Brand, Creative Direction, Social Media, Media Buying
Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg, Inc.
Established in 1994, the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg (AHWC) is Winnipeg’s only Indigenous Community Health Agency (CHA) that is designed to meet the needs of Winnipeg’s Indigenous Peoples (First Nations (status & non-status), Metis, Inuit, 2SLGBTQQ+). The Centre and its 12 programs are committed to offering a continuum of holistic and contemporary healing services. AHWC is governed by Indigenous Peoples for Indigenous Peoples.
What we accomplished
Research and Brand Development
Brand Strategy
Creative Direction
Content Creation
Ad Buying
Social Media Management
Why they brought me in
AHWC launched a new program, their Mobile Outreach Clinic and needed someone to lead the development and implementation of the AHWC COVID-19 communication strategy. This included working with internal and external stakeholders, maximizing the impact and alignment of key messaging with strategic and creative communication strategies. They also needed to support the dissemination of information per Regional Health and Provincial COVID-19 vaccination protocol, AHWC’s vaccination program standards, policy and procedural operations, and organizational values. Their communications aimed to remove barriers for people to get vaccinated and provide clear information about the COVID-19 vaccines. I was brought on as their Communications Coordinator for this clinic.
The Strategy
Starting from scratch, I worked with the Director of Services, Executive Assistant to the Executive Director, the Executive Director, and the Program Coordinator to acquire information and build a marketing plan based on goals and objectives. Then I planned, executed, reviewed and maintained the communications needs for the program. My process to tackle this project and role included the following steps:
1. Project plan
1. Did initial research to plan the project. Created a proposal and workplan.
2. Analysis
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Gathered information on the company, target audiences and their overall brand
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Identified and researched primary topics for the project, keywords and themes
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Created a marketing campaign plan
3. Plan
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Checked available content, and established social media channels
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Determined messaging, creative concept/theme of the campaign
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Decided on content assets, timeline, team and created an editorial calendar
4. Execute
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Created and printed flyers for physical and digital distribution
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Took photos, and videos, plus created graphics and maintained a presence on social media
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Prepared creative direction for a logo and brand identity, then acquired a third party to create it
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Provided creative direction and brought on a third party graphic designer to create advertisements
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Worked with advertising company to post billboard and transit ads, and facilitated the media buying process
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Prepared a press release
5. Review
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Prepared monthly progress reports
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Pivoted based on findings to be more efficient and effective
6. Close
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Prepared an end-of-project report
The Results
A key learning was to prioritize the project planning phase, which resulted in creating processes and templates for more efficient and effective results.
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In conclusion, despite some setbacks in the program, including a building fire and late-stage team changes, I was able to deliver most of the objectives we set out to meet. The project came to an end with 2 rounds of billboards promoting the clinic and sharing some final numbers. Having gone through the overall process in 5 months, I’ve noted some operations that could be improved and have set up measures to prepare for these in the future. All in all, I enjoyed working in an Indigenous-serving health organization that had a focus on supporting those experiencing homelessness and Indigenous people in Winnipeg’s core areas.