Every year at Easter, classical radio station Klara devotes an entire day to the most beautiful music written for Easter: Bach's St Matthew and St John Passion, Handel's 'Messiah' and so on. For a start, broadcasting music composed for Easter, at Easter, is quite obvious and not a very exciting thing to communicate.

So how could we promote the masterpieces of Christian music in these secular times?

To demonstrate that religious music is not only enjoyable and meaningful for religious people, we brought two complete opposites together: Monseigneur Léonard, the hard line catholic archbishop of Brussels, renowned for his ultra-conservative ideas. And on the other hand: the most virulent atheist in the country, professor Etienne Vermeersch. We brought them together In a radio spot and print ad where both men proclaimed their mutual love for Bach's St Matthew Passion. Making a statement: 'you don't have to be religious, to love it'.

We brought them together a second time: we organised a unique debate in the Brussels National Opera. A lively discussion that was broadcast live on Klara.

The debate between the archbishop and the atheist got us several articles, lots of social media attention (free publicity) and provoked much more reactions on social media than the usual debates on Klara.

Usually, the religious origin of so many classical music is mainly minimalised, seen as irrelevant, or even almost denied. But we felt that just telling 'this music is really really beautiful' would generate typical, harmless ads that would pass unnoticed amongst our main target group: highly educated, critical people.

So instead, we focused on the content, in order to make a strong, meaningful statement that would be picked up by our target group. Furthermore, it proved that great music can unite people regardless their beliefs.

We brought them together In a radiospot and print ad where they both proclaimed their mutual love for Bach's St Matthew Passion. Making a statement: 'you don't have to be religious, to love it'. Next, we brought them together a second time in a unique debate in the Brussels National Opera. A lively discussion that was broadcasted live on Klara.

The debate between the archbischop and the atheist got us several articles (free publicity) and provoked much more reactions on social media than the usual debates on Klara. And more importantly, Klara had 18% more listeners in the Easter period than the year before. Not bad for a small, niche radio station.