Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Create Some Common Ground
Today on my way home on the London Underground, something unusual happened. The train driver started talking, he confidently told us about the history of the tube stops we were passing, and about the history of the London Underground in general. He also managed to throw in a few jokes, a couple of them were even funny.
A few minutes after this talkative train driver started talking something even more astonishing happened, people on the tube train actually started smiling, laughing, and joking to each other about the driver’s monologue. As is probably the case with many big city metro systems, people on the London underground, especially people commuting during the rush-hour typically spend their time on the tube with very stern expressions on their faces, listening to music or burying their faces into a paper or book. As for starting a conversation with one of their fellow commuters, it’s just not the done thing.
This event though, the guided tour delivered by this train driver brought everyone together, what would typically be a bunch of miserable, and unfriendly commuters were all of a sudden joking and talking together.
This got me thinking about techniques for generating buzz online. The train driver allowed for a sort of common ground to come into existence between the commuters, a single theme/event we could all relate to and share our opinions on. I think brands should look beyond trying to generate buzz around their specific products and instead look at creating ‘common ground’ subjects and themes that a large group of their target market can relate to.
Leading a discussion or an exchange of opinions on these types of themes opens up the opportunity for much more interesting debate than trying to force people to talk very narrowly about your latest product/service launch.
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