UCG Personal Appearance Campaign Drops $420.00 on Each Attendee and STILL Cannot Attract New Members

A UCG member had previously sent us information about the previous Billboard Campaign that UCG did that turned into a costly boondoggle of a mess. Now it seems they still have not been able to draw the public in without spending tons of money on them.  I guess they think spending $400.00+ in tithe donations is well worth it to get a new tithing member.  After all with UCG, it is all about the money and not the soul.

It seems that no matter how hard UCG tries, their message lands on unfertile soil.  So one brainiac in UCG thought about having 15 minute "Ted Talk" style broadcasts to impress the public.  TED Talks are usually fascinating subjects that cover a whole lot of information in a short period of time, all the while in an engaging style.  UCG sermons are 1-hour butt-numbing marathons that should be paired down to 20 minutes.  Even then, they still cannot present their theological mess in an appealing manner to engage new converts.

From the latest Annual General Council of Elders Report.

Public Appearance Campaign (PAC) Cost Analysis—Rex Sexton/Rick Shabi

Rex Sexton led the discussion of the cost analysis of the 22 PACs. The Council and the administration continually are trying to evaluate the effectiveness of preaching the gospel. There are four types of soil in the parable of Matthew 13. Our goal is to sow good seed on fertile soil. We see in the world that the soil is changing rapidly, and we are to see how we can improve to be as effective as we can be.

The cost-per-response for the PACs came to about $420 per new attendee. Mr. Sexton said we have tried other ways to preach the gospel and asked if we are making the best use of our funds. We remain committed to reaching all peoples with the gospel.

The Council discussed for about 30 minutes other methods that might be more effective.

Mr. Sexton mentioned how popular TED Talks are right now. Maybe a 15-minute Beyond Today presentation could be tried to see how effective it could be.

Peter Eddington stated that the $295,000 spent on the 22 PACs was about 1 percent of the media budget over the course of the campaigns, so it was a small amount used to try another avenue for preaching the gospel.

Jorge de Campos mentioned trying the Kingdom of God seminars again at the local level.

Mario Seiglie said the PACs in California were beneficial for the pastor and congregations as well. The presentations were encouraging to see how the three speakers approached the subject. He stated that he saw the PACs as more of a pilot program to help determine if the PACs would be effective.

Peter Eddington mentioned that in the first PAC in Cincinnati they invited magazine subscribers and utilized billboards along with Pandora ads and Google ads to target the general public. The general public did not respond as positively as subscribers did, so the focus for the future campaigns was moved to inviting and targeting just current readers and viewers.

Dan Dowd liked the idea of TED Talk type programs, where an ongoing series on our beliefs could be covered. Also radio is still a very valuable area to try again with possible podcasts.

Tony Wasilkoff said name recognition does have an impact with the PACs. When they tried PACs in Canada there were several that wanted to see the Beyond Today presenter.

Peter Eddington mentioned the bulk of the expense for the PACs is sending the invitation letters to get guests to attend. Over the course of 22 events, 52,000 letters were sent out three times at a cost of 50 cents per letter for printing and postage. One third of our total signups would occur each time the letters were sent out. About half of those that signed up to attend would not show up. So an additional challenge is getting guests to show after they have signed up.

Jorge de Campos suggested looking at the option to e-mail out invitations and see if that could work better.

John Elliott commented that the gospel message has to be preached even with low response. With different advertising approaches there is usually a 1.5 percent response, and our PAC response concurs with this. Sometimes the fruit comes later, but the gospel must be preached.

Mr. Sexton thanked the Council for their feedback.