Posts tagged monkey

Made to Stick?

Those of you with long enough memories may recall that I’ve been pondering on the nature of marketing for a while now. Whereas that post was about the merits of marketing as “selling” vs marketing as “designing,” I’d like to spend a little more time thinking about the “selling” side, as that’s most (by quantity) of the marketing we see right now — mature products that are being pitched to potential consumers.

Why am I harping on this? I just finished Chip and Dan Heath’s book Made to Stick last night. While I think their book Switch on behavioral change is a bit better, Made to Stick refers to how ideas become “sticky.” For example, how there are certain ads you can remember forever, and others you forget before the ad’s over. 

 - by Savinay Chandrasekar

Specifically, Chip & Dan narrow down the concept of sticky ideas to a simple acronym: SUCCESs; that is, a sticky idea will be some combination of the following:

•  Simple 

•  Unexpected 

•  Concrete 

•  Credible 

•  Emotional 

•  Story 

[For more information on SUCCESs, check out Fast Company’s “Made to Stick” section.]

I think back to some of my favorite ads of all time, and sure enough, they fall into many of these categories.

Think of the e*trade Monkey Super Bowl ad:

Simple? Totally. Concrete? 100%. Unexpected? 91304109384%. Emotional? I laughed my a$$ off the first time I saw it.

How about The relatively new Old Spice and Dos Equis campaigns?

Simple, Unexpected, Credible (the guys just look masculine), and Emotional. The Dos Equis one even tells a story (or a bunch of them).

What about serious commercials like Apple’s 1984 or the “This is your brain on drugs” PSA from the 1980s:

Just as Simple, Concrete, Unexpected, and Emotional. 1984 even co-opts an existing Story to build Credibility.

How do your favorite ads stack up? Do you notice these characteristics in the ads you admire?