Seth Godin Meatball Sundae

Yesterday SES hosted a webcast with Seth Godin author of a new book Meatball Sundae. In his words: It’s about the internet and new marketing and the fourteen trends that change everything.

14 trends van de Goeroe himself:

1. Direct Communication – there is an increasing amount of direct communication between producers and consumers. The ease of publishing means more and more feedback mechanisms are appearing.

2. The Power of Voice – Consumers are having their say and the rate of information transfer online is fast and furious.

3. Tell an Authentic Story – there are so many sources of information you need to tell an authentic story to capture that elusive attention.

4. Are you still listening? – Our attention spans have shrunk. Back in the 40’s commercials used to be 30 minutes long. Now we see comments about the death of the 30 second spot. You need to figure out new ways to reach and educate your customers.

5. The Long-Tail – Reaching niche markets and providing content that appeals to them will garner success. Few organizations are embracing this idea.

6. Outsourcing – in many cases someone else can do it better and cheaper.

7. The influence of Google and Other Search Engines -information on demand and bundled services.

8. Noise to signal ratio – Too much, too often with no real content. Interruption marketing rather than permission marketing. People tend to swtich off.

9. Consumers Are Talking to Each Other- marketplaces have indeed become conversations.

10. Balance of Scarcity and Abundance – what was once abundant is now scarce and vice versa.

11. A ‘big idea’ can reach a large number of people – a ‘big idea’ is something that changes the world or the big idea’s direct environment forever.

12. Shift of Influence in the Media – We have gone from asking How Many? to Who? – It’s no longer a given that the Today Show is the ultimate media prize. One blogger with a niche audience could bring you better results.

13. Where is the money? – It’s getting harder to tell who has the money. But the gap is widening. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

14. The power of gatekeepers – in some ways there are more of them and they are more influential. But in other ways you can now go around them