Influence and the “Derren Brown effect”

Over the festive season, I had the chance to watch Derren Brown’s act on TV. For those unititiated, Derren Brown is an illusionist capable of getting ordinary people to do strange things. Some of his act involves hypnotism, but much of it is based on suggestion and misdirection.

I was gobsmacked by his finale. This involved random members of a live audience selecting a newspaper at random, then choosing a page at random, then selecting a word on that page. Derren then reveals the contents of previously-sealed envelope and, of course, the chosen word matches.

The word was “Influential”.

This act, impressively performed, got me thinking – does this have anything to do with Influencer Marketing? At first blush, the answer is “little”. This is trickery, illusion for the masses, set in an artificial environment (a theatre) and the audience, even if professionally employed, are out of their business mindset.

Derren adds a key element to his act that sets him apart from most other performers – he shows how his illusions are done. Derren films the whole show secretly, then at the end plays back to the audience the key directions and suggestions that pepper the act. We can all see how the audience was led into choosing the word that was anything but random.

This is precisely what Influencer Marketing is about, except that it's done overtly as a professional practice rather than a covert illusion. And the process of influence takes months and years, not a couple of hours.

I bet you'd spend your entire marketing budget to establish an environment which led your prospects, unanimously, to the conclusion to buy from you.

Derren Brown is often criticised for demonstrating his talents in allegedly unethical ways – persuading respectable businessmen to conduct a robbery, for example.

Influencer Marketing can be criticised as unethical manipulation too. As always, it’s up to the practitioners to ensure they stay on the right side of the line.