How to grab the attention of your 13th century audience

History’s greatest salespeople have all had the ability to make strangers care about something that wasn't on their mind.

Jacques de Vitry was not one of them; at least not to start with. When he attempted to sell the idea of a holy crusade to European travellers, he often found he’d lost half his audience before his first bible reading.

The older monks blamed the noonday devil — a dark force that crept in after lunch and stole a congregation's attention.

But Vitry suspected something else.

When he warned against the ambitions of nobles, it was the peasants who wandered off.

When he began with the plight of peasants, it was the nobles shuffling their feet. 

The noonday devil had a strategy.

Scientists at the University of Rotterdam estimate that it takes us a third of a second to work out if something is relevant to us. After that we skip, swipe, or stop listening as soon as possible.

The solution, as Vitry realised, is to divide your audience into groups and develop stories that tap into the things people were actually worrying about.

In 1230, he began compiling his Sermones Vulgares, a book of 74 sermons, packed with vivid stories that preachers could use to grab the attention of different groups.

Speaking to some peasants? Start with the story of a demon who ascended from hell to marry a woman, only to return after she started nagging him.

Speaking to a group of nobles? Ask them if they’ve heard the story of a knight who was so pious that god gave his horse the ability to fly.

Apart from the sexism, which seems to be a universal theme, each of Vitry’s stories addressed specific things that each group of people cared about.


If you asked Vitry to come in one-day a week and do some consultancy for the average marketing agency today he would point out they’re confusing volume with relevance.

Sit him on a panel discussion he’d agree with Salesforce’s CMO, Bobby Jania, that "we are using the most powerful technology in history to send more one-way spam, faster."

Rising to his feet in a misunderstanding of panel discussion etiquette Vitry would explain that the only way to defeat the Noonday devil is to have an intimate understanding of your audience. Only then should you use AI to help you produce your content.