Communication, Schelling points and the football.
I go to the football. I go regularly and like to sing and jump up and down.
When I was a child I would occasionally go to the football with my step dad and brother . From my seat I can still see the space where we used to stand as a kid and happily (for I am a Norwich fan), I can still hear the same songs we sang all those years ago (for those not in the know Norwich has the oldest football song in the world - the glorious ‘On the Ball City!’ – containing reference to having ‘a little scrimmage, a practise which disappeared from association football many many many years ago). I digress.
At the beginning of each match, an echoey voice crackles over the speaker system and counts the faithful down into their fortnightly rendition of ‘On the ball’ – it is one of my favourite moments in life.
Like many people I wonder in awe at football songs. Where they come from, how they spread, how it is that an individual can be singled out and a song composed in their honour (or detriment) within seconds of an incident. Football is a wonder.
Thomas Schelling is also a wonder, though he is not a football.
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| Thomas Schelling on the cover of his book |
Thomas Schelling is a Nobel winning economist, strategist and game theory guru, after whose work is named ‘the Schelling point’. For those not in the know, a Schelling point is really useful. It describes a position which people will tend to adopt in the absence of communication. A Shelling ‘moment’ is the instant where a group of people act as one, in the same way without overt communication.
What in the world is Tony on about, I hear you cry (it’s not an uncommon sound).
There is a moment in every football loving adolescent’s life when he decides to hitch up his trousers, lower his voice a few octaves and start his (or her) own chant. Without the right conditions, this process is almost certainly doomed to failure. I know I’ve tried.
Chants I have failed to start:
· ‘Your team’s irrelevant’ – to some Italian opera tune that is impossible to describe if you are typing and don’t know its name
· ‘Come on ref that’s preposterous!’ – To the tune of ‘come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough.’
Chants I have joined in with and quite like:
· ‘We’ve got more salt than you’ – aimed at the 30 or so Cardiff fans who were able to make the treck from Wales in during the big freeze a couple of years ago.
· ‘It could have been you (oh Sammy Klingan!)’ – which the other three Norwich fans out there will get, aimed at a player who left Norwich upon our relegation to league 1 two years ago… sung on the final day, two years later, of the season that saw us promoted back to the Premier league.
· ‘We shoot bur-ga-lars, say we shoot bur-ga-lars’ in reference to Tony Martin, a Norfolk farmer imprisoned for shooting burglars. Usually sung at Liverpool, Hull or West Ham fans.
· ‘Ooo, arrrgh lets be avin yer!’ sung in honour of our delightful patron Delia, and her bibo centric activities.
· Numerous, far from savoury anti Ipswich numbers which I will not repeat here.
The point is that they are all funny, clever (I think), erupt spontaneously, and suddenly spread to engulf a crowd. Their inception is a Schelling moment, where unbidden 26 odd thousand supporters suddenly erupt into song unbidden by pre-training or communication. It is, as I say, a wonderful thing.
Why am I talking about this?
Firstly Schelling didn’t develop the theory to describe football songs, he was (amongst other things) talking about riots…
Why a riot kicks off is a difficult thing to say, but it is usually set aflame by a Schelling event. This is normally a window being smashed (since they are visual, potent symbols of rebellion and make a lot of noise – which means crowd members not in the line of sight hear about them).
Now for a Schelling event to take place, there are normally any number of other factors in place. All of which add up to people being primed. I offer two examples:
In a riot:
· People turn up with the expectation that something will happen. (Expectation)
· There are generally far fewer authority figures than crowd members. (Empowerment – or a sense of it)
· Signals are given off between crowd members (nervousness, defensive clothing, common/group language etc…)(Behavioural cues)
· There is an underlying sense of dissatisfaction (not always about the target of the action) (Emotion)
At the football
· There is expectation that there will be a good singsong (Expectation)
· The crowd assumes authority (Empowerment)
· Common clothing, commonly understood banter, nerves, posturing etc are shared (Behavioural cues)
· A prevailing sense your relation to the team e.g. D0isappointment, Excitement, Pride (Emotion)
I think this is interesting.
When we plan campaigns that encourage people to influence each other, or indeed when we plan a campaign that needs a bit of added oompf, we often look for a hook to build them round… something people do naturally.
Summer holidays, pre-Christmas, the football, the great British Sunday roast, Big brother…
Which is interesting.
I think we can learn lots by considering the common factors that prime for Schelling events.
· How can we recreate the sense of anticipation at a football match?
· How do we allow the audience to take control of a communication (rather than try to talk at them)? (authority point)
· How do we use no bought channels to get them to share the communication (verbal and non-verbal) with each other (think about iPod earphones)?
As an aside, sponsorships aren’t normally sold on the basis that they allow people to communicate and act around common ground, but maybe they should be.
This weekend I will be attending Norwich City vs Stoke. The first game we have played in the top flight for 6 years. I am looking forward to the football so much that I can hardly think properly (which may account for the rambling nature of the above), but I am also looking forward to the Schelling point where after the countdown 27,000 fans (minus the away support), as one voice sing out our anthem.
On the ball city! (or OTBC as web savvy canaries like to say).
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