Moshe Engelberg On Everything Marketing

Oral Roberts, the television preacher whose faith healing ministry had millions of followers, died last week. Here's a short video of him faith healing little Billy Ray, a boy with polio, so Billy can suddenly walk without crutches.

I remember as a kid watching Oral Roberts, and Jimmy Swaggart, the 700 Club, and other TV ministries with utter fascination. Even then I questioned what they said, but loved how they said it. They were experts at the art of persuasion! Their effectiveness had very little to do with facts, and everything to do with faith, and feeling. Which is, I believe, why the religious right is as powerful as they are. In public dialogue, they "own" feelings and emotion. As entertainers, they tap into our uniquely human ability to suspend disbelief and go along with the story. Those left of center are driven by logic and reason.

The promise of hope and despair of fear almost always trump rationale thinking, especially when it comes to the abstract values that guide our lives. What would happen if the pendulum shifted? Let's try it!

(P.S. When I start typing "Oral" into the Google search box, the first suggestion is "Oral Roberts" -- immediately followed by... "oral herpes." Be careful of the company you keep!).

Paranormal Activity, a horror movie about a young couple's house haunted by a demonic presence, cost about $15,000 to produce, and brought in $7.9 million last weekend. Paramount Pictures worked with Eventful in San Diego to create a social media buzz, instead of more traditional movie marketing approaches. Eventful's "Demand It" lets us "demand" that performers, movies, or events we want to see come to our town. Enough demand can make it happen.

That's how Paramount decided which cities to show Paranormal Activity in - it was based on demand level generated through social media. Then when they got 1 million demands, they decided to roll out the movie nationwide. From their press release: “From the very beginning, we put this film in the hands of the fans and we trusted them to tell us where and when it should be seen. We couldn’t be more thrilled by their overwhelming support and we are happy to release the film in every town - big and small,” said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman of Paramount Pictures.

I see this as an incredible Web 2.0 resource. It gives a powerful voice to the public and enables companies to respond to what the market wants. And framing it as "Demand It" may lead people to feel more empowered than something like "Request It."

As we shouted and sang in the '60s, "Power to the People!" Who knew the many ways that the internet would deliver on that promise.