About Phil Cooke
Phil Cooke is the Founder and Creative Director of Cooke Pictures in Burbank, California. Many of the largest and most effective Christian organizations in the world ask for his advice, and his ideas are changing the way people of faith use media to communicate with the culture. Christianity Today magazine called him a “media guru” and you’ve seen him on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and numerous national magazines. His blog at philcooke.com is a highly respected resource on media, faith, and culture and Phil’s workshops are a rare glimpse into the future of media and entertainment. His new book is “The Last TV Evangelist: Why The Next Generation Couldn’t Care Less About Christian Media… and why it matters.” Phil is also a founding partner in TWC Films, an award winning TV commercial company in Los Angeles that produced two spots that appeared during the 2008 Super Bowl.
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- The open Media Revolution will dramatically shift everything we do.
- We used to have media that we turned “on and off”
- Media is always on.
- Media has become culture in the world we live in today.
- Communication does not begin with words; it begins with connection. – Jedd Medefind & Erik Lokkesmoe, The Revolutionary Communicator
- A brand is a compelling story that surrounds a product, person or organization.
- The big question we need to ask is: What do people think of when they think of you?
- What does our community think of when they think of our church?
- That’s the key to getting your message heard.
- You don’t see most company’s brand statements.
- Nike’s brand statement is all about the spirit of the athlete.
- Difference between Nike and other shoes is the story that they tell.
- Starbucks brand statement is a “great coffee experience.”
- Everything they do comes out of their brand story.
- It matters because of choice… and we live in a world filled with choices.
- How do you stand out? What makes the difference?
- Is Jesus a brand manager?
- Jesus controlled His perception in every stage of His life.
- Came to earth in a different way. Preached a different message. Did things differently. He left big crowds. He let Himself be arrested. He decided which questions to answer.
- Who controls our perceptions?
- Will you control your story or let other people do it?
- What’s your Story?
The Branding Big Four
- What’s the point? What do you do this? Why do you get up in the morning? What drives you?
- What makes you, you? Who you are matters, it makes up the perspective you have.
- What are your skills and talents? What are you good at right now? Not what you want to do, what you hope to be better at… what are you good at right now?
- What makes you different? The world is looking for unique and different.
We are in the middle of the greatest shift in our culture since the inventing of the printing press.
- We need to pop the bubble… too many of us live in a Christian media bubble.
- We discovered the Christian audience is a buying audience and stopped speaking to the world and started speaking to each other.
- We’re not impacting culture anymore, we need to pop the bubble.
- We don’t need “Christian media” we need Christians who make media.
- We live in one of the most cluttered times in the world of history.
- We receive 3,000-5,000 media messages per day.
- Average TV is on 8 hours and 18 minutes per day.
- How do we get our voice heard in a world filled with different voices?
- First public buildings to open in Afghanistan after the war were movie theaters. That’s the power of media.
- Old media was a one-way conversation; today’s media world has created a two-way conversation.
- We have a voice in the media.
- This generation wants a voice.
- The audience needs a way to talk back.
- This generation picked the next American Idol by texting in their votes… they want a choice.
- Today’s audience wants to be a part of the story.
- Generation after generation of pastors and Christian leaders get it wrong. They believe our only responsibilty is sharing the message.
- “When you find yourself in a hole stop digging.” – Will Rogers
10 Things to Remember…
- In a media driven culture, visibility is just as important as ability. Get noticed, get seen.
- You can’t brand a lie. Be who you say you are. In a media-driven culture, what you took up a lifetime to build up can be taken down in an instant. Google is not a search… it’s reputation management. Manage your online presence. If you Google yourself and nothing comes up, you need to get into the digital age. The future is about findability, if you can’t be found, you don’t exist.
- Being different is everything. Be different. Be unique. People who are unique get noticed.
- Stop thinking “mass” and start thinking “niche.” We can’t be everything but you could be something unique. Be the best you can be in an incredibly narrow word.
- Understand the Power of a Name. Names matter because they are the first thing people see, and in a media-driven world, that’s how they will judge you. Be careful where you put your name. In one year enrollment doubled at Grand Rapids Baptist Bible College… now known as Cornerstone University.
- Speak the language of design. Does your style and media choices reflect the audience you are trying to reach? If you have a flag, a dove, a globe or a flame as images in your church, GET RID OF THEM! Be careful about how you use the cross. The early church never used the cross as a symbol of who they are until after the last person who had seen a crucifixion had died. Images have power. This generation doesn’t get the cross.
- Lose the Lingo. We’ve created a language no one understands but us. (See my post on Christianese.)
- Culture is more important than vision. Create a culture where vision can happen.
- Find the over-arching theme for your life and work. What are you all about? If you cut yourself… what would you bleed?
- What drives you nuts? The problem that drives you crazy is usually what God is calling you to fix.
It’s not just who you are, it’s how you are perceived that counts.
Influence your own perception, or you will spend your life at the mercy of other people who will.
