Contagious Why Things Catch On

Deal or No Deal
or anxiety-inducing crime dramas like
CSI
are more likely to get people aroused than documentaries about historical figures. These shows
should get more chatter themselves, sure, but the boosted heart rate they induce should also spill over
and make people more likely to talk about the commercials that appear during the break. Ads at the
gym may provoke lots of discussion simply because people are already so amped. Work groups may
benefit from taking walks together because it will encourage people to share their ideas and opinions.
The same idea holds for online content. Certain websites, news articles, or YouTube videos evoke
more arousal than others. Blogs about financial markets, articles about political cronyism, and
hilarious videos are all likely to boost activation, which, in turn, should increase the transmission of
ads or other content that appears on those pages.
Ad timing also matters. Although a show may be generally arousing, a specific scene in that show
may be more activating than others. In crime shows, for example, the anxiety often peaks somewhere
in the middle. When the crime is solved at the end, all tension dissipates. In game shows, excitement
—and therefore arousal—is highest when contestants are about to find out how much they’ve won.
We may end up talking more about ads that show up close to these exciting moments.
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Emotions drive people to action. They make us laugh, shout, and cry, and they make us talk, share,
and buy. So rather than quoting statistics or providing information, we need to focus on feelings. As
Anthony Cafaro, the designer who helped develop the “Parisian Love” video at Google, noted:
Whether it’s a digital product, like Google, or a physical product, like sneakers, you should
make something that will move people. People
don’t want to feel like they’re being told
something—they want to be entertained, they want to be moved.
Some emotions kindle the fire more than others. As we discussed, activating emotion is the key to
transmission. Physiological arousal or activation drives people to talk and share. We need to get

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people excited or make them laugh. We need to make them angry rather than sad. Even situations
where people are active can make them more likely to pass things on to others.
Fluid dynamics and online search seem like two of the least moving topics out there. But by
relating these abstract topics to people’s own lives and evoking underlying emotion, Denise Grady
and Anthony Cafaro got us to care, and share.

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4.
Public
Ken Segall was Steve Jobs’s right hand man. For twelve years, Ken worked as creative director at
Jobs’s ad agency. He started with Apple’s account in the early 1980s. When Jobs was fired and
started NeXT Computer, Ken moved to be part of the project. And when Jobs returned to Apple in
1997, Ken came along as well. Ken worked on the “Think Different” campaign, was on the team that
developed the “Crazy Ones” ad, and started the iCraze by naming Apple’s bulbous all-in-one egg-
looking desktop the iMac.
During those later years, Ken’s team would sit down with Jobs every two weeks. It was a status
meeting of sorts. Ken’s team would share everything they were working on advertisingwise:
promising ideas, new copy, and potential layouts. Jobs would do the same. He would update Ken’s
team on how Apple was doing, which products were selling, and whether anything new was coming
down the pipeline that they might need a campaign for.
One week, Jobs approached Ken’s team with a conundrum. Jobs was obsessed with the absolute
best possible user experience. He always put the customer first. Customers shelled out all that money;
they should be treated right. So Apple carried this mantra into all aspects of product design. From
opening the box to calling for tech support. Ever notice the slow delay when you first pull the cover
off the box of your new iPhone? That’s because Apple has been hard at work designing that
experience to provide the perfect feeling of luxury and heft.
The conundrum concerned the design of the new PowerBook G4. The laptop was going to be a
marvel of technology and design. Its titanium body was revolutionary—stronger than steel yet lighter
than aluminum. And, at less than one inch thick, it would be one of the thinnest laptops ever.
But Jobs wasn’t concerned about the laptop’s strength or weight. He was concerned about the
direction of the logo.
The cover of PowerBook laptops always had a small apple with a bite taken out of the side.
Consistent with their user focus, Apple wanted the logo to look right to the owner of the computer.
This was particularly important given the frequency with which laptops are opened and closed.
People stuff the laptops in their backpacks or bags only to pull them out later and start working. And
when you pull the laptop out it’s hard to know which way is up. Which side has the latch and so
should face toward you when you set the laptop down on a desk or table?
Jobs wanted this experience to be as fluid as possible, so he used the logo as a compass. It faced
the user when the computer was closed so that the user could easily orient the laptop when he set it
down.
But the problem came when a person opened the laptop. Once the users had found a seat at the
coffee shop and sat down with their macchiato, they would open their computer to start working. And
once they opened the laptop the logo would flip. To everyone around them the logo would be upside
down.
Jobs was a big believer in branding, and seeing all those upside-down logos wasn’t a great feeling.
He was even worried it might be hurting the brand.
So Jobs asked Ken’s team a question. Which is more important—to have the logo look right to the
customers before they opened their PowerBook, or to make it look right to the rest of the world when
the laptop was in use?

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As you can see the next time you glance at an Apple laptop, Ken and Jobs reversed their long-held
beliefs and flipped the logo. The reason? Observability. Jobs realized that seeing others do something
makes people more likely to do it themselves.
But the key word here is “seeing.” If it’s hard to see what others are doing, it’s hard to imitate it.
Making something more observable makes it easier to imitate. Thus a key factor in driving products to
catch on is