Koi, showing off wealth and falling down... Analyzing the 5 core genes of popular content

What are the common characteristics of content that can spread in a fission-like manner ? What psychological factors of users can catalyze the chemical reaction of fission-like communication? This article attempts to dissect "explosive products" from the perspective of communication and extract the five core genes that determine whether content can become popular.

1. Why is it that the "koi" that symbolizes good luck is reposted tirelessly by countless netizens who despise superstition?
2. Why did the trend of “falling down to show off wealth” spread from Instagram in the United States to Weibo and WeChat in China?
3. Why have the fake smile boy, Xiao Wu with the wrong hairline, and Yang Chaoyue become popular emoticons on the Internet ?

In the eyes of marketing practitioners, "hot product" has always been a magical word. It seems to contain huge energy like an atomic bomb and is synonymous with topics, traffic , and high ROI. People are beginning to realize that marketing is far more than "creativity" and "insight". In the new media era, "explosive products" themselves are the result of viral spread.

What are the common characteristics of content that can spread in a fission-like manner? What psychological factors of users can catalyze the chemical reaction of fission-like communication?

This article attempts to dissect "explosive products" from the perspective of communication and extract the five core genes that determine whether content can become popular.

Meme: Social Chain Stimulant

You may not know what a "Meme" is, but you are probably familiar with the images below:

Doge the Annoyed Dog, Pepe the Sad Frog, the Fake Smile Boy, Yang Chaoyue, and the "Falling and Showing Off Wealth" that has recently become popular on Instagram... These Internet celebrity emoticons that are widely circulated on domestic and foreign social platforms are a type of Meme, which is somewhat similar to the Chinese word "梗".

The word Meme was first proposed by British scientist Richard Dawkins, who believed that "the role played by Meme in language, ideas, beliefs, and behaviors is the same as the role played by genes in the process of biological evolution." The Oxford English Dictionary explains Meme as: behaviors transmitted through non-genetic means such as imitation , in short, cultural genes.

The website "Know Your Meme" explains Meme as "some content or concept that is spread from person to person and constantly evolves." It could be a picture, an emoticon or a video. In China, the B-station ghost area can be said to be a meme incubator. Ge Ping, Zhuge Kongming, Yuan Shou, and even entrepreneur Lei Jun and other B-station "all-stars" have been continuously processed and interpreted by active netizens over the years.

For marketers , if the content can have the attributes of a meme, it will undoubtedly be easier to spread virally. Memes that have a longer life cycle in the social chain all have two characteristics.

• First of all, they all contain "seeds" with amazing fermentation energy. These are mostly some unconventional or exaggerated elements, such as the impressive awkward smile of the fake-smiling boy and Yang Chaoyue’s grumpy and baby-voiced “burn my calories”, which can easily attract users’ attention and stimulate their impulse to spontaneously process and evolve.
• Secondly, they all have strong "variability". They are like a universal "template" that leaves netizens with space to "copy" in various ways.

For example, the popular “falling down to show off wealth” on Instagram has been retained by netizens as the “falling down + showing off” template, and has been derived into tractor version, foodie version and other fancy falling versions, which are widely used in various life scenes. Only when the content is "variable" can it achieve exponential diffusion and dissemination.

Story: Data with a soul

Whether it is advertising marketers who want to recommend products to users, entrepreneurs who are on roadshows, or even writers, educators, and politicians, no one will deny the power of "stories" in influencing others and promoting communication.

The power of stories is not illusory. Researchers once conducted a sociological and anthropological experiment called Significant Objects. The researchers bought cheap items worth a dollar or two from thrift stores or garage sales, then asked a writer to write a short story about one of the items, and then auctioned the items on eBay.

These items originally cost $128.74, but were eventually sold for $3,612.51, a 2,700% increase in price. It is the stories that enhance the sentimental value of these objects, making users willing to spend more money to buy them.

In terms of persuasion, stories are no less effective than data. They are more like "data with soul" that can help us implant ideas and emotions into users' minds. For marketing practitioners, if they can embed story elements into brands , products, and promotional content, it will be easier to penetrate into the minds of users and gain word-of-mouth spread. The so-called story here does not have to have the "three elements and eight points" of a novel, but rather it is to create story-telling content that is full of details, has a sense of camera, and can mobilize users' emotions.

In the business world, the power of storytelling can be seen everywhere. In 2012, Prada placed the Saffiano handbag in the movie Mission Impossible 4. In the movie, this Prada was carried by the killer Mona. The blonde female killer used it to hide pistols and hold diamonds, which instantly made this handbag legendary and the most popular luxury bag of the year. The Prada Saffiano series thus earned the reputation of "killer bag" and has since become a handbag with a story, and it has been a best-seller ever since.

Dopamine: The brain's "save button"

The book "Speak Like TED" suggests that the speeches that are highly sought after by the audience and have millions of online hits all have one thing in common, which is that they can stimulate the secretion of dopamine in users. Dopamine is originally a chemical that can convey messages of excitement and happiness. It's like a "save button" in the human brain. When we are doing something, if the brain can release dopamine, we will be more likely to remember it.

How can we stimulate the brain to secrete dopamine?

