Science and technology continues to generate new ways for the world to communicate and grab people’s attention. Among them include two very innovative techniques that merge water and words.
The Bitfall Project.
By strategically dropping droplets of water in unison, the bitfall project can display words, symbols, and even images for a brief moment.Â
Watch the bitfall project:
Bitfall Video #1
Bitfall Video #2
- Aquaplay Water Bubble Display.
Uses air bubbles that rise through a liquid to form text or patterns in 2D or 3D.Â
Perhaps this technology will never become widespread or practical, yet its novelty factor is sure to generate some buzz for any organization, including churches, that use it.Â
Special thanks to infosthetics for highlighting both the bitfall project and the aquaplay water bubble display.
Quite a few churches have overhauled their websites this summer. (Southeast Christian Church, Church on the Move, Vineyard Community Church, FBC of Springdale, and Phoenix First Assembly) And one more for the list is Journey Church (Norman, OK). Pastored by Clark Mitchell, this megachurch is continuing to grow and reach the community of Norman and the students of The University of Oklahoma.
Michael Greenburg has an article at Chief Marketer where he reveals what he thinks is the best marketing investment you can make:
It’s a dedicated inhouse business analyst. An analyst will change the game for you on many levels. He will get you to the point where you can make intelligent decisions about which marketing is working and which isn’t. He will find opportunities to save money. He will find opportunities to spend money and generate huge return on investment. It’s critical that this person is an analyst. Not a project manager who also does analysis. He needs to be completely fulfilled by a day spent finding improvements, opportunities, patterns, and anomalies and producing reports, charts, graphs, pithy insights, and results. Having smart and analytic staff members can go a long way, but someone dedicated to the task full time is far more effective.
Church marketing dialogue often chases after being creative or merely “getting there,” but the best marketing, church or corporate, is marketing that is driven by efficiency and is constantly being analyzed to discover opportunities to improve. Good marketing looks at the message and the audience and chooses to communicate using the best solution with regards to time, money, results, and other variables.
ParaPublishing.com has an interesting collection of book statistics which show that there is clearly still a market with a very hungry appetite for books. Yet at the same time, there is a huge widening gap between book lovers and non-book lovers. Some particularly interesting statistics include:
- Quantity of Publishers by Year
1947: 357 publishers
1973: 3,000 publishers
1980: 12,000 publishers
1994: 52,847 publishers
2003: about 73,000 publishers
- 1.5+ million titles in print (currently available in the U.S.)
- Since 1776, 22 million titles have been published.
- What genres/categories are people buying?
55% Popular Fiction
10% Religious Nonfiction
9% Cooking/Crafts
- One-third of the books sold worldwide are sold in the US.
- On the average, a book store browser spends eight seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds looking at the back cover.
- 81% of the population feels they have a book inside them.
- Out of every 10,000 children’s books, 3 get published.
- Women buy 68% of all books.
- 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
- 42% of college graduates never read another book.
- 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
- 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
- 57% of new books are not read to completion.
- Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.
- Only 32% of the U.S. population has ever been in a bookstore.
- Up to 40% of all books manufactured never sell. Most publishers would rather suffer the costs of over-runs and returns than run short of a title.
I cannot help but wonder how accurately these statistics are regarding Bible reading. Could it be that 80% of US families did not buy or read a Bible last year? It is a good reason why ministries should emphasize the importance Bible reading for new Christians as well as seasoned Christians.
Church Relevance’s June 2006 newsletter, Research and Road Maps, has been added to the site.
We will be posting articles from Church Relevance’s newsletter a few months after we send them to subscribers. If you would like to receive the latest issues of Church Relevance’s newsletter as soon as possible, you may sign up to begin your free monthly subscription to our newsletter.
John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing offers the following direct mail tip:
- Use a #12 envelope (4 3/4″ x 11″) instead of a #10 standard business envelope (4 1/8″ x 9 1/2″).
They stand out in a stack of mail and still allow senders to use regular first class postage on them.
At Gel 2006, Seth Godin recently discussed why things are broken. By broken, Seth means why organizations create “broken” customer experiences that are frustrating, inefficient, and often cause additional problems or do things that just don’t make sense. To determine if something at your church is broken, consider the following seven reasons that Seth gave on why things are broken:
- Not My Job. People may notice a problem, but they do not report it or do anything to correct the problem because it is not their job. Often these people do not have the authority to correct it, do not have leadership that will listen, or just don’t care.
- Selfish Jerks. People who create bad experiences as a result of their selfish goals.
- The World Changed. “Someone is designing a business model or product from one era and ends up in a different era and unwilling to fix it.”
- I Didn’t Know. Ignorance hurts everyone.
- I’m Not a Fish. People design an experience but are neither like the end users or understand them.
- Contradictions. Things that just don’t match up. It is trying to reach a target audience in a place they would never be or trying to support your brand with a method that contradicts it (e.g., advertising luxury cars with Kinkos flyers). It can also be contradictory naming such as naming a singles ministry “Mono.”
- Broken on Purpose. This is something that purposely creates an unconventional result. These are things like shoes for fashion not comfort, signs for humor not direction, etc. “Sometimes the best thing to do is break it for the people you don’t care about, and just make it for the people that you do.”
Don’t let your church do things that don’t make sense. Fix what is “broken.” Unless it is “broken on purpose.”
For more examples of things that are broken, check out This Is Broken.
Also, be sure to watch the presentation at Coolz0r.
