Inspiring TED talks for marketeers

Even though its initials stand for Technology, Entertainment and Design, there are plenty of videos on the inspiring ted.com for those who work in content-marketing. Here are three of the best.


How to get your ideas to spread
Although this talk first aired in 2003, it is still relevant today. The essential message is that products – and by extension, content – should be remarkable if they are to succeed. Speaker Seth Godin starts from some pretty incontestable premises: consumers have too much choice in front of them; consumers have too little time to browse. Therefore, companies must seduce their audiences with what is ‘remarkable’. Pointing to such successes as sliced bread and Herman Miller’s Aeron chair, Godin’s recommendation for marketing in this world is simple: market to the early adopters with something remarkable, and they will then spread the word. Not convinced? As Godin points out, the riskiest thing you can do is be safe.

What physics taught me about marketing
The links between marketing and physics aren’t immediately obvious. Luckily, Dan Cobley is versed in both fields, and shares his insights in this presentation. Cobley starts with Newton’s law on the change of motion. Heavy objects require more force to change their state, and so with brands. The bigger it is, the harder it is to change their direction. Hoover, for instance, required a massive push to disassociate the brand from vacuuming.

After exploring Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and the logic of scientific method – yes, there are links to marketing here, too – Cobley looks at entropy: the order of disorder will always increase. In an age of content-marketing, search and social sharing, companies cannot control where their brands go. What they can control, however, is the quality of content they produce.

404: The story of a page not found 
This talk is a welcome reminder that even relatively unimportant content can build relationships with your audience. Take the 404 error page. According to Renny Gleeson, these pages cause a gut-wrenching abandonment rivalled by no other content. They are, he says, the symptom of a broken relationship. Perhaps not, but a slew of companies have taken to revision their 404 pages, pepping them up with anything from videos of crashing cyclists to pictures of cute dogs. In short, these companies have the 404 into an opportunity to reconnect with an audience. In Gleeson’s words: “A simple mistake can tell me what you aren’t, or remind me why I love you.”

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