How to use mystery to win attention 🔮
The unexpected edge of marketing with positive curiosity & hidden elements
Who doesn’t love a good surprise? 🎲 A 2016 study found that people are more likely to appreciate “40% off” when the discount is revealed later (at check-out) rather than upfront.
Life is full of surprises, and your product should be, too.
Surprises ignite curiosity. By hiding some elements of our product on purpose, we can activate the ‘curiosity gap’ (= people are hardwired to seek information that fills their knowledge void) and win our audience’s attention 🤓
But there is a right and a wrong way to do it:
🚦 The Right Way vs. The Douche Way
The wrong approach? LinkedIn hiding profile viewers or Bumble pixelating faces until you pay up. This method can feel like holding information hostage.
The right way is to embed the element of surprise INTO your product. With balance. It should be an added value, not a withheld one. Let users choose if they want to be surprised or not, like Spotify’s shuffle or Netflix’s ‘surprise me’ button.