【三日免費】(05/05) Designing for the ‘Gasp’ 為獲取「驚嘆」而設計

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Advanced Studio Classroom is on the air.

[00:00:13]Oh my goodness. I am so glad you're here. We have so much to learn. But what are we going to talk about? You're just going to have to wait and find out.

[00:00:35]Hello. Hello. Welcome to Advanced Studio Classroom. My name is Campbell and I have Peter here with me. Thank you guys for coming to join us for day two of this article. Did you like how I opened the program today?

[00:00:48]>> Oh, that was thrilling. I I was on the edge of my seat and then you know just as I thought you were about to reveal something you said oh you got to wait and I was like ah >> yes I designed for the gasp. Did you get that?

[00:01:03]>> An intro designed for the gasp.

[00:01:05]>> Yes. So let's review quickly what we talked about yesterday. So, this is a marketing article and as we discussed yesterday, marketing is about getting people to become familiar with a product or a service or a company and it's about getting the word out there. But, you know, um somewhere in the 1990s, things changed. People weren't just talking to the audience, they were getting them involved in the conversation, right? Um, and now things have evolved even further where companies and brands are trying to create this shared emotional resonance and they're trying to get people to really feel things through their advertising.

[00:01:50]>> Right. Right. Instead of just being told, "Here's our product. Here's why it's so good. Here's how your life will get better if you use it." They're instead saying they're they're almost not even talking about the product per se. They're creating an experience that you and I will then associate with the company or with the brand at least so that we will then on our own initiative look at the product they're selling and consider it because we've already identified with this emotional experience that we've had courtesy of the company's marketing. Yeah, exactly.

[00:02:27]And you know, it's interesting this word brand, right? We talk about brand, it's, you know, it's the it's the name of a company or something that people uh a product that people use. But also, you know, when we talk about the word brand verb, you know, this just came to me as you were talking the verb brand, you know, in the old days in the in the US and the West, they would brand their cattle, >> right? To put a mark on something, >> put a mark on something. And I feel like in a way the advertising this these days it it brands us, right? It just brands our memory. It creates this emotional thing that happens in us where we just are branded. We remember the product. We remember the experience and we talk about it and we share, right? And that's kind of the goal, the ultimate goal, the holy grail as we were saying yesterday.

[00:03:15]um how you know and and the real shift now is that the advertising just doesn't go away. If it's done well, people talk about it and they share and then it just becomes evergreen.

[00:03:27]>> Right? In the old days, you would uh create the ad and then pay the TV stations to air the ad repeatedly over a certain length of time during certain shows, paying for each airing of the ad.

[00:03:38]But now theoretically at least uh you create a single moment of some sort a single ad let's say air it at once and if it really connects with the audience then the audience itself spreads that ad through social media around the world and it like we were saying yesterday it goes viral and just spreads on its own without the company having to pay for each and every exposure of it to the audience.

[00:04:06]>> Right. And and as we said yesterday, this c this requires emotional choreography, right? This requires someone to kind of set it up and and orchestrate it and design it to be this way. It doesn't just happen by chance.

[00:04:24]And at the end of yesterday's article, it says, "Like a great film score, the best experiences eb and flow." So they kind of come and go and have these highs and lows and it's not the same thing for everybody, right? Different brands need different emotional tones. There's no one formula. And I think that's why this can be tricky sometimes. It's not like, "Oh, this worked. We just repeat it."

[00:04:49]>> Right. Right. You wouldn't want to uh create the same emotional tone for an anti-anxiety medication that you would for say a highly caffeinated soda of some sort.

[00:05:02]>> Yeah. Or Disney World.

[00:05:03]>> Or Disney World. Yes. Exactly.

[00:05:05]>> Yeah. Exactly. Okay. Well, what matters is intention. Well, it is my intention right now for us to continue with this article. So, join me um and Peter as read the next section of this article.

[00:05:25]The most successful moments also feel effortless. They don't overwhelm with every technical trick, but instead use restraint. Sharability isn't accidental.

[00:05:37]It's designed into the experience. Yet, it works best when it feels authentic, not engineered. The new marketing imperative.