First, we need to deliver novel information. Just like when Steve Jobs released the first iPhone in 2007, he used a completely new way to introduce this new product to users. In his speech, he said that Apple had launched three revolutionary new products: the first was the touch-screen wide-screen iPod, the second was a revolutionary mobile phone, and the third was a breakthrough Internet communications device.

He then repeated the three products again, "iPod, mobile phone, network communication device", and told everyone, "Did you hear it? These are not three different devices, this is a complete product, and we named it iPhone." At this time, the audience was already applauding.

Jobs successfully created the "wow moment", which did not require elaborate props or exaggerated performances. Sometimes a simple adjustment of the wording was enough to surprise and impress users.

In addition, we can also use humor as a "pleasing strategy" to make people more receptive to our information. When people receive humorous or funny information, the brain releases the hormone endorphin. This chemical can lower a person's psychological defenses and produce a feeling of calm and euphoria. In this psychological state, people will be more willing to accept, remember and spread the information they receive.

Superthreshold: Mind Harvester

When everyone thought that a hair dryer should have a hair dryer tube that looks like Peppa Pig's nose, Dyson broke this perception. It is like a small bladeless fan with a circular air outlet on the top, making the originally honest and clumsy product like a hair dryer cool. Dyson officials also stated that during the 50-month research and development process, Dyson purchased more than 1.6 million meters of hair for testing, which once caused a shortage of long hair supply.

There is no doubt that the Dyson hair dryer is very popular, so popular that it has become synonymous with the affluent life of the middle class. Two years later, Dyson launched a curling iron called AirWrap. Unlike ordinary curling irons, it is more like a combination of a vacuum cleaner and a curling iron. It heats the airflow to absorb and wrap the hair around the curling barrel, thereby achieving shaping. This curling iron has once again taken social networks by storm and has become a sought-after item among women.

Why are Dyson's hair dryers and curling irons always so popular?

A very important reason is that both products greatly exceed the user's psychological expectation threshold, that is, the psychological critical value. The surprise and excitement brought by this super-threshold level will not only allow the product to quickly penetrate into the user's mind, but also cause the user to pass the product on to people around them as a "new thing" with social value, thereby achieving self-propagation.

Recently, 74 newspapers under the Japan News Association simultaneously published close-up photos of Mitsuki Kimura, the daughter of famous movie star Takuya Kimura. The photos of Mitsuki Kimura in each newspaper are similar, with only slight differences in the lip shape and hairstyle. In addition, there is only a Hiragana character and a number in the upper right corner of the photo, which is completely confusing.

But if someone could string together the newspapers from 74 newspaper companies in numerical order and combine them with Mitsuki Kimura's lip movements, they would be able to get the message she wanted to convey: "I don't understand this country and this world yet. Go and understand, in order to become stronger, go and understand, in order to take a step forward, go and understand, in order to protect freedom. Use news to open up the future."

This incident unsurprisingly became a hot topic. The impact of the joint efforts of 74 newspapers and the close-up photo of Mitsuki Kimura far exceeded users' psychological expectations of the release of the slogan "Open up the future with news." Just imagine, if the Japan Newspaper Association simply printed this copy in newspapers in the usual way, it would be difficult to achieve the same effect even if it was printed in 200 different newspapers.

Superstition: Activating Self-Efficacy

In 2018, the word "koi" no longer immediately reminds people of the spotted carp with a voracious appetite. It has become a symbol of lucky people. Whether it is Yang Chaoyue, the Alipay "China Koi" award, or the explosive article "In front of this woman who has been winning since she was a child, Yang Chaoyue is really not a koi" that swept the circle of friends , it has gained the urge of Chinese netizens to forward it to "share in the good luck", and thus it has spread virally. For a time, countless people joined the "Koi Worship Cult".

Why are Koi fish so popular?

There are two main reasons:

First of all, superstitious behaviors with blessing implications such as "forward this koi and you will have good luck" can provide people with a "psychological illusion", strengthen people's originally low sense of control and self-confidence, and activate people's "self-efficacy" .

Not only koi, many athletes follow certain superstitious rituals before important games, such as wearing a yellow baseball cap after each season's games and practices, or sleeping in the opponent's shorts the night before a game...

Psychologists have found that these seemingly unreasonable little habits can indeed enhance athletes' energy and help them perform more stably on the field.

Secondly, whether it is forwarding koi or some superstitious hobbies, their operation costs are very low, almost no cost . It only takes 2 seconds to forward a Weibo or a WeChat article.

In addition, in the book "The Crowd", Gustav believes that it only takes three steps to turn something into a belief: assertion, repetition, and contagion .

Comparing with the spread of Koi, it also perfectly meets the requirements of these three steps. It gives people the assertion that "good luck will come as long as you forward it". It is constantly repeated in people's information flow , and it can quickly spread to people around them. In this way, the rise of "Koi Worship" seems more reasonable. In marketing activities , if you can plan some simple and easy-to-operate small blessing rituals, it may give users more motivation to participate.

Conclusion

Using Meme to create stimulants for social chains, implanting information into users' brains in the form of stories, creating dopamine to impress users, exceeding users' psychological thresholds, and using small rituals to activate users' psychological effectiveness... These are the core genes that most of the "explosive products" that can become popular possess. In marketing and communication, if these five elements can be effectively implanted, the chances of achieving self-propagation will be higher.

Source: Uma Littleman