Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S7E06 - A Wild & Crazy Idea: How Companies Solve Big, Hairy Problems

Episode Date: February 9, 2018

This week, we explore how marketers solve difficult problems. We’ll look at how Monty Python stopped piracy by giving away content for free, how a wardrobe change transformed Steve Martin’s career and why the president of Bogota replaced police officers…with mimes. Sometimes the only solution is a wild and crazy idea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan. You just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative. And that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year.

Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise. It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at Felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era,

dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your push. Find your power.

Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Bet MGM is an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League and has your back all season long. From puck drop to the final shot, you're always taken care of with the sports book Born in Vegas.

That's a feeling you can only get with bet MGM and no matter your team, your favorite skater or your style, there's something every NHL fan is going to love about bet MGM. Download the app today and discover why bet MGM is your hockey home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with bet MGM, a sports book worth a Sally and an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager.

Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 7, 2018. You're so king in it. You're so king in it. Your teeth look whiter than no nose. You're not you when you're hungry. You're a good hands with us.

You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. When Steve Martin began his stand-up career, he was playing in small clubs with tiny audiences. After a few TV appearances on The Tonight Show, he started to get some attention. In 1977, he released a live album called Let's Get Small. It was recorded at a comedy club in San Francisco. You guys are going to be on a record. Maybe someday, not mine, of course. That album went on to sell a million and a half copies,

reaching number 10 on the Billboard chart. Big numbers for a comedy album. With that success and some appearances on Saturday Night Live, the venues Steve Martin played started getting bigger and bigger. Then, in 1978, Martin released his second album called The Wild and Crescent Girl. Not only would that album yield a hit

single, it would also win the Grammy for Best Comedy Album of 1978, sell 2.5 million copies, and hit number two on Billboard, becoming one of the biggest selling comedy albums in history. Well, excuse me!

With that, the demand for Steve Martin exploded. He became one of the first stand-up comedians to play sold-out stadiums. He went from playing to 300 people to performing for over 40,000 in a single venue. He was booked in stadiums for two solid years. Steve Martin was the biggest concert comedian in show business. But when the stadium appearances started, he realized he had a problem he never had to contend with in comedy clubs. Specifically, nobody could see him on stage. Sure, the first 20

rows could see him, but the other 39,500 people couldn't. They could hear him, but they couldn't really see him. The problem was, it was just Steve Martin on a huge stage in a gigantic arena. He wasn't a band with stacks of amplifiers and special effects. He wasn't a hockey game, and there were no big screen TVs in stadiums yet. He was just a solo performer in a venue built for spectacles. As Forbes magazine said at the time, he was an ant on the stage. So Steve Martin had to figure out a way to be visible. That's when he started wearing white suits. In a dark stadium with just a spotlight,

that white suit shone like a beacon. Look at any photo of Steve Martin during his stand-up years from 77 to 81, and he's always wearing a white three-piece suit. The press commented on how clever it was to wear a conservative three-piece suit while delivering absurd comedy, but that vest simply kept Martin's shirt from popping out of his pants. The white suit became a defining aspect of Steve Martin's act.

But it wasn't just a quirk and it wasn't just a gimmick. It was a smart solution to a big problem. Many marketers find themselves staring down the barrel of a big problem, and they need a smart solution.

How creative people solve those big, hairy problems is always fascinating. And in the stories you're about to hear, not one person or organization solved their problem by taking the usual route. Each one of them looked at the problem and chose to resolve it with a surprising solution. All it took was a wild and crazy idea. Back in the 1990s, Bogota was considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Crime rates were through the roof and the city was all but blacklisted by tourists. When Antanas Mokous was elected mayor of Bogota in 1995,

he was told the majority of the city's problems were too far gone to be solved. But Mokous was a big believer in creative problem-solving. He also believed humor was the most powerful tool at a politician's disposal. One of the biggest issues Colombia's capital faced at the time was that motorists weren't obeying traffic laws. And beyond that,

the cops assigned to enforce those laws were corrupt, handing out tickets and pocketing the fines. Pedestrians were being killed. So Mocos came up with a plan. He replaced the cops with mimes. He pulled the corrupt cops off the streets and instead placed the mimes at traffic stops,

