Arguably, no one has done a better job of dissecting the inner workings of the social epidemic than Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point. Consider the insanely popular game that is Soduku. You cannot get away from this thing. It’s everywhere.

Now, you have to ask, why Soduku? It’s not like there aren’t other ways to kill a couple of hours between flights. Practically every cell phone on the planet has some version or other of Tetris or Solitaire or Chess.

And yet, this little number game catches fire.

And you know it definitely has when British Airways has to issue a memo to its 13,000 cabin crew members reminding them that working on games like the popular Japanese number puzzle during takeoff and landing is prohibited for safety reasons.

So what’s up with Soduku? What makes it, as Malcolm says, such a sticky idea? Certainly, there’s a lesson to be learned here. A lot of lessons really. About word-of-mouth. About the viral potential of ideas. About a lot of things. Understand Soduku and you understand the new branding.