Campus Crusade for Christ Canada is selling Jesus via a multi-platform campaign that leverages the buzz around the upcoming film, The Da Vinci Code. And while some faith-based groups are advocating a ban on the film, this evangelical group, based out of Langley, B.C., is instead encouraging folks to watch the film as a way to start a dialogue about Jesus Christ. Elements in the campaign include an online blog at discussdavinci.com, DM pieces aimed at church leaders throughout the country, a 20-page magazine, cards touting the blog site, as well as radio, print and theatre ad buys.

‘Anywhere where you can leverage Christian issues is a great opportunity to use it,’ says Braden Douglas, a former marketing manager at Procter & Gamble and at Frito-Lay, and the current marketing director for Campus Crusade for Christ. ‘There’s been a lot of PR around the book, so we thought: how can we use this in our favour?’

The Discuss DaVinci campaign, which hits Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto, is aimed at two audiences – the Christian public and the general population. For the former group, Douglas’ in-house team of eight created church packs (‘as part of a push strategy’, he says) including a video, resource samples, and collateral pieces for the more than 450 churches within the group’s network. Ads were also placed encouraging dialogue in Christian print and radio media.

As part of the non-Christian strategy, Douglas says: ‘In terms of event marketing, volunteers will give out 20-page mini-magazines (a companion guide for the film, complete with resources) to folks at theatres going in to see the movie.’ Cards touting the site’s URL will also be doled out. Non-Christians should also expect in-theatre ads beginning May 26 aimed to stimulate traffic to the site as well.

Media buys and creative were done in-house.