I read a pretty good book by Seth Godin over the weekend called “Meatball Sundae”. Godin writes of the irresistible new marketing strategies and tools such as blogs, YouTube, MySpace, Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and how companies have an opportunity to adapt, provided they put forth the effort and commitment. In the first chapter, he describes the Old Marketing strategy that worked for everyone - interrupt everyone’s life with ads and messages on billboards, ads, direct mail and T.V. Commercials. Average products for average people. The more money you throw into big advertising the more products you will sell to those you interrupted.

The New Marketing, however, is the blogs, Tweets, YouTube videos and other social media. The point of the title is that this New Marketing (being the sweet sundae topping) does not go well with the meatball base. Godin states in the end of the Executive Summary, “Everyone knows how to make and market a meatball. That approach appears safe and straightforward, but it doesn’t lead to growth anymore. You can’t grow with meatballs because they’re ubiquitous. The New Marketing is whipped cream and a cherry, a collection of techniques that offer huge payoffs…”.

Anyways, I won’t give the book away, but it is a good read that explains how old marketing was effective, how you can (and should/must) transition into the New Marketing and what the benefits are. Meatball Sundae is loaded with good examples of successes and failures throughout the past twenty years and he establishes the “Fourteen Trends” that a marketer cannot afford to ignore. Though this book has been out for a couple years now (sorry, it took me a while to finally get to it), it still applies to the changes in marketing and would be either a good refresher or inspirational read to help encourage your ability to embrace this New Marketing. Bottom line, if you’re going to make the jump into New Marketing, you can’t just do it, you have to commit to it!