You gotta see this video!" ace ResearchWorks strategist Ross Dammann gleefully exclaimed. And he was right. Watching the parody of Microsoft "improving" iPod packaging is as funny as it is poignantly instructive. It's several years old; and not much has changed. Check it out:

Here are three key takeaways:

1. Purpose: The job of retail packaging is first to get the customer to notice the box and look at it, then to engage them enough to dig deeper. That's it. So K.I.S.S.

2. TMI: Like with other forms of seduction (hey, it is what it is), revealing all right away is NOT the best approach. The package should not try to convey every detail. It's Too Much Information. Usually, less is more (hence, my top secret code name Les S. Moore, since you were wondering).

3. Think/Feel/Do: Every communication piece should be subject to the think/feel/do test. Yes, even Apple stuff. In advance, determine what you want target customers to think, feel, and do when they see the package. Then use those objectives to make sure the creative execution hits the mark. It's a simple, powerful, and ego-free form of assuring purpose-driven communications and accountability for results.

Happy and persuasive communications!

Two recent studies estimated how much oil was spilled in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. One came in at 185 million gallons, one at 172 million - not terribly far apart. So let's go with 180 million gallons.

"Social math" comes into play in terms of how to express a quantity like 180 million gallons (the math part) so that it has context and meaning (the social part). 

How much is 180 million gallons? We can show the same number differently, like 180,000,000 gallons - does that seem bigger? Or with more specificity, such as 179,998,780 gallons (except in this example we don't really have that degree of precision).

But to give context, we need to provide references that people already understand - this is the essence of social math and the part that transforms data into a persuasive story.

A short example: The 180 million gallons that spilled would fill 9,270 swimming pools with oil.

A longer example: The 180 million gallons that spilled could have produced about 90 million gallons of gasoline (plus a lot of other products), which would fuel driving over 1.8 billion miles, or 600,000 trips across the U.S.  Put another way, that's enough gas for every single licensed driver in the U.S. to drive about nine months of a year!

You could easily build a whole story - ones that people can easily visualize - around either of these examples.

How can you use social math in your marketing?

How do we persuade people to do or buy things? In the health and medical field, we usually rely on educating them. This is the "direct" path to persuasion. Give lots of detailed information, the "customer" will scrutinize it, think hard about it, and come to a rational conclusion. Right? Wrong.

Years of research has shown that this approach usually doesn't work very well. For most people most of the time, the "indirect" path to persuasion is far more effective. On the indirect path, people are influenced by things like who the spokesperson is and what feelings are being conveyed, rather than the rational argument. They are not thinking deeply. Instead, they are relying on, say the credibility of the spokesperson, as a shortcut to making a quick decision. The upside is people are engaged. The downside is that the persuasion that does result may be shorter lived. 

I see the real win as what I would call involvement conversion. Use the indirect path to get people initially interested. Then once they are "in the door" so to speak, their positive experience should convert them to care more deeply and find the personal relevance in what you are selling. Just make it worth their while.

Note: I know, I know. There's a popular business book called the 5 Paths to Persuasion. The two paths I am touting are fundamentally based on whether people personally connect with your message or not. Think about what path you take when faced with a barrage of communications.