Vocation advertising campaign began humbly; has grown and become more focused with interns' involvement

By Paul Eschen, Jessica Halloran, and Father Mark Smith

The current advertising efforts for priestly vocations in the Jefferson City diocese had a humble beginning. Shortly after the formation of the Diocesan Vocation Committee in the summer of 2002, committee member Father Wayne Boyer proposed that the diocese devote some effort and money to advertising in the mainstream media to promote priestly vocations.

Years ago, he had happened to see a small classified ad in a sports newspaper. That ad is what spurred him eventually to consider the Priesthood as his vocation. The Vocation Committee researched previous outreach efforts in the diocese and decided that it would be best to get some professional consultation. Unfortunately, hiring an advertising company would have been way too expensive.

Also, the committee concluded that previous attempts to work with advertising professionals were unsuccessful. Advertisers didn't seem to understand the unique nature of the Priesthood or the methods necessary to invite young men to consider it. The initial "eureka" moment came when the committee realized that the University of Missouri offers advertising as a major within its world-renowned School of Journalism.

Through advertising-major students involved at St. Thomas More Newman Center parish in Columbia, the committee contacted the university to ask for suggestions. It was quickly determined that the best course of action would be to make the Vocation Committee a client for some senior students' capstone projects.

In the capstone project class, students function as full-service advertising consultants for real clients. The clients may or may not use the students' efforts but agree to pay the students' out-of-pocket expenses and often a fee to the university. The students do research, develop advertising strategies, and make a formal proposal to the client - exactly as they would do with clients at a real advertising agency.

As grace would have it, the diocese was blessed with two competing teams of students developing advertising strategies for vocation awareness. Generally, the committee considered the proposals from both student teams to be excellent. After some initial funding was secured, the committee decided to hire one student intern to combine the best ideas from both groups' proposals. The first intern was John Galloway of Jefferson City, a Cathedral of St. Joseph parishioner, Helias Interparish High School graduate and active student member of St. Thomas More Newman Center parish. He agreed to work for the diocese until he could secure more-permanent employment. His initial efforts set the ball rolling and became the foundation for future efforts.

After Mr. Galloway moved on, it was determined that advertising-major students should continue to be employed to facilitate the advertising efforts. As one priest stated: "I know how to celebrate the sacraments and take care of souls. I do not know how to run an advertising campaign." Subsequent interns included Shelly Fravala, Kristen Watkins, Brian Bunten, D'Arcy Rapp and Clay Schermann. The current two interns are Paul Eschen and Jessica Halloran.

Having student interns has offered some challenges but also many benefits. Frequent consultation is possible with them to make sure that the message is appropriate. The student interns have completed or assisted with the following: a series of ads in The Catholic Missourian; the posters on display in parishes and other places; a series of radio ads broadcast a few years ago; displays at Sixth Grade Vocation Day; the "An Evening with the Bishop" dinner; and other tasks as determined by the Vocation Director. They also were responsible for setting-up and maintaining the discoverthepriesthood.org website.

The interns make all the contacts and negotiate the contracts with printers and media outlets. Additionally, they update the multi-year plan for vocations advertising and have even conducted research about its effectiveness. In short, they do almost everything that a full-service advertising agency would do, under the direction of the vocation director and committee.

New directions

Working as an intern for the Diocese of Jefferson City has been a very rewarding and wonderful learning experience. Having an internship provides opportunities to develop skills and learn lessons that could not come from a classroom setting.

Mr. Eschen and Ms. Halloran applied for the internship, hoping to put the skills they have learned so far in journalism school to the test. And what better way to do that then to work for a cause they believed in? They started researching immediately. Upon studying the campaigns used by the diocese in the past, the interns found that they had been successful in breaking the stereotypes of priests but hadn't focused on much besides raising awareness.

With Fr. Joseph Corel's assistance, they started brainstorming and coming up with new marketing and advertising concepts that the diocese could use. They specifically wanted to reach younger men and bring their attention to vocations. After many hours of working through various concepts, the interns decided to focus on the idea of spiritual masculinity and its importance in choosing to become a priest.

They thought that high school boys could relate to growing up and becoming a man. The interns focused on how a priest embodies many of the important attributes of being masculine and being a leader. Accordingly, they designed a brochure that was distributed to the local high schools, and created radio advertisements that were broadcast during Mizzou football and basketball games.

Along with these projects, the interns have also designed brochures and other materials for Camp Maccabee, which is a retreat geared toward high school boys. Working on these projects has only accounted for a part of this experience. The interns have met many wonderful people through events such as "An Evening with the Bishop" and school events. Those people have helped with ideas and have provided a lot of help.

The outgoing interns believe the campaign should continue to focus on young men but should also be extended to include men who are considering the Priesthood as a second career. Overall, they believe this has been an amazing experience, and they are proud of the work they have accomplished.