In February 2021, as the country commemorated Black History Month, PBS released a documentary series on the history of the Black Church in America highlighting the struggles, victories, and transformations that have taken place in the church over the centuries. The Black Church is a beacon of hope in the Black community and continues to lead the way towards racial equality in America. When CT Creative Studio, the paid advertising branch of Christianity Today, reached out to us to run social media campaigns for the documentary, we were ecstatic.
Digital Marketing for Racial Justice: Promoting the PBS Documentary “The Black Church” through CT Creative Studio
During Black History month 2021, PBS released its groundbreaking documentary “The Black Church: This Is Our Story. This Is Our Song.” In partnership with Christianity Today’s CT Creative Studio, we utilized digital campaigns to generate monumental interest.
The project was a story of collaboration. As our team developed creative and copy, PBS and CT Creative Studio provided critical feedback. We strategized where best to allocate resources and implemented campaigns on Facebook and Twitter. Throughout the course of the campaign, we closely monitored metrics and optimized ad spend to funnel into higher performing ads and placements. CT Creative Studio developed an engaging, free viewing guide the audience could download and use to follow along. Coordination and constant campaign management helped us surpass CT Creative Studio’s internal goal of 600,000 impressions in eight days of promotion.
“Ashby and Gabriel helped refine the focus of our campaign and identify the audience we needed. Despite having many different components, each tweet and Facebook post was closely monitored. Demonstrating their own knowledge of social media marketing and their team's flexibility, halfway through the campaign, Ashby and Gabriel suggested a look-alike audience and reallocation of funds to build on momentum growing in other areas. We are incredibly pleased with the execution, collaboration, and outcome.”
Joy Beth SmithCreative Projects Director at CT Creative Studio
BY THE NUMBERS:
Campaign metrics between February 9 and February 17, 2021
8
Days of Promotion
414,967
People Reached on Facebook
1,440,916
Impressions on Facebook and Twitter
36,457
Link Clicks on Facebook and Twitter
119,526
Post Engagements on Facebook
4,978
Post Shares on Facebook
Multi-Channel Advertising
Figuring out where to place ads and how to allocate budget between platforms can be as important as the ad creative itself. Our experience on every major social media platform allows us to provide strategic guidance that can dramatically improve the outcome of a campaign. Along with paid advertising campaigns on both Facebook and Twitter, our team harnessed the power of Christianity Today’s expansive social media following by posting content on their Facebook page and utilizing the Branded Partner Tool, reaching thousands of additional people, with no additional ad spend cost.
Taking Next Steps with Momentum
After the documentary series aired, Christianity Today followed up on the momentum by utilizing our services to promote another campaign: a webinar about race and the church. Utilizing similar strategies to the PBS campaign, we were able to help their team harness the momentum of the digital conversation and earn over 1,800 event responses to the webinar at a cost of $0.19 each.
