Brand Keys has developed some really effective engagement metrics. We’re really good at predicting consumer engagement.In balance, it’s easy to identify engagement when you have the numbers in front of you. But we also have a reputation for telling clients when they shouldn’t do research. Sometimes you don’t have to. Some clients, on the other hand, think that they can recognize real engagement when they see it. But that kind of engagement consists of seeing what everybody has seen and has been thinking but that nobody has measured. Anyway, that kind of engagement and actually successfully “seeing it” doesn’t happen all the often. It certainly doesn’t happen by accident.
Anyway, Dan Brown’s controversial, conspiracy-cum-religious thriller, The Da Vinci Code, opens today. It won’t surprise any sentient being that the story has become a global industry; 50 million hardback copies, 10 million paperback sales. It’s inspired bus tours, critical documentaries, and, by last estimate, 22 other books.
It has been denounced by The Vatican. The US Catholic League and Opus Dei, the villains of the book, have demanded a disclaimer that highlights the film's fictional basis. It’s been the subject of a high-profile court case. The publicity all this attracted has been more than any studio Marketing Department could have dreamt of.
According to Twentieth Century Fox, there was no sinister sub-plot to the secrecy surrounding the release of the blockbuster. "It helps increase the global hype - the whole world is waiting for the movie."
Planned or unplanned, anticipated or serendipitous, all of this has combined to create real engagement, and is one of the few instances where metrics would not have substantively aided the cause!
1 comment:
Hello Robert and all,
Pay close attention, profundity knocks at the door, listen for the key...
There is a way to verify the truth...
There's a bit more to the story of the Vatican's reaction than most are yet aware of. Read my missive below to understand what they truly fear. It's not the DaVinci Code or Gospel of Judas per se, but the fact that people have been motivated to seek out the unequivocal truth about an age of deception, exactly when they expect me to appear. The Gospel of Judas and DaVinci Code controversies are allowing people to take new stock of the Vatican/Papacy and the religions Rome spawned.
Remember, "I come as a thief..." ?
Yes, the DaVinci Code is a novel. It is no more accurate as a literal version of history than is the New Testament. In other words, neither is the literal truth, which is a key fact of the story and ancient history. The primary sub-plot is about purposeful symbology being used to encode hidden meanings, exactly like the Bible and related texts. Arguing about whether the DaVinci Code, Gospel of Judas, or the Bible are accurate history is a Machiavellian red herring designed to hide the truth by misdirecting your inquiry away from the heart of the matter.
Want to truly understand why we can't let the Vatican succeed at telling us what to think about ancient history? There is a foolproof way to verify the truth and expose centuries-old religious deceptions. It is also the common thread connecting why the ancient Hebrews, Yahad/Essene, Jews, Gnostics, Cathars, Templars, Dead Sea Scrolls, DaVinci Code, and others have all been targets of Rome’s ire and evil machinations. What the Vatican and its secret society cohorts don’t want you to understand is that the ancient Hebrew symbology in all of these texts purposely encodes and exposes the truth about them. Furthermore, the structure of ancient symbology verifiably encodes the rules to decode messages built with it. This is what they most fear you will discover.
If the Bible represented the literal truth or even accurate history, there would be no need for faith in the assertions of deceptive and duplicitous clergy and their ilk. Wisdom and faith are opposing concepts, because wisdom requires the unequivocal truth where faith obfuscates and opposes it. Religion is therefore the enemy of truth and wisdom.
It is undeniable the New Testament is framed by ancient Hebrew symbolism and allegory. The same is evidenced in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Gnostic texts, biblical apocrypha, DaVinci Code, and other related texts. All ancient religious, mystical, and wisdom texts have been shrouded in mystery for millennia for one primary reason: The ability to understand their widely evidenced symbology was lost in antiquity. How do we finally solve these ages-old mysteries? To recast an often-used political adage: It’s [the] symbology, stupid!
It is amazing the Vatican still tries to insist the Gospels are literal truth. It is beyond obvious they are replete with ancient Hebrew symbology. Every miracle purported for Jesus has multiple direct symbolic parallels in the Old Testament, Apocalypse, Dead Sea Scrolls, and other symbolic narratives and traditions. This is the secret held by the ancient Gnostics, Templars, and Cathars, which is presented with dramatic effect in the DaVinci Code. None of these narratives or stories were ever intended as the literal truth. That is a key fact to unraveling ages-old mysteries.
Likewise, the following Washington Post article ( The Book of Bart) describes how many changes and embellishments were made to New Testament texts over the centuries, unequivocally demonstrating they are not original, infallible, or truthful.
It's no wonder the Vatican fears the truth more than anything else. Seek to understand the symbolic significance of my name (Seven Star Hand) and you will have proof beyond disproof that Jews, Christians, and Muslims have long been duped by the great deceivers I warned humanity about over the millennia. What then is the purpose of "faith" but to keep good people from seeking to understand truth and wisdom?
Now comes justice, hot on its heels... (symbolism...)
Not only do I talk the talk, I walk the walk...
Here is Wisdom!!
Revelations from the Apocalypse
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