Surprising Demonstration

When it comes to getting attention and making a selling point few approaches are as charming and effective as a surprising twist to a product demonstration.



There is a bit of "hyperbolic" in this commercial, for sure. But, the durability point is made with charm and of course any buyer of a $400 camera will read the specifications.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 is waterproof to 10 feet and can be dropped from five. Oyeh!

The work was done by the Campaign Palace in Sydney, Australia.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

The Propensity to Share

The human social propensity to "seek and share" is fundamental. This propensity is amplified by electronic communication, and can produce dramatic effects in the viral context of the Web.

We tend to share items that will please and surprise our friends. A notable example is the wedding march video posted by Jill and Kevin Heinz, of St. Paul, MN. Their video was posted on YouTube on July 19, 2009. Within a week it was viewed over 10 million times and garnered over 51,000 comments.

By Tuesday, July 28, 2009, viewership continued to grow at a rate of about 1 million views a day on YouTube alone. Comments continued at the rate of about 5,000 each day. As of July 31, viewership reached almost 13 million with over 65,000 comments.

As of March, 2015, total YouTube viewership for this video was approaching 90 million with 175,000 comments.

Why have so many sought and shared this video? What conceptual lessons can be learned about public response to viral communication?

Clearly there is a classic reversal of expectations. Most of the people in the church were not aware of what they were about to experience.

The door is closed. The first notes of “Forever” bring expressions of joy to faces throughout the church. The ushers extend the surprise by dancing their way down the aisle. Two bridesmaids then set the stage.

The narrative of the song becomes apparent as members of the bridal party take turns interpreting. The groom makes his entrance with a promise to his angel. The bridal party mystically prepares the altar and then turns to the bride for her entrance.

This video demonstrates the basis for sharing. People want others to have that same feeling of unexpected joy.

A combination of psychological responses underlies the desire to share. The figure below identifies six factors commonly associated with how we respond to what we see in media. It is my Index of Viral Sharing.

We share Jill and Kevin’s video because of the originality and clarity of the storytelling. But it is not just any story… there is activity, enjoyment, empathy and realization in their video. We see the wedding march in a new and enjoyable way. That’s the substance people really want to share.

For further reading, see my article "Profiling User Responses to Commercial Websites" published in the May-June, 1997 issue of the Journal of Advertising Research. It has been cited by 230 articles and books about Internet advertising and provides the conceptual basis for thinking about information distributed on the Internet, whether by websites or viral sharing.

Many thanks to Scott Shellstrom – art director extraordinaire – for letting me know about this video.

For more on the psychology of advertising, please see Advertising and the Arc of History.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Toyota Creates New Font with the iQ Minicar

Toyota is using the intersection of creativity, communication and cars to introduce its new iQ minicar to the European market.


An overhead camera was employed to film tracking lights placed ontop of the iQ minicar while it was driven in the patterns of the letters and symbols needed to create the new iQ type face.



It's an inventive way to create interest among the urban innovators who will lead the way to this car. You see the car and how easily it maneuvers. Then, if you are a creative person, you also want to download and use the font.

It was easy to download it. I'm sure the iQ font will make an appearance in at least one PowerPoint presentation next semester.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Source Credibility

The two most credible people in advertising died this week. Billy Mays at age 50, and Karl Malden at 97.

How were they such powerful spokesmen? They simply believed in what they were selling, and their belief came through.

Here's Malden in the classic American Express commercial from 1985. The construction of this commercial rises to the level of Aesop's Fables. It is a simple tale with a moral, delivered with conviction.



Both Billy Mays and Karl Malden spoke with belief and authority.

Decades of persuasion research have pointed to source credibility as perhaps the key source of variance in message effectiveness.

There is a value in always telling the truth.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Credo for Corporate Advertising

An earlier post about effective advertising has sparked interest.

