⛪️ The Catholic Church’s Opportunity on TikTok

The Catholic Church is currently undergoing a “conclave,” the tradition where Cardinals from around the world come to the Vatican to elect the new Pope.

And thanks to the 2024 film Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, more people than ever before are familiar with the idea of a Conclave, which also means that more people are interested in how this new Pope will be elected.

That has already been made manifest on TikTok, as people are posting all types of videos commenting on the event.

You can find people recording explainer videos about the Conclave, making bets and predictions on the next Pope, and even producing fan edits of their favorite candidates.

Filipino Cardinal Luis Tagle has become especially popular because of his sunny disposition and several videos of him singing and laughing. If TikTok could vote for the new Pope, they’d pick Cardinal Tagle.

The Catholic Church, one of the world’s oldest institutions, has now become a trending topic on TikTok.

And the Catholic Church should act now…

If we were in a regular business scenario, this type of organic content would be a dream situation. People are passionately creating UGC about your brand, in this case that brand is the Catholic Church.

At PWR House, we work with brands to do deep analysis on TikTok to find the culture, content, and creators that are speaking about their business or adjacent topics.

The next step is to create a content strategy based on the ideas and feedback that’s being surfaced by your target audience. Many brands have successfully used this strategy on TikTok to tap into the cultural conversation.

If we worked with the Catholic Church, this would be the perfect opportunity to dive deep into sentiment around the church. A lot of Gen-Z identifies as “spiritual” but they are significantly less likely to have religious affiliation when compared to older generations like Millennials or Boomers.

If I was the CMO of the Catholic Church, that is what opportunity looks like. I have people who are “in-market” for a religious product and might consider Catholicism within their “consideration set.” That would help solve challenges around their current brand reputation…

The church has divine intentions but I’m sure they also have commercial and marketing goals.

For many brands, seeing people organically talk about their company on TikTok is a godsend. For the Catholic Church, going viral on TikTok might be a sign of the divine.