[00:05:47]Since the 1990s, we've witnessed more people prioritizing experiences over material possessions. Marketing spend has taken a while to play catch-up. But with 74% of Fortune 1000 marketers increasing their spend on experiential marketing, ad spend is now marketkedly shifting. Executives increasingly recognize that these moments forge emotional bonds that traditional campaigns can't match. When people share a communal in-person experience, the emotional response is amplified. The brand becomes embedded not just in an individual's memory, but in a collective one. In an era of fleeting attention, belonging is rare and therefore valuable. But as pop-ups and activations proliferate, not every immersive event cuts through. The brands that win will resist spectacle for spectacle sake and focus instead on stirring genuine collective emotion.

[00:06:52]All right. So it doesn't work to just throw everything in the pot and just you know spend billions of dollars on advertising and make some amazing spectacle. Right? The most successful moments also feel effortless.

[00:07:09]>> Mhm.

[00:07:10]>> It's so hard to put in all that time and effort, but make it feel like it didn't take all that effort.

[00:07:16]>> Right. Right. There's a word that uh they used yesterday, seamless. Yeah.

[00:07:22]>> Uh the seam of something that's from clothing, and the seam is the thread that is connecting the bits of clothing together. You can see it if you look at whatever you're wearing. there's a thread line at some point where two pieces have been joined together and that's the seam. So when you create something that is seamless, you don't see evidence of the work it took to put this together and that that makes it more appealing. Uh at least in in one sense sometimes you want to see the work. I think sometimes seeing how it was put together can add value to it but there is another sense in which you you sort of want a more magical feel to it.

[00:08:01]>> Right. And I think sometimes with advertising nowadays, they do do the behind the scenes. So it's just kind of like another aspect of it and that kind of pushes it further as well.

[00:08:11]>> Right. U but the thing is it does take a lot of effort like we said it doesn't just happen by accident, right? Uh but the thing is they don't overwhelm with technical trick every technical trick but they instead use restraint. They choose specifically what they're going to do and how they're going to do it.

[00:08:29]And sharability isn't accidental. It's designed into the experience. So again, it takes a lot of effort. But the thing is, it can't feel like it's taking a lot of effort.

[00:08:41]>> It's tricky. Yeah. If you want to create the the big successful ad campaigns, it's not just like falling off a log.

[00:08:47]>> Yeah. It works best when it feels authentic, not engineered. And I think we had an article recently about social media and and the new generation and how do you reach the Gen Z's and the Gen alphas when you know what they're looking for is the authenticity. Yes.

[00:09:04]>> They don't want to see you trying so hard and and putting on some you know filter or trying to be fake. Right. They want to see the real you. So if you're trying too hard then it's not going to resonate. It's not going to connect with audiences.

[00:09:20]>> Right. Right. Back in the old days, maybe the 1990s that the article referred to yesterday, you might see an ad for like a soda in which a famous pop singer is seen drinking the soda or performing with it in concert, something like that. If you did that nowadays, you would have the only way it would work, the only way it would connect with at least Gen Z audiences would be uh to do it ironically, to be making fun of the idea of a famous person trying to sell you something just because they're a famous person.

[00:09:49]>> Yes. Yes. And that's kind of the shift that's happened, right? Um, now since the 1990s, as the article continues, we've witnessed more people prioritizing experiences over material possessions.

[00:10:03]Do you agree with that?

[00:10:04]>> I don't know. I mean, I I say that because I don't know if I've seen that, but I applaud it. I love the idea of people valuing prioritizing experiences over material possessions. So that it's not, you know, how big a TV do I have or how fast is my car. It's more where have I driven in that car. What do I watch on that TV? Uh that I I think that is a good thing. I don't really know if I've seen that as a trend, but I I'll take their word for it, too, because this guy obviously works in marketing and so he's got his ear to the ground on this sort of thing. Yeah, for sure. I think I mean I think it goes back to what we were saying earlier. People don't want to be sold to, right? They don't want to keep you they don't want you to keep telling them this is what you need to buy. This is what you need to buy. This is what you need to buy. More of like let me show you what this can do, right? This kind of the experience of it. Um, and also, you know, as a parent, I've often thought of, you know, I'd rather take them on a trip somewhere, create memories, cuz I feel like that's what's going to stick with them rather than buy them a new toy or a new stuffed animal that is just going to collect dusted in the corner, >> you know? So, it talks here about marketing spend. Okay, so this is the money that people spend on advertising and getting the word out about a product or service. Uh, it's taken a while to play catch-up, but with 74% of Fortune 1000 marketers increasing their spend on experiential marketing, ad spend is now marketkedly shifting. All right, so let's talk a little bit about that sentence there. Marketing spend has taken a while to play catchup. What are we talking about when we say to play catch up, >> right? That's a way of simply saying that it has taken a while to catch up.