On May 11th, I reflected on the advice George Olmstead once wrote in a house ad for Young & Rubicam. George was the master of print advertising, yet his advice applies to all advertising.

Here's a look at the tear sheet for the ad. Boleslaw (Bob) Czernysz was the art director.


George wrote:

"Corporate advertising can pay off for your company in lots of ways.

If it's good corporate advertising. Unfat, unfuzzy, unstuffy, and uncomplicated.

Is there a key to corporate advertising that's sharp and effective? We think so.

Do it like product advertising. With all the same unforgiving disciplines you'd follow in selling toothpaste or dog food or seats on airplanes.

Disciplines? Start with a clear definition of exactly what the advertising is to accomplish. And exactly how you plan to measure it's success or failure.

And exactly who it's talking to.

Then remind yourself that no one really wants to read advertising. You have to make your ads so compelling that people can't help themselves.

Which means telling your story - any story - in terms of the reader's self interest. They want to know, 'What's in it for me?'

Talk like a person, one-to-one. Not preaching, but conversing with a friend.

Keep things simple, too - the way good product advertising does. (Just because it's corporate advertising doesn't mean there is room for the kitchen sink.)

Of course Y&R believes in corporate advertising. When it's hard edged, focused, and disciplined.

Like the best product advertising."

George Olmstead wrote this advice in the late 1970s. Given the state of business today, his words are even more important.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Caution on Click Through Testing

Direct response methods have tremendous potential. The promise really is to introduce the scientific method to choices advertisers have to make. The trick is to have a complete model of consumer response, and to get the measurement right.

On the Web, this is not as simple as just tossing up a variety of ad executions and counting the clicks for the differing promotional offers.

Indeed, studies have shown that extrinsic rewards, such as promotional offers, can erode the intrinsic motivation underlying consumer intent. Here's the top-line on one recent study.


So the risk is that by "buying consumer interest" as demonstrated by a click-through response to a sales promotion offer, marketers may actually demean the value of the brand in the eyes of consumers. It is vital that the entirety of consumer brand response be modeled and measured, and not just the click-through rates.

Advertising should always have a well-conceived communication strategy that is based on a leverageable consumer insight. It also helps to have a Big Idea based on the strategy.

Of course direct response methods are critical to success, but scattered testing of discount offers to promote click-through rates can erode the brand's vital value proposition.

Data mining should always take place in the context of smart strategic thinking. Said another way, you don't have a science unless you are testing a theory. Here's a link to more on the study shown in the chart.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Valuation of FaceBook

There is a lot of discussion about the valuation of social networking companies such as FaceBook and Twitter.

Sky Technologies, the Russian IT investment organization, just purchased almost two percent of FaceBook. This translates to a $10 billion valuation for FaceBook.

The preferred stock acquired by Sky Technologies confers special rights and so maybe $10 billion is an over-estimate. But various sources have speculated on the valuation and contrasted this most recent purchase to the earlier investment in FaceBook made by Microsoft.

It is important to recognize that the most valuable commodity on Earth is attention. So an alternative valuation approach might start with that foundational perspective.

Today Facebook reports that it has “over 200 million” active users on a world-wide basis. The Nielsen Online chart gives the latest on the size of the FaceBook audience within the United States.


In April, there were 53.8 million active FaceBook users in the United States. This amounts to 34.8 percent reach of active Internet users in the US and 17.5 reach of the total US population.

The United States audience for FaceBook averaged about 2 and a-half hours on the site in April. This amounts to about 5 minutes per day.

Coming back to attention as the most valuable of commodities, it is within this 5-minute average daily window that the valuation of the company must make sense.

And, looking at it a slightly different way, the $10 billion evaluation equates to $50 per each member of the currently active audience for FaceBook. So it is within those 200 million five-minute daily “attention structures” that the advertising model will have to pay out for FaceBook. It is an intriguing challenge for sure.

For more perspective on the Psychology of Advertising, please see Advertising and the Arc of History.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.