We pick up with knowing that the ads would work and why.
What this has to do with doffing my hat to things I don't like is simple (well, to me it's simple). One of the things our investigators are trained in is what cultural anthropologists know as versipellis, "shapeshifting", and no, I don't mean we have a bunch of werewolves working for us. What I do mean is something I discuss in Reading Virtual Minds, the ability to move through different segments of society without being noticed as an outsider to any one segment. This ability requires individuals to change their cognitive, motivational/effective and behavioral shapes fairly often. It's shapeshifting of the mind, not the body (although sometimes it's tough to tell, I'll admit). What most people don't appreciate is that everyone does this kind of shapeshifting to a certain degree; the personality you manifest at work usually isn't the same one you manifest at home and so on. Being trained to do it on purpose requires more schooling than most people care to get into (lucky for the rest of us, I guess, or we'd never know who we're talking to).
Part of this training is the ability to respond to and reflect on our own emotions, our own likes and dislikes. Conversations with investigators sometimes take on the atmosphere of group therapy sessions, often started with "Why did you like/dislike that?"
So when I responded negatively to what I'd read in Omma about the live chat in the middle of an ad and Gil the Crab I immediately smiled. A little shapeshifting showed me that, in the demographics these campaigns were designed for, they would be (and obviously were) incredible successes.
My hat's off to them!
Links for this post:
- Hat's Off to Things I Don't Like, Part 1
- Jan 07 Omma
- Reading Virtual Minds
- RPA Interactive
- Universal-McCann
» KBar's Findings: Study: Men Hard-Wired to Ignore Their Wives from BizMediaScience
"Men Hard-Wired to Ignore Their Wives?" Really? [Read More]
Tracked on: February 20, 2007 1:18 PM | Permalink to Trackback