Anthony Coppedge

Anthony is an Agile Marketing evangelist and Agile-certified coach. He teaches the proven and unmatched success of Agile for aligning Marketing teams to business outcomes for measurably better deliverables with greater frequency and impact. He has been consulting, teaching, and speaking to leaders since 2003 and writing for rAVe since 2012. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn.

Prediction: Pastor of Digital Connections

It’s just a matter of time. The house of worship market has grown up, and with it, has come the need for specialized staff, beyond the technical arts directors, to include a new team member focused on leveraging the digital communications channels that crop up daily. We are about to see a Pastor of Digital […]

“We’re a church with a limited budget. How much budget do we need for this gear?” “We have ‘this amount’ of budget, what technology do you recommend?” Or, my least favorite, “We need to set a budget for our audio, video and lighting. What’s a good amount?” I hear these question from well-meaning people who are […]

While you’re at InfoComm, take a look for technologies that are NOT typically associated with the AVL market but have clear in-roads for systems integrators: networking, cloud computing and storage, automation technologies (and not just AV automation) and even Bluetooth Low Energy. The trends that look beyond thin displays, LED lighting and new levels of […]

The debate between those who want technology turned off during church services versus those who not only want it on, but want to actively use it as part of the church-going experience, is a matter of personal preference. That being said, there are plenty of churches using passive technology that would jump at the chance […]

The old sales trick of providing a list of desired features and benefits to overcome purchase barriers may still work with some church leaders, but the Internet has taught consumers a thing or two about what is offered and what they really want. To justify the expense, churches need metrics from real data. Rethinking Repairs Technology […]

I posted an article here on rAVe I wrote about IMAG (Image Magnification — live video projected onto a screen) and stated that it was overused in small venue churches where it wasn’t difficult to see the action on the stage without a live video image. There are times where limited usage of live video for infrequent […]

Audio. Video. Lighting. Budgets. Safety? When churches think about audio, video and lighting (AVL) technology, safety isn’t on the radar for the vast majority of pastors. However, with the exponential increase in the use of flown speaker arrays, screens, and lighting fixtures, keeping the technical staff and congregants who sit below these devices safe needs to […]

How much should a church set aside for making audio, video and lighting (AVL) upgrades? As each church is unique and budgets are vastly different from church to church, the best way to answer that is to look at what drives their budget. Considering about 50 percent of a church’s annual finances are dedicated towards […]

When churches realized the value of video had also intersected with high brightness and low cost, the multi-site and satellite campus model went from a handful of mega churches (churches with greater than 2,000 in weekend attendance) to tens of thousands of churches. With this exponential explosion of multi-site churches — that is, a separate […]

For an industry that leads in so many ways, the Audio/Video/Lighting manufacturers still have a lot to learn when it comes to reaching targeted prospects and clients. The dissonance from engineering to marketing is jarring. I have identified “Three Mistakes AVL Manufacturers Are Making” in this month’s Trends article, hoping to help re-frame the conversations […]

There’s a great quote from an article by John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, about hacking into systems: “There are two types of companies: Those who have been hacked, and those who don’t yet know they have been hacked.” While Mr. Chambers point is about securing data, networks, and storage, the quote prompted a different […]

As a house of worship consultant to manufacturers and systems integrators, I’ve seen and heard from a wide array of companies in the Audio/Video/Lighting (AVL) space about their experience with the church market. I think your experience at a manufacturer or dealer will likely follow one of these patterns of thought and leadership. All the […]

Churches. They’re still not on the front page of many manufacturers and systems integrators based on past experiences with this market segment or perceptions about what church even looks like today. And, still, there it is: The underserved market that’s got money to spend and a need for what you make and sell. 2015 has […]

Fellow geeks have united and converged upon Las Vegas, Nevada once again for the annual tech-fest that is the Consumer Electronics Show, and the future’s digital handwriting is on the proverbial wall: audio/video/lighting (A/V/L) technology is once again the dominant technology. With prognostications aside, the trends of these present-future technologies have a direct impact on […]

Stats vary, but the trend shows that portable churches make up over 20 percent of all new churches in the United States. A ‘portable church’ is a local congregation without a permanent facility, and often meet with the help of volunteers for setup and tear-down in venues such as schools, movie theaters and community centers. […]

2014 has been a banner year in the A/V/L tech world. We’ve seen more innovations — deep, significant changes that are still reverberating. It’s certainly exciting, but as much as there’s been change, some things never change, including the need for better training for the operators of all this marvelous technology. With a new year […]

This year saw some of the best new technology breakthroughs in decades, but manufacturers and systems integrators still don’t understand why innovative gear fails to succeed in the house of worship market. It seems counter-intuitive, but approaching the top of the technology apex in audio, video and lighting isn’t generating the kind of sales one […]

At the end of 2014, I rounded up half a dozen ads of A/V/L gear targeting the house of worship HOW market. I chose ads that were placed in more than one publication and published through at least two different publishing companies. All ads were scored in three categories, on a one-to-five scale where one […]

