Olivia: A few years ago, a YouTube video of an 86-year-old man from Oklahoma shucking corn got over five million views. At the same time, a car company spent millions on a Super Bowl ad that was forgotten by Monday morning. Jackson: That makes absolutely no sense. One is a massive, high-budget production and the other is... well, corn. What is going on there? It feels like winning the lottery. Olivia: That’s what most people think! That going viral is just luck or magic. But it’s not. This is exactly the kind of puzzle that Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at Wharton, tackles in his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On. Jackson: Right, and this book was a huge deal when it came out, even named Best Marketing Book of the year. Berger's whole point is that virality is a science, not an accident. He argues that what makes something catch on is less about the quality of the idea and more about the psychology of the person sharing it. Olivia: Exactly. He boils it down to six core principles, a framework he calls STEPPS. And today, we're going to dive into two of the most fascinating and, frankly, counter-intuitive ones. The first one feels like a secret from a spy movie. It's all about the power of Social Currency. Jackson: Social Currency. Okay, that sounds like something you'd earn in a video game. What does it actually mean? Olivia: It means that we share things that make us look good. Smart, cool, in-the-know. The information itself becomes a status symbol. And there's no better example of this than a secret bar in New York City hidden inside a hot dog joint.

Jackson: Hold on, a secret bar inside a hot dog shop? That sounds like the beginning of a joke. Olivia: It’s real, and it’s brilliant. It’s called Please Don’t Tell, or PDT. To get in, you first have to walk into this place called Crif Dogs, which is this very casual, almost divey spot in the East Village. It smells like fried hot dogs and tater tots. Jackson: Okay, so not exactly a high-end cocktail lounge vibe. Olivia: Not at all. But tucked away in the corner is a vintage wooden phone booth. You step inside, pick up the old rotary phone, and dial the number one. A voice on the other end asks if you have a reservation. If you do, and if there's space, the back wall of the phone booth swings open, revealing a hidden door. Jackson: Whoa. That is straight out of a movie. So you walk through this secret door, and what's on the other side? Olivia: A completely different world. It’s this dark, intimate, beautifully designed cocktail bar. Taxidermy on the walls, leather booths, world-class mixologists. The contrast is jarring and absolutely thrilling. And here’s the key: they never advertised. Not once. Yet it became one of the most famous and sought-after bars in New York City. Jackson: Because the bar itself became the story! You don't just go there for a drink; you go there for the experience of getting in. Telling someone how to find it makes you feel like you're letting them in on a huge secret. Olivia: You've nailed it. That's Social Currency in action. The knowledge of PDT's existence and how to access it is valuable. It makes you an insider. Sharing that secret with a friend doesn't just give them a recommendation; it elevates your own status. You're the cool friend who knows things. Jackson: I can totally see that. It's like knowing the secret menu item at a coffee shop or the password to a speakeasy. It’s a little performance of being in-the-know. But does this only work for "cool" things like a secret bar? I mean, can a regular, boring product use this principle? Olivia: Absolutely. It's not just about secrets; it's about remarkability. Anything that's surprising, novel, or extreme can generate Social Currency. Take the story of Barclay Prime, a luxury steakhouse in Philadelphia. Jackson: Philly. Okay, I'm thinking cheesesteaks. Olivia: Exactly. The city is famous for them. They're delicious, but they're street food. They cost, what, five or ten bucks? So the founder of this new high-end steakhouse, Howard Wein, had an idea. He created the hundred-dollar cheesesteak. Jackson: A hundred dollars? For a cheesesteak? Come on, what could possibly be in it? Gold flakes? Olivia: Close. It had Kobe beef, caramelized onions, heirloom tomatoes, and was topped with shaved black truffles and a half-lobster tail. And it was served with a small bottle of high-end champagne. Jackson: That is completely absurd. I love it. Olivia: It is absurd! And that's the point. No one needs a hundred-dollar cheesesteak. But everyone wants to talk about the hundred-dollar cheesesteak. People would come in and order it just so they could go tell their friends the story. It was so remarkable that it generated endless media buzz and word-of-mouth, putting the restaurant on the map. The story was the social currency. Jackson: Okay, so making things secret or remarkable gives people a good story to tell, which makes them look good. That feels pretty intuitive once you lay it out. But you mentioned that corn-shucking video at the start. That’s not remarkable or exclusive. It’s just... useful. How does that fit in? Olivia: Ah, and that brings us to the second, and arguably more powerful, principle. This is the one that really challenges what we think we know about virality. It's a principle Berger calls Triggers. And this is where the boring stuff gets its revenge.

