Marketing used to be an easy business: pay for TV ads, in return get some customers.

No more.

Now consumers have too much choice and less time than ever before. The most precious commodity is earning their attention.

It is not an accident that companies such as YouTube, with virulent growth and retention of users, are worth Billions even before they start making any revenue.

Newspapers and TV stations relying on advertising to make money are dead, because people have become really good at avoiding being interrupted with advertising. No credibility in those anymore.

On the other hand, people continue to believe people they know. They’re also sensitive to what is new and exciting.

Therefore, the only way to sell anything (product, service, idea, or yourself), is to be so remarkable that people talk about it on your behalf.

Transform your customers into your salespeople. They should be respected, not manipulated. They should do this because they want to.

It’s more an art than science, and requires creativity.

That beats going against the flow, paying for attention, working in an average office making average products for average people.

Re-mar-ka-ble. That’s it.

Ideas that spread, win.