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Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman show in their research report “What Makes Online Content Viral?” How surprisingly one of the most important requirements for content is for practical value and interest. Practical value and interest are usually addressed during the product innovation and development phase, but surprises can also be effectively leveraged later.

Another study by NeuroBusiness CEO Dr. Srini Pillay, has shown that we can actually predict which messages will go viral and which will not. Ideas that spread have a distinct, recognizable property that, surprisingly, resides in the sender’s brain. Messages that spread trigger two key areas in the sender’s brain. The first of these registers rewards the value that the sender places on the message. The second area deals with the ability to see things from the point of view of the message recipient.

When we, as brand managers, create our message, it is these two factors that determine whether or not the message will go viral. The more you value an idea and the more accurately you can predict how others will perceive the message, the more successfully you can spread it.

ContriBranding Strategy Insider by: Thomas Gad, excerpt from his book Customer Experience Branding, with permission from Kogan Page Publishing.

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