Church in a spin

Lo tech, Hi tech

First a word of apology to both my readers. Sorry. It’s been a very lo-tech week. I lost my wireless computer connection last Tuesday and with the rigours of performing in a splendid run of the Gilbert and Sullivan masterpiece, Ruddigore, at the Harrogate Theatre every night and twice on Saturday, it’s taken until now to get back on track. Check out the pictures on http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/3073772


Enough about me. I’ve just been checking out the Sandi Thom website. Who? Well, she’s a new singer who has been employing some clever methods to get public attention for her new single ‘I wish I was a punk rocker’. But you need to know more about what’s happened to see that this is clearly the way forward for the Church of England, stuck as we are with out 20th century notions of PR – pamphlets, flower festivals and faxes. Sandi Thom, who looks like my younger daughter, and sings a song which reminds me strangely of the Albanian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, wishes she was still in the lo-tech age, a ‘Punk Rocker with flowers in my hair’. It must be post-modern irony though, because, according to the Guardian, it is computers, high tech websites and up-to-date PR which will make her ‘a self made internet superstar’ with a number one by the weekend.

And this is where the C of E is missing a trick. Instead of relying on her music, nice though it is, its in the use being made of PR. Particularly a new PR tactic, almost, some suggest underhand, a style of PR employed by music PR companies like ‘Quite Great’. Its tactics include, and this is the revolutionary bit, the use of ‘street teams’ to 'spread the word' on the, er, streets, in fact. “‘You can’t just rely on good music’ said Louis Harris, PR manager at ‘Quite Great’ ‘-its really important to have the street teams out there talking about them’”. Apparently the street teams (many unpaid) go out and enthuse people, spreading the word, getting people talking about Ms Thom, mainly in the streets but sometimes, I’m guessing, in Costa Coffee, or Waterstones and create a “buzz” about the artist. The critics say its all a bit unsporting, a bit iffy. Gosh. How awful! Imagine if the church stooped to such tactics!

Need I say more? Not really… Yes, it really isn’t ‘clever PR, unique to the Internet age’. It didn’t even start with Bill Grundy and the Sex Pistols, which is where, according to the Guardian we can trace these tactics back to. I have a feeling that the church invented it. Check out the gospel accounts of the 72 enthusiasts going out as 'street teams' (without scrip or purse) or anything in the Book of Acts starting at Chapter 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 etc etc, creating there own ‘buzz’. Its devastatingly lo-tech and its the latest 21st century PR weapon.

Problem. We need enthusiasts – not the sort that shout a lot on street corners, but the sort that create, what was it, '48,000 web hits before any press publicity got going'. And of course we need something exciting for them to enthuse about and St Swithun's nativity play may not quite cut the mustard. But, here’s the good thing. The street teams can be unpaid as well as paid.

posted by John Carter @ 8:00 pm