Why Silly Stuff Really Does Matter... Just Look at This Year's Oscars

True to form, the Oscars on Sunday night was a truly momentous occasion. Even the Monday morning dopiness brought on by staying up to watch it on television was offset by the excitement of scrutinising every last detail and poring over critiques.

True to form, the Oscars on Sunday night was a truly momentous occasion. Even the Monday morning dopiness brought on by staying up to watch it on television was offset by the excitement of scrutinising every last detail and poring over critiques.

After many a worldly-wise confab by the water cooler and a cursory examination of my Facebook newsfeed, I had a bit of an epiphany. I noticed that everyone's stand-out moments from the evening had one thing in common. They had nothing to do with the dresses, the speeches (although Jared Leto's was a particular favourite) or even the awards themselves.

No, the bits that we couldn't stop talking about were all of the downright silly things - the things which made us laugh.

Jennifer Lawrence falling over ... again. Could the public fall in love with her any more? Ellen DeGeneres dishing out pizza to Hollywood's finest mid-ceremony and then walking around collecting tips for the delivery guy from the likes of Harvey Weinstein. The greatest selfie ever taken, which I - and millions of other people - would have sacrificed a unicorn to have been a part of. Benedict Cumberbatch executing the most marvellous photobomb we have seen in quite a while. We could not stop talking about these beautiful moments.

In fact, I couldn't actually tell you who won all of the awards but I know that Charlize Theron stuffed up her autocue, Ellen dressed up as Glinda the Good Witch at one point and Meryl Streep enjoyed a shimmy with Pharrell Williams.

I don't doubt that the team behind J-Law's wardrobe for the occasion will have put more effort into her ensemble than went into building the pyramids. And yet, the most valuable piece of PR for the young actress that evening was the moment she nearly highfived the red carpet with her face.

That selfie taken by Ellen - quite possibly a Who's Who of the hottest property in Hollywood - absolutely smashed Barack Obama's 'four more years' tweet to become the most retweeted picture of all time. Last night, it was almost up to 3 million retweets - well and truly dethroning the US president's attempt with just over 781,000.

But what does this have to do with anything? Well, it validates the message of a very popular campaign at the moment. That is, 'Silly Stuff. It Matters.' - the brainchild of creatives producing mobile network Three's advertising, which has seen #DancePonyDance and #SingItKitty trending on Twitter and We Built This City by Starship back in the top 40.

Why? Because people like the silly things. It's not enough to do what people expect anymore - that's not all that entertaining and certainly won't spark an animated conversation. Unexpected, spontaneous, supposedly stupid stuff really does matter. People engage with it, individuals share it and, as far as the Oscars was concerned, everyone sure as hell was talking about it the following morning.

Silly is fun, silly provides us with welcome relief from our busy schedules and for businesses, harnessing the power of silly can go a long way to building a loyal set of customers.

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