Good Tension vs Bad Tension
“The only thing that keeps the audience in their seats is wondering what’s going to happen next.”
-David Mamet
Tension is both the source of anxiety and excitement.
The slow climb on the roller coaster before the first drop is tense with excitement… unless your friend dragged you on the ride and in fact you hate roller coasters, in which case it’s fraught with anxiety.
A properly placed pause in an inspirational speech will cause the audience to lean in with excitement, wondering where the speaker is going to lead them next.
But during COVID, speakers discovered that the same pause in a virtual event causes anxiety over whether or not the audio has dropped out or their Internet connection is on the fritz.
Two Cases Studies
Good Tension
A few years back this post started making the rounds on social media:
I mean, come on. Doesn’t that make you curious? Have you already opened a new tab to search for “O’Reilly Auto Parts 121G”?
Of course you have, or are at least seriously considering it. Because there’s tension. And the only way to relieve that tension is to find out what the heck is waiting for you on O’Reilly Auto Parts’ website under 121G.
Scroll down to find out for yourself…
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Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads. Of course, 121G refers to 1.21 gigawatts of electricity, Doc Brown’s infamous mispronounced line from one of the greatest movies ever made, and my personal all-time favorite, Back to the Future.
How did you feel when you discovered an auto parts website hiding the Flux Capacitor as one of its listings?
Personally, I was jubilant. And in fact, so was most of the Internet. Apparently O’Reilly has listed the Flux Capacitor on its site since the early 2000s, and every couple of years someone rediscovers it.
Good tension rewards the participant with excitement. And it’s because I was so delighted in the resolution that I didn’t mind having been manipulated into helping them boost their Google SEO ranking. Because, of course, that’s precisely why this meme, which O’Reilly undoubtedly started themselves, no matter what the owners claim, does not provide a direct link and instead tells you to Google the name of the store. A direct link wouldn’t boost the site’s ranking. But hundreds of thousands of people searching for the name of the store? That’ll do it.
It was a brilliant way to get for free what would ordinarily cost thousands of dollars to hire an SEO consultant to do.
They earned our respect, increased their search ranking, and probably even won some new customers in the process.
Bad Tension
This email arrived in my inbox:
“[Name] here,
I just wanted to send you a quick email. This is all I’m comfortable saying for now.
20 years ago, to this day, I locked myself in a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco and was furiously working on [Magic Company’s] launch after service. I was a waiter at the time.
I’d taken a bank loan and some private investment, risking it all to make my dream a reality.
Over the last 20 years, there’s been incredible highs and incredible lows – but it was all worth it.
It’s Friday, so I don’t want to take up too much of your time, I just wanted to say a quick thank you as I take a trip down memory lane. Your support over the last 2 decades has meant the world to me.
Sincerely, thank you
Name
Founder of MagicCompany.com”
Not just my inbox, of course, but hundreds of thousands of magicians who’ve been loyal customers for years.
What’s going on with Magic Company?
That’s tension. And in order to relieve the tension I clicked over to MagicCompany.com to discover… nothing. A holding page. The entire website was gone. Vanished. Poof.
Along with my order information and all the digital downloads I’d purchased. Panic set in, so I clicked over to their social media accounts. Gone. Vanished. Poof.
What in the world is going on?
I quickly shifted from tense to angry. With one ambiguous email an entire international magic company completely disappeared from the Internet without a trace. I turned to the magic forums and, as you might expect, they were ablaze.
Magicians the world over were absolutely tearing their hair out. Many had orders on the way for their holiday shows, at the time only a week away. Many had never backed up their digital downloads and had lost access to all of the instructional materials they’d purchased over the years.
A few days later Magic Company re-emerged across the Internet with a brand new website, layout, and color scheme.
The entire thing was a marketing decision to create mystery during the migration to a new backend system for their site. It was designed to create tension.
And boy did it, but not the good kind.
The backlash has been extensive, from customers to big name magicians to rival magic companies of all sizes. I’m certainly not the only customer who swore them off for life.
While Magic Company may have been excited about the transition to a new website structure, their customers were purely anxious. And when we discovered it was just a marketing stunt, the anxiety turned into rage, the likes of which I’m not sure I’ve ever seen in our industry on such a global scale.
Walking the Tightrope
Magic Company learned a powerful lesson that week: Attention can be bought, but trust cannot. Whether in your businesses dealings or in your personal relationships, get creative, sure. But in your quest for relevance, always be sure to honor the audience.
A tiny auto parts store got it right, and have reaped the rewards for decades.
A global magic industry giant got it wrong, and, well, the damage remains to be seen. If their response to the backlash is any indication, it won’t be good.
Excerpts from their post-debacle FAQ:
Why was this necessary?
We wanted to add a little mystery to this overhaul.
What about my downloads?
We apologise for any interruption with accessing your purchased tutorials. Nothing has vanished in the migration. They are all there. Safe & sound.
Why didn’t your team confirm any details?
They’ve all signed NDA’s (Non-disclosure agreements) and were legally obliged to not share private company information before the company announces it themselves. This is standard practice in all businesses… Nothing personal. Please don’t take it out on them.
What if I’m still angry?
To those who got angry over the unknown, we’d like to assure you that no artists or customers were harmed in the migration of our website. We didn’t start any rumours and we’re sorry if you believe them. We were vague, but some hijacked the event to spread disinformation.
Seems to me they’ve missed what everyone was upset about. Don’t be like Magic Company. Be like O’Reilly Auto Parts.
