Thoughts on Spreadable Media - Parts 7 and 8
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wrapping up with the last two sections of If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead, by Henry Jenkins and his team at MIT's Convergence Culture Consortium. (Read my thoughts on Parts 1 and 2, on Parts 3 and 4, and Parts 5 and 6.)
In this post I'm going to look at the aesthetic qualities that help to make things more spreadable, and the ultimate value of spreadable media.
Part 7: Aesthetic and Structural Strategies
Humor has proven a great place to start. The vast majority of content that has seen exponential pass-along on the web has been humorous. This isn't an accident. Not only do people like to laugh, but humor plays perfectly into the social dynamics that fuel the spread of content in the digital space. As I wrote in my last post, "we use culturally relevant and resonant stories to help us tell each other about who we are and how we fit in with certain communities." Humor is a great vehicle for this. Humor, as Jenkins writes, "has the ability to define "insiders" and "outsiders" within a community."
Of course, in order to take advantage of this in a branded message, you have to be willing to risk alienating some people. If your brand is acceptable to everyone, then it won't be exciting to anyone. This is doubly true when it comes to spreadable media.
Jenkins points out two of the most popular forms of humorous spreadable media: parody (e.g. Coca-Cola's Grand Theft Auto commercial) and absurdity (e.g. the Cadbury Gorilla).
Here's what's so great about parody:
It's crucial to keep in mind that as you design content that will resonate with a broader audience that you "do not make the parody itself so broad and lacking in culturally specific details that the spoof comes across as mocking, lazy, or disingenuous." (e.g. Mini's Hammer and Coop) How often have you seen this happen? A strong creative idea gets watered down to point of being completely boring in order to reach a "mass" audience? It's a self-defeating tactic. Beware.
Another aspect of successful spreadable content has been a sense of mystery. Creating questions that are not answered within the content itself create a reason for people to talk to each other about it. Remember that one of the motivations for sharing content is to seek information. This was another successful element of the Cadbury Gorilla spot, as viewers passed it around to try to understand why? Why is there a gorilla playing the drums? Why the Phil Collins song? What does this have to do with Cadbury chocolate? WTF?!
Nostalgia is another popular ingredient for spreadable media. Ricky Van Veen, creator of CollegeHumor.com and one of the few people who has been able to create consistently spreadable video content, calls this ingredient "candy corn." Occasionally a video may hinge entirely on a specific reference, and sometimes it might just be a small reference embedded within a larger story. In either case, though, nostalgia gives viewers an opportunity to talk about a shared cultural history. We pass this content on in order to say to our friends, "Hey, remember this?"
At Undercurrent, we preach that all successful spreadable media has at least one of these four ingredients: Humor, Mystery, Amazement, or Sensuality. Jenkins covers all of these except sensuality. Though sex needs no explanation, it is important to remember that sex works (have you seen Hardy's latest spot with Padma Lakshmi?).
Part 8: The Value of Spreadable Media
So how can spreadable media be used, anyway? Jenkins breaks it down:
Spreadable media isn't something to embrace for its added benefits. Spreadable media must be embraced because it is how messages are spread in a digital culture.
Spreadable media is the new paradigm for digital communications. Adopt it. Learn it. Put it into practice. Your only other option is failure.
I'm planning to wrap up all of this into something of a how to guide. I'd love to hear your thoughts about what has stuck with you, and what you have questions about. Comments are welcome.
In this post I'm going to look at the aesthetic qualities that help to make things more spreadable, and the ultimate value of spreadable media.
Part 7: Aesthetic and Structural Strategies
In thinking back to what we outlined as some of the key motivations for spreading content, we must remember that in order to become spreadable, the content has to be able to create worth. In other words, openness and an abundance of meanings and uses may make some advertising material a potential gift, but it has to be able to communicate something that is socially meaningful before someone will give it.
Humor has proven a great place to start. The vast majority of content that has seen exponential pass-along on the web has been humorous. This isn't an accident. Not only do people like to laugh, but humor plays perfectly into the social dynamics that fuel the spread of content in the digital space. As I wrote in my last post, "we use culturally relevant and resonant stories to help us tell each other about who we are and how we fit in with certain communities." Humor is a great vehicle for this. Humor, as Jenkins writes, "has the ability to define "insiders" and "outsiders" within a community."
Of course, in order to take advantage of this in a branded message, you have to be willing to risk alienating some people. If your brand is acceptable to everyone, then it won't be exciting to anyone. This is doubly true when it comes to spreadable media.
Jenkins points out two of the most popular forms of humorous spreadable media: parody (e.g. Coca-Cola's Grand Theft Auto commercial) and absurdity (e.g. the Cadbury Gorilla).
Here's what's so great about parody:
[Parody] can express shared frameworks of reference within a community and, especially when it plays on nostalgic references, a shared history as well, thus marking those inside as those who "get" the joke. But as we mentioned briefly, this has the potential to alienate as well, and unless advertisers want the spread of their content to be siloed exclusively within small niches, they must be careful to build different levels of "insider" knowledge.
It's crucial to keep in mind that as you design content that will resonate with a broader audience that you "do not make the parody itself so broad and lacking in culturally specific details that the spoof comes across as mocking, lazy, or disingenuous." (e.g. Mini's Hammer and Coop) How often have you seen this happen? A strong creative idea gets watered down to point of being completely boring in order to reach a "mass" audience? It's a self-defeating tactic. Beware.
Another aspect of successful spreadable content has been a sense of mystery. Creating questions that are not answered within the content itself create a reason for people to talk to each other about it. Remember that one of the motivations for sharing content is to seek information. This was another successful element of the Cadbury Gorilla spot, as viewers passed it around to try to understand why? Why is there a gorilla playing the drums? Why the Phil Collins song? What does this have to do with Cadbury chocolate? WTF?!
Nostalgia is another popular ingredient for spreadable media. Ricky Van Veen, creator of CollegeHumor.com and one of the few people who has been able to create consistently spreadable video content, calls this ingredient "candy corn." Occasionally a video may hinge entirely on a specific reference, and sometimes it might just be a small reference embedded within a larger story. In either case, though, nostalgia gives viewers an opportunity to talk about a shared cultural history. We pass this content on in order to say to our friends, "Hey, remember this?"
At Undercurrent, we preach that all successful spreadable media has at least one of these four ingredients: Humor, Mystery, Amazement, or Sensuality. Jenkins covers all of these except sensuality. Though sex needs no explanation, it is important to remember that sex works (have you seen Hardy's latest spot with Padma Lakshmi?).
Part 8: The Value of Spreadable Media
So how can spreadable media be used, anyway? Jenkins breaks it down:
- To generate active commitment from the audience,
- To empower them and make them an integral part of your product's success,
- To benefit from online word-of-mouth
- To reach niche, highly interconnected audiences,
- but most of all, to communicate with audiences where they already are, and in a way that they value.
Spreadable media isn't something to embrace for its added benefits. Spreadable media must be embraced because it is how messages are spread in a digital culture.
Spreadable media is the new paradigm for digital communications. Adopt it. Learn it. Put it into practice. Your only other option is failure.
I'm planning to wrap up all of this into something of a how to guide. I'd love to hear your thoughts about what has stuck with you, and what you have questions about. Comments are welcome.
3 Comments:
Although spreadable media (aka the viral) is quite attractive, one needs to beware that it is still very much an Art.
I would argue that even if your spreadable media had all of the positive qualifications you meantioned above, it's still a coin flip.
My point is that it should be part of every marketers arsenal (marketers that deal with the right audience), but it shouldn't be the only weapon.
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