pedestrian crossings, and other risky areas of the city. The purpose of the mimes was to call attention to the motorists and pedestrians disobeying the traffic laws. They were there to mock and shame them. They'd pretend to be hurt when a driver didn't follow pedestrian rights of way, or signal stop with wild and hilarious flourishes. The mimes would mimic jaywalkers and call pedestrians over to teach motorists the rules. They'd even follow and applaud citizens who were good Samaritans

and encourage passers-by to do the same. Citizens were skeptical because the mimes weren't permitted to actually distribute traffic tickets. But Mokus stood by his plan. In a few short months, motorists following the rules rose from just 26% to 75%. And remarkably, pedestrian deaths dropped by more than half. And Mokus was eventually able to replace 2,000 corrupt cops with nationally appointed officers.

As one of the mayor's staff noted, it wasn't that the Mimes trained the drivers to obey the rules, but they trained pedestrians to know their rights. While the conventional thinking would be to increase police presence or impose stricter penalties on lawbreakers, Moku solved the problem by doing the opposite. As a result, he saved lives and put the law back in the driver's seat. When modern skyscrapers began to really scrape the sky in the 1930s, when they started to exceed 30 stories,

the Otis Elevator Company discovered a growing problem. Elevator riders were becoming uneasy. People were increasingly nervous hurtling up and down the shafts in small, windowless boxes. Not only were the elevator gears noisy and the cables

jerky, riders could feel the sway of the tall buildings the higher they went. It was beginning to cause anxiety. It was a potential business problem for Otis. If people didn't want to be in elevators, companies wouldn't order elevators. So Otis consulted with psychologists for a solution. After much deliberation,

their recommendation was to install music in elevators. Beginning in 1936, Otis teamed up with music marketing company Muzak to pipe calming background music into elevators in the Palmolive building, a 37-story tower in Chicago. The idea worked. The music distracted people and calmed their jittery nerves. As a matter of fact, a 1948 Otis Elevator print ad stated that

the cares of business are now wafted away on the notes of a lilting melody. So, if you've ever wondered where the term elevator music comes from, now you know. It was created to solve the problem of elevator anxiety. And by the way, in 1986, rocker Ted Nugent made a $10 million offer to buy Muzak just so he could shut it down. His offer was declined.

Solving business problems is always tricky. Companies never like having to solve product problems in public. They much prefer to solve product problems in public. They much prefer to solve them internally. In his remarkable book titled Creativity, Inc., Pixar president Ed Catmull says that his company creates short films to solve problems. So if the company needs to get better

at a certain aspect of animation, it will create a short film to experiment. These short films have no commercial value and cannot be justified by cost, but they send a message to the staff that the company cares about artistry. The stipulation for the short film, titled Jerry's Game, for example,

was that it had to include a human character, because at that time, Pixar needed to get better at rendering people. So animators are allowed to shoot short films on the company's dime as long as the films solve a problem. As Ed Catmull says, better to have train wrecks with miniature trains than real ones. Chiquita Bananas Chiquita Bananas once solved a business problem with a jingle.

See if you can figure out what problem when you listen to the lyrics. You can put them in a pie, any way you want to eat them. It's impossible to beat them. But bananas like the climate of the very, very tropical equator. So you should never put bananas in the refrigerator. Chiquita created that catchy jingle in the 1940s to tell people bananas prefer warm temperatures. The jingle said that when bananas were flecked with brown,

they were at their best. It was a strategy to solve the self-serving problem of people not buying enough bananas. Because putting bananas in the fridge caused them to last too long. And when they lasted too long, sales went down. Si, si, si, si. During the Second World War, the U.S. government realized it had a growing problem back home. It had begun shipping most of the nation's domestic meat supply to Europe to feed the troops. As Charles Dewey explains in his excellent book, The Power of Habit,

that meant the availability of steaks and pork chops back home began to dwindle. Officials became worried that a lengthy war would leave the nation starved of protein. It was a worrisome problem with no end in sight. As former President Herbert Hoover said at the time, meats are just as much munitions in this war as tanks and airplanes. So the Department of Defense approached leading sociologists and psychologists and gave them an assignment. Figure out how to convince the public to eat organ meats, like protein-rich livers, hearts, kidney, brain, stomachs, and intestines. Everything that was left over after

all the steaks and roast beef were sent overseas. You have to understand what a challenge that was. A middle-class woman in 1940 would sooner starve than put a kidney on the table. Nobody, but nobody, wanted to eat internal organs. The first step was to identify the cultural barriers that discouraged people from eating organ meat.

