Redefining immigrant services
At Immigrant Services Calgary (ISC) I worked as the Communications Coordinator. It was a pivotal time at ISC, where we developed an entirely new approach for communicating and presenting the five centres of newcomer services.
During that time, I worked on rebranding the look and feel of the organization, managing and growing our digital marketing strategy, and planned the lead event to celebrate newcomers to the city.
A new brand
With five distinct centres that focus on different tools to support newcomers, Immigrant Services Calgary faced a disassociation between its components. Its visuals were also stuck in the past.
Through a brand refresh, I developed a new brand strategy that brought those centres under the ISC umbrella, with a colour hierarchy and clear iconography to showcase (regardless of language barriers) what kind of services they might receive at each centre.
This was reflected in our in-person materials like brochures and posters, and in our wide digital presence to help identify what each centre was about. Wide training was also a big element in this rebrand as we needed internal adoption to be high for this to succeed. For this, social media and print templates were created and I trained key members of each department in their use and new procedures to be implemented.
Social Media strategy
Immigrant Services Calgary had a combined digital marketing strategy that covered three main social media channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) and one new channel we launched one new Instagram page during my tenure.
Between these, we had a combined following of nearly 20,000 active followers, with an average of 17 clicks per post in 2020.
Our Digital Marketing strategy aim was to get clients to know more about ISC, be up to date with what we can do for them, and increase engagement with the community. My role was that of a strategic ally between those people running the services and those who could receive them.
I would schedule and monitor an average of 3-7 posts a day through our main channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter), and one post on Instagram 6-7 times a week. This meant overseeing, proofing, scheduling, and monitoring an average of 69 - 154 posts per week.
Other aspects of our Digital Marketing efforts included:
- Multi-lingual posts
- Cultural celebrations
-Recurring company culture campaigns
- Cross-posting with partners
- Client stories
- Paid Digital Efforts: Google Ad Grants campaigns + keyword optimisation and Paid social ads on Facebook through lookalike audiences (*).
These efforts were personalised for every centre.
Crisis management: COVID-19
As one of the the lead immigration agencies in Calgary when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020, it was a big part of my role to collaborate with other agencies and stay in touch with all city town hall efforts in order to provide accurate information in multiple languages to our customer base.
Going online was also a new challenge for ISC, so I was in charge of developing an online communications portal through which all staff could access whatever resources they needed from us to keep running. We adapted quickly and were back and running within a week.
This online platform also included multiple training videos and a short LMS section to ensure everyone could stay up to date with Communications procedures and our brand wasn't affected by the change.
Communications & Marketing handbook 2020
Celebrating newcomer excellence
The Immigrants of Distinction Awards is Immigrant Services Calgary's biggest event of the year and primary fundraiser. They are an event to showcase and celebrate the incredible journey of immigrants who have made their path in Canada and succeeded in their field.
In my role as the Communications Coordinator, I developed a visual strategy and campaign to help spread the word through ISC's various channels. I also worked to create portraits of all finalists and update all brand and design elements.
A rigorous campaign in the months leading up to the event was incredibly successful on social media and within the community, nonetheless, the event had to unfortunately be cancelled as the COVID-19 pandemic hit us that very same week.
The IDA handbook
As part of my role, I prepared a guide with all relevant information for the elements of the IDA's promotional campaign, brand guidelines, and strategy for upcoming years.
The faces of Calgary
I volunteered as the lead photographer for a campaign with Calgary's CLIP agency on a campaign that aimed to highlight the incredible contributions that newcomers to the city provide to its excellence.