In Southern Cross out on Sunday, I published detailed figures that compare NSW's Jesus All About Life campaign with those in Adelaide, Tasmania and the ACT.

Here is an overview of my assessment of the campaign.

STRENGTHS

"¢ Free media PR coverage was much stronger in NSW than previous campaigns - 580 items. [UPDATE Martin Johnson who ran previous JAAL campaigns argues this is proportional to previous campaigns]  The campaign did create notable buzz, given the crowded Sydney media environment. My estimate based on Mark McCrindle's post-campaign phone poll shows that about 700,000 NSW adults had a conversation about Jesus as a result of the campaign. (though we don't know the quality or content of that conversation).

"¢ As with previous JAAL campaigns, the most significant result was energizing local churches. Two thirds of JAAL registered church leaders say they saw people coming to their church outreach events as a result of the campaign. Just over 1 in 10 churches said they saw at least a small boost in attendance during the campaign. It good to see that nearly 28,000 JAAL books/gospels were ordered by churches for distribution, but compared to Connect09 orders and distribution its really a drop in ocean.

WEAKNESSES

"¢  Call centre response enquiries (480) were very disappointing, and per capital far below previous campaigns. To match SA, ACT and TAS should have been between 8,000-10,000. However this can be explained by the move away from a direct call centre phone number appeal towards a web-based campaign, and needs to be assessed in that light. (see below).

"¢  There was a disconnect between the 'Jesus all about life' banners and 'Jesus has answers' TV adverts. Both had impressive recall (banners 64%; TV adverts 69%). The campaign missed the opportunity to leverage off both.

INCONCLUSIVE

"¢  New media was the lynchpin of the new strategy. After focus testing in Sydney found that the old creative and its call to visit church provoked a highly highly negative reaction amongst under 40s, Bible Society switched to new creative that merely encouraged viewers 'to seek answers' online. The website visits / facebook friends numbers are impressive (around 160,000 contacts) However, I don't feel I have enough information to draw definitive conclusions about the success of this strategic change. How many of the web visits were from people who are already church-goers? Did the website design actually ensure that people who visited the site found it easy enough to engage with the gospel? Did the website link people with local churches for follow-up?

WHAT CAN SYDNEY ANGLICANS LEARN?

1. Anglican brand is strong. An interesting aside in the phone poll findings is that while McCrindle's phone poll found that most people polled had 'no idea' who was behind the JAAL TV adverts the two biggest guesses were 'Hillsong' closely followed by the 'Anglican Church'. Its certainly possible that Archbishop Jensen's 'launch' of the adverts on Sunrise helped boost the link between Anglicans and the adverts. Yet its also clear that despite our internal self-perception that the Anglican brand is 'daggy', the average Sydneysider is actually very warm towards us. And in this case more than 1 in 10 think Sydney Anglicans are up to making a slick, positive TV advert. This backs up yet again the focus group research into the Anglican brand conducted as part of Connect09.

2. Church banner campaign has great potential. One great strength of Sydney Anglicanism is that we have many, many churches in high profile, high traffic areas - think St Andrew's Cathedral, St John's Parramatta, St Thomas' North Sydney, St Matthew's, Manly, St Andrew's, Strathfield to name just a few. The McCrindle poll found that most people in NSW recalled the JAAL banners and this result was close to the TV advert recall. This finding suggests that a co-ordinated church banner campaign has great potential for a relatively cheap awareness campaign.

3. Broadcast media campaigns are too expensive in Sydney. Sydney's mass media market is highly fragmented, and becoming increasingly so as people move to the new freeview channels, pay TV and internet. Despite spending millions, the JAAL TV adverts were only able to reach about 56% of people. In previous campaigns, with far less spend, Bible Society were able to reach about 90% of people.