Some of the most innovative marketing comes from the Evangelical Christian community. I live in the south so I might be more exposed to it then others, but it amazes me how innovative and effective some of their ad campaigns are. I’m going to talk about 3 examples of Evangelical Marketing and what we can learn from them.

Do you agree with Marty?

It was a Monday in college. On my hustle to try and wake up and learn something I noticed this phrase chalked on the bricks all over campus “Do you agree with Marty?”. For the next 4 days the whole campus was inundated with this message chalked all over the walkways. I couldn’t help but think, “Who the hell was this Marty guy?”. Friday rolled around, the weekend was near, and a ton of people wearing orange t-shirts… this was weird. The first one I saw from the front revealed the message “I agree with Marty.” In every class I had, at least 5 people were wearing orange t-shirts saying “I agree with Marty.” I struck up a conversation with one of the t-shirt wearers and apparently Marty was an Evangelical Christian who had a set of Christian principals he lived by that everybody else “agreed with”. A full page ad was taken out that Friday by Marty and the Christian group he was involved with inviting people to their Saturday speech at the center of campus.

Why was this effective?
The sidewalk chalk got mindshare. It got people interested and intrigued. Who was this Marty dude? And why is he writing all over my sidewalks?

Effective resolution to the intrigue - A campus filled with people all obviously affiliated. You HAD to ask them the question, “Who is this Marty guy?” I forgot to add earlier they had fliers to hand out when you asked them about Marty.

Another event to help clarify the message, plus free food – That Saturday they had a bunch of speakers including Marty himself talk in the center of campus, plus free Chick-Fil-A.

Here is a link to the only info I could find on the campaign