The primary question when designing your marketing materials is“ What is the key draw for your target audience?” Some traditional answers would be: following the activities of the pope; seeing a favorite speaker / musician; experiencing Catholicism from a different culture; feeling a part of a large-Church experience; meeting new people; going to Mass with peers; being in solidarity with young people around the world, including youth and / or young adults from your parish, campus, diocese, eparchy, or country. Utilize the answer to this question in the choices you make regarding the language and images you use to promote the event – and consider how you would answer this question above and beyond the traditional responses. This may be something for your core team to wrestle with early in the planning process.
When marketing the stateside gathering, explore communication structures that exist already in your parish, region, or diocese / eparchy such as newspapers, websites, bulletins, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Ask yourself,“ How can we ensure there is a presence on every local Catholic platform( bulletin, website, social media, newspaper, particular group email lists, pulpit announcements)?” What resources can you create to distribute to local parishes( event postcards, flyers, etc.)? Try to make it easy for
34 the parish secretary or others who coordinate church communications.
PLANNING TIP
Think big. Utilize an event like this to help lay the foundation for ministry growth in your parish, campus, diocese, or community.
Determine your big- picture spiritual and ministerial goals and allow World Youth Day to be a catalyst. For example, if you want small group ministry to take off, use the small groups during your stateside WYD celebration and plan a post-event small group series or other similar gatherings.
In all that you do for marketing and promotion, make sure it is high quality, wellpresented, and clear / understandable to your audiences. Consider what images and words would be useful in promoting the event. Also consider what venues are best for marketing the stateside gathering with young people in your local community. If your target audience includes non-active Catholics, consider where they gather and receive information, which may be different than how more active young people get informed about upcoming events.
You may want to ask a young person( or a team of young people) to be your lead on the marketing. Is there someone in your local