When I was studying social science, one of the most useful papers I came across was called “That’s Interesting”.
It was written by a sociologist called Murray S. Davis back in 1971, and looked at what makes an idea interesting or not.
His conclusion? Something is interesting if it *denies an assumption* of the audience. A new idea is only noticed if it denies an old truth. Otherwise it’s deemed to be obvious or irrelevant.
Davis was writing about social science but his insight applies across domains – whether it’s the jokes in a stand-up routine, or the topic of a non-fiction bestseller.
And of course it’s a great model for comms and marketing too. An engaging campaign or piece of content is one that denies an existing assumption the audience holds dear. This is what it means to be bold in your comms.
It’s a model we’ve used successfully at Delphi:
🟢 For cybersecurity giant Netskope, we showed how modern CISOs actually embrace risk rather than avoid it.
🟢 For contact centre technology company Eckoh, we challenged the industry’s rush to WFH by uncovering customers’ deep discomfort with how their data is being handled.
🟢 For payments firm Bottomline, we proved that business payments don’t have to be complex or time intensive.
If we can underpin our campaign or content with evidence that denies our audience’s prior assumption, we can get them to say, “That’s interesting” – and engage with it.
If you’re looking for more engaging and interesting campaigns for your tech brand, we should be talking.
