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hen you think about it, TED Talks are perfect little pieces of marketing in themselves — short and sweet messages with clear, actionable takeaways. So, it makes sense that these influential talks offer a wealth of rich insights and learnings for anyone whose work involves getting across a memorable message.
The TED Talk forum also invites a diversity of opinions and outlooks, with speakers who aren’t afraid to broach cutting-edge ideas and consider the responsibility of businesses to uphold social good. No matter how big or small your company, you’ll find nuggets you can use in these presentations included in our top 10 must-watch marketing TED Talks — most from the last year, along with a couple of older talks that remain just as relevant today.
1. Love, Trust, and Marketing in the Age of AI
Who: Amaryllis Liampoti, entrepreneur and business strategist.
What: Liampoti presents three foundational principles for how brands can harness AI to build deeper emotional connections with consumers while prioritizing well-being, transparency, and autonomy.
Why we love it: Liampoti reminds us that the fundamental goal of marketing is to build “relationships that feel close, intense, and long-lasting.” She acknowledges the power of AI to help create those relationships and lays out much-needed boundaries for using AI tools responsibly.
2. The Art of Marketing — for Good
Who: Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar in conversation with TED’s Whitney Pennington Rodgers.
What: The author of Quantum Marketing, Raja Rajamannar, describes how business goals can be a force for good, “aligning profit with purpose” to create meaningful, positive change.
Why we love it: It’s refreshing and inspiring to hear that one of the biggest U.S. companies out there is considering how to address social issues and support underserved populations — for example, allowing transgender cardholders to choose the name that appears on their card, and adding notches to cards to help blind people to use them more easily.
3. Is Perfectionism Just Procrastination in Disguise?
Who: Jon Youshaei, video creator.
What: Youshaei explains how, with persistence and prolific production, we can overcome the desire to make things perfect. Sometimes giving yourself (or your team) permission to fail and flop paves the way for the most creative ideas.
Why we love it: We’ll bet you can’t guess what James Corden (of “Carpool Karaoke” fame) and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have in common. One great takeaway: “The only thing worse than something imperfect is something that doesn’t exist.”
4. What If Advertising Was Honest?
Who: Sylvester Chauke, marketing veteran and founder of DNA Brand Architects.
What: Chauke takes on a challenge all marketers should think about: how the advertising and marketing industry can help reduce global overconsumption and its horrific environmental effects, rather than contributing to them.
Why we love it: Chauke’s vision of honest advertising — helping people think twice before they buy — is a breath of fresh air. Plus, he includes clever examples that will inspire you to think outside the box.
5. The Problem with Being ‘Too Nice’ at Work
Who: Tessa West, social psychology professor and expert in interpersonal communication.
What: West shares her research on how people use polite comments to hide their anxiety in awkward interactions and offers options for providing clear, consistent feedback to colleagues. She uses audience participation (or the idea of it, anyway) to illustrate her point.
Why we love it: If you’ve ever been the recipient of what West calls “anxious niceness” — or noticed yourself offering it to someone — you’ll find this talk illuminating. While it’s not directly about marketing, it’s essential information for building strong teams, and can also come into play with customers.
6. Ask Dumb Questions, Embrace Mistakes — and Other Lessons on Innovation
Who: Dave Raggio, “intrapreneur” and Intuit marketing and advertising executive.
What: Raggio shares how listening to his team members and creating a shared understanding of the business led to new ideas and averted potential disasters.
Why we love it: Every business should have a judgment-free zone in which everyone is encouraged to ask “dumb” questions, building trust and understanding as a result. Share this one with the leaders in your network who might be at risk of overestimating what they know, as Raggio admits he did.
7. The Art of Persuasive Storytelling
Who: Kelly D. Parker, marketing trainer and Fast Company contributor.
What: Did you know that when we listen to stories, our brain waves start to synchronize with those of the storyteller? Parker looks at both the science and art of storytelling as a marketing and leadership tool, emphasizing the importance of listening to your audience and painting them a picture that sticks in their minds.
Why we love it: Parker is an amazing speaker — and her reenactment of two very different marriage proposals is a memorable analogy of how marketers are constantly “proposing,” and how missing their audience’s needs or getting the timing wrong can result in a resounding “no.”
8. Can Salad Dressing Transform Capitalism?
Who: Alex Amouyel, president and CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation.
What: Amouyel explains the organization’s commitment to donate 100% of its profits — a “100% for purpose” movement that’s looking to change the current paradigm of business, philanthropy, and capitalism.
Why we love it: For insights like this: “It sounds unbelievable and even radical to build a business and then give all the money away. But you know what sounds unbelievable to me? That we live in a world where children go to school hungry.” Plus, there are some fun pictures of Paul Newman, as well as a little backstory on the founding of the organization.
9. What Brands Can Learn from Online Dating
Who: Sarah Willersdorf, brand expert with a focus on fashion and luxury.
What: Willersdorf offers three clear lessons that marketers can learn from successful online matchmaking: Be clear, not coy; give them what they want; and get naked (with your message). Imagine, for example, distilling your brand down to just five images and a few sentences of text, as daters do on their profiles.
Why we love it: This one’s a few years old, but its message is just as relevant as ever: Falling in love with a brand is like falling in love with a person, and we have chemical attractions to our tech products or red-soled shoes, just like we do with humans. It’s also fun to hear Willersdorf talk about dating apps as they were in the age of the iPhone 6 — you can even swipe on your screen now!
10. 404, the Story of a Page Not Found
Who: Renny Gleeson, game developer and ad agency strategist.
What: Last but not least, another golden oldie from the early internet age. Using a series of creative 404 pages as the foundation for his talk, Gleeson offers a homily on the possibilities inherent in new mediums, and the potential for creativity to turn a consumer’s frustration into laughter and brand loyalty.
Why we love it: There’s some comic gold here — Gleeson’s delivery is flawless — plus some perennial wisdom about how to turn oopsies into opportunities. Bottom line: How companies handle their mistakes can ultimately define their brands.