On April 24th at 9:50PM, Times Square New York was saturated with the words “Jesus” and “No other name” for an hour, as part of a creative campaign by Hillsong. But it wasn’t planned that way.

Earlier this year, Hillsong’s communications team came up with the idea of taking over Times Square as a way to promote Jesus’ name above all other names in line with the theme of their upcoming worship album and annual conference. But the massive cost of advertising in such a location meant they could only afford a few billboards after midnight.

On the scheduled night, photographers and Hillsong representatives gathered in Times Square in anticipation of Jesus’ name being splashed over the most prominent advertising space in the world. But as the clock ticked over to 12:30am—their purchased time—nothing happened.

Hillsong Communications Director Jay Argaet tells the story on the Hillsong blog. “It was frustrating and confusing. Had there been a technical glitch? Due to the time being early morning we couldn’t get through to the advertising agency to see what had happened. All we knew was that the video never came up.

“We returned to our hotel around 2:00am feeling pretty down about the situation. We decided to pray about it and contact the advertising agency the next day. We had a hunch that, knowing God, He always has a greater plan.”

The next morning the ad agency who’d organised the campaign apologised for the mistake and offered them 21 billboards at a reduced price, for an hour at no extra cost and they could pick the time.

“Anyone who works in marketing or communications would know that the value we got for such a little spend was truly a miracle.”

So it was that at 9:50PM on a Thursday night late last month Times Square was covered with the name of Jesus. The ads were video loops, rolling from ‘No Other Name’ to ‘Jesus’ (check out the video below).

Jay Argaet says the idea behind the campaign was to challenge “any name that asserts itself as greater than the name of Jesus.”

“Whether it be a name that is associated with success, wealth or fame, or a name that speaks of failure and lack such as sickness, depression and poverty, His name—the name of Jesus—is greater.”

Images from the Hillsong Blog.