April 20, 2022 at 2:26 p.m.
Are you lost?
Are you lost?
That is the question the latest creative campaign in the Diocese of Albany is asking young adults in looking to reach them and bring them into a relationship with God through unconventional means: a billboard campaign.
The idea is the brainchild of Thomas Cronin, advisor to the Bishop for Family and Parish Evangelization, who has brought to the Diocese the successful young adult events — Real Talk Rosary, Good News & Cold Brews, Holy Hour & Happy Hour and Coffee House Gatherings — as part of the “You Belong” initiative (rcda.org/youbelong). These gatherings are drawing an average of 50 people, so clearly there is a need that is being met.
“This whole billboard campaign is part of the ‘You Belong’ campaign which has been targeted to more of the young adult demographic defined as 21-to-39,” Cronin said. “The billboard idea has been on my mind for a couple of years and for a number of reasons. I felt like I really wanted to get out of our comfort zone and try something different. The other thing is I also felt like we always talk about, ‘How do we reach the margins? How do we reach those on the periphery?’
“I truly felt like with the billboards we were trying a very different approach to reach a larger scale of people, specifically those that we would not be normally engaging with through our normal media. That really was the impetus behind the billboards, trying to be more aggressive and creative.”
The billboard campaign will be run in locations in Albany, Greene (Route 9W in Athens), Montgomery (Route 30 north of Voorhees Road in Perth), Schenectady (Erie Boulevard south of Freemans Bridge Road), and Warren (Boulevard Avenue east of Quaker Road in Glens Falls) counties for a period of four weeks, starting May 9. The Albany billboard, located near Route 5 on Yardboro Avenue, gets a head start and you can look for that starting April 25. Cronin added that he is also working to have billboards placed in the greater Oneonta and Herkimer areas as well.
Besides the young adult demographic, Cronin added that the campaign is also targeting “fallen away” or “occasional” Catholics, young families and “seekers.” The billboard will ask the question, “Are you lost?” and have its own dedicated webpage (rcda.org/found), which will be filled with video testimonials, prayer and spiritual resources and numerous links to diocesan support groups. There will also be an aggressive social media blitz on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The website and social-media campaign will be coordinated in partnership with the diocesan communications team of Emily Hampton, multimedia specialist, and Molly Halpin, communications specialist, whom Cronin said he “would not have been able to do this without them!”
The campaign follows along with the idea of going out to meet people where they are at and evangelize them. Cronin said waiting for this demographic to come back to the Church on their own is not an option.
“The true purpose of the billboard is to drive people to the new rcda.org/found landing page and then from there, when visitors go to the new RCDA “found” page, they are going to find a lot of valuable resources for them,” Cronin said. “Doing nothing is not an option. Doing nothing has got to stop.”
250 X 250 AD
250 X 250 AD
Events
250 X 250 AD
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