Eight Low-Tech Contagious Products

A lot of buzz comes not from clever PR or advertising but rather from attributes inherent in the product or service itself. I call products that have such built-in buzz “contagious products”. Here are eight low-tech examples:

1. Magnetic Poetry. Some products self-propagate by leaving traces of themselves behind. This is especially true for products that allow their users to express themselves. Magnetic Poetry spread this way. People saw bizarre messages on their friends’ refrigerators and started playing with the magnets. They left some interesting poems behind and bought their own kit for their fridge (and the one at the office!)

2. Cranium. Social interaction leads to talk. After a night of playing Cranium, you tell your friends how much fun you had, and about all the outrageous things that Chris did with clay and what Linda said and… you spread the word about Cranium.

3. Fresh fruit bouquets. All communication tools have built-in buzz because we use them to interact with others. When you get a fruit bouquet from a friend, you learn about the company behind it (ediblearrangements.com) and you may use them next time you want to surprise someone. (High tech examples: too many to list here. Email, Facebook, etc.)

4. The first Kodak camera. Cameras were invented in the 1820s, but for years they were perceived as too complicated for “the rest of us”. George Eastman reduced the operation to a three-step process: pull the cord, advance the key, and press the button. Their 1888 slogan captured it all: “You press the button—we do the rest.” Products that dramatically simplify something that appears beyond reach, can easily become contagious. (Macintosh)

5. DuPont Tyvek. By using Tyvek’s insulation material, contractors advertise this product to other contractors and homeowners in the area. This type of visual buzz plays an important role in several industries. (e.g. automotive, cell phones, fashion, sports)

6. Financial Times. Visual buzz plays a role here too. The fact that the FT is printed on pink (okay light salmon) paper, distinguishes it from others. In a similar way, distinctive blue bags in driveways tell people that their neighbors read the New York Times. Powerful social learning with no words exchanged.

7. The movie Psycho. Some products become contagious by evoking a strong emotional reaction. After we saw the movie Psycho, my teenage friends and I couldn’t stop talking about the movie. Fear, of course, is an emotion that evokes positive buzz for just a few products, such as horror films. For most products and services, it is usually the feeling of excitement and delight. The Wow effect.

8. FedEx. It’s hard to imagine it today, but there was a time when people did not know about overnight services. The FedEx brand (or “Federal Express” as it was known) spread partially through those distinctive envelopes. But it’s important to note that this initial buzz is usually not enough. It’s conceivable that, in time, almost every office in the world would have received a FedEx letter and thus would have been exposed to the brand. But in real life, with competitors and cash flow issues, companies need to accelerate buzz externally.

I’ll be in London on Monday July 19th to talk about accelerating buzz about contagious products. More details here.

Two pictures from Kyoto

Testing the like button

Just testing the Like button. Hey, I think I like it! Thanks Ekaterina! (She shows how to do it here)

Conversation Starter

A short piece I wrote for Adweek about the need to trigger conversations can be found here. I mention three research papers in that article so here are the references for those who are interested in further reading:

Kumar, V., J. Andrew Peterson and Robert P. Leone. “How Valuable Is Word of Mouth?” Harvard Business Review, October 2007, 139-146. Here

East, Robert, Kathy Hammond, and Malcolm Wright. “The relative incidence of positive and negative word of mouth: a multi-category study.” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 24 (2), (2007): 175-184. Here

Barak Libai, Eitan Muller and Renana Peres (2010), “Sources of Social Value in Word of Mouth Programs,” Marketing Science Institute Working Paper 10-103. Here

Dinner in The Dark

How does it feel to be blind? What are the problems you face when you can’t see? In Hamburg, I came across a restaurant called “Dinner in the Dark” that can give you a taste of the answer and teach you how to rely on your other senses when you eat.

The experience in a nut shell: You have dinner in a pitch dark room while served by blind waiters. What an amazing way to create a dialog between people who can see and those who can’t. Food is always a great ice breaker.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to eat there, but I definitely will next time I’m in Hamburg. The restaurant is part of a bigger project called Dialogue in the Dark, where blind people lead guests through a completely dark environment and where the visitors learn to interact by relying on other senses. (For locations around the world see here.)

How does a dinner in the dark create buzz? People talk about unique experiences, and this experience sounds pretty unique to me. It also involves some uncertainties and raises a lot of questions: is the cook blind too? (no he’s not) Do they serve drinks? (yes) Is the bathroom in the dark? (no). If you’re in Hamburg, the restaurant is located at Alter Wandrahm 4. (This is where trnd’s wom day took place.) As I said, I haven’t eaten there, but you can read what people said about the experience here.

This is a good opportunity to thank the folks at trnd and everyone who came for a terrific day. I was very proud that I was able to follow some of the conversations in German throughout the day and even to answer one of the questions that was asked in German without any translation (!) This would have made my grandma proud. The little German that I know comes from her talking to me as a child, and she didn’t talk much about word-of-mouth marketing or social media.

Using YouTube to Fight Knife Crime

You have to experience this campaign in order to understand it, so once you read this, please watch the video. This campaign was done for the London Metropolitan Police. It’s called “Choose A Different Ending” and as the name suggests, it’s an interactive film that allows the viewer to decide what happens next. For example, in the picture above, you have to decide: take a knife to school, or leave it in the kitchen.

It encourages you to think about your choices which obviously is a good thing, but I'd love to learn more about the campaign's impact. I contacted the agency behind it (AMV BBDO) and will let you know if I learn anything new. If you have any thoughts or information, please let me know. I think that the creative is brilliant. I'd like to find out how it affects people. Here's the link to the video again.

This is part of my good buzz tour. I'm in Hamburg today to give another talk. Next stop - Stockholm.

The Dangers of Secondhand Buzz

I wrote a short article for WOM UK about secondhand buzz and what to do about it. You can read it here.