[00:11:51]You almost don't need to say play. catch up. Although the expression is said that way sometimes, but it just means yeah, marketing spend. The spend normally just a verb, but here used as a noun, the amount of money spent on marketing has taken a while to catch up with that shift that we've been talking about that happened since the late 1990s. Now it goes on to say with 74% with basically 3/4 of Fortune 1000 marketers increasing their spend Fortune 1000 marketers meaning the top uh biggest businesses or companies according to Fortune magazine the top 1,000 of them uh increasing their spend on experiential marketing ad spend is now marketkedly shifting.

[00:12:35]Market meaning significantly shifting.

[00:12:37]Yeah, I think there's a lot of reasons for that. You know, basically what we're saying here, in the past, a lot of the money was spent on uh magazine ads, TV commercials, radio commercials, things like that. But now they're putting more money into these experiential experiences. Yeah. Basically, what we were talking about early, the, you know, the big LED screens or the, you know, the New York Times Square or the Sphere or the New York's Oculus, right? It's it's more they're putting money towards these experiences rather than these TV advertisements, >> right? They're putting it more towards emotional choreography. Big phrase we learned yesterday about rather than just, you know, does our ad have the latest special effects or the latest technology in some way. It's more, you know, is this an ad that is going to connect with people in a way so that they don't feel like they're just watching an ad, but they feel like they're participating in a shared emotional experience.

[00:13:37]>> Right? So, executives increasingly recognize that these moments forge emotional bonds that traditional campaigns don't match or can't match.

[00:13:48]And I think a lot of that has to do with people just aren't watching TV anymore, right? people are shifting over to YouTube and if they're you know able to they probably pay for YouTube premium so they don't have to watch the advertisings right or they have Netflix or any of those streaming platforms where they don't have commercials right so they kind of have to shift to this experiential marketing and the experiential marketing again it's about creating the emotional bonds like oh my gosh did you see that remember when we were there and we saw this thing and experience together, right? You can't have that with a traditional advertising, right? When was the last time you talked to your wife or your friend about, "Oh, remember that commercial that we saw on TV?" Right?

[00:14:33]Like, it doesn't happen.

[00:14:34]>> Right. Right. Do you remember an ad? I think the earliest example of this I can think of, maybe some of our listeners remember this as well. Back in 1984, >> there was an ad for Apple computers.

[00:14:46]They introduced the Macintosh computer way back in 1984. And they did it by creating this short film that ran during the Super Bowl that year, which depicted a scene or was influenced by a scene from a novel called 1984 by George Orwell, which was written in 1948 and was warning about the dangers of a future society that was totally automated and run by dictators and the people were all controlled and there was no individual thinking, no individual thought. and they created this ad to introduce the Macintosh computer in which the image was a woman throwing a hammer into a screen and breaking the screen and that this was a one of the most memorable ads of the entire decade of the 1980s and it was only run that one time.

[00:15:34]>> It wasn't part of the way all other ads would have been run repeatedly over the next months or so. It was just aired that one time at the Super Bowl because they knew they would have a huge audience. But people remembered it for years afterwards.

[00:15:47]>> Yeah. Well, I mean, in a way that is creating that emotional the visceral response, right? Even before any of this that we're talking about, you know, this was maybe the precursor to all that.

[00:15:59]Like, wow, that worked. And that probably led to what happened in the '9s, which then eventually led to what's happening now.

[00:16:06]>> Exactly.

[00:16:06]>> Yeah. Okay. So, let's continue. It says when people share a communable in-person experience. Okay, so again, this is an in-person experience, meaning it's not just something you're watching on TV.

