The Fun Theory

How many people would walk up a flight of stairs if they could use an escalator instead? Probably very few.

But what if it’s rewarding and more fun to go up the stairs? In 2009, a video a appeared on YouTube, which showed people’s reactions to a flight of stairs that had been transformed into large piano keys in a busy Stockholm subway station. A hidden camera filmed people laughing with delight as they produced tunes with each step they took going up and down the stairs. The “Piano Stairs” video was the first in a series of experiments originally posted on a website called ” The Fun Theory”. The website states that its purpose is to show how fun changes people’s behavior for the better.

The Fun Theory is the creation of a Swedish advertising agency. When approached by a German car company to design a campaign for an eco-friendly car, the agency came up with an innovative advertising campaign. Instead of explaining the technology behind the eco-cars, the advertising team decided the ads’ focus would be on fun ways to improve the environment. In addition to the Piano Stairs video, another video showed people eagerly looking for garbage to throw into “the deepest bin in the world”; in another, people were filmed obeying the speed limit in order to win a lottery. The videos proved beyond a doubt that fun, along with positive reinforcement, can alter people’s behavior. Only at the end of each of the videos does the name and logo of the German car company appear.

The advertising campaign’s impact has been colossal. The videos were quickly picked up by blogs, forums and media worldwide. In less than two weeks the Piano Stairs video went “viral” and generated 3.3 million hits. To date, 40 million viewers around the world watched the videos, resulting in improved environment  safety in Sweden and an increase in sales eco-cars in Sweden.

In June 2012, the Fun Theory win the Cyber Grand Prix award for the best internet advertising campaign. On receiving the reward, Chuck Brymer, President of the advertising agency, said that their ambition was ” to use creativity to the ideas that work, that have an impact on people’s lives and that meet a business challenge” . He added that the ” Fun Theory did all of that and found a way merge the digital with social and physical”.