4 Must-See Digital Marketing TED Talks
In digital marketing, creativity exists only within diversity, and too much focus tends to undermine it with time. Watching successful or inspired ideas, projects, and solutions from the people that created or executed them, in very different fields, gives you different perspectives that you can apply within your own knowledge or experience, in your own projects.
Below are four must-see TED Talks that have an undeniable staying power…
1. 4 Larger-Than-Life Lessons From Soap Operas
Why you should watch: At first glance, your eyes may want to skim past the title of this TED Talk, but it is more than what meets the eye. For Kate Adams, starting in television news and moving to event production, daytime drama, and digital marketing, storytelling has always been the common thread. Each job taught her more about the creation and cultivation of story and brand — and how we use that story arc to build our own journeys.
In this TED Talk, Adams shows us the exaggerated stories of soap operas and their characters and how these amplifications on life often cast light on the real problems. From superiority complexes to resurrection, Kate Adams is not afraid to step outside of the box.
2. How to Get Your Ideas to Spread
Why you should watch: After working as a software brand manager in the mid-1980s, Godin started Yoyodyne, one of the first Internet-based direct-marketing firms, with the notion that companies needed to rethink how they reached customers. His efforts caught the attention of Yahoo!, which bought the company in 1998 and kept Godin on as a vice president of permission marketing. Godin discusses why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones. Sometimes, it’s all about perspective.
In his own words, Godin states, “What marketers used to do is make average products for average people … I don’t think that’s a strategy we want to use any more … These are the people who are obsessed with something. And when you talk to them, they’ll listen, because they like listening — it’s about them. And if you’re lucky, they’ll tell their friends on the rest of the curve, and it’ll spread. It’ll spread to the entire curve.”
3. Why Gender-Based Marketing is Bad for Business
Why you should watch: Gaby Barrios is a partner and associate director of the Center for Customer Insight, and has developed proprietary algorithms that help isolate what drives consumer needs, reframing the market in a way that highlights new opportunities to grow.
Barrios explains why gender-based marketing doesn’t drive business nearly as much as you might think — and provides her audience all the tips and tricks as to how companies can find better ways to reach customers and grow their brands. Count us in.
4. What Makes Something Go “Viral?”
Why you should watch: BuzzFeed Publisher Dao Nguyen takes the word “viral” and turns it into something deeper than short and potentially embarrassing videos shared on social media. Nguyen says, “What if we asked: ‘How is it helping our users do a real job in their lives?’”
She continues, “Most media companies think of media as ‘mine.’ How many fans do I have? How many followers have I gained? How many views have I gotten? How many unique IDs do I have in my data warehouse? But that misses the true value of data, which is that it’s yours.”
Watch this TED Talk and take a glimpse at how her team creates their tempting quizzes, lists, and videos — and learn more about how they’ve developed a system to understand how people use content to connect and create culture.
These must-see TED Talks are only the beginning of a never-ending story of how to reinvigorate your brand and the content you share with others.
