The Lord’s teaser campaign
In this guest posting, Andrew Wilson contemplates what marketing can learn from the Christmas story.
In the little town of Nazareth, an agent of the Lord appeared to Mary. It said unto her, “Blessed are you, for you have been chosen to implement the Lord’s vertical integration strategy. You shall do so by bringing forth a line extension of the family of David.”
And so it came to pass that after a teaser campaign lasting several centuries, the Lord began pursuing his disintermediation strategy. Riding on the back of huge prophets, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Almighty was about to replace the previous authorised representatives with whom much channel conflict had created unprecedented levels of consumer unrest. (The main advantage of this new channel structure was the promise of immediate and guaranteed delivery).
A skimming strategy employed by the Almighty first sought out the Three Opinion Leaders – who, surprisingly, travelled from afar and paid a premium for their place at the launch. Concurrently, a celebrity campaign using the world’s biggest star was implemented as part of a grassroots campaign. Here, an agent appeared with a message for greenfield investors and, inspired by the fanfare, they flocked to see what all the fuss was about.
Love it. Very, very clever.
Great work!
fantastic!! very funny.
Yawn
Look, it’s a nice little conceit, but you’d probably get a better reaction from the faithful (or even the literate) if they couldn’t just dismiss you from the very first line.
The Angel of the Lord did not appear to Mary in Bethlehem. If you take the Bible’s words for it, the Angel appeared to her somewhere near to Nazareth in Galilee, about 9 months before the journey to Bethlehem.
You guys would get better results with this stuff if you just did your homework.
@tigtog,
Wow – I’m rather embarrassed. You’re right, I didn’t look it up the Good Book before writing it as I just took it for granted that I knew the story sufficiently… a simple mistake though, no?
Incidentally, I showed that to over a dozen believers – including two pastors – and you’re the first one to point out the error (perhaps they were just being kind).
Anyway, I stand corrected. Thanks for letting me know. Proverbs 8:9 ‘…rebuke a wise man and he will love you.’. 😉
P.S. Now to get Tim to update it for me…
Hi Andrew,
I think many of our readers probably missed that reference 🙂
But Nazareth it is and it’s now been updated.
Cheers,
Camille – Mumbrella
Thanks Camille, here’s hoping I don’t attract further negative attention for posting my last comment on a Sunday. 😉
You write very well. An intelligent comparison.
Wow, what a clever post, Andrew. You’ve taken the greatest story ever told and, without insult or sarcasm, brought marketing to life. Not that you are insulting or sarcastic – but occasionally when this story is relayed for a general audience, there’s a judgmental hook.
Thanks for tailoring your post to the season, and presenting marketing (which sometimes seems smokey and vague) with concrete examples.
I enjoyed it and am still chuckling – you have a gift of interpreting things creatively but explaining them for all to understand.
Well done – happy holidays,
kristin rohan
SassySEO.com