« Interestingness | Main | Dating at work »



I once read an article or research paper that tried to introduce a definition of interestingness.

(browses through a pile of paper, causing it to fall over)

I´m afraid I´ll have to take a rain check on providing you with a reference, but it could be summed up by this:

Interesting stuff connects / overlaps familiar ideas in our memory with new information. A bit like a domino game.

Jeffre Jackson

No doubt that's right. Something that's interesting is always a combination of new (something not yet understood) and familiar (possible tools for understanding). I wonder if you can go a step further and say that interestingness means that the new also changes our understanding of the familiar.


Look at crime mysteries. Writers always develop the plot in such a way that you hate yourself for not solving the mystery before the final clue was revealed.

What makes the final clue (new) so interesting, is that it helps previous information (familiar) make sense.

Jeffre Jackson

One way to look at interesting marketing is that it makes the brand a major clue in bestselling mystery stories like "Who am I?", "Where is the threat hiding?" and "Who really loves me?"


So when things are revealed, what happens as the intrest level peaks? How long is it interesting for? any thoughts on that?

Jeffre Jackson

I think that a big part of a marketer's job is managing the sequence of revelations to keep the brand interesting indefinitely. There have to be ups and downs, as in any fascinating story, but there's no reason why there has to be a final revelation. The most interesting questions, like "Who am I?", don't have any final answer, but we keep asking the question.

Iain Carruthers

Hey Jeffre
Love the idea of brand manager as script editor for suspense. The 'life as mystery in which we participate and brands are clues' thought is spot on. We should do a 24 style workshop for long running brands.

Jeffre Jackson

Hi Iain.
That would be interesting. You could also just do a "4th dimension" workshop in which brand managers took their onions, keyholes, diamonds and other static brand symbols and drew them out over time, adding movement and development. It might be really generative to start talking about the brand plot rather than the brand idea.

Ken Rothfield

Hi Jeffre--Please drop me a line if you are the Jeffre I think you are.


Don't keep us in suspense.

Are you the jeffre he thinks you are?

Dananjay Anandan

too many answers, not enough questions!

jeffre, i agree with you about treating brands like clues in a mystery-suspense text. most brands overreach when they pretend to be the "season finale" or the meaning of life itself. it would still work, for a precious few that too, if we had a sense of humour about it.

instead, there are far too many brands that end up being saddled with the unbearable arrogance of advertisers who think they're talking to people who're not as smart as them. maybe it's too scary to presume the opposite. i just think we'd be better off if we did. like in war, chess or love.

and to indulge in some shameless post-rationalization, it's also one of the reasons i quit advertising.

logitech g9 review

Intriguing, indeed. Worth thinking about is a good definition...maybe with some emotion attached to it, though, yes?

The comments to this entry are closed.