Contagious: Why Things Catch on

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What’s interesting about game mechanics, though, is they motivate on an interpersonal level by encouraging social comparison. Offering practical value not only helps make things contagious, but it also strengthens social bonds.

The first signs of whooping cough are similar to a cold, such as a runny nose and sore throat (a high temperature is uncommon). In a few years it will seem fiercely dated, but at least the advertising principles won't stop working, whatever the medium.However, understanding how social pandemics work also holds great practical value, for when public service messages, charity campaigns or products and services go viral, the effect has a big impact on behavior and the bottom line. And word-of-mouth is the reason why social media and advertising will never be efficient in creating movements and gaining sales. Contagious provides specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and content that people will share. In the last section of the book it went into a couple of examples on where great ads produced great memories. The key to finding inner remarkability, says Berger, is to consider what makes something interesting, surprising, or novel.

I think that's evidence enough that Jonah Berger knows what he’s talking about in regards to making something viral or “contagious”. Berger has spent over 15 years studying how social influence works and how it drives products and ideas to catch on. Things that are highly public and visible are more likely to be talked about and imitated than those that are more private.The information, while informative didn't appear to be that novel or innovative, and it was my perception that it took existing literature/information (note: I don't mean plagiarized) on the topic and put it together into a catchy model. it comes off as simply aiming to add pages to “Contagious” and not having enough new and conclusive statistics to share.