It’s the feeling in the pit of your stomach as you climb the rollercoaster track. It’s the neurotransmitters that dance around your body when you meet a love interest for the very first time. It’s all the commercials you watch before Oscar Sunday and Ellen DeGeneres’ conviction when she tells 47 million viewers that she is about to produce the most retweeted photo of all time.
That feeling is anticipation, a major key to happiness and a vital tool in successful marketing.
Like many celebrities, DeGeneres spent the weeks leading up to The Oscars promoting the award ceremony and engaging potential viewers on social media. Once the event went live she told a few well-timed jokes, as hosts tend to do, and made her big announcement. DeGeneres informed America that on this night she would generate the most retweeted photo of all time. She repeated this idea throughout the three hour broadcast, molding the doubters into believers and the believers into supporters.
The hype that DeGeneres created caused the likes of Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Bradley Copper, and Julia Roberts to join in on the group selfie. Cooper turned the Samsung Galaxy horizontally, pushed a button, and all of the sudden the dream became a reality. The photo immediately went viral on Twitter, boasting nearly three and a half million retweets. In just under one hour, the record previously held by Barack Obama’s account, had been broken.
DeGeneres’ achievement is a crucial lesson for all leaders, business owners, and visionaries. Successful marketing is all about building excitement, creating a buzz, and attracting outside support. If you have that great idea, and you have the support of your followers then there’s no telling just how much success you can anticipate.