If your firm had the goal of growing the bottom line by 10 percent next year, would you consider the possibility that you might just be able to do that by selling into and serving the House of Worship market? It’s true, and there are manufacturers and systems integrators focusing on this underserved vertical market […]

“This church market — it’s kind of a thing now, eh?” This is how the A/V/L industry sees the church market. Manufacturers and systems integrators are highlighting their House of Worship (H.O.W.) market products and installations more than ever before. The emphasis is directly correlated with the increase of sales into churches, which are starting […]

Near cinema-quality field video capture is available for well under $10K, a price point so low that the A/V/L industry feels threatened by low cost technology dazzling the focus and buying power of consumers. A visit to InfoComm or NAB quickly reveals a rush to service the exponential growth of the sub $10K market space, […]

This month, I highlight one of the biggest innovators not in the A/V/L market: Dell. For reasons that will become abundantly clear, this company has figured out how to listen to customers, solicit feedback and incorporate customer service into a commoditized market — and still have steady revenue. It’s important to learn what Dell can […]

A digital software company that focuses on building platforms for customer service knows a thing or two about what happens when customers are unhappy with customer service. Zendesk released a study in 2013 of 1,000 customers in the U.S. to understand consumer habits and complaints, and a few of the findings are especially noteworthy for […]

Box sales. Internet commodities. Bottom-dollar buys. Is it too late for the audio, video and lighting market for reversing product commoditization in the house of worship vertical segment? Encourage Systems Integration In the online ‘box-sales’ world of product commoditization, the Internet sale is rumored to have removed service from the purchasing equation. Perhaps for truly […]

Has your company made the equivalent of a better mousetrap? Check your mousetrap. Innovation is everywhere, with new products launched with greater frequency than the trade shows where they’re promoted. Yet, I have two questions for you: Are you making just making better products or are you doing a better job at positioning them? Are […]

I geek out when I find out new ways of using my smartphone — hidden features or undocumented I-didn’t-know-it-could-do-that shortcuts elicit mini-celebrations and a secret calculation of how much more more value I just got out of the original purchase price. Usually these are shortcuts and features that existed when the phone launched; I’m just […]

What’s more important: building a better mousetrap or simply solving the problem of mice in the house? Your answer depends on your perspective. The people living in the house simply want to not have mice in their home. The people selling the mousetrap want you to buy their newer, better mousetrap. So, who’s correct? If […]

Half of one billion dollars in audio, video and lighting technology sales over the next 12 months. And that’s just from one segment of the house of worship market, representing only about 2 percent of all churches here in the United States. It’s likely your business hasn’t seen the majority of your sales come from […]

Creativity has nothing to do with technology. It certainly has nothing to do with the type of tools you have to offer or even how many of your tools church clients are using today. No, creativity is what enables people to use your technology. Creativity Puts No Requirements On The Pocketbook The engineers and designers […]

According to research studying the 8,000 multi-site churches in America, 57 percent of them will launch an additional campus in the next 12 months and spend $580,549,500 on technology for those new multi-site venues.* While I’ve written about the unique opportunities for A/V/L vendors in the fast-growing trend in multi-site churches (see HERE and HERE), […]

Does the value of your product really come down to the lowest price? In an effort to sell more, dealers and systems integrators are often setting the price of their technology based on an aggregate price that they believe will help make the sale happen. Sales may happen, but the value of your brand, manufacturers […]

As an entrepreneur, I’ve discovered, lived and taught that change is a constant. When I started consulting with churches, the focus was on audio, video, and lighting system design. This tech-centric focus increased with the addition of teaching and speaking opportunities where I was able to rattle off the latest model numbers and point people […]

Anthony Coppedge

Vision Drives Church Budgets

New Technologies and New Opportunities

Pushing Technology for Churches

Justify the Expense: Churches Need Metrics

Churches and the Electronic Canvas Instead of IMAG

AVL Safety Needed in Churches

Solutioneering: Helping Churches Define AVL Budgets

Church Video Venues in High Demand

Toss Aside Conventional Wisdom and Stay Relevant

If You Build It, They Will Hack It

Mind the Underserved Church Market in 2015

What CES 2015 Means for the H.O.W. Market

The Untapped Market — Portable Churches

2014: A Banner Year

Your Technology Is Not The Problem

Top House of Worship Ads of 2014

Sell the Solution, Not the Product

How the A/V/L Industry Sees the Church Market

Church Video Production – Selling the Workflow

Reversing Product Commoditization

Check Your Mousetrap

How Game Theory Can Change the Industry

Better Products vs. Better Product Positioning

House of Worship: A Billion Reasons to Enter This Market

Creativity Has Nothing To Do With Technology

$580M in One Year — Multi-site Churches

Product Value and The Lowest Price?

The Future of Selling to Churches