Unitarian Universalist Association

The Challenge

In January 2007, The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), representing more than 1,000 UU congregations across the country, invited us to help them with two primary marketing efforts:

1. launch their first national advertising campaign in over 50 years and
2. create a 10-minute film that would answer the question, “What is Unitarian Universalism?” for the many visitors and newcomers to the faith.

With “faith and values” becoming an increasingly hot topic in the national media, we believed the time was right for a liberal religious message to break through — and that the public was ready to hear it.

Our Approach

National Awareness Campaign

The UUA was eager to put its message out to the world but needed to leverage modest resources to do so. Our strategy was to target a national audience of “influentials” with a bold, provocative and memorable creative campaign. We chose to reach that audience through the country’s #1 news magazine, TIME, in order to get people talking.

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The Campaign. Working closely with our client, we developed a thematic platform that captured both the inward focus on personal spiritual needs and the outward focus on social justice that characterizes the Unitarian Universalist commitment to “deeds, not creeds.”

The theme “Nurture Your Spirit. Help Heal Our World.” was incorporated into a series of bold, full-page ads that ran in TIME. The provocative messaging was crafted to engage thoughtful, questioning “seekers” who may be unaware that a liberal religious tradition like Unitarian Universalism is available to them. Readers were invited to visit the UUA web.

Exclusive Media Partnership

Working with TIME, we helped the UUA develop a unique program designed to bring Unitarian Universalist perspectives into the national conversation on faith, values and American society. The UUA sponsored a special time.com web archive of TIME articles and cover stories on religion and values, which also linked readers to a series of Unitarian Universalist perspectives on UUA.org. The TIME.com Religion Pages archive was promoted through both our national print ads and online advertising.

DVD Voices Of A Liberal Faith

During spring 2007, we filmed more than 40 hours of interviews and events with Unitarian Universalists, from coast to coast, and edited the footage into a ten-minute DVD titled Voices Of A Liberal Faith. The film presents an overview of UU history, theology, worship traditions, religious education, values and commitment to social justice issues, in a vibrant tapestry of personal stories, music and visuals.

 

 

Regional Marketing Programs

We developed a number of supporting programs to complement the national advertising campaign as well as the UUA’s regional marketing efforts. These include:

• :30 TV spot, appearing on cable programs regionally such as The Daily Show and Colbert Report, and on YouTube.
• Pilot GoogleAd Words programs
• Regional Marketing Campaign materials and programs in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Tampa Bay Area

The Results

The national marketing campaign, still in its first year, has energized stakeholders and members throughout the Unitarian Universalist community and has brought high visibility and significant interest to this little-known faith.

During the first three months of the print campaign, the UUA experienced a 34% increase in traffic to its website. During the six-month advertising flight, 18,000 web visitors entered a special URL featured in the campaign, and nearly 1,000 people requested a DVD. In addition, 35,000 viewings of the video Voices of a Liberal Faith have taken place on YouTube among the general public in the first 9 months.

A Starch Report test showed the UUA’s ad in two separate issues of TIME to be among the most effective out of approximately 50 “brands” as measured in terms of “brand lift,” or the impact of the brand’s message to those who read the ads. These ads rated #3 and #4 in the measured issues.

TIME also conducted an in-depth online reader survey for the UUA and found that the ad campaign resonated with its audience. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said the ads “reflected a religion I’d be interested in.” Twenty-nine percent of those who read at least most of an ad said that they talked with someone about it, and 18% visited the website.