I am hearing that group registrations are strong. This is great news! I am guessing that within your church group, there are people with different skill sets and interests. You will have selected your Create Conference program accordingly, desiring to be a better writer, video producer, web designer, graphic designer, event manager or ideas generator. Whilst these sessions are being run in isolation, in practice creative disciplines work closely together in teams. I work with writers, web developers, photographers, illustrators and strategic thinkers on a daily basis. It is not just about complementary skills, but about sharing and evaluating ideas. We don’t even have to be precious about who does what. Dare I say it but who says a writer can not have input into the layout of an advertisement, or that a graphic designer can not come up with a great copy line. Working in teams is exciting and rewarding. How much more exciting when our aim is to communicate the gospel and what a ‘key message’ we have – God’s love for us in Christ! 

Speaking of the US election, here are some interesting links related to the way marketing was used during the election:

• Marketing lessons from the US election
• McCain v Obama on the web
• Obama’s viral marketing campaign
• Election marketing sucks

Credit goes to Church Marketing Sucks for this list of links.

What are your reflections on the successes and failures of the election-themed marketing?

Steve Kryger