There are some traditions that shouldn’t be messed with. In a church, it’s probably okay to allow coffee in a sanctuary. (I know I’m biased on this one). If you are in the middle of the deep southern United States, and the church can afford air conditioning, it’s probably a good idea to allow that change to happen. But one needs to be prudent when making changes.
In three days, I will run my first marathon on September 16, 2017. In the spring, I ran a half marathon and decided my body was up to the task of a full one. After all, I am not getting any younger and I thought it was better to try now instead of waiting until I would have to use a scooter or hoverboard.
As I have trained for this marathon, I have thought about how it applies to marketing. Both can be taxing and both take preparation. But there was one aspect that stood out to me.
This year, I had an opportunity to create this coloring book for Community Hospital Anderson in Anderson, Indiana. I loved this project because for me, it was an experiment using technology in a new way and it is designed to help children who may be in an emergency or a health crisis.
Bethlehem scene with a big sign that says, “See the newborn king here!”
There’s a song/skit I love from Stan Freburg called Green Christmas.
In the skit, it talks about how Christmas is marketed mercilessly. Let’s face it. Most Christmas marketing is just cheesy. Any time you take a meaningful story and use it to sell something, it doesn’t come across as genuine.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that because, well, I don’t want to be cheesy. I like content marketing because it adds value more than sells. But where do you draw the line? When does content marketing become cheesy? When it becomes about the product instead of the customer, I suppose.
Still, that can be difficult to discern when there is a sales quota.
I’ve decided to pursue this illustration and see where it ends up. The boy looks like he’s lonely in spite of the characters at his bus stop. Maybe if I finish the illustration, he’ll be ready for the school bus.