So, 200 studies were done, and they all pointed to the same finding. In order to change people's diets, the exotic must be made familiar. And to achieve that, you must camouflage it in everyday recipes. To convince the public to eat livers and kidneys, housewives had to know how to make those foods look, taste, and smell as similar as possible to what their families expected to see on the dinner table. The Army had noticed this too. When it started serving fresh cabbage to troops in 1943, it was rejected. But when the cabbage was chopped up and boiled

until it looked like every other vegetable on the soldiers' tray, the troops ate it without complaint. So the government started sending housewives recipe mailers, telling them how to prepare something called steak and kidney pie. Butchers explained how to slip liver into meatloaf. Soup recipes were created that contained lots of vegetables and a few organ meats bobbing around. Again, the solution to the problem was to make the exotic familiar.

The result was remarkable. Families back home stayed healthy, troops were fed meat, and a few years after the war ended, organ meats had been fully integrated into household diets. By 1955, the use of organ meats was up over 50%. Kidney had become a staple at dinner. Liver was actually reserved for special occasions. Dining patterns had shifted to such a degree that organ meats not only became familiar grocery items,

but emblems of comfort. It was a powerful, simple solution to a very difficult situation. Maybe that's why Bill Gates prefers to give difficult problems to the laziest employee. And we'll be right back after this message. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives, available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list.

Bill Gates has an interesting philosophy when it comes to solving difficult problems. He puts his company's laziest smart person on the job. Why does he do that? Because the lazy smart person will find the easiest way of solving the problem. And the simplest solution is always the best one. It's like when President Ronald Reagan

was dealing with the Cold War. He often wanted to deliver messages to foreign countries, but setting up diplomatic meetings took a long time because it was a complicated process, and back-channel messages couldn't always be trusted. So his staff figured out a simple solution in those pre-Twitter days.

Reagan just started holding press conferences in the Rose Garden. Wasn't it nice of us to get you all out in the spring weather here today? Before taking your questions, I want to offer one or two remarks. Why did that work? Because CNN would cover Rose Garden press conferences, and the Reagan administration knew all governments watched CNN. It was the simplest and quickest way to get a message out to world leaders. Problem solved.

Farmers in the country of Botswana in Africa were experiencing an ongoing problem. Lions were killing their cows. It was a business problem because the farmers depended on their cattle for income. The immediate solution was to kill the lions that were preying on their cows. But that posed a problem too, as the African lion is a vulnerable species, with numbers dropping from over 100,000 in the 1990s to under 40,000 today. But farmers had no non-lethal ways to protect their herds.

Then a conservation biologist came up with a novel solution. He painted eyes on the cow's rumps. Why did he do that? Because lions are ambush hunters. They creep up on their prey, then jump on them unseen. But when lions see the eyes on the cow's posterior, they think their prey has spotted them,

and they quietly move on. The biologist came up with the idea while watching a lion stalk an impala one day. When the impala spotted the lion, the lion gave up the hunt. So, the biologists teamed up with the farmers for a 10-week trial. They stamped eyes on one-third of the herd. When the cattle returned each night, they did a head count to see how many survived. Only three cows were killed by lions in that period. Those three had no eyes painted on their rumps. All the painted cows survived. It was a remarkable solution to a very difficult

problem. And like all powerful solutions, it was born of observation. The problem was broken down into movable pieces. Lions stalk cattle, lions prefer surprise attacks, but if a prey spots a lion, a lion will walk away. The vastly increased cattle survival rates had a dramatic impact on the livelihoods of the farmers. And, as an added bonus, no lions had to be killed. New routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. The Beatles kept having a problem in their early pre-fame days. When they were on the same bill as several other bands at dance halls,

they all found themselves covering the same songs. The Beatles would be sitting in their dressing room, listening to the band before them perform their entire set list. For the Beatles, it was a business problem. If they sounded like every other band, they would lose bookings. Lennon and McCartney had to figure out a solution. So, they started writing their own songs. I'd say that worked out pretty good for them.

