Dan Heath recently spoke at a conference I attended, and I was fortunate to meet him afterwards. Dan Heath, along with his brother Chip, wrote the book Made to Stick, which goes into depth about why some ideas survive and others just die out.
During his event, he made a number of observations that ring very true: urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus health scares circulate effortlessly. While at the same time, people with important ideas, like teachers, business people, politicians, and others, struggle to make their ideas stick. Dan detailed out the six traits of a sticky idea.
- Simple – Like Nike’s campaign ‘Just Do It’.
- Unexpected – There is something surprising about it (i.e. you think you are eating beef, but you are really eating earthworms).
- Concrete – It uses visual or sensory evidence (i.e. a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush).
- Credible – It gets us to believe (i.e. you only use 10% of your brain).
- Emotional – They are filled with emotion. Just look at any of the viral videos you have seen on Facebook.
- Stories – Not always, but often they are stories that incorporate the other traits listed above.