Marathon bands and the message you’re sharing


One of the highlights of a marathon is all the supporters in come out to cheer runners on. As the race weaves through the neighbourhoods of a city (just like Winnipeg this past weekend), many people setup music or even put together a band to play from the front yard to energize and entertain the thousands of participants as they run past.

If you want to start your own “marathon band”, here’s what you need to do:

1. Find some musical friends.

2. Decide on a single song you’d like to play.

3. Play that one song over and over for five hours.

After half an hour of playing, you and your neighbours will be quite sick of your rendition of “Chariots of Fire”. You must keep playing, though, because there are thousands of runners haven’t even heard you yet. As each one passes, the 30 seconds of that song are the only music they’ll hear from your band.

Same for your marketing campaign or the message you’re preaching. You’ll get tired of it long before the people who need to hear it even come across it for the first time.

Keep playing.