Preaching The Brand Gospel

Don't worry about me making it into heaven—you just make sure you make it in," comedian Steve Harvey teases the crowd last summer at MegaFest, the giant Christian worship and entertainment festival in Atlanta. "What will really mess you up is if you see someone get sent back the other way that you just knew was going to heaven. 'What's going on up there? ... Who's judging today?!' you'll be asking. Then you hear the bad news: 'Go to hell.' " Feigning shock, Harvey pauses, then blurts out, "Jesus—what's up? ... It's me, Doc!" The audience roars its approval. Harvey, a devout Christian who would always open his radio show with a gospel song, is a main attraction at MegaFest—he'll be back for the second installment next month. And he's joined by a burgeoning group of other big names —well-known brands from the corporate world that are on the lookout for new target segments. As people meander from "Sweating in the Spirit" gospel-aerobics classes to Christian prayer services and workshops, they can check out a new Ford SUV, talk to Bank of America reps about buying a home and pick up discount coupons or samples from St. Joseph Aspirin and Pine-Sol. On the afternoon of Aug. 6, as they file into the air-conditioned Georgia Dome to listen to a rousing sermon by televangelist Bishop T.D. Jakes, they'll pass the logos of Coca-Cola, Ford, American Airlines and other major corporations. Christian festivals like MegaFest, which blend sermons and prayer with music, sports, comedy and commerce, are big and getting bigger. Over four days in early August, some 200,000 people are expected to pour into downtown Atlanta for MegaFest. The growth of the festivals is linked to that of the organizations that put them on—large, nondenominational evangelical churches, which have steadily been drawing Protestant followers away from traditional fundamentalist and mainline denominations. (A pair of Gallup polls in April and May found that 42 percent of Americans identify themselves as evangelical or born-again Christians, though only about half of those agree with core evangelical doctrine.) The number of evangelical "megachurches"—each with a few thousand to as many as 30,000 members—has swelled to 1,200 in the U.S., according to a May survey by Hartford Seminary. That's up from about 250 in 1990. (Texas has the most, with 174, followed by California, with 169.) And they are skilled at using music, TV, marketing techniques and market research to promote themselves. MegaFest was created last year by one of those megachurches, the 28,000-member Potter's House in Dallas, and its African American leader, Bishop Jakes. Launched before MegaFest were the Palau festivals. Since 1999, international evangelical preacher Luis Palau has hosted three or four U.S. gatherings a year, which can attract up to 300,000 people in cities like Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Minneapolis/St. Paul. One was held July 1 in Bend, Ore., near the organization's Beaverton, Ore., base. Another will be staged in Washington in October. Among the regular Palau speakers is actor Stephen Baldwin, who tells the story of his conversion and sells his own Christian-themed sports-action DVDs. Sports management and marketing company IMG produces the events; special attractions include skateboard parks and extreme-sports personalities who testify about Jesus. Plans are in the works to include a Nascar display, thanks to national sponsor Interstate Batteries. Nonreligious sponsors vary by city and have included Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Bank of America, Wachovia Bank, McDonald's, Dairy Queen and Alamo Rent A Car. "These events are like Billy Graham on Red Bull," says marketing consultant Scott Westgaard, who works for the nonprofit Palau organization. Among the growing number of Christian celebrations, Palau festivals and MegaFest are at the forefront of secular marketing, say insiders. Both assertively court mainstream marketers to contribute their names, logos and sponsorship fees to boost the events' operating budgets and credibility. Palau organizers say mainstream brands help give their events the feel of a broad-based, inclusive community celebration rather than an exclusive religious function. For marketers in a fragmented media world, these festivals offer direct access to family-oriented, brand-loyal consumers of all cultural backgrounds in a meaningful setting. Some companies treat their sponsorships as a form of community outreach, similar to supporting a neighborhood youth group. For Pine-Sol, MegaFest's focus on family and community fits well with the brand's mission to help its consumer base "care for her house, family and community," says brand representative Mary O'Carroll. (This is the first foray into targeted faith-based marketing for parent Clorox.) Coca-Cola bottlers have been sponsors at evangelical festivals since the late 1990s. "Events like MegaFest allow Coca-Cola to connect with people who have gathered for fun and fellowship, as we do with people every day," says Coke rep Mart Martin. Bank of America's neighborhood lending group sees Christian festivals and church seminars as a way to educate minority consumers about home ownership. "If you want to reach African Americans, you have to use faith-based opportunities," says group sales executive Tom Winston. When the MegaFest idea was born, Winston and his colleagues reached out to Bishop Jakes, whose authority in the community makes his events a good place to give advice and build a connection to the bank's brand, explains Winston. "Everyone knows if