Launched 2016 • Six-week media campaign • 50,000+ call center calls & book orders
• 850 churches involved
Mega City Media Campaign in Sri Lanka (Colombo, 2016)
In 2016, a Mega City Media Campaign launched in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and quickly became highly visible across the city. Outdoor placements included billboards, banners, and bus-side advertising, supported by exposure through major newspapers, television, and radio over a six-week period. The campaign message appeared broadly enough that it drew responses from people across different backgrounds—including unexpected interest such as Buddhist monks requesting the campaign book.
Response came quickly and in large volume. By the end of March 2016, the call centre had received 50,000+ calls and campaign book orders, with most contacts coming from Colombo and additional requests from across Sri Lanka. The team scaled up to handle demand—described as 100 phones ringing throughout the campaign—and campaign books were prepared in multiple languages, including 60,000 Sinhala and 40,000 Tamil copies (with English also available). Churches began follow-up right away, with reports of hundreds of interested contacts per church (for example, about 200 in one smaller church and up to 500 in larger churches).
A large Colombo roadside billboard was part of the six-week Mega City Media Campaign—one of many outdoor placements across the city.
Nighttime billboards like this one were part of the six-week Mega City Media Campaign’s citywide visibility across Colombo.
Outdoor placements across Colombo—including multiple billboards on major roads—helped make the six-week Mega City Media Campaign highly visible citywide.
Your Gifts at Work!
50,000+
Call Centre Calls
& Book Orders
850
Churches Involved
100
Phone Lines
Active
100,000
Campaign Books Printed (Sinhala + Tamil)
Call Centre Response and Volunteer Training
During the Mega City Media Campaign in Sri Lanka, response came in rapidly through the call centre. Close to 55,000 families contacted the call centre during the campaign and in the weeks following to request the campaign book with transformation stories and a roadmap to a new life in Jesus. The scale of response showed that the campaign message was reaching widely across the island.
To handle the volume of calls and deliver requested materials, the team prepared local capacity in Colombo. Over 2,000 volunteers in Colombo were trained to handle calls at the call centre and deliver campaign books to people requesting them—ensuring that responses could move quickly from a phone call to real follow-up.
The call centre team prepared to handle the expected high volume of responses during the Mega City Media Campaign.
With demand surging, the Colombo call centre scaled to handle response—described as 100 phones ringing throughout the Mega City Media Campaign as people called to request the campaign book.
Hannu Haukka, with local church leaders gathered in Colombo to prepare for follow-up during the Mega City Media Campaign. Churches across Sri Lanka mobilized to respond to people requesting the campaign book through the call centre.
Calls poured in
By the end of March, more than 50,000 calls and campaign book orders had already come in—mostly from Colombo, but also from across Sri Lanka. The response came fast, and the call centre had to keep pace.
Mega City Campaign Report, Colombo
Follow-Up Took Root in Local Communities
As calls came into the call centre, the team heard more than requests—they heard readiness for conversation. The report noted that some callers wanted to make a faith decision immediately over the phone, while many others preferred to read the campaign book first and talk things through first.
That response moved beyond a single point of contact. Many churches reported they already had contacts with hundreds of interested people, signalling that follow-up was forming across local congregations. The report also highlighted unexpected reach—Buddhist monks requested the campaign book—showing how widely the message travelled across Sri Lanka.
As interest grew, many churches reported contacts with hundreds of interested people—evidence that follow-up was taking root in local communities beyond the call centre.
Pastors sharing the Good News during the Mega City Media Campaign in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
As the momentum of the campaign continued, people filled churches with a desire to worship.