The Stickiness Factor - Data Tipping Point part 3
4 lessons in making sticky data comms that build communities and create momentum
This is part three of a series on data tipping points - the point at which a data transformation becomes self-sustaining, change becomes irreversible, and a data-driven organisation is inevitable. For an intro on data tipping points, read part one and to understand the key players you need to build a movement, read part two.
It doesn't matter whether your flavour of data is mesh, governance or democratisation; whatever your flavour, you need effective communications to scale data work. And effective comms means focusing on more than just the facts that we data people love.
In introducing the Stickiness Factor, the second law of Tipping Points, Malcolm Gladwell pointed out that there is something very counterintuitive about effective comms. "We all like to believe that the key to making an impact on someone lies with the inherent quality of the ideas we present". It isn't. If the quality of ideas were the key to whether an idea took off, then, for better or worse, academics would run the world. They don't.
At its core, the Stickiness Factor is about how memorable and impactful a message or idea is. For something to "stick" in a person's memory, it needs to be presented in a way that's not just informative but also engaging and memorable. It's not just about the quality or importance of the information, but how it's packaged and delivered.
In coming up with the Stickiness Factor Gladwell reviewed case studies of effective communications and concluded that "there is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, make it irresistible". It doesn't require marketing magic or a complete rethink of your comms content. Instead, as the case studies show, it means tweaking your approach.
My first naive experience with data comms
I first realised how critical comms are to data strategy shortly after I moved from leading data teams to running a data transformation.
We decided to launch a data transformation with a data survey and champion programme. The success of both relied on the most tenuous of comms tools - a section in a weekly firm-wide email that went to 20,000 people.
We drafted and redrafted a message to capture all the essential information and then sought feedback from a specialist in change management. Her response has forever changed how I approach important communications (email, talk, presentation, course etc.). She said “it’s clear reading this that you really know your stuff” (great - I thought) “buuuut, it’s not clear what impact you want” (ah - it fails).
They were tight on time and pointed us to a comms framework and suggested we use that to understand the impact we wanted and then redraft the comm with those aims in mind. The framework is as powerful as it is simple. Just bullet what you want your audience to think, to know and to do as a result of your communication.
Comms tip 1 - Always plan what you want your audience to think, know and do as a result of your comms before you make the draft. For more on the framework, see the guide below and click through for more.
The re-drafted comm was incredibly effective (over 250 people joined the first champion programme) and was vital to launching a successful data transformation programme. I now use this framework all the time.
However, I didn’t A/B test this - there wasn’t time. So let’s move on to the lessons from the case studies in Gladwells’ Tipping where extensive testing was done.
Make things easy
Whilst tetanus injections might not be an obvious source of inspiration for comms, Howard Leventhal’s comms experiments to persuade seniors at Yale to get tetanus injections are worth learning from.
Leventhal created several versions of a booklet on tetanus risks and a free tetanus vaccination the university was offering. To start with, he wanted to see if fear would increase the response rate and therefore had booklets without too much description of the risks of tetanus and booklets with graphic images and detailed descriptions of symptoms experienced by tetanus victims.
Only 3% of students responded to receiving a booklet by turning up for a free vaccine. And whilst the recipients of the high-fear booklets were more aware of the risks of tetanus, they were no more likely to turn up for vaccination.
By any measure, 3% is not a good result. Leventhal tried again with a tiny tweak, a campus map with a circle around the university health building. The target audience were seniors who would have known their way around campus, yet this tiny tweak tipped the balance, and rather than 3% turning up for a free vaccine, 28% turned up.
Comms tip 2 - always include a clear and easy to follow call to action in your comms. This ties back to the Do of Know-Feel-Do.
Measure impact
It is worth reading the Tipping Point just to hear the stories of the research behind Sesame Street. All I can do here is give a high-level summary and a takeaway lesson.
Sesame Street set out to change children's TV by making it demonstrably educational and engaging. To test engagement, they created the "Distractor" (shown below). In this experiment, children were shown pilots of episodes with another screen to the side showing a new, varied and exciting image every 7.5 seconds. If the child's attention switched to the second screen, that segment failed. With data on every 7.5 seconds of the show, episodes with poor scores were sent back to the drawing board and re-written. On average, shows went live with 85-90% engagement.
The data they got from the distractor shaped Sesame Street from the start. Originally the puppets were designed to be distinct from and never appear on the street where real people were. Perceived wisdom from child psychologists said not to mix fantasy and reality. But the data from the pilots showed children switching off when the street appeared. The producers went with the data, allowed the muppets onto the street, and one of the most iconic and impactful TV shows of the 20th century was born.
If you think being data-driven is anything new, think again!
Comms tip 3: Measure engagement where you can. If you’re running a campaign to promote a data tool or get people to move to the cloud, measure the impact. Is there an uptick in logins after specific comms? If so which? What worked and can be repeated?
Previously one way I showed the success of an entire transformation programme was by showing a strong positive correlation between the percentage of people signed up for data comms in a department and the percentage using the recommended data platforms.
Have some fun
This is, appropriately, my favourite of the three case studies.
Back when mail-order records were a big thing, Lester Wunderman had been doing Columbia’s marketing for 20 years when another agency, McCann, won the work. Frustrated, Wunderman convinced Columbia to run a campaign in 26 markets, 13 with McCann’s commercials and 13 with his own.
McCann spent four times as much on media time, buying prime time slots. Wundermann bought cheaper early-hour slots, but he (and his audience) had some fun. His ads announced a treasure hunt. If viewers could find order coupons in magazines with a gold box, they could name a record in the gold box, send it in, and get it for free.
As the ad was shown in the early hours, only a few people saw it. But, sales in Wunderman’s markets were up 80 percent, versus 19.5 percent in McCanns.
Comms tip 4: Whilst data transformations should be value-focused, that does not mean they should always be serious. Have challenges, competitions, gamify things… have some fun with your messages.
Conclusion on Stickiness Factor.
In most data transformations that I come across, change management and comms are an afterthought. This might work in small organisations or if you have a complete top-down remit to tell people to work differently. But if you’re trying to create a data culture in a large organisation, you create sticky messages - messages that are memorable and inspire actions.
To get started, make sure you know what you want your audience to think, know and do when they read your comms. Make things easy to follow with a guided call to action. Measure the effectiveness of comms to learn what works. And last, but not least, make things fun and the data transformation be something that people want to spend their time on.
Next week will be the final article on data tipping points, where we will look at the importance of context and come to conclusions.
Over 250 of you are now reading this every week - I am truly humbled. Thank you.
I missed a post last week (rush of launching Datent), but I am committed to this being a weekly newsletter. Let me know which day you’d like it to come out, and the winner on the poll will be the day from next week on. (Note Substack limits to 5 options in a poll)
Some great insights as usual Benny - Change management and comms are critical
I think the Tipping Point and other Malcolm Gladwell books are excellent, but they are not as rigorous as he would like to make out... but the analogies are sound.