A new church media campaign has proved effective in raising awareness of the church and helping members in their missionary efforts.

Kevin Kelly, chair of the church Media Task Force, talked about his research and development of the Truth Restored campaign at the 2008 Beckham Lecture Thursday [March 27, 2008] in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium.

"The church wanted to broaden their reach," Kelly said. "They needed a different approach to reach their audience."

After months of research, Kelly's team concluded that "people do not know the church or care about it."

To increase awareness and understanding of the church, Kelly's team decided to shift from a direct marketing strategy to brand development.

Research showed the current image of the church as "Quirky sect from Utah." The objective image was "Church that stands for the restored truth."

With this in mind, the team wanted to focus the media on the message "Truth Restored." The team developed four possible media campaigns to present to the first presidency.

"I was nervous," said Kelly. "I wore my lucky tie."

The first two proposals died , Kelly said. The third and fourth proposals, "Man on the Street," and "Testimonials," were approved.

The Man on the Street TV ads feature short clips of people on the street discussing questions such as, "does God know me?" and "what happens after death?" The ads close with the line "After centuries of confusion, truth about life's greatest questions is now restored."

Testimonial advertisements feature real converts telling their stories about the questions they had about life and their conversion to the church.

"We wanted them [the advertisements] to be honest and raw," Kelly said. "We filmed them in black and white so there would be no distractions."

The ads ran in an eight-month media test that included TV and radio commercials, magazine print ads, billboards, banner ads, and new pass-along cards.

"The purpose of the campaign is that media does the heavy lifting," Kelly said, "and members can answer questions and befriend."

Kelly concluded his presentation by sharing the results of pre-media and post-media surveys.

"The surveys show that the campaign increased awareness, defined the churches claims, identified relevant messages, made missionary work more meaningful to members and increased visits to mormon.org," Kelly said.

camilletanner@byu.edu