Bishop Jakes says something, you sit down and listen," he says. As the Christian festivals grow in number and size, sponsors like Coke and Bank of America indicate that they expect to increase their spending associated with them. With a single sponsorship costing anywhere from $20,000 to $200,000, marketers generally spend less than $1 million a year on such events. In exchange, they get banners, signs, booths, display space, mentions in event programs and brochures, and their names and logos in online, print, TV and radio ads and promotions. At larger Palau events, some logos and ads are flashed on the festival's Jumbotron. Palau sponsors also get their names in some 300,000 Sunday bulletins at local Christian churches for weeks leading up to an event. So far, festivals have had the most luck signing up secular sponsors through grassroots efforts. Rather than going to corporate marketing departments or ad agencies, they usually approach local divisions or franchisee groups on the theory that these regional groups have a better understanding of the makeup and values of the community. Frequently, the festivals will use connections with high-powered local Christian business leaders to pitch sponsorships to regional marketers. At Coca-Cola, the festival sponsorships are handled through the community marketing department, which loosely oversees the marketing efforts of local bottlers. At Bank of America, they are the purview of regional neighborhood lending groups. Sometimes, local or specialty groups or agencies introduce the idea of Christian festivals to their corporate clients' marketing staffs. For instance, African American agency Carol H. Williams in Oakland, Calif., proposed MegaFest to Clorox because of its "positive, inclusive feel" and desirable minority audience, says O'Carroll. As organizers of Christian festivals see it, they have a lot to offer sponsors. Their product is Jesus Christ and Biblical teachings. Their purpose is to spread Christ's word to the community, using the tools of entertainment, food, self-help workshops and large inspirational rallies. In doing so, they bring in a desirable pool of consumers committed to marketers whose products reinforce the evangelical lifestyle. MegaFest's demographics skew to women 35-55 who belong to a church. Most are married college graduates with household incomes of $50,000-75,000. Sources estimate that more than half are African American. Palau festivals tend to be somewhat younger, with more men and fewer African Americans than MegaFest. For most of these consumers, their church is a spiritual and social center. "Our audience is an untapped market of people who are grateful to the companies that support their [church-oriented] events and who will be loyal to those brands," says Kevin Palau, son of Luis Palau and an executive with the Palau organization. Christian festivals are a "safe, noncontroversial way to market to these people," he notes. Of MegaFest, Bishop Jakes says, "For companies to stand up in a secular marketplace and proudly sponsor one of the largest religious events in the U.S. truly speaks volumes about the integrity of ... that sponsor." Corporate sponsors and festival organizers don't publicly acknowledge that marketing at Christian events is at all controversial despite the evangelical movement's partisan involvement with political and social causes. But it is clearly a touchy subject. Kevin Palau insists the Palau festivals are nonpartisan. Yet in Minneapolis last year, Luis Palau included a videotaped greeting from President Bush talking about the importance of faith and family. And Palau's promotional materials boast that Luis Palau has counseled political leaders and made seven recent visits to the White House. Still, Kevin Palau insists that his father and other speakers at the festivals "concentrate on what they are for, not what they are against. We don't try to ram a moral agenda through these things. Avoiding the negative stereotypes about all Christians being right-wing Republicans is something we work at in our festivals." Bishop Jakes says he educates members of his church on "issues pertinent to their lives" and encourages them to vote but "prefers" not to tell them whom to vote for or which party to support. His largely African American congregation has traditionally been Democratic. MegaFest organizers say the festival steers clear of politics. Yet its newest sponsor is Focus on the Family, the conservative Christian activist group that boycotted Procter & Gamble earlier this year for "pro-homosexual" activities, including advertising on Will and Grace. Coca-Cola and Bank of America officials say they have received no complaints from the secular or non-Christian community about their presence at evangelical Christian festivals. Coke has supported "events that reach audiences of different faiths," mainly via local bottlers, for several years without any problems, says company rep Mart Martin. "This ranges from product donations to local church events to sponsorship of music festivals." Privately, however, executives at some Christian media outlets say many mass-market advertisers worry about being closely aligned with a Christian label. Some worry about the political baggage attached to some of the Christian leadership and of "the stigma" of being associated with it, says one. On the flip side, festival organizers say they have heard no complaints from evangelicals that secular sponsors exert an overly commercializing influence. (In fact, young Chistians often enjoy mixing commercialism and religion—it makes them feel more cutting edge and