David’s Tent
July 2025
Hi Rolf, Kelly & Nat.
Thanks for your time on Wednesday, it was great to meet you and to build more of a picture of the assistance you need in the weeks ahead.
You guys are part of something incredible and it’s so encouraging to see DT carving such an important path as a place of deep devotion and heartfelt worship to Jesus.
When we spoke I said my primary reason for having this conversation was from the deep desire to see DT 25 be a huge success. For that to happen there needs to be a concentrated team effort to deliver media and communications in line with the superb assessment that Peter and JJ have provided.
Personal note
I stepped out of The Send at the end of June and in doing so promised my wife and 3 sons that I would be fully present with them over the Summer. I’m keen to honour that whilst exploring how I can be a help to DT.
We’re attending the Keswick Convention at the start of the holidays and we’re away on a family holiday in Cornwall for 2 weeks also at the start of August. Therefore… The bulk of my focus here is in the next fortnight, followed by check points during the weeks that I’m away and drawing a team together who can help us get to the event having given it all we’ve got.
On this web page I’ve outlined three approaches, one that involved me and 2 that don’t.
ONE
Week by week
In order to deliver a focused media campaign, I’m keen to utilise the existing team, make clear asks of event volunteers (videographers primarily) and use JJ & Peter’s framework (and ongoing insights).
Seven Weeks Out (7/7)
Ben - Build out content strategy plan, team and foundational work, website amends, content creation commence (4 days). Big job - confirm team (need Ad specialist for implementation) See later in this plan for more details.
Kelly - Email focus
Nat - Content pieces in line with strategy
Joe & James - Creating content pieces (tbc)
Six Weeks Out (14/7)
Ben - Direction, content creation (using existing assets), gathering content from content creators (3 days).
Kelly - Email focus
Nat - Content pieces in line with strategy
Joe & James - Creating content pieces (tbc)
Five Weeks Out (21/7)
Ben - At Keswick Convention, will join Monday meeting, check progress and advise any strategic elements. (0 days)
Kelly - Email focus & Managerial oversight
Nat - Content pieces in line with strategy
Joe & James - Creating content pieces (tbc)
Four Weeks Out (28/7)
Ben - Direction, content creation (using existing assets), gathering content from content creators and strategy implementation. Ensure everyone is 100% focused on what is needed, content is planned and lined up (4 days).
Kelly - Email focus
Nat - Content pieces in line with strategy
Joe & James - Creating content pieces (tbc)
Three & Two Weeks Out (4/8 & (11/8)
Ben - Family holiday in Cornwall. Will join each Monday meeting, check progress and advise any strategic elements if needed. My hope is the plan with clear action times and dates are followed in line with clear team accountability. (0 days)
Kelly - Email focus & Managerial oversight
Nat - Content pieces in line with strategy
Joe & James - Creating content pieces (tbc)
One Week Out (18/8)
Ben - Final push, ensure strategic messaging in place in final drive for sales, FAQs and hope filled media - pointing to the vision and purpose of DT. (3 days)
Ben total - 14 days
Additional Notes
My team - I would like to approach John Metcalfe (my right hand guy at The Send) to see if he is able to be an advisor on this project and to be present on Monday team calls (especially when I’m on leave). We work extremely well together, delivering all of The Send campaigns thus far. This would be of further benefit for collabs.
Weekend of event - implement weekend content gathering strategy to feed media and comms for DT 26
Post event - implement post event strategy and returning attendees price offer/early bird opens for 2026.
Budget breakdown (£12k)
Given the hill to climb, £12k does feel like a tight budget. Having spent the past couple of days praying and sketching, here’s my vision for that investment.
Simple strategy:
Email: A focused, inspiring and hope filled email campaign (your database is absolute gold) - let’s get as many attendees to come again.
Socials: A dialed in Meta campaign that shares incredible content to capture existing and new audiences - leveraging the ‘building alter not the stage language’, ticketing options, contributors (those on stage and those not), key stories, testimonies and invites. This will be supported by focused Ad Spend helping drive the best performing organic content for maxium impact and a static campaign (single image Ad). As ticket sales increase more investment can enter the system (if needed).
Website: Ensure this is laser focused on DT August event, strip back distractions, super clear and easy C2A’s.
This is a high level oversight of how I would suggest the £12k would be spent.
Media & Marketing Direction - £3,000
Ben Elliott - strategic marketing direction, social media strategy, website amends and implementation, content creation, collaboration opportunities and team gathering.
*I’ve allocated 14 days of my time. This would usually equate to £8,400. I have given DT a 50% discount that I offer to ministries that deeply resonate with me and a gift equivalent to 4 days spread through this campaign.
Video pieces - £4,000
Aiming to create 20 high quality reels for use on media and be the foundation of Meta advertising spend. Aiming to deliver each for a budget of £200 per video using high quality vision aligned Christian content creators. Content briefs issued inline with the social media strategy.
Big Vision Piece - £2,000
Davids Tent vision piece, major focus on the why and what - over arching campaign piece.
Social Ads - £3,000
Focused Meta Ads - ideally £2,000 on Ads and £1,000 on management fee. This looks like £500 on static Ad campaign and £1,500 on targeted boosting on well performing pieces. The hope - as sales rise we able to invest more here as required.
*This figure is, I acknowledge, dramatically different from Peter’s suggestion of £10k spend on Ads. My belief is that it’s better to invest in pushing high quality organic content that resonates than pushing non proven pieces. For The Send at Wembley we spent £1,000 on paid Ads. My aim is to implement a similar strategy here. If we fail to build the content pieces at a pace that I plan to do, then we pivot in the next 10 days to Ad spend, using unspent funds from the video pieces
Additional Team
Nat 3-4 days focused on design and socials (carousels, graphics, stories, assets for emails etc).
