TED: Brand Positioning Case Study

 💼 The Brand: TED

To date, TED Talks have received billions of views. But the first ever conference in 1984 lost money and included a demo of the compact disc, the e-book, and cutting-edge 3D graphics from Lucasfilm. So how did it turn into a world renowned educational brand and community?

💛 The Heart (Mission & Vision)

The mission of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is to “spread ideas that are worth sharing.”

And TED has taken that mission to heart. Taking every opportunity to make their talks more shareable… even before the culture of “social media” existed.

👤 The Head (Strategy & Positioning)

TED was a closed-door conference initially, but in 2006 they made their talks available for free online.

This was shocking. 1) Because attendees paid $4k for tickets that year and 2) it went against the traditional business model of charging for exclusive content.

It was especially shocking since video sharing was in its infancy (YouTube was barely a year old). But the move paid off in a major way.

It’s ultimately what helped TED reach a wider audience and build a global community around ideas worth spreading. 

DOWNLOAD NOW: Free 5-Minute Marketing Plan [Get Your Copy]

✋ The Hands (Tactics)

TED’s strategy of “idea sharing” has been executed in several unique ways:

TED crowdsources their speakers. With TED, anyone can nominate a speaker who has valuable ideas to share. This helps TED to find diverse and interesting voices that might otherwise been overlooked. Like for example, Sir Ken Robinson’s talk "Do schools kill creativity?"which went on to amass over 70M views.

TED created TEDx, where people can organize their own TED-like event. This helps TED to reach new audiences and discover new speakers. Since its inception in 2009, there have been over 35,000 TEDx events held in more than 170 countries, featuring over 80,000 speakers.

How You Can Steal Their Strategy

Give It Away Until It Hurts. The one BIG thing that TED got right in 2006 was giving away their best content for free. It maintained its status as a source of cutting edge ideas, but it democratized the consumption. In return, this generosity earned the trust of millions of learners from around the world. For you and your brand, it might be tempting to hold back. But don’t. Give away your best stuff, so much so that it hurts, and if it’s good enough — it just might spread.

Want this in your inbox every week? We'd love to have you! Subscribe using the form below 👇