What are the triggers for motivating people?

Wednesday, 17. February 2010

Liverpool Street Flash Mob

Liverpool Street Flash Mob

Communities in the West are increasingly splintered and media channels increasingly fragmented – making the cohesive engagement of groups more difficult and challenging. For the advertising industry, which at times still struggles to throw off the organisational shackles of above, below or through-the-line, the introduction of ‘transmedia story telling’, ‘augmented reality’ or ‘blended reality’ adds even deeper layers of complication to an already complex communications story. Against this backdrop, experiential advertising through group mobilisation becomes an incredibly powerful branding tool.
So how can brands and agencies mobilise groups to their benefit and use these powerful forces to engage people with their brand?Communities in the West are increasingly splintered and media channels increasingly fragmented – making the cohesive engagement of groups more difficult and challenging. For the advertising industry, which at times still struggles to throw off the organisational shackles of above, below or through-the-line, the introduction of ‘transmedia story telling’, ‘augmented reality’ or ‘blended reality’ adds even deeper layers of complication to an already complex communications story. Against this backdrop, experiential advertising through group mobilisation becomes an incredibly powerful branding tool.
So how can brands and agencies mobilise groups to their benefit and use these powerful forces to engage people with their brand?

Communities in the West are increasingly splintered and media channels increasingly fragmented – making the cohesive engagement of groups more difficult and challenging. For the advertising industry, which at times still struggles to throw off the organisational shackles of above, below or through-the-line, the introduction of ‘transmedia story telling’, ‘augmented reality’ or ‘blended reality’ adds even deeper layers of complication to an already complex communications story. Against this backdrop, experiential advertising through group mobilisation becomes an incredibly powerful branding tool.

So how can brands and agencies mobilise groups to their benefit and use these powerful forces to engage people with their brand?

Barack Obama, an Australian with a lost camera and the T-Mobile flash mob advert all share a common characteristic – they all successfully mobilised large groups to help them achieve their end goal. In 2008 Barack Obama compelled millions of black voters to visit the polling booth and in doing so became the first black president of the USA. In 2009 an Australian tourist visiting Greece found a French person’s lost camera and managed to harness over 250,000 people through Facebook to help him find the owner. In 2007 T-Mobile mobilised a 13,000 person flash mob and in doing so created an iconic piece of advertising.

To understand the forces at work in mobilising groups it is important to recognise the human triggers for joining these groups in the first place:

1. Fun

2. Share values

3. Reward

4. Herd instinct

Canvas8 subscribers can read the full report here.

Posted in Advertising, Behaviour, Communications, Lifestyle by Nick

2 Responses to “What are the triggers for motivating people?”

  1. February 18th, 2010 at 11:32 am

    Mat Morrison Says:

    It strikes me that a lot of examples and case studies like this run the risk of falling foul of the “Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy” –that is that they try to make sense of statistical data that is selected after the event.

    Sure, there are examples like the camera story. But for each of these, there are many many thousands of examples that never get off the ground.

    It’s notable that the other two case studies here had massive TV budgets.

  2. February 18th, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    Nick Says:

    Thanks Mat for your comments – It is interesting to note that although the filming budgets for T-Mobile etc were significant, the single YouTube invite played on the emotional trigger of Fun. There are many many more examples that we used in the full report from the Valentines day pillow fights in San Francisco through to Silent Disco (also in Liverpool Street Station). Even last week a Facebook Group (http://bit.ly/97fIa4) inviting people to a party got a little out of hand… What the full report does is highlight the emotional triggers for engaging and mobilising large groups referencing psychological and emotional studies. Hopefully there isn’t any Texas Sharpshooting in sight. I’ll send you a link to the full report. It would be good to get your feedback.