Back in the internet days, I worked with a brilliant firm called C2LLC. Here, only minimally mangled (hopefully), is a story they used to explain one of their core philosophies on getting noticed in a crowded environment.
Monkey Theory
“In the early stages of our evolution, many of humans’ instincts and senses were tuned to hunting. For example, specifically, humans are extra sensitive to motion and contrast. See something move? Is there a brown path of fur mixed into the green leaves? It’s a monkey! Throw a spear at it!
Bear with me here – what if monkeys actually WANTED you to hunt them? What if they wanted your attention, and jumped up and down screaming for it? What if your whole field of vision is filled with jumping, arm-waving vendors, whoops, I mean monkeys?
Question: If you’re a one of those monkeys in a huge, screaming, arm-waving crowd, how do you get attention?
Answer: Contrast, which humans are extremely attuned to detect. A quiet, still monkey in a jungle of crazy ones will be the first one noticed just because it stands out as different. The rule of social proof (from “Psychology, The Influence of Persuasion”)…people like to do what others are doing, because if they are doing it, it must be ok!
If everyone else is screaming, be quiet. If everyone is purple, be yellow. If everyone has the same set of slides (snore)…do something, anything to differentiate yourself and get noticed – in a positive way that reinforces your strengths.
Attention Is Just A First Step
Important: getting noticed only earns you the right to compete for a piece of business, the job, etc. You have to be able to follow through and deliver a quality product once your foot is in the door.
Last But Not Least
Keep in mind that worthless stunts just for the sake of pure attention are actually just…worthless.
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