[00:16:17]This is something that you're experiencing live around you. The emotional response is amplified. So you being in that space watching whatever is happening on the jumbotron the big huge screen with the sound and the you know people around you that is going to create more of an emotional response than you just sitting in front of a screen >> right the response is amplified made louder made bigger we learned that word yesterday but we see it again here today >> yeah just goes back to what we were talking about yesterday with the story the environment on the and the audience all colliding together Right? Uh the brand becomes embedded. Right? So again what what I was talking about earlier with the branding this becomes embedded not just in an individual's memory not just in one person but in everybody's memory okay in a collective one. Uh so in an era of fleeting attention belonging is rare and therefore valuable. You know when you can feel like hey we shared that together we had that common experience. And I think that's one of the big things I love about theater, right, is just that collective experience of putting something together. And we often bond with our castmates in ways that we don't bond with other people.

[00:17:34]>> Absolutely. No, actors bond with their castmates uh the way soldiers do in the battlefield. Uh in terms of the adrenaline that it takes to that is produced and performing in front of an audience, you never forget uh someone you've performed to play with. Just like soldiers always say, you know, "Oh, the guys in the trench with me, the guys in the foxhole with me. Uh they're my brothers for life, you know, I'll never forget them."

[00:17:57]>> Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it goes back to what we were talking about how, you know, the society nowadays is very uh very fractured. Okay. It's very fragmented world that we live in. And because of that, people are looking to connect. They're looking to belong.

[00:18:13]Okay. And it's become very valuable.

[00:18:15]Okay. Um, and then as pop-ups and activations proliferate, meaning it just becomes more and more popular. It, you know, again, it's one of those things that, hey, it's working now. Everybody's trying to do it now. It's everywhere.

[00:18:28]It's so it's not going to eventually people are going to become numb to it.

[00:18:32]>> Yeah.

[00:18:32]>> In some ways, right? So, not every immersive event cuts through. The brands that win will resist what?

[00:18:41]>> Yeah, good phrase here. they will resist spectacle for spectacle's sake and focus instead on stirring genuine collective emotion. That phrase there uh to do something for its own sake is is the is the expression there. And you know in a way it's it's straightforward. It means to have spectacle to add spectacle to something simply so that you have spectacle to it.

[00:19:08]I want green because I like green because it happen.

[00:19:16]So my painting of the sun is going to have green in it. That is adding green for green's sake. And so it can be a good thing, can be a bad thing. uh here it's it's uh a thing to sort of be careful with because it could mean that you're lost sight of the big picture and of how all the elements fit together and you want X element in there just for its own sake not because it contributes to the whole >> Exactly. You don't want to just be like putting it in there just because oh it's fun it's exciting. No, like there has to be a reason for it. Right. Okay. Well, we have another last section here. Let's finish up our article and we'll be back.

[00:19:59]Surprise! The spark behind the gasp. At the heart of every group gasp lies surprise. Moments that subvert expectation. Sometimes that's high production spectacle. But just as often, it's a small human detail, a perfectly timed music cue, a flash of humor in a serious setting, or unexpected use of lighting. Memorable moments don't require blockbuster budgets. They require empathy, timing, and the courage to be unpredictable. The thought, "I didn't expect that," is the beginning of brand magic. And when people feel compelled to share it, the impact multiplies.

[00:20:40]The road ahead for immersive storytelling. We're no longer just making content. We're designing experiences. Content sits in a frame while experiences unfold in space and time. This requires thinking like architects or choreographers, not just advertisers. Designing for attention in motion across multiple tempos and entry points. Most importantly, it means anchoring every decision in emotion. So the real question for brands is simple.

[00:21:10]Are you willing to design for the gasp?

[00:21:12]In an age of distraction, the ability to elicit shared wonder may be the most valuable strategy of all.

[00:21:26]Okay. So, what is the key element in designing for the Gasp?

[00:21:32]>> Yeah, the key element is not technology.

[00:21:34]It's not spectacle. It is surprise. M >> um the um third line down the third paragraph down there it says the thought I didn't expect that >> is the beginning of brand magic.

