July 3, 2009

Christians Are Crazy Protestors

Phil Cooke and Think Christian have recently covered a marketing stunt by Electronic Arts surrounding the release of a new game, Dante's Infrerno. Here's a bit of what happened:

The game publisher hired a group of nearly 20 people to stand outside the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on Wednesday and appear to protest the upcoming EA game "Dante's Inferno." EA spokeswoman Holly Rockwood says the stunt was arranged by a viral marketing agency hired by EA.

This is a reckless, foolish stunt by Electronic Arts, and it makes them seem like very disingenuous [insert a derogatory name of choice]s. Stunts like this at the expense of others and that are so blatantly dishonest really irritate me.

But all that aside, as Christians, we set them up for this joke. I told the story of when Hooters came to the town of the church I attended here, and I think this is in the same vein. We've made ourselves the butt of the joke by being protesters rather than servants. And now, it's a tough pill to swallow as we reap the fruits of that stance.

What is your church doing to distance itself from these sort of outlandish protests in favor of a more philanthropic, gospel-based views?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:30 AM
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July 2, 2009

Scalejacking and Performance Metrics

Jeff Goins recently posted at Wrecked for the Ordinary entitled Marketers, Quit Hijacking Our Communities.

In it, he makes some great points regarding marketers' obsession with numbers and metrics. I'll give you a couple snippets to whet your appetite, but you don't want to miss the entire article.

I'll quote Jeff who quotes Seth Godin who is quoting Dave Balter (welcome to the Internet.):

"Because marketers were raised on the scale of mass-TV, radio, newspapers, they have a churn and burn mentality. The Internet turns this upside down. The Internet is about who, not how many. The Internet lets you take really good care of 100 people instead of harassing 2,000."

Continue reading "Scalejacking and Performance Metrics"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:03 AM
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July 1, 2009

The Power of a Testimony

by Tobias Sturesson, Guest Blogger

"And they have overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of their testimony..." (Revelation 12:1, Amplified Bible)

In the marketing world, there is a great understanding of the power of a testimony. It doesn't matter what you claim about your product, but it does matter that some of the people who have used your product share their experience.

I am involved in the marketing strategy group of a large Christian conference center in Sweden, and we encourage all of our guests to comment on their visit. Then, we ask for permission to use that in our printed material or on our web site, and it has proven to be incredibly effective for us.

Continue reading "The Power of a Testimony"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 7:21 AM
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June 30, 2009

Denominational Campaign Poll Results

Recently, Kevin covered the trend of denominations running ad campaigns focusing on branding individuals as members of specific denominations. For example, "I am a Southern Baptist." Or, "We are Episcopalians." But what are your feelings about these campaigns?

Eek, only 4% of you are huge fans. That spells some bad news for denominations looking to build loyalty with possible new members.

A bigger chunk of you are all right with them, but they don't get you too excited. It's not going to make you head down to your local Kingdom Hall with your bicycle because a few folks in a magazine said they were Jehovah's Witnesses.

21% of you are right there with me--laughing your hind end off that these denominations are ripping one another off on a campaign based around individuality.

And, finally, 57% of you think denominational marketing campaigns suck. You think they ought to go back to the drawing board and not come back until they have something better. I feel like there could be potential for a niche site there.

This week, we want to know: How do you feel about the idea of bringing guns to church? Move your mouse over to our right sidebar to cast your vote.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:53 PM
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Church Marketing Lab: Bulletins, Web Sites and More

When the folks in the Church Marketing Lab haven't been getting together or helping Michael get ready for his presentation at the HOW Design Conference, they've been working hard and getting feedback. Here's just a bit of what we've seen come through the Church Marketing Lab lately:

How to Kill Relationships and Irritate People is an upcoming series about biblical relationships.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: Bulletins, Web Sites and More"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:23 AM
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June 29, 2009

We Are Evangelists

A recent U.S. World News & Report article we already covered included a quote I'd glossed over. It comes from the director of communications for the Episcopal Church, Anne Rudig, and is a sentiment I'd guess a lot of us share:

"I'm an evangelist, too."

