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TED Talk- How to Get Your Ideas to Spread

November 12th, 2014 by Ashley Buckley

In our most recent TED Talk Lunch & Learn, we watched Seth Godin's speech on "How to get your ideas to spread." This was an informative talk that led us to think and talk about how our company markets itself. 

Godin's examples were recognizable brands that we hadn't thought much about, but his explanations on ways these companies were able to strategize and make their ideas seen and heard were thought provoking.

His talk summarized how "sliced bread" was a failure until Wonder Bread spread the idea; simply purchasing attention by putting ads on television does not work as it did in the past. We currently see so many choices, and often don't have the time to think about each one while shopping at a retail store or online, so customers ignore the attempts of companies trying to advertise their products. 

Godin argued that you have to be remarkable to get noticed and compares this to seeing a purple cow, rather than an ordinary one on the side of the road- the purple one might make you stop! He suggests that organizations find the people who really care about their product or work- their advocates who are passionate about the organization- and then make it easy for that group to tell their friends; sell to people who are listening! 

While this type of strategy does not exactly apply to the professional services businesses, we'd like to think that our passionate clients are some of our best marketers, and this talk created great discussion on how we can be "remarkable"!