Anita Elberse
Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration
Anita Elberse is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
An award-winning teacher and scholar, Professor Elberse develops and teaches a course on Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries, covering the businesses of entertainment, media, and sports, which ranks among the most sought-after courses in the School’s curriculum for MBA students. She is the faculty chair of a new executive education program on the entertainment business, and teaches in other short programs for executives. In her research, Professor Elberse primarily aims to understand what drives the success of products in the entertainment, media, sports, and other creative industries, and how firms can develop effective marketing strategies for such products. She is acclaimed for her work on digital-media strategies. Professor Elberse has conducted case studies on dozens of entertainment companies, personalities, and other entities. Professor Elberse was promoted to full professor with tenure at age 38, making her one of the youngest female professors to achieve that honor in Harvard Business School's history.
Anita Elberse is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
Professor Elberse develops and teaches a course on Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries, covering the businesses of entertainment, media, and sports, which ranks among the most sought-after courses in the School’s curriculum for MBA students. She is the faculty chair of a new executive education program on the entertainment business, and also teaches in Strategic Marketing Management, Taking Marketing Digital, and other short programs for executives. She previously taught Marketing to first-year MBA students. Her course was featured in Variety's Entertainment Education report, Poets & Quants named her one of the world's 40 best business school professors under the age of 40, and she has received teaching awards on multiple occasions from both the Harvard Business School and its students, including the Charles M. Williams Award for excellence in teaching, "Best of EC Year" honors (for top faculty teaching in the Elective Curriculum), and the Faculty Teaching Award.
In her research, Professor Elberse primarily aims to understand what drives the success of products in the entertainment, media, sports, and other creative industries, and how firms can develop effective marketing strategies for such products. She is acclaimed for her work on digital-media strategies. Her wider areas of study include the impact of digital technology on marketing practice, the marketing and management of talent, and the application of econometric modeling techniques to marketing problems. Her work has been published in a number of journals, including the Harvard Business Review, Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Advertising Research, and the Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics. Her research has also appeared in leading print and broadcast media. She was named a Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar in 2011, and serves on the editorial boards of both Marketing Science and the Journal of Advertising Research.
Professor Elberse has conducted case studies on dozens of entertainment companies, personalities, and other entities. Firms featured include A&M/Octone Records, Comcast, Grand Central Publishing, Hulu, Marvel Enterprises, MGM, Sony, and The CW. Other case studies focus on the launch of Jay-Z's book Decoded by advertising agency Droga5, the marketing of New York City, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, nightlife business Marquee, the Metropolitan Opera, sports leagues MLB and the NFL, soccer clubs Boca Juniors and Real Madrid, soccer coach Sir Alex Ferguson, and superstars Lady Gaga, LeBron James, Radiohead, and Maria Sharapova.
Prior to joining Harvard Business School, professor Elberse was a Visiting Fellow and Lecturer at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She holds a PhD from London Business School, an MA in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, and an MA in Communication Science from the University of Amsterdam (cum laude). A native of The Netherlands but now an American citizen, she was awarded a Netherland-America Foundation/Fulbright Fellowship.
Professor Elberse was promoted to full professor with tenure at age 38, making her one of the youngest female professors to achieve that honor in Harvard Business School's history.
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Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment
Book (launching on October 15, 2013)
What’s behind the phenomenal success of entertainment businesses such as Warner Bros., Marvel Enterprises, and the NFL—along with such stars as Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and LeBron James? Which strategies give leaders in film, television, music, publishing, and sports an edge over their rivals?
In this book, drawing on my case studies and other research on the worlds of media and sports, I explain a powerful truth about the fiercely competitive world of entertainment: building a business around blockbuster products—the movies, television shows, songs, and books that are hugely expensive to produce and market—is the surest path to long-term success. Along the way, I reveal why entertainment executives often spend outrageous amounts of money in search of the next blockbuster, why superstars are paid unimaginable sums, and how digital technologies are transforming the entertainment landscape.
Full of inside stories about some of the world’s most successful entertainment brands, Blockbusters is aimed at anyone seeking to understand how the entertainment industry really works—and how to navigate today’s high-stakes business world at large.
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Sir Alex Ferguson: Managing Manchester United
Case Study
Sir Alex Ferguson, the most successful manager in British football history, is preparing for the 2012-2013 season -- his record-setting 26th as manager of one of the world's most decorated professional football clubs and one of sport's biggest franchises. Over the years Ferguson has overcome several major challengers to United. The newest rival can be found close to home: since Manchester City, United's "noisy neighbors," has switched owners, the club has invested unprecedented amounts of money in new players, resulting in its first league title in decades. How can Ferguson lead his team to another victory, and bring the next chapter in United's illustrious history to a successful end?
"The best footballing read of the year," according to ESPN.
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Droga5: Launching Jay-Z's Decoded
Case Study
In 2010, David Droga and Andrew Essex, co-founders of advertising agency Droga5, hope to convince both John Meneilly, manager of hip-hop star Shawn Carter -- better known as Jay-Z -- and a partner in Carter's company Roc Nation and Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services division, to enter into an unprecedented, high-stakes partnership to benefit the launch of Carter's new lyrical memoir, Decoded. Droga5 wrestles with two disparate challenges: developing a campaign for the book's launch and finding a way to drive trial for Bing, Microsoft's new search engine. Droga5's innovative solution is to kill two birds with one idea: a massive, interactive scavenger hunt involving outdoor, bespoke, and digital media. Because Spiegel & Grau, a Random House imprint that holds the rights to the book, lacks the funds to market Carter's memoir at a scale deserving of a superstar, Droga5 is asking Microsoft to shoulder most of the campaign's costs. How can Droga5 broker a deal between Roc Nation, Random House, and Microsoft, and ensure success for each of the parties? And is pursuing this campaign idea a smart investment for the young agency?
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