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The situations in which the Eagles football team decide to strike might seem random, but in fact they are quite calculated. And they're often decided before the start of the game, or even before the start of the season. The approach is driven by an analytics team so involved in the operation that two members of the department  communicate with the coach during the game.

The price for a 30-second ad to run during the Super Bowl this year is reportedly topping $5 million. A new study in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science focuses on the relationship between Super Bowl viewership and corresponding sales of brands advertised in the game. The question asked by the study is: "Do these things pay off?" The answer is both yes and no.

Patients often wait weeks or months for medical appointments. When they finally arrive at physicians’ offices, patients often face further delays. This in-office waiting occurs for many reasons. Perhaps those patients arrived early. Perhaps earlier patients put the physicians behind schedule, or urgent calls interrupted them. However, according to a new article by INFORMS member Michael J. Armstrong, professor at Brock University, and his colleagues, sometimes clinics purposely schedule appointments before physicians expect to be ready. They do this to ensure physicians don’t run out of work.

Benefits of Super Bowl ads linger in the months following the annual game, with sales boosts during other major sporting events like NCAA March Madness, NBA playoffs and MLB games, according to a study in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science.