Monty Python Uses Cialdini Technique

January 30, 2009

The Monty Python team have become fed up with the terrible quality clips pirated from their stuff and put on You Tube. So now they have put the clips up themselves, allowing free access to their content.

They have this to say:
"We’re letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there! But we want something in return.
What is that they want? For viewers to buy their DVDs."

Now, it is odd to use one sentence saying you are going to give something away and then announce that you want something in return. Odd, but not a ridiculous idea.

Robert Cialdini's famous towels study (in which he changed the wording on the hotel sign asking you to reuse your towel to help the environment) tested reaction to this sort of offer. Cialdini and his colleagues discovered that guests were more likely to reuse their towel if told that the hotel had already donated to the environment, rather than being told that if they reused their towel the hotel would donate.

The Pythons obviously gain publicity and draw in viewers with their clips. But they may also be gaining from our need to reciprocate gestures.

And what happened? There was a 23,000 per cent increase in Python DVD sales.

http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2009/01/i-found-a-fasci.html