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Word of Mouth

Today’s post topic will be on Social Transmission, derived from the concepts of Jonah Berger’s New York Times Bestseller, Contagious, Why Things Catch On.

Jonah defines Social Transmission as “social influence and word of mouth” which has indeed proven to be contagious and gives a deeper meaning as to why things catch on. To paraphrase his conceptualization, Jonah touches on the factors of human interaction and how they allow marketers to tap into their audience once, leaving it to their audience to then spread the word for them. The reason for this is that people love telling stories and people love to hear them. The stories that we hear from colleagues, friends and family etc., have a significant impact on us as the listener because we value our peers’ inputs. This has changed the game of advertising because as Jonah rightfully states, word of mouth is more persuasive than traditional advertising because ads will always argue that their product is better than their competitors, which consequently makes their arguments less credible. But the words from our trusted peers are naturally considered to be more valid because our peers’ opinions are unbiased to the company’s image or products.

Jonah’s second reason for word of mouth being more effective than traditional advertising is that “word of mouth is more targeted”. His example for well placed targeting of ads is for a skis company. Would it be more beneficial to the company if their ads were placed on television during the nightly news, or would it be more productive to place their ads in a ski magazine? It’s a pretty straightforward example but so many companies lose sight of this. 

Today I want to show you two ads from two separate companies that have successfully executed the use of Social Transmission and have given new industry standards in advertising for their industry’s products.

First, Heineken’s 2013 The Voyage ad campaign with the slogan, “Open your World”:

This ad struck me as a great example for this subject matter due to Heineken’s perfect use of story telling about their product and the type of experiences that their product (beer) will bring to the consumer without ever explicitly saying anything. Let’s dig in, the video starts off with what seems to be an interesting guy that has drawn a picture of his taxi driver, has a pet goat for some reason and shows that everyone seems to be interested in him (hinting that interesting people drink Heinekens). He then creatively pays the waiter for two Heinekens with his goat being his crafty accomplice and proceeds to dance through the festival trying to get back to his goat that is holding his two cold beers. 

The video continues to play several scenarios of him trying to catch his goat, one being, an attractive woman gives him a spicy pepper where he then immediately looks at the two beers that are covered in condensation persuading the audience that Heineken pairs well with spicy food due to its refreshing qualities (all without explicitly saying this). The chase continues where he meets a guru of sorts and then conveniently comes across two more attractive women that, of course, show interest in him. The video ends with him ultimately getting his beers in time to meet up with his friend where they happily share the two beers. This video’s main goal is to show all the possibilities a night can have if you choose to “chase” Heineken, concluding that if you drink Heineken, you’re bound to have an epic night. Again, all this was left to interpretation of the viewer by showing an exciting video without mentioning the product’s qualities as a beer or the qualities of the potential night you might have if you choose to drink Heineken.  

The second video is a humor driven clip for Old Spice, the pioneer in thinking out of the box in their content strategies. Other brands like Axe Body Spray have done a decent job in conducting their advertisements in a similar fashion.

This video is without a doubt meant to make the audience laugh but there’s a subtle ingenuity to it when it comes to the two ladies. The “Alpha Dog” itself is hilarious and has nothing to do with deodorant, which shows Old Spice’s content strategy of being outlandish and irreverent to the fundamentals of advertising. The ingenuity shines through when the two ladies deliberately call out Old Spice’s lack of traditional advertising by saying, “That’s suppose to sell deodorant?” and then proceed to say, “Talk about something real, like the smooth sophisticated scent of Old Spice” it mocks the traditions of advertising making them a vigilantly of advertising.

These two ads show that Jonah’s intellection of the significance of word of mouth is more important than simply stating the product’s qualities or uses by creating ads that will generate discussion and sharing, leaving the traits of the product out of the message. Everyone knows that there are plenty of deodorants and beers and that it all comes down to customer preference, so why not aim your content to stand out and be shared virally. I don’t know about you guys, but I am falling victim to their marketing and will be getting a case of Heinekens and Old Spice after I sign off here. Hope this was an informative post that will help you to redefine your content strategies.