Some thoughts on using mystery as a marketing tool to draw the interest and fascination of people. It's the second installment of something I've been interested in for a while.

1. why brands
should be mysterious

2. we are in the business of being interesting

3. awareness, purchase intent, etc.
here’s why:
in general, our job is to solve business problems by
convincing people of an idea which should create a solution
perception, sales, etc.

4. here’s why:
to convince people of an idea,
we need to be interesting enough to draw them into it

5. there are a lot of ways to be interesting

6. one of the most successful ways to draw people into an idea
can be borrowed from the storytelling world

7. mystery

8. mystery is a proven technique that we rarely see
in advertising

9. let me be clear what I mean by mystery

10. “come in late
and leave early”

11. John Hegarty said that’s what you should do in storytelling
you shouldn’t tell the whole story
because gaps in a story create intrigue
intrigue is good

13. Don Draper is the epitome of mystery (especially in the first couple seasons)
early in Mad Men, we were withheld information about Draper
and slowly received the answers over time
we even discovered Don Draper wasn’t his real name

14. because he was mysterious, we found him interesting

15. I have a theory why we’re interested in mystery

16. when presented with
incomplete images,
our brains will try to that means:
complete them on
their own
we naturally want
psychologists to finish the story
call this the
Law of Closure

17. but why do we want to finish the story?

18. when we’re
interrupted from
doing a task and
aren’t able to that means:
complete it, we feel
frustrated and are
motivated to go unfinished things
back and finish it cause us to
feel tension
psychologists
call this the
Zeigarnik Effect

19. in summary:
we want to finish the story
because unfinished things cause us to feel tension

20. the stories our culture obsesses about most
are often the ones that are incomplete

21. conspiracy unsolved
scandals crimes
theories

22. the media knows we like a good mystery
but advertising doesn’t

23. there are three elements of mystery that work hardest
to make it compelling

24. secrecy

25. you can’t have a mystery without secrets
the best secrets are bits of info needed to solve the mystery
secrets are what people obsess about

26. theater production company Punchdrunk is all about secrecy
they create plays with a purposefully incomplete storyline
the audience is encouraged to interact with the set
in order to fill in the gaps

28. the play “Sleep No More” and other Punchdrunk productions
are shrouded in secrecy
they know the audience is compelled to work for the full story

29. remember this?

30. after Phoenix was all weird on Letterman in 2009,
we were enthralled with the mystery of whether
he had really gone crazy or it was just a stunt

31. once the secret was
the alleged leaked that it was a
documentary hoax, people
tracking the star’s abandoned the
fall from grace mystery and the
fueled the fire and it movie didn’t reach
was on a road to box office
high demand expectations

32. the mystery failed because the secret it relied on was exposed
secrets are the fundamental need for mystery to exist

33. secrecy suspense

34. a mystery needs to suspend people between conflict
and resolution
it’s a tricky balancing act of withholding info and revealing it
one way to keep people engaged is to misdirect their
attention toward plausible clues or a new mystery entirely

36. you knew this was coming
love it or hate it, this show was 100% mystery

37. Lost misdirected people for years and did it perfectly
new episodes created new questions to muddle over
on fan and social sites

38. misdirection kept people in suspense week to week

39. of course, suspense can be pretty exhilarating
“the suspense is killing me!” is just a way of saying that

40. this company
knows you love
experiencing
suspense

41. Something Store has hinged their business on the belief that
people enjoy the positive effect of suspense - a building
excitement for the inevitable conclusion
if you give them $10, they’ll send you something
what that something is, you’ll just have to wait and see

42. this uncertainty and anticipation
is enough to get some people
pretty jacked

43. a couple radio d.j.’s were excited enough to opened their box on the air
they were disappointed with the result, but it was topic of conversation for days prior

44. realistically, $10 of something usually isn’t very cool
the stuff Something Store sends typically isn’t either
there’s a few flaws to their model which limits their success,
but they still embrace the power of suspense and even surprise

45. secrecy suspense surprise

46. the best mysteries have a surprising ending
a surprise has the power to make a positive lasting impression
it makes the whole experience especially worthwhile
and worth sharing with others

47. let me introduce two brand experiences that leverage surprise

48. first up, a storefront in Boston

50. nothing special, right?

51. take a closer look

52. I don’t even know
what’s this place what that is
called anyway?
that’s toilet
paper in the
display window
yep, that’s that’s a chair for
paper towels no one to sit on

53. it’s a strange place
let’s pretend you’re crazy enough to believe this isn’t an
abandoned convenience store and are willing to go inside

55. (equally depressing)
don’t let this poor quality photo fool you - that clerk is really
as disinterested with you as you are with being here

57. this relic Snapple machine somehow fits the environment
while you’re here, you might as well get something to drink

58. turns out the Snapple machine didn’t dispense any Snapple
in fact, it’s not even a Snapple machine

59. it’s a door

60. it sensed you were close, and just like in Star Trek,
it whipped open to reveal another room

62. whoa

65. these are all rare and fairly expensive hipster goods
shoes, clothes, music, whatever
there’s even sales people to help you look around
the semi-classy space

67. don’t you love that the dumpy convenience store facade
is hiding items special enough to be put behind locked glass?
the irony is awesome

68. it’s only when you hang out here long enough
that you start to learn what this place is even called

70. branded on miscellaneous items and a sales person’s
business card, you’ll discover you’re at Bodega

71. Bodega has two stores like this but each has a different facade
there are typically lines outside the stores everyday

72. that’s because Bodega’s surprise is its marketing
they don’t even need a sign outside their door because the
surprising experience they offer is worth talking about

73. here’s another one that’s a little different
brace yourself - it involves a pretty boring product

75. that’s an excavator
it excavates
it’s on display at a trade show in Japan

76. once again, take a closer look

77. that’s a
contraption no one what’s it
at this event has doing here?
seen before
and why is the
it has no earthly excavator hanging
business excavating out with it?

81. also, whoa

82. the manufacturer of this excavator custom-built that tower
to demonstrate how strong the hydraulic arm is
rather than show it digging up dirt,
they had it scale a 90° cliff

83. they chose to surprise the trade show attendees
by doing something unconventional
it worked so well that people like you and me
experienced it too

84. even if you have a product that isn’t interesting to the masses,
surprise can be your currency

85. mystery uses some amazing elements to make it compelling
secrecy suspense surprise

86. in case I lost you:
we are in the business of being interesting
we need to capture people’s interest to do our jobs
behaving mysteriously can be a provocative way
to draw people into our ideas

87. thanks
@mattsummers