During my Christmas break, I had a few moments to sit down and indulge in some absurd hours of quality TV time catching up on all of my missed episodes of Poirot and Midsomer Murders. During that time, commercials came, were muted and then I was returned back to my indulgent, guilty pleasure of doing nothing and watching TV.

At that time, one series of commercials always scared me and made me gasp– even after the second and third run. I have not seen them since, but I still remember the company and product. They were Volkswagon commercials where there are a car full of people driving along talking about mundane things (the funniest being the men talking about the side effects disclaimer of DTC advertising of ED medications) and then from out of nowhere– CRASH! Head on, side impact– in the filming the other car just appears. Then the commercial closes with everyone out of the car, shocked but ok— illustrating the safety of the vehicles. Click here and select “Like” to see one of the ads.

In a new spin on using the unexpected, State Farm has started the “Now What” ad campaign. They are using a series of short films where bad things unexpectedly happen to people’s property and then you see the logo and webaddress for the “Now What” campaign. Which — in no longer than it took to fire up old bessie, had me typing in the web address and seeing what all of this is about.

Why does this work so well and how can we use it in healthcare?

In Chip and Dan Heath’s book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, they spend a whole chapter on explaining why surprise works in marketing. One reason why the unexpected works is that it grabs a person’s attention and stimulates an emotion within the person. Such is my experience with the VW ad.

As for the “Now What” campaign, it worked for me because it surprised me and then left me hanging. The Heath brothers explain this in the terms of The Gap Theory of Curiosity- originally articulated by George Lowenstein of Carneigie Mellon. Simply put– this theory states that curiosity occurs when we perceive a gap in our knowledge. These gaps produce subjective discomfort that requires some sort of action to dispell — similar to having an itch that we need to scratch.

This theory likely explains why I love to luxuriate in mystery TV marathons. Those shows expertly tap-dance on my curiosity buttons and I keep watching because I want to gather more information. I suppose secretly, I think I can best Poirot or Barnaby in figuring out who-done-it.

In healthcare, we can really use this tactic to our benefit. One’s individual health is a very personal and emotional issue to most. So–like I am obviously are a sucker for having my curiosity stimulated, most people have a sensitivity to being engaged in anything that relates to their own health interests. I think the statistics about people seeking health information on the internet speak to the validity of this notion.

By using surprise and creating a perception of a gap in knowlege, we can increase the likelyhood that individuals will be “drawn” to us as resource. What we then need to focus on is creating an environment (virtual or live) that will encourage and educate seekers to take action/ implement behavior changes that can have a positive impact on their health.

If done well and people are able to find the answers they seek, then the subtle emotional experience of that is that ‘we’ care and are able to meet needs. This, in turn, can increase reputation, provide content for word-of-mouth referrals, increase the subjective perception of wanting to be one of ‘those people’ who get their care from THE BEST and otherwise get people in your door to see what you are about. If the quality of care they receive is consistent with the perception, you are on your way to creating loyal customers that no longer need to be ‘won’.

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