Almighty Bad Marketing

EvanalmightyLast night, Kristen and I were supposed to see the new movie Evan Almighty. Their publicist, Grace Hill Media, had a great idea… invite pastors to come preview the movie so that they could talk it up before it comes out.

From a marketing perspective, this was a great idea. Invite me to something exclusive and I’ll tell 100 people about it. Brilliant!

For me they not only failed, they irritated and embarrassed me.

Good marketing idea
Like a ton of other youth workers, I got an invite to a screening a couple weeks ago. I clicked on the link and "RSVP" for the event. In the past when I’ve done these your RSVP meant you got to attend. Note that it didn’t say "RSVP for a CHANCE to see the film." We made a plan and we even invited a couple friends to make an evening out of it. In my opinion, this was a great marketing scheme because the movie is aimed at Christians… and in a local church no one is more influential than the pastoral staff. Good job, Grace Hill.

The worst kind of marketing

We all know the stuff we see on TV is often garbage. If a product were so good, they wouldn’t need to spend millions telling us how good it was. We’d know! (The best marketing is free) You buy the stuff from the infomercial and it just doesn’t work. They want you to spend four easy payments of $25 to buy a product… and you feel dumber for buying it in the end. This is how I felt when we showed up at the theater last night. We drove 40 miles to a movie theater in Southfield. (An hour!) We arrived, frustrated by traffic, but there on time. And what happened then? We were told the event was full. Even though we had  RSVPed and gotten a confirmation… it turns out that we had really just RSVPed for a chance to attend the event. This is the absolute worst kind of marketing. The bait and switch. Worse yet… I had invited someone else to come for a chance to attend the screening. So not only was I annoyed that I got snookered into driving 40 miles for a chance to see a $8 movie… I snookered 2 other people as well.

Good marketing
would never make someone feel like they were important only to disappoint and embarrass them in the end in front of their friends. Good marketing would never leave someone hanging in the lobby empty handed having to tell their friends they were an idiot.

But bad marketing would. And Christians have shown again and again that we are willing to put up with bad marketing… just go to any bookstore and you’ll see that.

Well… not any more. I learned a big lesson about "Christian marketing" last night. While there are major strides being made last night was proof that bad marketing will always be alive and well.


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7 responses to “Almighty Bad Marketing”

  1. Jeremy Avatar

    Wow. I nearly tried to convince myself to go to a theater about 2 hours away to take them up on that offer. Good thing I didn’t.

  2. Brian Eberly Avatar

    So sorry you had that experience! I also signed up for those tickets and went with my wife and four others. Thankfully we got in. They at least told us ahead of time to show up early as it was first come first served.

    We loved the movie! It was very well done, very funny, and has many good teaching points in it. Hope you enjoy it when you do finally see it.

  3. knotter Avatar

    I almost drove 3 hours to Seattle for my “free” tickets. I remember the notice of “arrive early”, but I think it was kind of lame too.

    How hard is it to reserve spots for the ones that RSVP?

    It’s like that Seinfeld episode where Jerry tries to pick up a rental car that he reserved and they don’t have it.

  4. Amy Avatar

    Man, I didn’t even get an invitation. Of course, that sounds like a good thing!

  5. Gman Avatar
    Gman

    I got the RSVP – and responded but couldn’t go due to babysitting and a couple of other things … good thing too. I heard ours was full an hour before ….

  6. Jason Avatar

    here’s the response I got from Grace Media:

    “Thank you so much for emailing us and letting us know what happened at
    your screening on Tuesday night. I am so sorry to hear that so many were
    not able to get in to see the film. When doing screenings, it is a
    standard rule for studios to overbook due to cancellations. It is never
    our intention to have anyone turned away and for this we do apologize.
    We don’t want anyone to be hurt or think negatively of Christian
    marketing.

    For the people that were
    turned away- if they contact us we are providing them with passes to see
    the film once it releases. Thanks again for letting us know and we are
    so sorry all of that had to happen.”

    That from their marketing person.

    I was lucky enough to get in, and it was a great movie… but it certainly wasn’t handled well. There were well over 100 people at our location who did not get in.

  7. Bill Avatar

    My family and I saw the movie this past Tuesday and I posted my review and comments here on my blog:

    http://www.provocativechurch.blogspot.com

    I had some further thoughts about the marketing aspect of the movie, I would like to hear your opinion on that.

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