Stickiness: What it is and how to test it.
Since the beginning of my exploration into social epidemics, I constantly encountered the concept of stickiness everywhere I looked. A concept which I would define as the notion of creating an artifact whose power causes individuals to be immersed in an experience and which I believe can be tested by placing your creation in people’s hands, and after a while, distracting them.
In my opinion, stickiness is the most important factor of all when it comes to creating an extraordinary product as it is proof that individuals truly value what is infront of them. A remarkable, engaging experience worth partaking in and sharing. But how does one create such a product?
My exploration thus far suggested that one can create a sticky experience that tells a simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional story. It should cause your audience to pay attention, understand and remember it, agree or believe in it, care about it and allow them to act upon it (Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath). Another path of action is that of Jonah Berger, which is more emotionally centered and debates that an artifact spreads if it holds a social currency, whose practical value triggers individuals to share an emotional story about why it makes them feel remarkable (Contagious, Jonah Berger).
Although I am an advocate of these thoughtful routes, after reading Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars, it is difficult for me to not believe that success could come down to the efforts of another. A connector or salesman, who happens to fall upon your creation, and who interprets it by creating a lie around what they believes it is and does, and proceeds to share this lie with those around them. This lie, which could be the root of success, then becomes the accepted worldview on what your creation is and does.
An example of the latter, is one from last night. After an art show in Brooklyn, two friends and I headed to Ichiran for ramen. As we entered a slim corridor, we discovered that the restaurant took a booth form, which included hinged doors incase individuals chose to eat together. An interpretation that allowed me to create a lie about how the owner wanted to allow for private and public meals.
Upon sitting down, I lied to myself about how the menu worked and proceeded to share this lie with my friends. Once the meal was served, the restaurant lowered a set of blinds that blocked us from the kitchen, allowing me to lie to myself, that this meant that the kitchen wanted to give us privacy. I then looked down and found the chopsticks that I had been given and discovered that I could order more food through the chopstick packaging. This led my friend to tell a lie which he had been told, about how Japaneese culture inspired the creation of products that had multiple uses in each meal (awesome creation btw). All lies which I have now shared with you, through a story full of lies that I told myself to understand the world around me.
However, regardless of whether Godin is right and everything is a lie, or you advocate for Berger’s or Heath’s routes — how can we check if our creation actually sticks? This brings me to, what in my opinion is, the greatest piece of information that I gathered from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: If you want to know if your creation is good, place it in people’s hands and after a while, distract them. Here’s how I came to the conclusion.
In The Tipping Point, Gladwell’s discusses how Sesame Street became a global phenomenon. As part of the story, Gladwell points at Sesame Street’s Head of Research, Ed Palmer, as a critical figure that allowed the show to last as long as it did due to his innovation: The Distractor. The innovation was simple:
“He would play an episode of sesame street on a television monitor, and then run a slideshow on a screen next to it — showing a new slide every seven and a half seconds.”
- Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point
The idea was to create novelty that would distract children from watching the show. Pairs of children would then be brought into the room and would be told to watch the show. After the show began, every seven and a half seconds, Palmer and his assistants would quietly note whether the children were watching sesame street, or the distractor. This allowed Palmer to determine which parts of the episodes were sticky and which were not. A process which allowed the creators of Sesame Street to find a formula to create a hit show.
However, although this is very powerful and scientific — it is not available to the masses. This led me to ponder how I could take this idea down to earth, in a way that would let any average joe find out if their invention sticks. A thought that reminded me of my time playing Pokemon as a child.
I enroute to a restaurant, sitting in the back seat of my mothers car next to my uncle. In an attempt to get my attention, my uncle started to gently push me from side to side. Angered by my uncle’s heavy-distraction, I proceeded to scream all sorts of vulgar insults in the hope that he would let me finish this important gym that I was traversing. If this isn’t a sign of value and stickiness, then what is?
This phenomenon is very common in viral products such as iPhone’s, football and even fidget spinners. So the next time that you are wondering if your product is truly valuable and worth sharing, place it in people’s hands and after a while, distract them.
Do they tell you to leave them alone (with the creation)?
All thoughts welcome,
Oscar
