Comments from Perth on publicity and prayer

All the information and ideas and the wisdom behind them from Elise and her website were most useful and a great guide. The Metaphysical marketing in particular kept us on course and the church members fully involved. Guidelines for the introducer and flyer designer were greatly appreciated. Messages about the Christ on emails from Elise were appreciated and kept our planning ‘in focus.’

We were very happy that an interview by the local radio station, Radio Fremantle 107.9 FM took place. It was a telephone link up with Elise in Tuscon to a direct programme on Friday 13th March at 9.00 a.m. It was then replayed on the next three Tuesdays, the last on the day of the lecture. The church already has an hour’s time slot Tuesdays 1.00 – 2.00p.m. The station kindly inserted their recording of the Lecturer’s interview between the Sentinel Radio and The Bible Lesson. Spot advertisements were also played throughout the days in the three week period before the lecture.

The radio station later advised that weekly hits on its website, for the Christian Science Programme, for the four weeks up to 7 April (the date of our lecture) were 185+138+166+391. The committee was delighted with these results and most grateful for the cooperation from the management when making arrangements for the interview and replays.

From the start we were encouraged by Elise:
* to pray about each step before taking it
* to recognise that the Christ is active in, and attractive to, each individual in Perth;
* and to destroy the counter suggestions of animal magnetism.
All members were invited to participate in this metaphysical work and a special roster of volunteers was organised to cover all aspects between 20 February and 23 April 2009. Messages received from the Lecturer and shared with members of the prayer roster, plus the Preparatory Meeting held by Elise the day before the lecture provided additional impetus to this work.

1,000 flyers were handed or sent to all members to use as personal invitations and for display in libraries and other public places. Flyers were also sent to Family Support centres at seven prisons.

We decided not to use any newspaper advertisements as we had done in the past, but instead to focus on the following ideas suggested by Elise, which we used for the first time:

As our main advertising activity, an advertisement was placed on Face Book three weeks before the lecture. The advertisement appeared 1,406,313 times on Perth-based Face Book sites and was linked to a flyer advertising the lecture, displayed on the special events page on the church’s website. The Face Book advertisement read, “God is Speaking to You” followed by a photo of a lion lying down with a lamb, and then the words: “come hear a talk on how others have tuned in and found freedom and healing.”

648 visitors to these Face Book sites found this advertisement of sufficient interest to click on it and be connected to the church’s special events page. The ideas and expertise of two new committee members in organising this are greatly appreciated.

Also for the first time, we sent to members, who had agreed to help in this way, an email suitable for forwarding to friends and acquaintances, attaching a flyer advertising the lecture, and giving details of how to access Radio Fremantle’s website for a preview of the lecture, provided in the Lecturer’s radio interview.

Whilst we have received little direct information on what brought each one in, the total attendance and the number of visitors were substantially more than for other recent lectures.