Welcome to the first entry of 2021 in the Hugoversity library, where each month we review a PR and marketing-related book to quench our thirst for lifelong learning.
For this month’s book review, Head Girl Charlotte read Contagious, by Jonah Berger, which explores why certain ideas spread, while others fall at the first hurdle.
Luck or smart marketing?
Berger believes that contagious ideas are what set businesses apart. However, he’s clear that this isn’t simply down to luck; rather, they are the result of smart marketing.
He opens with the story of the £100 steak that generated so much of a buzz that Barclay Prime steakhouse in Philadelphia had people flocking to taste it. Owner Howard Wein had also invested in an excellent dining experience, but that wasn’t what people queued up for. He knew the idea of a highly extravagant, overpriced steak would go viral, and he was right – most of the success of the steakhouse was down to word of mouth.
Because while advertising can create a buzz, word of mouth is what makes things contagious.
Word of mouth is more effective than advertising because it targets audiences more precisely – nobody is going to tell their vegetarian friend about a steakhouse. And while social media advertising attempts to copy this principle by targeting ads, it’s still not as accurate or as contagious as the real-life version.
There are over 100 million conversations about brands every hour online, so how can you tap into this audience and make your content contagious? Berger has come up with a simple formula: STEPPS
Social currency
As human beings, one of our main motivations is to make ourselves look good, and sharing certain things – like facts or insider knowledge – can help us achieve this.
Sharing activates the same areas of the brain that food and money do, giving us the same feelgood factor – which could be another reason to explain the social media boom and constant meme-sharing of late.
It also indirectly makes us feel good by making us look good; sharing is a form of social currency with which we can ‘buy’ the interest of others in the valuable ‘attention economy’.
A lot of businesses play this to their advantage, such as the exclusive bars you hear about (or so we understand!) from a friend and have to call a secret number to find out where they are. This is a simple trick to make the customers feel special, prompting them to share details with others to impress and creating the perfect marketing machine.
Triggers
My favourite psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, argues that certain ideas trigger others by association, and this is also something Berger highlights as a factor for an idea or product becoming contagious.
For example, if I say, ‘take a break’, what snack does this instantly make you think of? Of course it’s a KitKat – one of the best examples of a commonly-used phrase becoming indelibly associated with a product.
By linking your product or service with something that is integral to your audience’s daily routine, you will have more success of creating a viral campaign. However, Berger reminds us that this process does take time.
Emotions
Anything that arouses our emotions – whether positive or negative – is likely to be shared.
Awe, excitement, amusement, anger and anxiety are the top emotional feelings that propel sharing; for example, the New York Times’ top shared articles are those about health and science.
Why? Because they inspire awe and amazement, thus provoking an emotional response, which also explains why a lot of YouTube content goes viral – the weirder the better.
So, next time you share something, think about what emotion is behind it, and what it’s going to make your audience feel.
Public
We’re often influenced by observing public behaviour; after all, that’s the whole rationale behind peer pressure.
Look at how viral charity campaigns such as Movember and the Ice Bucket Challenge shot to fame – we could see the evidence of people joining in and it snowballed from there. This is because human nature dictates that if we see something is popular, we tend to think (rightly or wrongly) there must be a good reason for it.
Another example of this is the common practice for baristas to put some money in their tip jar at the start of the shift. If other customers think someone has left a tip, they’re more likely to do so.
Practical value
This one is simple – if something is useful, it’s more likely to become contagious.
Useful things help make our lives easier and who doesn’t want that? This also taps into the theme of social currency and word of mouth mentioned above, as people want to be the source of that useful information.
This is a key reason why so many ‘how to’ and ‘life hack’ videos spread so fast on the internet – whether they’re showing us how to change a tyre or the perfect way to fold clothes.
Takeaway: if you can make your marketing campaign genuinely helpful, you’re on to a winner.
Stories
Berger backs up our belief at Harvey & Hugo that stories are inherently shareable.
Give someone some facts and they’ll struggle to remember them; build them into a story and they’ll find it easy.
This is because our brains are story processors rather than logic processors, and so stories help us make sense of the world around us.
Stories are also far more likely to stimulate emotions which, as we’ve already heard, boosts the chances of them being shared, remembered and action taken.
So, what did we think?
This book brought together many of the theories we already encapsulate in our PR and marketing strategies, but it’s always great to be reminded of them – and to have it confirmed that we’re on the right track.
I loved how the formula was backed up by psychological theories (and proved to be correct) with many examples – in itself an example of how we’ll always remember stories over facts.
As marketers, despite knowing the formula to make things go viral, it’s often hard to persuade a client to take that bold step to go with our ideas, but I’m sure this book would go a long way to further persuade them.
However, despite everything Berger highlights, I do still believe there’s always a sprinkling of luck thrown into the mix – just ask Charlie’s dad.
I also love how the acronym makes it much easier to remember everything – so next time you’re wanting to create contagious content, think STEPPS!
If you’d like to take the first steps (see what we did there?) into creating some contagious content, throw us a bone on 01325 486666 or email info@harveyandhugo.com
