Documentaries and masses in shopping centers: religious marketing seeks to attract more faithful in the world

The need to renew and connect with new audiences affects organizations and communities around the world, including the Catholic Church. At a time when the number of faithful decreases in some territories and scandals of abuse and embezzlement of funds do not stop resonating, new marketing strategies are becoming relevant to stimulate interest in religion.

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A recent article in “The Atlantic” magazine points out that despite the fact that in recent years there has been an assertive presence of the Catholic Church in public life, Catholic faith and practice have receded in families, schools and neighborhoods. in the United States and throughout Europe.

Citing the book “CAtholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis.” John T. McGreevy, the newspaper points out that the signs that the Church has lost vitality are abundant.

“Europe has seen parish closures, a decline in the number of priests, a decline in weekly Mass attendance, and constant deviations from the faith. In the US, more than a third of people who raised Catholics “no longer identify as such.” Clerical sex abuse scandals have devastated the Church’s credibility, cost it billions of dollars and put some of its leaders under criminal investigation.”, he points out.

Below, we review some examples that prove how marketing also applies to religion.

Communication experts in Spain

The Catholic Church in Spain has suffered a decline in the number of faithful for years. Non-religious people in the country, which in 1980 represented 8.5%, are now 39.9%, the highest figure collected by the Secularism Report recently published by the Ferrer i Guàrdia Foundation, indicates the Efe agency .

In addition, 60.9% of Spaniards say that they “almost never” go to mass or other religious services, unless they are weddings, baptisms or funerals.

For this reason, some dioceses such as Zaragoza have turned to communication experts to design a new evangelization strategy, mainly focused on new technologies and adapting the message to social networks.

Carlos Luna, author of the book “Fundamentals of religious marketing,” told Efe that if marketing is conceived as a strategy to try to satisfy a need, religion allows people with spiritual concerns to satisfy the longing for transcendence.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share with you the fundamentals of #religiousmarketing Let’s keep moving forward in this new era #Communication #ENPC2019 @CEPCOM_CEM. pic.twitter.com/ulaN0tZWZD

— Carlos LUNA (@Lunacreativo) October 18, 2019

“I see signs of light, creativity and new spaces, but the institution is very large,” he said.

“Amen, Francis responds”

This week, “Amen, Francisco Responds” premiered on the Disney+ platform, a documentary presented in the format of a television program in which Pope Francis listens carefully and answers without shying away from the questions of Spanish-speaking youth who question him about abortion. gender identity, homosexuality or feminism.

In the program, ten young Catholics, atheists and Muslims between the ages of 20 and 25 confront the pontiff. This is a different public than usual in the corridors of the Vatican, so experts believe that the objective is to bring the message of Francis and the Church to more people.

The Spaniards Jordi Évole and Màrius Sánchez, who co-produce the documentary, indicate that their objective was “bringing together two worlds that do not usually communicate and seeing one of the most influential people in the world converse with a group of young people whose way of life sometimes clashes with the principles of the Church”.

One cannot fail to mention the constant activity on the social networks of Pope Francis, where photos of the pontiff’s activities and messages to the Catholic community around the world are published.

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A post shared by Pope Francis (@franciscus)

Masses in shopping malls in Colombia

Other strategies consist of bringing religious offerings closer to believers. For several years, for example, masses have been held in shopping centers in Colombia as part of a strategy to reach increasingly reluctant followers.

These days, on the occasion of Holy Week, some media outlets disclose the programming of masses and other religious activities that will take place in shopping centers. In Bogotá, malls such as Edén Centro Comercial and Centro Chía Shopping Center have scheduled Eucharist.

Andrew Chesnut, a researcher at Virginia Commonwealth University, in the United States, affirms that there is compelling evidence of the continuous decline of Catholicism in the Latin American region, which is home to 39% of the believers in the world.

In a conference in 2022 at the Center for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CIALC), the expert established that another trend in the Latin American religious landscape is the growing number of people, especially millennials, who choose not to have any religious affiliation. . “They are not atheists or agnostics, but young people who believe in the supernatural, but who do not belong to any specific institutional tradition.”

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.