Contagious: Why Things Catch On

This is a must-read for anyone professionally involved in the creation of advertising. It's written for people without background on the subject, but does such a good job in organizing and clarifying the principles that it's a good read for even marketing veterans.

Berger does an excellent job exploring and detailing the message elements that cause people to remember advertising messages and stories, and to want to pass around those stories (with or without embedded ad messages). The book explores 6 principles involved in why things catch on:

* social currency
* triggers
* emotion
* public
* practical value
* stories

These principles serve as a checklist for the creation of advertising, especially any advertising that attempts to be viral.

Berger does a great job of breaking down the various elements that when working together, create a contagious effect. He then provides a recipe for maximizing the chance that your initiative will be contagious. Super narration and fast listen.

...while Berger does a godly job of outlining what I'm sure are some -- certainly not all -- of the finer points of "Why Things Catch On," I have a couple of gripes.

First, the book is too short. In the end, I felt like I'd just read a long essay rather than a book of substance. Sure the content gave me something to chew on but would it have killed the author to include more real world cases?

Did Keith Nobbs, the narrator, have a cold while reading this? Did he mispronounce some words? I can't be 100% sure until I read the text myself, but it seemed that way. Hey, nobody's perfect but I did rate the performance 4/5 stars. Overall, Nobbs did well.

Other than that, great book. It almost didn't feel like I was reading something from the self help section!

This is everything I hoped it would be. The information is solid and the presentation is very well done. If I have any issues it's that I didn't finish the book feeling like I had a great grasp on the techniques he talks about in the book. I'd love to see a PDF with some of it outlined like they have for other books. Just some cheat sheets and bullet points would be fine.

The Tipping Point. It's like the sequel to the Tipping Point, which I also enjoyed.

Social Currency. I love that expression.

The narration blends very well with the content to the point the narrator sounds like he is the author. The book is a collection of lessons framed in stories that have practical application for just about any business. This is the first book that anyone of ambition should read or listen to. I've listened to it twice and will listen to it again in the future I'm sure.

Highly recommended.

Very light simple concept but with good examples and a nice acronym.

Free by Chris Anderson

This book is a great one-- I think it has more content than "The Tipping Point" from Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm's explanation why things become popular or viral is because of weak ties... But Contagious goes deeper-- Jonah Berger finds 6 reasons. And it all makes sense.
Very well written and with a great performance by Keith Nobbs.
I bought this book to my father and brother and they are liking it.
Read it, and you will like it too.

life and business changing

I enjoyed the whole book as it flowed and was easy to follow with excellent content

great voice.

I found all the stories inspiring and I could relate them to my business and the way we as humans operate

Jonah Berger brings you all the latest in marketing science with lots of interesting examples. I especially liked the stories of how sales were increased either with social psychology or with a new pricing tactic. He also offers new breakdowns of what type of viral messaging can hurt or help your business.
Very good, I'll be buying the paper version so I can highlight the best bits.

The Story, is easy to understand and it keeps you motivated.

Everything

No

neither

I would recommend this book