Kelly - 3-4 days - strategy implementation, email marketing + more.
The Send/YWAM - Explore ways to connect the team for collaborations.
Joe & James - Creating content pieces (tbc)
Budget breakdown (£12k)
Given the hill to climb, £12k does feel like a tight budget. Having spent the past couple of days praying and sketching, here’s my vision for that investment.
Simple strategy:
Email: A focused, inspiring and hope filled email campaign (your database is absolute gold) - let’s get as many attendees to come again.
Socials: A dialed in Meta campaign that shares incredible content to capture existing and new audiences - leveraging the ‘building alter not the stage language’, ticketing options, contributors (those on stage and those not), key stories, testimonies and invites. This will be supported by focused Ad Spend helping drive the best performing organic content for maxium impact and a static campaign (single image Ad). As ticket sales increase more investment can enter the system (if needed).
Website: Ensure this is laser focused on DT August event, strip back distractions, super clear and easy C2A’s.
This is a high level oversight of how I would suggest the £12k would be spent.
£6k - 1.5k Ben - 3k Ads (Josh) (1.5 content)
£6k - 1k Ben
Media & Marketing Direction - £3,000
Ben Elliott - strategic marketing direction, social media strategy, website amends and implementation, content creation, collaboration opportunities and team gathering.
*I’ve allocated 14 days of my time. This would usually equate to £8,400. I have given DT a 50% discount that I offer to ministries that deeply resonate with me and a gift equivalent to 4 days spread through this campaign.
Video pieces - £4,000
Aiming to create 20 high quality reels for use on media and be the foundation of Meta advertising spend. Aiming to deliver each for a budget of £200 per video using high quality vision aligned Christian content creators. Content briefs issued inline with the social media strategy.
Big Vision Piece - £2,000
Davids Tent vision piece, major focus on the why and what - over arching campaign piece.
Social Ads - £3,000
Focused Meta Ads - ideally £2,000 on Ads and £1,000 on management fee. This looks like £500 on static Ad campaign and £1,500 on targeted boosting on well performing pieces. The hope - as sales rise we able to invest more here as required.
*This figure is, I acknowledge, dramatically different from Peter’s suggestion of £10k spend on Ads. My belief is that it’s better to invest in pushing high quality organic content that resonates than pushing non proven pieces. For The Send at Wembley we spent £1,000 on paid Ads. My aim is to implement a similar strategy here. If we fail to build the content pieces at a pace that I plan to do, then we pivot in the next 10 days to Ad spend, using unspent funds from the video pieces
Additional Team
Nat 3-4 days focused on design and socials (carousels, graphics, stories, assets for emails etc).
Kelly - 3-4 days - strategy implementation, email marketing + more.
The Send/YWAM - Explore ways to connect the team for collaborations.
Joe & James - Creating content pieces (tbc)
Key Immediate Action Points - Week One
Social strategy - Build this out in line with content pillars and adapt the story arc. Immediate actions:
Pinned carousels which inform/remind people of what DT is (reel also once produced)
Line Up (in a ‘go low’ way)
Daily posts (x1 reel, carousel or image +1-3 stories). Looking for 2-3 collabs per week.
Video from Trustee/senior figure explaining why DT happens and how worship teams are selected
Implement majority of social post ideas from Peter
Carousels for different personas (as identified in the strategic review) families, Gen Z, 50+ etc
Content briefs issued to high quality, vision aligned content creators
Direct ask of contributors with filming guide (seek to collab on these and create high quality worship moment reels they can also collab on)
Direct ask RE: team testimonies - clear filming plan and deadlines for delivery
Develop from the push chairs to the stage - all in together for Jesus.
Begin/Commission/Produce ‘Big Vision Piece’ - to go live week 21 July.
Sort YouTube Out - change main video, banner etc (ensure is joined up with other social formats).
Content Team - Pull together additional content producers and helpers to assist in developing content - this will be a combination of Nat making requests of DT volunteers, Ben drawing on Send content creators and possibly YWAM Harpenden team.
Ad team - I am not an PPC Ad specialist. Day one is a conversation to decide whether to appoint Hype, Neighbourhood or Ben to run Ads in conjunction with lessons from recent Send campaigns.
Email - I assume we can segment the data to those who have not yet bought tickets. I would like to check what data segmentation has occurred and explore tweaking messages based on age, region and gender and explore targeted messaging around key personas - aiming for a minimum of 2 emails to each group per week. All to be written and planned and scheduled by 19 July.
Socials - daily posts (x1 reel, carousel or image +1-3 stories). Looking for 2-3 collabs per week.
Sort YouTube Out and website messaging and banners etc
Next Steps
If you wanted to go ahead with what I have proposed I would commence work asap.
I would invoice 50% of my fee now and the second 50% on 1 August.
I would need the following questions answering and confirming the accountability processes - who and when we can touch base for progress updates.
BE needs
Access to drives of content or SSDs (video primarily and photo also)
Brand guide including logos/fonts etc
Introductions to anyone on team for whom I need to lease
Access to all social media accounts
Access to DT Meta business suite
Access to Squarespace (hello@becreative.team)
Agreed format structure for funds to be released so we can pay for Ads and content creatives etc (whether DT pay directly etc)
Access to internal comms systems if that exists (e.g Slack, Workplace etc)
Permission to reach out to potential collaborators and partners and content creators on behalf of DT
TWO
Ben Elliott - Website, strategy input (£1.5k)
Approach Hype or Neighbourhood to take charge of Ad Spend and content development. (£10.5k)
Thank you!
Praying into this, for you all and for DT.
I look forward to your feedback!
Blessings