Last Thursday I attended the Seth Godin talk organized by Flanders DC in Antwerp. Whenever you have the change to listen to someone that important I think that it is crucial to blog about it. or to say in the words of Mister Godin himself: “everyone should blog, maybe no one will read it but just the act of writing is important.”

On this blog we usually try to do something different. We try to find new content or look deeper into a phenomenon. OK point taken we don’t always manage to succeed in doin that but it is our core belief anyway. This post however is going to be different. I am just going to be giving my opinion on what I heard and saw tonight. You could see it as rather roughly pouring out my brain in order to give you my impression of the evening.

I think I went to the venue on Thursday with moderate expectations. I mean we all follow mister Godin his blog, read his books or catch up on him true secondary articles. So what could he possibly add to all those things we already know about him and his vision? I wasn’t at all expecting that I  hear something mind blowing that would change the face of marketing for decades to come. I mean those people expecting that from a mere presentation might rather try sitting at home waiting for lightning to strike in order to get enlightened. However what I did expect was mister Godin taking a closer look at marketing and what the true implications are of the newly shaped environment we find ourselves in today. Maybe something on how a truly innovative supply chain can look like or how push advertising can become more of marketing as a service pulling consumers in.

That was basically the mindset I was in. You could call it open but expecting.

Seth Godin started off by immediately warning all of us that we wouldn’t be getting a practical map that would lead us to the road to success. Pretty normal I guess. I mean the guy is just coming to talk to us not inventing the next best thing after the Internet. However it kind of shaped the atmosphere of him being able to say everything he sees adequate without thinking about some practical issues. Next the standard talk started on how the world is changing, consumers aren’t listening, we have been shouting at consumers, … . In order to get those who have been sleeping under a rock for the last decade up to speed. Once that was done mister Godin continued on how we have to rethink our businesses and on how we should focus on the extraordinary. He calls it the fact that we are all geniuses. To quote mister Godin:

“A Genius is someone who does things differently.”

Ok fair enough but it is here that the talk started to shift towards a motivational speech. We should pursue every idea because that one good idea will eventually make up for the hundreds of bad ones. While doing so we have to try to not give in to our “lizard brain”. Or to clarify the caveman piece in our brains that controls our most basic functions. It is this part that controls fear and in being a genius we should overcome the fear in that small part of our brain. by doing so we can come to the next part in our evolution, a new revolution. After starting off as hunters, farmers, workers it is now time for us to become artists.

This was roughly the scope of mister Godin his presenation. Afterwards some highly appreciated time for Q&A. I must admit that mister Godin  took his time in answering several questions. Although no truly critical in depth questions were brought to the stage and so Seth could often cut it with some good one liners.

Women: “What if I only have 10 minutes in a job interview to convince them I am an artist?”

Seth: “don’t apply for that job!”

After leaving the room a colleague of mine was still thinking, feeling a bit disappointed that the real content behind the subject wasn’t touch. He decided to approach mister Godin to ask the more in depth question whether there is still a place for market research within his framework.

The Godin answer was simple: “None existing. Only trust gut feel.”

I just had to include this little quote because it shows the lack of a deeper reasoning on the subject. Writing off market research as bollocks doesn’t really fit with my view of the marketing landscape we are confronted with today. If any I personally feel that market research is getting more relevant because of all the changes we are going through.This was more or less the tone of voice of the entire evening in Antwerp.

 Seth Godin is a very clever marketer with insightful ideas. I think that anyone who has never had to opportunity to be introduced into the world of marketing the last 5 years was truly amazed and felt the urge to stand up and really be that artist. Those however knowing a bit more and taking into consideration the multitude of aspects that come into play when talking about marketing didn’t walk away with a lot of new insights.

Truth be told mister Godin wasn’t really challenged and was served a very easy crowd. Most of them happy to see the legend in the flesh.

I had a good night, I was entertained, my expectations weren’t really met none the less I still believe Seth Godin is an intelligent and remarkable marketer that has a vision he wants to share. That is a good and valuable thing!