mainstream, say sources. For instance, Christian catalogs and Web sites hawk T-shirts with the name "Jesus Christ" incorporated into the red-and-white Coca-Cola logo. A Coke rep says the design is unauthorized and that company lawyers are looking into the issue.) Of course, secular branding of Christian properties goes beyond festivals. This month, Ford said it is sponsoring a talent search on the fledgling Gospel Music Channel. That news comes a month after the American Family Association, a Christian activist group, threatened to boycott Ford over its sponsorship of gay-themed gatherings, media and organizations.Ford says that timing was coincidental. "Our television initiative was in the works long before the boycott threat," says spokesman Dan Bedore. "We like the Gospel Music Channel because the programming is very family friendly and is a great way to reach a large, diverse audience." The company also continues to support gay media and events. (Asked if sponsoring a gay festival would preclude a company from sponsoring a Palau festival, Kevin Palau flatly said no. MegaFest organizers offered this statement: "If our business partners chose to sponsor a 'gay pride event,' this is a choice they are free to make. They will not have to answer to us, but to their consumers and stockholders.") Ford is following rival Chevrolet, which has sponsored the Christian-rock band Third Day for three years and was one of the first secular sponsors of a Christian music tour. Says Tim Hudgins, Chevy's southeast regional marketing manager: "We have seen that Christian consumers are exceptionally brand loyal when we connect with them at their own music event, similar to the way we connect with hunting and fishing enthusiasts at their own sports events."Branding experts, however, advise caution before jumping into the space. "Marketers want to bring back credibility by associating themselves with the purer values of the evangelical movement. But that is a tenuous spot to play in," says David Martin, president of Interbrand in New York. "The evangelical brand stands for worshiping the Lord in its purest form," without the rules and institutions of traditional churches. "What mass-market brand can say its values are consistent with the values, personality and behavior of Christ?" The association might work for certain "wholesome, life-enhancing brands," Martin says, but it must be consistent. If you sponsor a Christian music tour and an MTV spring-break wet T-shirt contest, you lose all credibility. "You can't go to church on Sunday and to the bar on Saturday," Martin says. David Melancon, president of FutureBrand in New York, notes that superior brands "tap into people's need to belong." Thus, building a brand "at an event where people share a deeply held faith can be effective." But he warns: "When you are using people's core beliefs to sell product, you are tapping precious emotions. You can alienate many people as powerfully" as you attract others, he says. Companies should look at acts, speakers and other sponsors "for anything that seems hateful or exclusionary. Know the best and the worst of the organization," says Melancon. Trend analyst Michael Tchong says sponsors shouldn't be too impressed with the growth of Christian festivals. Despite the growth of megachurches, he says, overall church attendance in the U.S. is declining. The evangelical movement is a "fad, a knee-jerk reaction to the liberalizing of the marketplace," he asserts. Festival consultant Westgaard—"I'm not born again, I'm a businessman," he likes to say—sees things differently. He compares the Christian festivals to his sports-marketing experience with the X Games in the 1990s. "People thought the skateboarding scene was a fringe culture, but then Vans and Ford and Mountain Dew got involved, and it became mainstream," he says. Evangelical festivals, he believes, with their focus on community and fellowship, have the same potential. "They are off-Broadway, moving to Broadway." Selling to the Worship Industry A handful of secular advertisers are finding evangelical Christian churches to be a lucrative b-to-b niche and are connecting to the "worship industry" through Christian business and technology publications, Web sites, conferences and trade shows. The business side of churches is "a virtually untapped market," says Michael Zorich, director of marketing for video products at Canon, which sells A/V equipment to midsize, large and megachurches. Of Canon's estimated $3-4 million b-to-b media buy, churches get about $1 million. But Zorich says sales to churches are growing faster than those to schools, offices and industrial designers combined. Via Marcomm Group, Canon places print and online ads in Christian titles like Church Business, Your Church and Technologies for Worship. Xerox uses the Christian church media to promote a printer giveaway. An estimated $5 million buy for type-heavy direct response ads by Anderson Direct targets churches, religious and secular schools, nonprofits and small offices, says client marketing manager Amanda Roe. Church organizations are "a market we take seriously," she says. A smaller brand, Bank of the West, has the biggest secular presence in Christian business media, largely because its loans fund some of the megachurches. The bank spends almost $2 million on church-lending ads from Hoffman/ Lewis in 10-12 church publications. Church is personal, says senior marketing manager Lisa Ryan, so "you can build a stronger emotional link to your brand here than you can in other business ads."

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