897 Hgai

LESSONS FROM SETH GODIN'S "HOW TO GET YOUR IDEAS TO
SPREAD"
As an intern for Cowley Associates, I wanted to think of a way to tie

some of my academic work to the work that I’m doing here; kill two
birds with one stone. So when I was assigned a project aimed at
creating a poster for a TED Talk, it seemed like an ideal way to pair
the two together. After researching various talks, I decided to create
a poster for Seth Godin’s talk on “How to Get Your Ideas to Spread.”
The speech focuses on creating bizarre ideas in a world with many
options and little time. To portray this message, Seth Godin discusses
sliced bread, purple cows, and how Arby’s spent $85 million making
a national advertisement that featured Tom Arnold as an oven mitt.
The three lessons I gathered from Seth Godin’s speech,
1. Create Something Remarkable,
2. Being Very Good is Boring, and

3. Sell to People Who Are Listening,
are explored more below along with the poster I created. If you have
any feedback or advice, leave me a comment and let me know what
you’re thinking.
1) Create Something Remarkable
Most people associate the word remarkable with something that’s

unusual and worthy of attention. It means that, but it also means
something worth making a remark about. Every time you create
something, it should be at a standard where people want to talk
about it. Today, the amount of choices that people have available to
them outweighs the time they have to consider the choices. That
being said, if you want an idea to get noticed, it has to be
remarkable. Because if its not, what’s the point of even having the
idea?
One company that has excelled in creating remarkable content and

products has been Nike. When Nike unveils new product lines,
everyone is talking about them. This past summer during the World
Cup, Nike attracted a lot of attention with an animated commercial
they called “The Last Game.” The plot of the video depicted clones of
professional soccer players taking over the game because they were
‘perfect,’ only to have the professional soccer players save the game
of soccer by facing off against them in a winner takes all match. The
plot alone makes the video remarkable, because it’s an idea that
people wouldn’t of thought of.
2) Being Very Good Is Boring
In order to create something remarkable, you can’t be very good and

you can’t be boring. Seth Godin discusses how having “very good”
ideas is average and it won’t be effective because everyone produces
ideas that are very good. In order to stick out, you need ideas that
are new or ideas that are unique. The premise is to not be boring,
but that also doesn’t mean coming up with super crazy ideas. If you
want to create ideas that will get noticed, you have to figure out
exactly what your consumers want and come up with ideas on how
you’re going to give them what they want.
Being very good is also safe. Companies like Kodak and Sears have
failed and struggled because they’ve been safe, and they’ve failed to
realize what their consumers actually want. Kodak, a company that
thrived in photography industry, didn’t fail because of its digital
products. Actually, Kodak was the first company to invent a digital
camera. Kodak failed because of fear that it would hurt the
company’s film business. So, Kodak didn’t market the technology and
ultimately failed because they played things safe.
3) Sell To People Who Are Listening
Find out who the innovators and opinion leaders are in your
community and industry, and put your efforts in marketing to them.
Seth Godin describes these two groups of people as the people that
care the most about a brand and the people that enjoy listening
about what you have to say because they want to know more. For
those reasons, both of these groups have the most influence on
whether or not your ideas succeed.
People who care the most about a company or brand are passionate
to the point where they let other people know how passionate they
are. So, by selling and marketing to these people you’re fueling their
passion for your brand and they will continue to promote your brand
because you helped them establish a loyalty in your brand.
One aspect of “How to Get Your Ideas to Spread” that I really like is
that it’s not too specific. The lessons that are covered in Seth Godin’s
talk can be applied to all businesses. As a marketing agency, getting
ideas noticed and getting them to spread is what we do, but we
aren’t the only ones doing it. Every business is an idea, but ideas can
also refer to the content that businesses produce. Regardless, ideas
can take a variety of forms and every business sets out to get their
ideas to spread. Seth Godin offers a unique perspective on spreading
ideas that you probably won’t find in any blog or article. To get the
full effect, you have to watch the talk and listen to what he has to say
because his outlook will make you think about your ideas differently.

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LESSONS FROM SETH GODIN'S "HOW TO GET YOUR IDEAS TO

As an intern for Cowley Associates, I wanted to think of a way to tie

1. Create Something Remarkable,

2. Being Very Good is Boring, and

1) Create Something Remarkable

Most people associate the word remarkable with something that’s

One company that has excelled in creating remarkable content and

In order to create something remarkable, you can’t be very good and

3) Sell To People Who Are Listening

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