Contagious Why Things Catch On Review

Jonah Berger’s Contagious, Why Things Catch On (2013, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks), is a capturing and accessible read that investigates and unravels how things become viral. At core of his evaluations is his compressed explanation of this process in the acronym, STEPPS: Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value and Stories. They are the six “ingredients” that make things contagious.

Social Currency is what could be considered the ‘cool factor.’ This is how something is perceived by oneself and others and being in the know and how that knowledge reflects your status promotes both your association with it as well the desire to share and promote. 

Triggers are the visible and subconscious pings that induce associations. With the glut of products and ideas, triggers are the switches and magnets that bring ideas and products to top of mind. These triggers can be adjacent or directly relational but their power is in accelerating connection and therefore dominance. 

Emotion can be that warm fuzzy feeling or that hot spiking anger. Either way, feelings are deeply meaningful carriers of a message. When we feel, we share and through that sharing we are disseminating content and creating not only a wider network but one that deeply resonates. 

Public is the platform in which we perform to ourselves and to others. This is where we can make visible our affiliations and also to prompt fans, followers, haters and a desire to imitate or deride. 

Practical Value satisfies the built in human drive for curiosity. We seek new information and content so that we can learn and gain skills. Things that have practical value are foundational to our ever evolving desire to know more and share that knowledge with others. 

Stories are not only the package but the vehicle to making ideas and products resonate. Through them people find connection through emotions and relatability making them both more memorable and shareable. 

One example that Berger gives in his section about Emotion is the story of Anthony Cafaro and his ad campaign for Google. Cafaro was a visual artist and was not trained in the traditional advertising field but he was one of the first to be a part of Google’s newly created Creative Labs which were developing campaigns to highlight Google’s search function interface. The ideas that the group were originally producing were hitting the target in some ways but Cafaro felt that it lacked something. That something was emotion so Cafaro worked on creating a video called “Parisian Love” where it shows the evolution of a love story but only using Google’s search bar. Through this simple visual set up, you are presented with the classic boy meets girl story, starting with searches to traveling to Paris, sights to see, date places, and learning how to say sweet nothings in French. It uses background music and a progression of searches that leads eventually to moving to Paris and wanting to learn how to put together a crib. All just by showing searches in Google’s interface.

This is a highly effective campaign and one that I still remember so clearly! Even reading about it, years after first seeing it in Berger’s book, brought back those warm fuzzy feelings and I can almost recall the music in my head. And while this may register the most in terms of Emotion in Berger’s STEPPS mix, the other factors are also included. Social currency in the way that it is aspirational for new adventures and finding love; triggers in how the selection of Paris and its associations with being the City of Love redoubles on the love story aspects; public in that even though searching is private it feels familiar as we all have done similar inquires and may be inspired to do more; practical value because it shows just how easy Google is to use, and stories because even though we never see faces we feel like we are on this journey with the user and want to know what will happen next. 

This book is an essential read for anyone that wants to go into marketing as it unpacks why things catch on in the mediated landscape and it also gives inspiring and practical guides on what one should consider when trying to achieve the same. As the example above attests I strongly resonated with Berger’s emphasis on emotion. In any project or brand creation, it is imperative to put emotion at the forefront of establishing the concept, execution and desired responses. There is so much content pushing and pulling for attention and content that uses emotion to ensure one’s message stick and rise above has great potential for not only brand loyalty but also a more humane advertising ecosystem.

All of the STEPPS Berger outlines are valuable and should be factored into a marketing strategy but as he says in the book, the key is not only to make something viral but to make that virality “valuable virality.” That’s the bigger question and potential for marketers out there. The questions of what is meaningful and what does one value and how can you create contagious sparks to support that growth.