Curiosity didn’t kill the cat according to non-Christians
Awareness is on the increase, which is great, but there’s room for improvement with recognition. Which is why, amongst other things, this new Alpha Invitation [link to invite page] will run for 2 – 3 years with continued research and iterations throughout.
We have revised the language through testing and have freshened up the design.
In understanding there is currently a gap between Christians knowing non-Christians well enough to invite them to church events, we want to help you by gaining as much knowledge and understanding of our target audience as possible to ensure we’re providing not only your church with the best materials possible but we also want to drive demand for Alpha through this new campaign by targeting the potential guest directly through digital advertising and outdoor media outlets.
Our new campaign call to action moves away from the theme of asking questions or assuming potential guests have specific questions about faith as we learnt these were off putting. Instead, we leverage the curiosity that people have to try new things, inviting them to ‘stay curious, try Alpha’. We have kept the tone light and have set the bar low and have featured the top activities they would be excited to try.
Through qualitative research we also discovered mentioning the word ‘faith’ too soon disengages non-Christians so we have been strategic in where and how we’ve used this language - keeping it to the invitational postcards which we hope will be handed out by a friend or loved one whom they trust and can always have a conversation with.
With this new campaign we also want to focus more on the Alpha values which appealed most, so our postcard and wallet card invites have new copy that focuses on ‘hosting’ and ‘no pressure, follow up, or fee’.
When non-Christians were presented with different taglines – options that featured ‘togetherness’ or language around community came out top. Alongside, concerns over not knowing anyone at a Christian event, we felt it important to allude to this sense of community (whether it be meeting new people or going with a friend).
Non-Christian’s view of the Church is mainly positive (28% ‘welcoming’ and 29% ‘helps people’) but the majority (42%) find it ‘not at all relevant to their life’ which is why we’re also working with production companies and mainstream media outlets to create documentaries and events which help to debunk some of the myths surrounding the Church and Christianity to warm up potential guests for that invite.
Stats
43% of 20-35 year old non-Christians feel comfortable to try new things
Language around ‘togetherness’ and community performed the best - again reinforcing the importance of a plus one at Alpha
Top concept was ‘Stay curious’ with 20-35 year old non-Christians feeling curious (35%), inspired and excited
When asked what brand did the CTA ‘stay curious’ make them think of the top answers were education course and search engine
32% of 20-35 year old non-Christians said the CTA ‘Explore life, faith, meaning’ made them the least excited about trying something new
We found the top activities potential guests were most interested to try were cooking course 31%, football 24%, gaming 22% and paddle boarding 20% which is why you’ll see these activities in the latest campaign video and assets
