For a school project, I was tasked with developing an event campaign for a non-profit organization. I chose to develop a mock campaign for Climate Network Lanark, a local group connecting and supporting climate change action within the community. The goal of my mock campaign, “New Year New Climate”, was to inspire folks to take climate action with a New Year’s Resolution type challenge. This would realize change across Lanark County through simple everyday actions. It would also encourage new volunteers to join the network, building its long-term capacity.
The challenge of the design process was to inform and engage folks in many different, mostly rural, communities across a wide geographic area. The campaign must be appealing to a large and varied demographic.
Posters would be posted in community spaces like libraries, community food hubs, or popular coffee shops. Viewers would be directed to QR code which brings them to the Climate Network Lanark Instagram page.
The social media banners would direct also traffic to the Instagram page, where the user can choose to follow the account. Every day in January, the account will post simple actions to inspire "climate-impact" resolutions or promote local projects and partnerships associated with Climate Network Lanark. Users are encouraged to repost or interact with each post, gaining entries for a prize draw at the end of the challenge.
I spent time researching Climate Lanark Network and groups like it. The goals of the organization heavily influence how the event campaign is planned and designed. In addition to fighting climate change and its impacts, the organization aims to:
- educate all segments of Lanark County's communities on the local and broader impacts and solutions for climate change.
- develop partnerships to develop local solutions
- cultivate, engage, and support volunteers in community action
I also researched Lanark County and its demographics. The research led me naturally to the advertising avenues. A mostly rural demographic still relies on transmitting information through community gathering spots like libraries, community food hubs, or popular coffee shops. Use of social media would also be required to reach the wide demographic. The most important is to not alienate any populations with a "greater than thou" or highly scientific. The look and feel of the campaign must be relatable, everyday, and human-centred.
In addition to accessible printed posters, I focused on social media banners for three popular social media websites: Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. In all cases, viewers would be directed to QR code which brings them to the Climate Network Lanark Instagram page, where the user is encouraged to follow the account.
Every day in January, the account will post simple actions to inspire "climate-impact" resolutions or promote local projects and partnerships associated with Climate Network Lanark. Users are encouraged to repost or interact with each post, gaining entries for a prize draw at the end of the challenge.
The development phase saw a few iterations of designs to ensure the correct path has been followed.
