Free Prize Inside, by Seth Godin
by Adrian Hanft, (0 comments)
We have all had this happen to us. You have a great idea that could drastically improve something. When you start sharing your idea, people say “that is a good idea, but it will never work.” Your great idea gets shot down before it was given a fair chance. Does that mean that your idea wasn’t good enough? According to Seth Godin’s newest book, “Free Prize Inside,” there is no correlation between how good your idea is and how likely the organization is to embrace it. So how do you get your ideas implemented? Seth first challenge of the book is to figure out what it takes to make your ideas a reality. We aren’t just talking about big ideas either. We are talking about small changes that can make a big impact. Seth calls them “soft innovations.”
So why are soft innovations so important? Traditional advertising doesn’t work the way it used to. Marketing is no longer a separate department in your company that magically applies a formula of headlines and body copy to increase sales. Everything your company does is marketing. If your company is going to survive, it needs to create a free prize that makes your product worth buying and worth talking about. There isn’t a cut and dry formula for how to create this soft innovation, and Seth doesn’t give one. What he does do is give examples of what has worked for others and suggests ways of thinking about your business that will help you find your free prize.
The best part of the book is when Seth talks about design. He says “Design is the single highest-leverage investment you can make.” Of all the free prize angles Seth suggests, design could be used in almost every situation to make the prize even better. The design of Seth’s book was pretty good too. If you order ten books, each one comes packaged in a cereal box.
I have followed Seth Godin’s blog for a while now, and I was really excited to read one of his books. I believe that advertising is in the beginning stages of a revolution. The Oglivy disciples and Makeover Mavens are going to have to change or become obsolete. Read “Free Prize Inside” (or any of his books) and find out why Seth Godin is on the cutting edge of a new era in advertising.
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