THE Church of England’s digital strategy received industry-wide recognition on Tuesday evening, when it came top in five categories at the annual Digital Impact Awards.
The awards, given by the magazine Communicate, are “the UK’s largest celebration of digital work in corporate communications”, the awards’ website says.
The C of E was awarded gold in four categories: Best Corporate App, for #LiveLent, developed jointly with Church House Publishing, Hymns Ancient & Modern, and Aimer Media; Best Corporate Website, for churchofengland.org, which was launched last November (News, 17 November 2017); Best Use of Existing Social Media Platforms: Small budget [less than £20,000]; and Best Use of Digital by a Charity, NGO, or NFP, for the “Alexa Skill”, which provides answers to questions about faith and prayer and was developed with Church House Publishing and Aimer Media (News, 23 May).
The C of E also won digital in-house team of the year, in recognition, the judges said, of “its efforts over the past few years in building a digital function where once there was none. The Church is now digitally savvy, and explores new technologies — like Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant — with ease.”
Companies that were shortlisted in the categories won by the C of E included Argos, Warner Brothers, Diageo, and Debenhams.
The C of E’s head of digital, Adrian Harris, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have won five awards. They recognise the passion and hard work of many colleagues across the Church over the last two years. It’s wonderful to see the way that dioceses and local churches are engaging in digital for the opportunities it brings to grow people’s faith, bring people to faith, and encourage church attendance.”
This month, the C of E launched its Christmas campaign for this year, #FollowTheStar (News, 5 October).
Read some of the letters to the editor that we received about the campaign this week.
Adrian Harris, the Head of Digital for the Church of England, and Thomas Allain Chapman, the Head of Publishing for Church House, talk on The Church Times Podcast about the C of E’s Christmas campaign this year: #FollowtheStar.