"I am a Mormon" Video: Effective Member Growth Marketing -- Why?

This video appeared on my Facebook page in the column devoted to advertising. A music executive in NYC talks about his life, his struggles balancing family and work life, his creative life vs. monotonous work. He comes off as an average guy even thought he's everything but: his career confounds stereotypes of Mormons.

The last thing he says is "I'm a Mormon." UUs have used the same marketing tactic to end with that phrase. It works far more powerfully in this video, however, because it confounds stereotypes and effectively "portrays" the truth of one person's life -- at least that portrayal is very credible on an emotional level.

This is the kind of marketing we UUs need to do. We need to talk about our lives, how we practice our beliefs daily at work, at home, in the world. The "What's a UU" type videos on this site that we use to help explain ourselves to interested individuals are just okay.

This video put out by mormon.org is terrific. Yes, it has high production values and is slick. And who knows, maybe Ryan Wright, the guy in the vid, produced it himself. Mormons have become very good at showing how they are very much like everyone else and how they integrate their spiritual lives with the modern day.

I recommend you watch this. We could make something like this for our church. We have professional videographers, musicians, and most importantly compelling people in our pews! Making a video like this requires commitment and money that will be well spent. It's effective as long as a radical hospitality approach to everything we do is embraced and carried out. The Mormons know how to follow up, practice, and spread their kind of hospitality. Their facebook page is quite interesting as well.