A couple months ago, I called up the most popular Christian bookstore I know of in our city. I asked if they’d be interested in partnering with us in selling our Pastor’s DVD teaching series.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they would love to see our stuff. As I met with the purchaser from the store, we talked about what was expected. I showed her a concept design of the display to make sure everything was good to go.
I was excited about this display because it was packed with stuff about Cornerstone in a non-threatening approach, and I was excited that I was ‘breaking the ice’ so-to-speak with this store selling local teaching series.
For us, it wasn’t necessarily placed there to make money as we’re selling the series for cheap. It was to broaden our exposure to people in the city. One of the main issues we run across is that people have heard of us, but have many preconceived notions about who we really are.
My intent with this display is to show who we are and what we’re about, while still providing a great teachings that help people spiritually and practically.
Screen
At first, I wanted to put an iPad here. It’s the only thin screened-video player I could think of. Then I found out that you can’t loop a video on iTunes, and really no apps to do it with.
So I decided to loop down some other avenues. I thought if only there was one of those digital picture frames that could play video, or maybe I could just make a slide show of images and graphics to loop – I just really wanted video.
Through a friend, I found one a digital frame that played MPEGs, it wasn’t $500… oh, and it looped. Score.
Video
iTunes recently came out with iLife ’11, complete with movie trailer style templates. I’m a Final Cut guy, but I thought, “what the heck.” I actually had a lot of fun watching it come together. The templates are limited, but it will get me through a while until I need to create something from scratch… and they’re pretty cool!
We launched our display in November, and here’s the video that was on it at that time:
Images
I felt like this would be a great time to show the people of Cornerstone. I was able to do this with seven photos toward the bottom of the display. Since diversity is a huge part of our church community and the vision of our church, I felt like I could communicate that with images of our church family.
I think it helps give some background to what people are going to be hearing about in the teaching series we’re providing. It communicates our values visually.
Contact Info
At the bottom I’ve provided all our connecting information; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, as well as a couple other ways people can connect with us including YouVersion and Foursquare.
My hope is that in a town where not a lot of church’s are connecting with people via social networking, we can stand out. The other vital contact information is there too, website, phone number, and address.
QR Code
One thing that I’ve been seeing a lot of marketing with is QR Codes. You’ve seen them, they look like this:
When I researched them a little, I realized we could attach a video link to that if people scanned the code on the display, it would play them a video while they were standing right there! It delayed the production of the display, as I had already gone through all the series of tubes to get this project approved by church leadership, but I felt it was worth it.
I created a video, uploaded it to YouTube, and took the link to Kaywa to generate a QR Code – easy as that. It was a little more work, but just like that – our display became a little more interactive. Here’s the video (to see it on your mobile, just scan the above code):
This project was a sneaky way to gain exposure, but also a great way to create a professional-looking display for under about $200. A little creativity, some ingenuity, and some “Google-time” researching the latest marketing trends can lead to some great things.
Matthew Orley of Akron, OH says
I would say getting the DVDs in the local general store would be better time spent 🙂
Andy Darnell says
Great post Nate.
Like Matthew… I think other places would be viable for displays like it.