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The Joshua Bell/Metro Station Experiment and the Power of Perception

Edited from The Washington Post article by Gene Weingarten

He emerged from the metro station at the L’Enfant Plaza Station and positioned himself against a wall beside a trash basket. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.

It was 7:51 a.m. on a Friday in the middle of rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape.

Three minutes went by before something happened. A middle-aged man altered his gait for a split second, turning his head to notice that there seemed to be some guy playing music. Yes, the man kept walking, but it was something. A half-minute later, Bell got his first donation. A woman threw in a buck and scooted off. It was not until six minutes into the performance that someone actually stood against a wall, and listened.

After 10 minutes, a 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His name was Joshua Bell and his performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities.

Just days before he appeared at the Metro station, Bell had filled the house at Boston’s stately Symphony Hall, where merely pretty good seats went for $100. The Stradivari violin he played at the metro station has been estimated to be worth $3.5 million.

The questions raised: in an ordinary place at an unbefitting hour, do we recognize beauty? Do we pause to appreciate it? Do we appreciate talent in an unexpected context?

In the fields of marketing and advertising, many studies have been conducted to analyze how context affects overall perception of quality. Weingarten’s findings are a great example of what PeakBiety is all about: the power of perception®.

The results of the Joshua Bell experiment aren’t too surprising to us. The nature of a presentation is closely linked with how it will be perceived. A client’s product or service could be the best available, but without relevant strategy, a strong branding platform and appropriate marketing—the product or service could be easily overlooked.

Why Making the Logo Bigger Can be a Big Mistake.

by Amy Phillips, Creative Director

It’s a problem that comes up in design 101, and is waged by art directors everywhere. The dilemma of whether to engage the audience or hit them over the head with a client’s logo has endured since David Ogilvy penned his first headline.

Clients who spend money on a web banner or TV commercial naturally want to get the most out of their ad dollars. But pushing the logo into someone’s face as often as a 30-second spot or a tile-sized Web banner will allow, isn’t really the best way to do it. Viewers are way too sophisticated for this tactic. And now they have technology to back them up. One click of the mouse or the remote control, and your logo and the rest of your message are history.

Unless you quickly establish why your ad is relevant to them, they’re unlikely to register anything else. Just think of it as the, what’s-in-it-for-me? syndrome. The people you’re trying to reach are caught up in their own lives. If at home, there are phones ringing, children crying, dinners boiling over and bills that need paying.  At the office, things are even worse. Deadlines loom, sales goals beckon and bosses demand answers. “Now what were you trying to sell me?”

Please…do yourself and your company a very big favor. Don’t let all your hard work and good money go to waste on an audience that isn’t paying attention. Engage them first. Then they might even be interested in your logo.

The Importance of Creative Strategies

by Glen Peak

As I was watching Justin Timberlake’s crowdsourcing effort for his 901 Tequila brand, I was amazed at his proposal.

With almost no information about the product’s goals, messaging or even target market available, how can he hope to get relevant ideas that will generate interest in the brand beyond the first five minutes of buzz?

I can’t “prove” this, but it’s my sense that a lot of advertising—all media forms, including sales collateral—is developed without a clear-cut creative strategy. This sense, born out of experience, seems particularly true in smaller companies that might not have a fully staffed or thoroughly trained marketing department. I’ve also seen loosely defined (if not completely undefined) assignments coming out of larger companies as well. My point? Operating without a well-defined strategy for creative work presents huge risks:

• The audience won’t “get” or understand the value of the product/service, and the dollars spent to produce and distribute the message and materials are significantly wasted.
• The client and agency have no foundation to assess the creative work and render judgment on whether it can work – no matter “how clever” it is in someone’s judgment.
• The strategy makes the agency’s work more focused and therefore, more likely to produce on-target work in less time (read: “save money”).
• When clients and agencies agree to a strategy up front, it minimizes chances for disappointment in the work.

So, if it’s this important, why isn’t there a strategy written to guide the development of all types of advertising? This includes: sales brochures, web content, commercials, ads, etc.

Probable answer: It’s hard work, takes time, is not glamorous and requires studying the target audience’s needs and wants. It involves getting into their heads, deciding what’s unique about your advertising style and knowing how the competition has presented themselves.

So, how often have you looked at some piece of communication and wondered, “Why should I value this product or service? How will it benefit me?” or “How is this different from what I am now using or doing?”

A good advertising agency will insist on a strategy agreement at the beginning to avoid wasting time and money. There are even tests that can be applied to judging the merit of the strategy itself, but we’ll save that for another blog post…