Eric Idle was a good friend of the Beatles. He would even go on to parody the Fab Four with the Ruddles mockumentary All You Need Is Cash and with a second film called Can't Buy Me Lunch. Idle, of course, was a member of the groundbreaking comedy troupe Monty Python. Their influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. Python first

hit the airwaves on the BBC in 1969 with a sketch comedy show called Monty Python's Flying Circus. Later, they released feature films like Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But in 2008, Monty Python weren't so optimistic

because they were suffering from massive digital piracy. People were posting clips of their movies and 45 TV shows on YouTube for free, robbing them of their royalties. So the pythons came up with a marketing plan to launch their own YouTube channel and issued the following statement. Quote, For three years, you YouTubers have been ripping us off,

taking tens of thousands of our videos and putting them on YouTube. Now the tables are turned. It's time for us to take matters into our own hands. We know who you are, we know where you live,

and we could come after you in ways too horrible to tell. But, being the extraordinarily nice chaps we are, we've figured a better way to get our own back. We've launched our own Monty Python channel on YouTube.

No more of those crap quality videos you've been posting. We're giving you the real thing, high-quality videos delivered straight from our vault. What's more, we're taking our own most viewed clips and uploading brand new high-quality versions. And what's even more, we're letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there.

But we want something in return. None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies and TV shows, and soften our pain and disgust for being ripped off all these years. Unquote. And guess what? Their plan worked. The Python channel garnered over 2 million views. All the newly released videos had a click-to-buy option. So when people saw the newly uploaded high-quality clips,

they could buy the whole TV show or movie of what they had just watched. Monty Python also allowed people to post their own clips as long as they included the click-to-buy button as well. Within just three months, movie sales increased by a staggering 23,000%. And their DVDs climbed to number two on Amazon's movies and TV bestsellers list. People who hadn't seen Monty Python films for years felt nostalgic and were reminded of their love for the characters. Parents introduced Monty Python to their kids,

inheriting a whole new generation of viewers. Plus, YouTube paid all the bandwidth and storage costs. Python simultaneously stuck it to the digital pirates while rewarding their fans. And they made a ton of money by giving their content away for free. The key was to simply say... And now for something completely different. While successful animation studios, leading banana growers and effective mayors seem to have nothing in common,

they do share one trait, the ability to solve complicated business problems with remarkable ingenuity. When we watch a Pixar film, we all marvel at the sublime artistry of their animation. But even Pixar had to solve numerous problems to get that good. And they do it by experimenting with short films that you can watch on YouTube. Jerry's Game, by the way, went on to win an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Even their problem-solving is entertaining. When a huge city like Bogota kept experiencing a staggering number of pedestrian deaths,

who would think that implementing mimes could possibly make a difference? Then pedestrian deaths dropped by 50%. When Otis proudly developed elevator systems that created deep anxiety, the solution wasn't cables

or gears. It was music. As simple as that may seem today, it must have been radical in the 1930s. But look how long that solution lasted. Then, there's Monty Python. To combat low-quality online piracy,

they gave away high-quality videos for free. And sales of their DVDs went up 23,000%. The ability to look at a problem in a three-dimensional way, to break it down into movable pieces, then to push past the resistance to conventional solutions, is a very powerful business tool. All you need is a wild and crazy idea

when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Under the Influence was recorded in the Airstream Mobile Recording Studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound Engineer, Keith Ullman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Co-writer, Sydney O'Reilly. Follow us on Facebook for some fun bonus content. See you next week.

This episode brought to you by Chiquita Bananas. Not a mean, not a mean, that's not exciting at all. By the way, feel free to peruse the Under the Influence shop. We've got some fun t-shirts that will fit you to a tee. Go to terryoreilly.ca slash shop. the Under the Influence shop, we've got some fun t-shirts that will fit you to a tee. Go to terryoreilly.ca slash shop. Every purchase supports the show and we appreciate it.

In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative and that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year. Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise.

It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals.

No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who strength program. They've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.