter for your industry … along with highly actionable ideas for how to use them. Predicting the future is a learnable skill – and this keynote will reveal exactly how to do it. (Note – the selected trends in this talk are typically customized by industry and specifically chosen based on relevance for the audience).
THE BELIEVABILITY CRISIS – HOW TO BE MORE TRUSTED IN A SKEPTICAL WORLD We are living in a time when it is harder to earn trust than ever before. People skip ads, mistrust brands and believe government and institutions are manipulating them. People disagree on what “facts” actually are. So what does it take to build trust in the midst of this modern believability crisis? This entertaining and funny talk will reveal the five fundamental secrets of building trust and what it really takes to stand out as real, human and trusted in an untrusting world.
LIKEONOMICS – WHY SOME LEADERS AND BRANDS INSPIRE TRUST AND OTHERS DON’T Why do employees follow some leaders and not others? What separates brands that have true loyalty and even love from their customers and those that desperately cling to promotions to entice unwilling buyers? Based on years of work advising some of the largest brands in the world on strategy, this talk based on the best selling book Likeonomics will offer a framework for how to be more likeable and why that makes such a difference in driving real brand loyalty.
THE HUMAN BRAND – HOW TO BE MORE AUTHENTIC, TELL BETTER STORIES AND INFLUENCE ANYONE People respond to stories, and they love human brands with personality. Authenticity is certainly a buzz word in marketing today, but the power of being more human and approachable is critical today for brands and leaders alike. This talk goes behind the scenes of some of the most beloved companies in the world to offer a blueprint for any brand or leader to find their voice, craft a better story, and share it with the world.
Jenna Engelhardt
August 7, 2019
He was such an enjoyable speaker. Very nice & funny guy. Made the time fly by & really was so inspiring
Speaker rating 10/10
“Rohit’s presentation was one of the most successful in our chapter’s history … his presentation drew rave reviews for delivering real content in an entertaining and easily accessible style.” – Matt Ross, American Marketing Association
“After a long day for our attendees, I was originally reluctant to have a post dinner address to our marketing executives. However, Rohit’s content and delivery had us hanging on his every word. He somehow feels the mood of the audience and tailors his message accordingly. This is not the first time we have used him, nor will it be the last.” – Bob Houston, Richmond Events
“The best general session I have ever attended. Enjoyed the specific examples he gave. Far too often speakers pontificate or entertain, which is fun at the time, but then you don’t really use it afterward. I feel like I’ll actually use the things I learned from this session.” – Attendee survey feedback, Association Marketing Conference
“”Rohit Bhargava has clearly embraced his own principles because the audience at Brand ManageCamp didn’t just like his session on “Likeonomics” – they loved it (and him). Rohit went above and beyond in making sure his topic to close Brand ManageCamp was valuable and memorable. He is that rare mix of scary-smart and super engaging and he is a pleasure to work with.” – Len Herstein, Founder at Brand Manage Camp
“”When we asked Rohit to create a custom keynote and training video to teach our team about digital, we expected it to be educational. What Rohit managed to deliver blew us away! His content and style makes digital and social media approachable. His non-obvious trends were perfectly customized for the insurance industry and his content and delivery received rave reviews from our entire team.” – Kaushal Shroff, Director of eMarketing at Prudential
“Rohit Bhargava is a master at weaving stories together on stage, taking the audience on a journey, all the while, teaching them about real marketing and business tactics. We’ve worked with Rohit many times and love having him speak at our events.” – Jen Consalvo, Tech Cocktail
“Over and above being a fantastic speaker, booking Rohit also means you get a partner. Most speakers sign the contract and then perform. Rohit went over and above to help market his keynote, deepen attendee engagement and generate opportunities to build off his speaking engagement. On-stage he is mesmerizing as he guides the audience through trends in modern marketing drawing on his experience as an agency executive and working with 100s of brands. – Paul Treanor, ad:tech
“Rohit is a dynamic speaker, bursting with knowledge and examples about content creation/curation and the business value of likeability. He was one of the Vocus Conference favorites.” – Brindisi Chan, Marketing Manager at Vocus
“Rohit’s talk was beautiful, validating, uplifting and contained so much truth. It was one of the best keynote presentations I have ever seen.” – Attendee Feedback, SSATB Annual Conference
“Rohit took the time to understand his audience and this was KEY! He also invested time AFTER the session later in the day to thank those who tweeted about his session. And he went several steps further by engaging people in conversation who raised points or questions. Class act!” – Attendee survey feedback, ASAE Marketing Conference
“#curiosity marketing panel is the best SXSW one yet. Like a kickass college class you can’t wait to go to. Rohit is like a Social Media Robin Williams.” – @laurencook
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2018 Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas & Predict the Future
What secrets can a 400-year-old Turkish cymbal maker and an Icelandic hot tub etiquette video teach you about the power of storytelling? How do Michelin-ranked food stalls in Singapore and the decline of Swiss watches force all luxury brands to rethink their business models? What insights can the world’s quietest place and a clothing dye produced by former tobacco farmers reveal about serving enlightened consumers?
The answers to these questions may not be all that obvious. And that’s exactly the point.
For the past 8 years, marketing expert and Georgetown University Professor Rohit Bhargava has curated his best-selling list of non-obvious trends by asking the questions that most trend predictors miss. It’s why his insights on future trends and the art of curating trends have been utilized by dozens of the biggest brands and organizations in the world like Intel, Under Armour and the World Bank.
The answers to these questions may not be all that obvious. And that’s exactly the point. For the past eight years, innovation expert Rohit Bhargava and his team have predicted 15 “Non-Obvious” trends each year. In this book, get a sneak peek at the proven methods exclusively taught to thousands of executives at leading brands, organizations and governments to develop unexpected solutions to critical problems. The power of non-obvious thinking can help you see what others miss, grow your business and make a bigger impact in the world.
Likeonomics People decide who to trust, what advice to heed, and which individuals to forge personal or transactional relationships with based on a simple metric of believability. Success, in turn, comes from understanding one basic principle: how to be more trusted. Likeonomics offers a new vision of a world beyond Facebook where personal relationships, likeability, brutal honesty, extreme simplicity, and basic humanity are behind everything from multi-million dollar mergers to record-breaking product sales. There is a real ROI to likeability, and exactly how big it is will amaze you.
Likeonomics provides real-world case studies of brands and individuals that have used these principles to become wildly successful, including:
With Likeonomics as a guide, listeners will get unconventional advice on how to stand out in a good way, avoid the hype and strategic traps of social media, and appeal to customers in a way that secures your company as a trusted and believable resource.
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