Spreading the Word

Marketing and religion are generally considered to be as compatible as oil and water, and understandably so: Religious beliefs are more often a sore point than a touchpoint.

But with 86 percent of Americans proudly identifying themselves as Christian, 2.5 percent as Jewish, and about two percent as Islamic, maybe it shouldn’t be.

Marketers of most mainstream brands are sensitive to using religion as a hook, worried about being offensive.

Done correctly, however, religious marketing can be as popular as Friday fish specials at the local supermarket. Just ask Maxwell House, which has been doing it for 68 years with nary a complaint to be heard.

Glenview, IL-based Kraft Foods’ coffee brand has been recognizing the most important Jewish holiday of the year, Passover, while reinforcing its kosher-certified status for that length of time, allowing it to claim ownership of “the country’s longest-running promotion by a major brand,” says senior brand manager Grace Eng Young.

Each March, Maxwell House runs a gift-with-purchase offer for a Passover Haggadah (a book that tells the story of the holiday in Hebrew and English). About 750,000 copies are distributed through grocery stores annually, which means about 40 million copies have been doled out since the program began in 1934, says Young. Ads in Jewish magazines and newspapers support.

Maxwell House as well as other brands including Verizon Wireless this month will be sponsors of the Chabad Centennial Celebration in New York City, an event commemorating the 100th birthday of deceased Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. Sponsorship costs for the event, which is produced by New York City-based Urban Dynamics, range from $25,000 to $175,000.

Although the celebration has a religious bent, “you use the same marketing tactics for this as you would for any other event,” says Urban Dynamics president Walter Urban. That includes mention during the media coverage (which features a global closed-circuit telecast), on-site signage, and sampling opportunities both at the celebration and at Jewish centers around Manhattan. “There are a number of companies you wouldn’t automatically think of that are big supporters of religious events,” says Urban.

Or big supporters of religion online.

Beliefnet.com, New York City, a two-year-old ecumenical community site, boasts such non-denominational sponsors as BMG Entertainment and Rodale Press. “We also work with EDiets and Matchmaker.com,” says director of marketing services Jackie Stone. “They don’t care what anyone’s religion is, they just want to find people looking to lose weight or get a date.”

The site draws nearly four million visitors and distributes 100 million religion-specific e-mail newsletters each month. It’s also an official content provider for America Online and a production partner of ABC News. (It helped produce the Peter Jennings’ special In Search of Jesus.) No wonder 33 companies are currently paying anywhere from $5,000 to $400,000 for custom marketing packages including sweepstakes and e-zines.

Not that using religious organizations or channels has ever been taboo: MasterCard International, Purchase, NY, offers more than 150 credit and debit cards tailored to specific religions or religious organizations around the globe, according to vp-global branding Jonathan Marcus.

And many brands targeting African-Americans for years have aligned with churches (PROMO, September 2000). That’s a strategy used to great effect by Wilcox World Travel, which generates more than $15 million annually by booking trips to religious sites and events to both consumers and corporations.

The Asheville, NC, company recruits clergy and church groups throughout the South to distribute promotional materials to congregations. Late last year, the Turkish government hired Wilcox to promote the country as an historic vacation spot. “When you’ve got a group of 100 Americans walking around the Holy Land toting Wilcox travel bags, somebody is going to notice,” says president Wallace Wilcox, Jr.

Onward Christian Directors

On the flip side, marketers of many religious products have learned how to appeal to contemporary attitudes, or are at least gaining in mainstream appeal: One of the top-selling rock recordings in recent months, Creed’s Weathered, contains strong Christian themes. A Walk to Remember, a new Christian-tinged film starring pop singer Mandy Moore, earned $12.2 million its opening weekend in January.

In fact, the Christian film genre is booming. “We’ve identified a market that’s been ignored for years,” says Edward Gonzalez, marketing manager at Los Angeles-based Generation Entertainment, a studio that specializes in films with Christian messages. “This is a starving audience. Many Christians just don’t go to the movies anymore.”

Generation is credited with launching the genre in 1999 with the release of The Omega Code, a film that earned $2.4 million on its opening weekend through just 305 theaters — by using a marketing strategy that leaned almost exclusively on targeted activity with churches and religious organizations.

The production house now releases four or five titles each year. The films are advertised on Christian radio stations and the religious Trinity Broadcasting Network (Generation founder Matt Crouch’s parents own the network). It also sends weekly e-mails to 25,000 volunteer contacts and encourages church groups to see the films as a congregation. To support last month’s video release of Megiddo, Generation offered a T-shirt to anyone who could inspire 10 people to purchase the title.

“The Christian market is relatively well-defined in terms of geographic area, religious denomination, church groups, and organizations and ministries,” says Melissa Richter, a spokesperson for Cloud Ten Pictures, Ontario, Canada. “With some savvy researching and strong relationship-building, grassroots tactics prove to be very useful.” Cloud Ten had great success in late 2000 with a film called Left Behind (based on a popular book series), which was actually funded in part by local churches.

The studio took the unique strategy of releasing the film first on home video, and scored distribution through top retailers including Wal-Mart, Costco, and Blockbuster; Left Behind topped video sales near the end of the year.

Marketing for the theatrical release began with a message on the video from star Kirk Cameron encouraging attendance and discount tickets delivered in-pack. It also included a telemarketing campaign targeting pastors and youth group leaders and a sponsorship program for organizations willing to host screenings in their towns. Sponsor packages included posters, door hangers, tickets, radio and print ads, and booklets detailing how to execute a promotional campaign. Meanwhile, a Web referral program sent an e-mail blast to 60,000 people. The film grossed $3.5 million in its opening weekend.

Video maker Big Idea Productions, Lombard, IL, which produces the animated VeggieTales series for kids (and considers itself more a family- than religious-focused company) hits theaters for the first time this summer with Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, a retelling of the Jonah and the Whale story from the Bible.

The marketing plan includes mass media. But it will also rely on Big Idea’s established relationships with church groups, which includes educational materials distributed through a Vacation Bible Study program. “This is a 10-session program that takes people back to Biblical times,” says senior managing editor Cindy Kenney.

Recipients who mail back a registration card included in the program package receive a “Whale-Watching Party Kit” containing two free children’s tickets to the movie along with games, snack ideas, posters, and a video.

That’s an offer kids of any denomination might like.

Movie Zealots

The popularity of apocalyptic films such as Cloud Ten Pictures’ Left Behind and Generation Entertainment’s Megiddo prove there’s a market for Christian-flavored content — and success to be had by marketing through religious organizations.