Bill Hicks nototiously said, 'Is anyone here in marketing? Shoot yourself.'
Many of us will have had experience of launching or relaunching a product/event. The key thing to remember is to devote more attention to the product than the launch party.
Link the event to the product, all the time. This is why we are doing it.
Ask people for a commitment, all the time. 'Will you be there?'
Have your arguments in private and show a united public face. The minority need to be willing to go along with the decisions of the majority.
The Church Lite party at Lundwood certainly made a noise (fireworks/barbecues/clowns/magicians and a free lite bulb for everyone in town) but well done to the team for keeping 50 people going to church three months after the party. This is a four-fold increase.
It was a shame the programme left it there - no opportunity to reflect on what had been good/bad before the cameras left. Not only were the remnant of church-goers hard to please but their faces seemed stuck with, '...scowls only plastic surgery would remove' (Liz Tilley having one of her harsher moments).
This was a story of the innocent abroad - naive foreign priest coping with off-the-scale Anglo-Catholic predecessor and hopelessly enthusiatic Archdeacon ('Lets get Barbara Streisand to launch it' when Sir Cliff had turned him down). The Yank did well. God still uses the weak.
But well done everyone for getting stuck in, being pleased at the success and giving it a go. I would love to have seen how a sensitive evangelical minister would have made a difference, helping people to tell their stories and blending biblical teaching with catholic tradition and symbolism.
Good programme. Even the marketing people looked like they felt something. Bill Hicks may have been wrong.
2 comments:
Thanks Steve - interesting thoughts.
The marketing people were indeed affected by the making of the programme - see here.
Your comment about how an evangelical minister might have made a difference was interesting. Might it not be that 'helping people to tell their stories' and 'blending biblical teaching with catholic tradition and symbolism' is exactly what Fr James was doing, though not necessarily in front of the cameras?
Good call Dave. It was obviously the decision of the programme makers not to let us in on any one-to-one pastoring and I supect this may have been Father James' key skill area. Good television though and should be compulsory viewing at clegy conferences for the next twelve months.
St
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