advertising

[raymond guterman]

I am aware that the best way that new people come into our churches in when our members invite their neighbors, friends, family, etc. However, with the loss of nearly 60,00 active members last year, I would like to see our denomination consider a national advertising
campaign, as well as produce ads that local churches can use in newspapers, etc. Our Methodist friends seem to do this well. I know it's expensive, but so is the thought of the extinction of the pcusa by 2038.
raymond guterman
ocala, fl.

[Leslie Rigoulot]

We used to have a national ad, didn't we? It was a print ad that any congregation could use. Surely there is someone out there who might be willing to develop something for us to use! Let's start asking around!

[raymond guterman]

hi leslie,
there were some ads produced about a decade ago that churches could use in local newspapers.
i'm thinking more about tv ads.
do you know who in the denomination i'd call about this?
raymond

[Chris Walker]

we tried this in our presbytery, but found it difficult to sustain. TV Time is very expensive and the branding involved relies on multiple exposures over the course of many days and months. Branding for the Presbtyerians we found led to many different challenges

-- how to do you measure reach?
-- who's phone number do you put on the add?
-- where do you direct people to the local church?

In another business, I used TV and found similar challenges in my own local market. Just my thoughts.

Chris Walker
www.evangelismcoach.org

[raymond guterman]

thanks for your imput, chris. i haven't figured out the how of this, but just think somehow the pcusa has to keep our denomination in front of everyone.
blessings,
raymond

[Adrian Pratt]

Our Church growth committee reviewed one of the recent ad campaigns offered by the denomination (had various scenarios... rugby players, young executive getting into an elevator.) It says something that I can recall the images but not the final slogan... I think it was along the lines of 'When you are ready to talk, we're here.. the PC(USA)". To cut a long story short we decided against using it... mostly because of the cost of advertising space on TV rather than the price the packages were being offered at by the demonination. The other concern we had was that there are just so many channels out there. We surveyed a random selection of the congregation to see what programs folk who were attracted to our church watched... but the results were wildly inconclusive. However there are other churches in our area who do use ads... and many more who pay big dollars for having their services televised. I don't know of any resarch as to how much feedback comes from such ventures... but would be interested to know!

[raymond guterman]

thanks for your thoughts. what i'm thinking about is the denomination doing a little advertising on national networks. i know this is very expensive, but i think the larger church needs to get our pcusa name, etc out.........as well as what local churches do.

raymond

[Adrian Pratt]

One advantage of a national campaign vs a local campaign would be that there is no way a lot of our smaller churches can get into the TV Ad business... no matter how many resources the denomination offers. Smaller churches just don't have that kind of clout. Inthe Presbytery I serve (WV) the majority of our churches ARE smaller churches! Capable of becoming deep and wide... but not there right now :-)

[raymond guterman]

i agree. what i'm thinking about is the denomination as a whole buying time for very short ads to be run on major and cable networks, etc.
raymond

[Chris Walker]

The challenge still is what phone number to put on the ad. What is the call to action? How to people respond? Where do they go?

It's not a product like apples, it's not a service like carpet cleaning, but is it simply for brand recognition?

I'm of the opinion that brand is not important. People join the local congregation, not the denomination, in my experience.

As a former chair of the evangelism committee, these too were thoughts that helped us to decide the expense wasn't worth the return. I think that the national office had commericials done (i May still have the DVD sampler if the kids haven't used it for a craft).

Chris
http://www.evangelismcoach.org

[raymond guterman]

my idea would simply be to have a short message and the pcusa symbol........or something like..........you'll always be welcome at the pcusa church in your area.
raymond

[Rob Bullock]

This is a great discussion. My guess is that the best solution is a both-and approach. We run a series of targeted national advertisements to raise brand awareness, and local congregations and presbyteries contribute to the campaign with local ads (print, radio, tv, web) that point to specific places to visit or learn more.

The denomination website has a variety of print, tv, and radio ads availalbe at www.pcusa.org/hereandnow. These can be modified to add local phone numbers and/or URLS.

Local congregations or presbyteries that want to pursue this could also look at services like SpotRunner which make buying airtime much cheaper and easier.

The biggest challenge to a national campaign is the same as the biggest challenge to local campaigns - who pays for it? But that's a question we at the GAC are exploring as we continue to look for ways to grow Christ's church. Keep sending us ideas!

[raymond guterman]

is the denomination currently running brief tv ads? i've lived in a couple of markets and have never seen one. i think that the denominaiton should pay for this as it just gets the pcusa out there in front of people. i'm sure it's very expensive, but as i said in my first comment, it's not as costly as the last of our churches closing up shop in 2038 ('know this is somewhat of an exaggeration but if we multiply the net loss we experienced in 2007 by 31 that equals the present membership of the pcusa. i so want my grandchildren and great grandchildren to have a pcusa church to grow their faith in. drasitc situations demand drastic actions.
raymond