Anne Handley has a very timely interview with Seth Godin on Marketing Profs Daily Fix late last week, along with a good summary of Meatball Sundae, his latest book. I read the book on a long flight late last week; great stuff.

Anne does a very nice summary:

In other words, the new tools might be irresistible. But they don’t work as well for boring meatball brands like Cheerios, Ford trucks, Barbie dolls, or Budweiser. When Anheuser-Busch spends $40 million on an online network called BudTV, that’s a meatball sundae. It leads to no new Bud drinkers, just a bad case of indigestion, Seth says.

The book is built around Seth’s clear style and logical thinking about what he’s calling the fourth revolution, and a list of 14 trends that set the tone for new marketing into the future. More of Anne’s summary:

Meatball Sundae, according to its publishers, is a guide to the 14 trends no marketer can afford to ignore. It explains what to do about the increasing power of stories, not facts; about shorter and shorter attention spans; and about the new math that says five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don’t.

Anne follows that with a quick interview with Seth, in which he presents a much better view of the book than anybody else.

And I have to apologize, because Anne’s post is announcing a virtual seminar with Seth Godin sponsored by Marketing Profs Daily Fix, which happened last Thursday. I was traveling, and with the holiday, missed it.

And that’s not so bad, though, because Seth is promoting a free seminar with Seth Godin for January 23. It’s about this book, Meatball Sundae.