Jackson: The revenge of the boring. I'm intrigued. What do you mean? Olivia: Let me ask you a question. What do you think gets more word-of-mouth online on any given day: Disney World or Cheerios? Jackson: That’s not even a real question. It’s obviously Disney World. It’s the "most magical place on earth." It's exciting, emotional, a once-in-a-lifetime trip for many families. Cheerios is... a box of oat circles. It’s breakfast. Olivia: And you, like most people, would be wrong. Berger's research found that Cheerios gets mentioned online far more frequently than Disney World. Jackson: No way. I refuse to believe that. How is that even possible? People are not passionately tweeting about their breakfast cereal. Olivia: They're not passionate, but they are prompted. The principle of Triggers states that top of mind means tip of tongue. We talk about what we're thinking about. And while Disney World is more interesting, it's not frequently triggered. You might think about it when you're planning a vacation, or see a movie, but that's it. But what happens every single morning for millions of people? Jackson: Breakfast. Olivia: Breakfast. It's a powerful, daily trigger. The environment is constantly reminding people of breakfast, and by extension, things associated with it, like Cheerios. The sheer frequency of the trigger beats the excitement of the topic. Jackson: Huh. So a trigger is like a little mental tripwire. It's a cue in our environment that brings an idea or product to mind. Olivia: That's a perfect analogy. And smart marketers can actually create these tripwires. Take the Kit Kat chocolate bar. A few years back, its sales were flat. The brand felt old. The marketing team was trying to figure out how to get people talking about it again. Jackson: Let me guess, they didn't make a hundred-dollar Kit Kat. Olivia: They did not. Instead, they did some research and found a weak, but existing, association in people's minds: taking a break and having a hot beverage. They noticed some people would have a Kit Kat with their afternoon coffee. So they launched a campaign with a simple, powerful message: "Kit Kat and Coffee." Jackson: Just pairing the two together? Olivia: Just pairing them. They ran radio ads that talked about "your afternoon coffee's best friend." They created a new, strong link between a very common daily trigger—coffee—and their product. The results were staggering. Sales jumped by a third in the first year. They didn't change the product at all; they just grew its habitat. They created a new trigger. Jackson: Wow. So they attached their product to an existing daily habit. That's clever. It’s almost invisible. You don't even realize it's marketing. Olivia: It’s incredibly subtle. And it works for behaviors too. One study wanted to get college students to eat more fruits and vegetables. They showed one group a slogan that said, "Live the healthy way, eat five fruits and veggies a day." They showed another group a different slogan: "Each and every dining-hall tray needs five fruits and veggies a day." Jackson: Let me guess. The tray slogan worked. Olivia: It worked beautifully. The first slogan was nice, but forgettable. The second slogan linked the behavior to a trigger—the dining hall tray—that students saw every single day at mealtime. That group's fruit and vegetable consumption shot up by 25%. The tray itself became the reminder. Jackson: This is kind of blowing my mind. We all think virality is about creating this explosive, amazing, shareable thing. But what you're saying is, it might be more effective to just link your product to... Friday. Olivia: You're laughing, but that's literally what happened with Rebecca Black's song, "Friday." It was widely panned as one of the worst songs ever made, but it became a massive viral hit. Why? Because every single Friday, the day itself acted as a massive trigger, reminding people of the song and driving a new wave of shares and mockery. The trigger was more powerful than the quality of the product.

Jackson: So it's this fascinating push and pull. You need something remarkable to get the initial spark—the Social Currency of a secret bar or an absurd cheesesteak. But you need the mundane, everyday Triggers to keep the fire going long-term. Olivia: Precisely. And that's the book's big reveal. Virality isn't about one big, flashy moment. It's about embedding your idea into the very fabric of people's lives. Berger even practiced this himself. He famously chose the book's bright orange cover after consulting with color experts. He wanted it to be a highly visible object, something that would stand out on a bookshelf or in someone's hands on the subway. Jackson: He made the book itself a public trigger. That's very meta. Olivia: It is! He's using his own principles to make his ideas contagious. And it works. The book is a bestseller and is still widely discussed years later. It proves that these aren't just theories; they are practical, applicable tools. Jackson: It really does make you see the world differently. You start noticing the triggers all around you. The social currency people are trying to cash in. It’s like seeing the code behind our social interactions. Olivia: It is. And it's a powerful reminder that anyone can make an idea catch on. You don't need a massive budget or a stroke of creative genius. You just need to understand what makes people tick. You need to give them a reason to talk. Jackson: It makes me wonder, what are the triggers in my own life? What products am I sharing just because they make me look good? We'd love to hear your examples. What's the most surprising thing you've shared, and why do you think you shared it? Find us on our socials and let us know. Olivia: This is Aibrary, signing off.