The overhead lights go down and spotlights ignite the stage. The centerpiece of the stage comes into focus anchored by supporting screens and banners. There is a collective, unified feeling that washes over the audience – a positive energy that emanates from each audience member as they gaze ahead. The audio overhead triggers the start of what everyone has gathered to witness. It’s in these moments just as the show is about to begin, that the audience comes alive ready to be inspired.
Faith-based meetings and conferences are essential for many organizations. With the faith-based industry continually growing, there are now hundreds of faith-based meetings and conferences across the country each year. While the demographics, belief systems, and goals of each may differ, they all share the common goal of communicating a message that inspires their followers.
By focusing on three simple principles, Switch has developed relationships with faith-based groups of all sizes and denominations.
RESPECT Your Beliefs
Marketing-respect must be earned. When brands release a campaign or commercial, it’s asking consumers to trust what is being said is truthful and authentic to the brand. Long-standing brands have stood tall for as long as they have because they have gained brand trust. This starts with respect within the organization and respect directed towards your target audience. As an agency that works with a variety of brands and organizations, we’re aware that our relationships are built not just on our capabilities, but also on trust. Respect is not given, it is earned.
Respecting your organization and being sensitive to your beliefs is what sets apart an agency that works with you from an agency that partners with you. Switch has partnered with organizations on shows that take months to plan, three days to load in followed by additional days of rehearsal. From our executive producers to our stage hands, there is a high-level of sensitivity and respect that accompanies our working relationship, every step of the way. Producing a faith-based meeting or event requires a high-level of trust in the agency you choose, and we’ve earned that trust through 40+ years of impactful and respectful meetings & events.
HIGHLIGHT Your Message
Your core values and what you believe in is important to your organization and followers. Naturally, messaging is a key part of faith-based events. Whether it is informative or motivational, what you want to communicate needs to be done in a direct and effective way. Highlighting your message and presenting it in a way that your entire audience connects with and understands is essential to the success of your event. Switch not only completely conveys your belief system but positions your messaging in a way that inspires your community.
Tried-and-true marketing tactics are still used when approaching any type of meeting or event. The concept of emotional marketing is centered around communicating a story that your audience can connect with in a human way. What industry is better suited for emotional and heartfelt messaging than the faith-based event industry? By using emotional appeal when developing a strategy for your event, you create more profound, meaningful relationships with your audience that they will carry with them long after the event.
ENGAGE Your Audience
Social media provides ways to communicate with your congregation and followers, however, nothing can beat the impact and power of hearing and feeling a message in person. This is why people flock to faith-based events and gatherings: they are hungry for the level of real-world engagement that can’t be replicated by staring at a screen.
Switch recently served as the producer on the NAYC (National American Youth Congress) 2019 show. The three-day show drew 40,000 Pentecostal youth 18 and under. Capturing their attention and maintaining it day after day is no easy feat. Engaging your audience means connecting to both the heart and the mind. It’s finding ways to communicate, whether through words, video, movement, song, dance, or all of the above, and deepening the relationship with your audience. Through brainstorming and essential conversations with our clients, we are able to recommend a specific approach for the story and the production that connects with target audiences.
For over 40 years, we have worked with such organizations as:
- Catholic Health Initiative
- Catholic Health Association
- United Pentecostal Church International
- National American Youth Congress
- Catholic University of America
- Lutheran Women’s Missionary League
- and many more.
Faith is a belief in something better – something that might be hard to see for some people, but what others feel in their heart. At the heart of what we do at Switch is create experiences worth sharing; experiences that make people stop, think, feel, move, and believe in the message that’s being communicated.
Because your beliefs and the experiences we create together matter, let us know how we can help bring your message to life and create those praiseworthy moments on stage.
Contact Chris Jobst
314.206.7804 or ChrisJ@switch.us
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