It's a simple and powerful statement that church marketing is evangelism.

It reminds me of the first chapter of Meredith Gould's The Word Made Fresh: Communicating Church and Faith Today, which argues that church communication is ministry.

What we do is not just some business skill for the church. The work you do is not mere work. It is a vital ministry of the church, seeking and saving the lost. We marketers and communicators, designers and editors, volunteers and assistants--we are evangelists.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:01 AM
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June 26, 2009

Hands-On Advice From Servolution

by Phil Prior, Guest Blogger

Having reviewed Dino Rizzo’s book Servolution, it’s clear that there are a number of lessons for church marketers that can be drawn from it’s pages. I just want to highlight four specifics.

1. Who would miss your church?

“A questions I am always asking myself is, If HPC closed down tomorrow, who would notice?”

While advertising, street signs and a full garage on a Sunday are great signs of success for a church, they aren’t necessarily indications of a great impact on your community. As Rizzo points out, a billboard may mean that your community knows the name of your church, but does it mean any more than that?

The ultimate test would be this: if your church closed, would anyone notice? Other than the regulars, who would shed a tear for a moment and then go somewhere else? Would the neighbors, local police, community leaders and schools even notice if you disappeared? Now think, what would change that--another advertisement or visiting the sick and staffing an after school club? That’s the point of Servolution, to be more than a building in a community but a church that exists in the whole of the community.

Continue reading "Hands-On Advice From Servolution"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 6:53 AM
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June 25, 2009

Servolution: Starting a Church Revolution Through Serving

by Phil Prior, Guest Blogger

Dino Rizzo’s Servolution does two things:

First, it tells the story of Healing Place Church (HPC) in Louisiana, and how in 1993, armed with a $400 check, Rizzo and his wife DeLynn started to serve the unwanted people of Baton Rouge. In the book he chronicles the worries and successes, the challenges and the celebrations in the life of a church community that grew from the vision of one couple to having multiple campuses and a range of ministries.

Secondly, Rizzo shares the strategies and resources that have made the ministry of HPC so fruitful. The book concludes with suggestions of things you could do to get your own ‘servolution’ started and a list of connections that HPC have made during the course of serving such a wide range of people.

Continue reading "Servolution: Starting a Church Revolution Through Serving"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 7:40 AM
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June 24, 2009

Megachurches Are Hip, Young and Selfish

It's not marketing news per se, but the Associated Press reported last week on a study looking at the differences in contemporary megachurches and their smaller Protestant counterparts (minichurches?). Anyone interested in churches and marketing will likely be eager to dive into the statistics behind the article. The overarching finding of the study is that megachurches tend to be composed of younger, single adults, while other churches tend to be home for older families.

Among the other interesting findings of the study are that only three in four described the megachurch they attend as their "home church." This could be indicative of some level of Christian tourism, where people visit to see what a given church is like, or it could just be that people are shifting towards visiting more than one church regularly. Megachurches are also the place of worship for more well-educated and wealthy individuals.

The survey seems to present some overwhelming evidence in favor of megachurches, except for one key aspect:

Nearly 45 percent of megachurch attenders never volunteer at the church and 32 percent give little or no money to the congregation.

Continue reading "Megachurches Are Hip, Young and Selfish"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 12:56 PM
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Cussing Pastors Poll Results

Ed Young's rant about cussing pastors got you guys all fired up. So we figured it was only appropriate to try and get our finger on the pulse of the Church Marketing Sucks community, via a poll.

It looks like the biggest group of you are tired of hearing about all of this stuff. Over a third of you think we ought to be worrying about more important things rather than the diction of authority figures.

Slightly less of you, 29%, think a pastor ought to keep it clean. "Cussing" should never be a word to describe pastors. And another 27% of you think that it should stay as clean as possible, but the occasional, decorative curse isn't so bad.

So who does that leave in the minority? Those of you who love some four-letter words and expect the same from your pastor. You think pastors should be able to use whatever word is best in the situation, regardless of whether children's ears need to be covered.

This week, we'll revisit another post: What do you think of "I Am/We Are [Insert Denomination Here]" ad campaigns?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:17 AM
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