VaticanTube And The Attraction Versus Promotion Dilemma

Two years ago I rode a plane from Rome to London next to a Roman Catholic priest from Ireland and got to talking about him on the Church;s evangelical efforts. As many know, the number of people who identify as Roman Catholics in the Western World has declined pretty steadily since Vatican Two, although the number of Catholics in Developing Countries has increased markedly.

Naturally this poses a number of issues for the Church, including a decline in the number of people with lots of money or even some money by Western standards giving to the Church.

But our discussion wasn't about that - rather it was about how the Church was looking to the hard core Protestant faiths in the US and how they were growing rapidly at the same time as main line churches like Catholicism were on the decline.

He told me, and I have since heard confirmed by various news sources, that Rome has decided that the way to grow again is to go hard core -- to cease efforts to be more relevant to the prevailing culture and instead return to the principles of significant demands for Catholics. As evidence, he told me that the numbers of people 18-24 in the Church were increasing as young people sought the absolutism of Church doctrine.

The Church is also experimenting with catholic living arrangements, among them the city of Ave Maria in Florida which markets itself as a Catholic community and is centered -- literally -- on a massive church in the town square.

So I was interested to see that Rome now offers a YouTube Channel, which, at the time of this writing, contains 34 videos, mostly of the Pope speaking about various religious and cultural issues he cares about.

My observation is from an uneducated perspective -- I am not a Roman Catholic nor am I considering joining the Church. But I was struck at the quiet approach they have taken with these videos. Benedict is no Swaggart, and thank the Lord for that.

It's gotten me thinking about branding to a hard core audience and how perhaps we need to rethink the way we create messages, moving from a concerted effort to appeal to the wisdom of the crowd to trying to attract a crowd with our own wisdom. Rome appears to have made its choice, and Protestant Chruches in the US that have created such seemingly bizarre concepts as Christian yoga classes have made theirs. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, and how the results might have an impact on the ways we brand today.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.