14/11/2024
Could you tell us a bit about your context and your role?
I've been working at Bradford Cathedral for almost six years, currently as the Events and Marketing Officer. I work with a colleague - and the wider Cathedral team - on our communications and marketing, encompassing the website, social media and print material, as well as supporting the administration and marketing of external lay events and room bookings, and working with the vergers and other casual staff in delivering them. Alongside this I also cover the activities of Cathedral, primarily with photography but some videography, and communicate those stories online, working with various colleagues across faith, education, music and more.
The period of Advent and Christmas is both a time of challenge and opportunity. The main challenges are, as expected, time and capacity to do everything, balancing the on-the-floor time of services and events with the work on online and wider publicity - and content capture - but there are plenty of opportunities as more people visit us during our opening hours, at services, and at events. It's also a good time to engage with many of our partners, including the local Business Improvement District group, Visit Bradford, schools, choirs and local businesses and organisations, and many more. It's always great to see the Cathedral full of people and lit up as we move through Advent and towards Christmas.
What digital strategies helped engage your congregation and community last Christmas?
We created an 'Organ Advent Calendar' with a different, brand new, recording released each day over Advent, which were then shared on our social media platforms. You can watch our calendar playlist here.
We produced an online Christmas Card - with photo highlights from the year - to be a more environmentally friendly option than sending lots of cards. We tied this in with a widget on our website that allowed our congregation to send their own Christmas e-card rather than a paper one, to help fulfil some of our environmental aims
Following successes in previous years, we created a how-to video for making a Christingle – watch that here.
We also produced a video Christmas message from the Dean (which we'd partially recorded in the snow the previous February and then finished nearer the time)
We recorded a version of 'The First Nowell' to show our support for the national ‘Join the Song’ campaign - and shared this across our social media channels
We shared festive photos throughout Advent, and had a dedicated Advent and Christmas page on our website, which we linked to from our print materials
We re-shared 'Bradvent Calendar' videos from previous years, which included a mixture of music, poetry, children's activities and more
We supported the Association of English Cathedral's digital Advent campaign of 'Cathedral Doors'
We continued with our weekly live-streaming, branded up for the season, and covered as many events and services as possible with highlight photos to share across our social media
What didn’t work as expected?
We maybe didn't get as many online views as we hoped, and the balance between creating and recording the content and then getting it out across numerous channels is always a challenge with limited capacity. What key insights or lessons did you gain from your approach?
What key insights or lessons did you gain from your approach?
We learnt that it's not always possible to get a lot of content recorded well ahead of time so it does bleed into late November and December, and there's a fine balance in assembling enough content without adding additional stress onto colleagues. It's also a challenge to rise above the ‘noise’ on social media and stand out at such a busy time of year.
That said, our content helped us raise our profile online and can be used in subsequent years. We aimed for a variety of content aimed at different audiences, while also making sure we didn't abandon print materials, and used them in conjunction with a digital strategy.
How are you evolving your digital strategies for this year’s "Calm and Bright" theme?
We're doing some more videos on the theme, which can actually be recorded much earlier as they are less time sensitive. These will focus on how our staff members and clergy find calm in the season, and using each one as a call to action to a particular event or service. We'll also be using TikTok for the first time, and we'll continue to re-use archive materials in new ways to help create fresh takes on previous recordings without having to start from scratch. We also feature in this year's national campaign video from the Church of England, so we'll be sharing that on our main channels to encourage people to come to the Cathedral. Finally, as we reach the eve of Bradford being the City of Culture, we'll be embracing that branding in our digital content during Advent and Christmas.
Many thanks to Phil for sharing with us. Hopefully these examples and reflections give you some inspiration for what your church could do this Advent and Christmas!