[00:21:48]>> Exactly. It's that sense of wa I didn't you know usually like the the advertising may be leading you in one direction all of a sudden it does a you know a 180 right and all of a sudden takes you in a whole other direction and that's kind of the goal here right moments that subvert expectation that word subvert means to cause something or someone to be in ineffective or less effective. Okay. So, basically, you want them to be expecting one thing and then you kind of give them something else, right? But it doesn't often have to be something huge for that to happen.

[00:22:25]>> It just has to be different. It just has to be not what they were expecting. Now, that doesn't mean that, you know, you want to sell your soda, so instead you show a picture of a truck.

[00:22:34]>> You know, it's it's got to be consistent with the overall theme and with the overall goal. It can't just be different for its own sake, as we were just talking Different for different sake.

[00:22:44]>> Exactly. Yes.

[00:22:45]>> Mhm. All right. So, what is the road ahead for immersive storytelling? Well, we're not just making content anymore.

[00:22:52]It's not just about the TV ads or the radio ads or magazine ads anymore. It's an whole experience, right? So, it's almost involving not just the eyes, not just the ears. You almost have to have all the senses involved and the whole person involved almost.

[00:23:09]>> Exactly. It even involves we could say the watch. It involves the clock because it that wonderful second line there.

[00:23:16]Content sits in a frame like a picture >> while experiences unfold in space and time. And this hearkens back, this recalls what we were reading earlier in the article about how a single moment can live out and be shared and be repeated and grow over time >> rather than feeling like it has to accomplish everything in that one 30 secondond spot in the middle of a TV show.

[00:23:46]>> Right. Exactly. But what's interesting is they are designing for one moment, but it's the technology these days that allows that moment to get then carried forward. Exactly. You know, I feel like they're pouring so much even so much more money and effort into that one maybe 30 seconds or 1 minute experience, but because of technology, it gets shared across multiple platforms. And the goal here is they're designing for attention in motion, right? So not just attention, it's motion. It's in motion.

[00:24:17]It's moving across multiple tempos and entry points.

[00:24:21]>> But have to anchor every decision in something very important. What's that?

[00:24:25]>> It has to be anchored in emotion. Uh we are not just giving information here. We are not just telling about the product.

[00:24:33]Every decision must be anchored in emotion in evoking some kind of emotional response from the audience.

[00:24:42]>> Yes. But not again not just emotion for the sake of emotion >> but not just for the sake for its own sake. Right. Exactly.

[00:24:49]>> So the real question for brands is simple. Okay. I love this last paragraph here. It says are you willing to design for the gasp? Are you willing to take that time and the effort to just create that literally just a few seconds. It's a literally it's a gasp literally lasts only a few seconds. But are you willing to pour in all that time, all that money, all that effort just to create that gas? Well, in an age of distraction where again, we talked about this yesterday and today, there's so many things competing for our attention.

[00:25:23]Yeah.

[00:25:23]>> Uh the ability to elicit shared wonder may be the most valuable strategy of all.

[00:25:31]>> What do you think about that sentence?

[00:25:33]The ability to in an age of distraction, the ability to elicit shared wonder may be the most valuable strategy of all. A profound thought, the word elicit, just to be clear, to means to succeed in getting information or in getting a reaction from someone especially if it's difficult uh to elicit uh because uh you know we don't just naturally uh give our hearts away as it were. our hearts uh need to be won, you know, by an appropriate suitor as it were, even if the suitor is uh a company, you know, trying to get us to buy the product. And so, if they're able to elicit wonder um then through their marketing, then that is the most valuable strategy of all. I would I would agree with that. Um because then we feel like it's not just about me buying the soda. It's about me identifying with the company that makes the soda. And so in the future, I might even if they start making cars, I might think, "Oh, this company now makes cars.

[00:26:35]Well, let me take a look at their cars cuz I enjoy their soda and I identify with the company as a whole."

[00:26:42]>> Yes.

[00:26:43]>> All right. Well, again, you know, there's so many things that are competing for your attention. So many things that you could be spending your time doing. We always appreciate you spending time with us and learning with us. We hope that you'll continue to join us again. And uh until then, this is Campbell.

[00:27:00]>> I'm Peter.

[00:27:01]>> And we'll talk again soon. Take care.