This morning, PPAI President and CEO Paul Bellantone, CAE, welcomed author, entrepreneur and marketer Seth Godin to the Realtor.com stage at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square in New York, New York, for a master class seminar focused on the fundamentals of marketing as part of Advertising Week, going on in the city now. Afterwards, Bellantone joined Godin on stage for a Q&A, with audience members joining in to ask questions as well.
Marketing is going through a defining change, it used to be the same as advertising but it’s not anymore, Godin told his audience, and pointed to the internet, the first medium created without advertising in mind, as driving that change. “Marketing is fundamentally different,” he said. “Today we market with people, not at them.”
Godin explained that,marketers today begin with the questions “Who’s it for?” and “What’s it for?” Rather than pursue the nonbelievers, who he noted, “will never be there for you,” with mass messaging, the future of marketing is to identify and speak to the smallest viable audience.
The first 100 attendees at the session received a pre-published copy of Godin’s new book, This Is Marketing, due out in November, and a book signing immediately followed the seminar. PPAI also presented all attendees with a journal featuring a bound galley previewing the first chapter and a set of imprinted tongue depressors featuring key messages from Godin’s presentation.
