Marketing and Graphic Design

It is imperative to mention the organization's structure and status. JEA's leadership follows a classic functional organizational structure, where different leaders manage program development, logistics, and marketing. A common challenge of this organizational structure type is that it creates silos. That is the case for JEA’s 19 programs. Through the years, each program was developed at separate times and under different leadership, resulting in inconsistent branding for the programs that was not consistent with the overall brand. Moreover, JEA’s brand guidelines were limited, listing only the colors and fonts on its website. Using a more collaborative approach, my team and I developed the 28-page brand guidelines for JEA. Based on observational research of JEA’s outputs and program leaders' input, the brand guidelines establish clear standards to ensure consistent, professional, and recognizable communication across all platforms. Concretely, it outlines guidelines for logo use, color palettes, typography, voice, and imagery to unify JEA’s visual brand across its programs. All JEA stakeholders, whether a volunteer or program leader, can create unified materials that advance JEA’s mission to enhance member engagement and build trust without having to ‘redesign’ the wheel each time.

To move business forward, it was necessary to start with a strong foundation; to align larger organizational goals with clear support from the communication strategies. In the first quarter of 2025, I developed the 34-page Integrated Marketing Communication plan to provide the Journalism Education Association with a strategic roadmap to enhance visibility, increase membership, and deepen engagement across all platforms amongst diverse stakeholders. Grounded in qualitative research on member needs and market research in industry trends, the plan outlines objectives focused on consistent branding, expanding digital outreach, and measurable growth in audience engagement.

A communication audit is another essential piece to move business forward. An audit provides a data-driven picture of what works and what needs improvement to ensure resources are well-invested to make the most impact. I developed a 24-page communication audit for JEA to review internal and external strategies to assess communication effectiveness, identify challenges, and propose improvements. As a framework, uses and gratification theory is the best approach to decipher JEA’s multi-channel communications to determine which vehicles are most appropriate to drive messaging to stakeholders. 

Another barrier to achieving campaign efficacy was measuring campaign results. Before joining JEA, there was no benchmark data available. A simple solution I implemented was a quarterly analytics report for JEA. This report was critical for informed business decisions. By determining validity and analyzing KPIs each quarter, JEA leadership can more accurately track progress toward goals, identify trends in data, and adjust strategies in real-time. It helped our leadership team and the board understand what is working and what program areas need improvement.

After executing contracts with clients, they often requested proof and analytics. Essentially, clients wanted proof that multichannel communication was shared (with links) and its impact. Noticing this pattern, I devised an analytics report to be shared with clients at the end of their sales contract, for an additional fee. Clients who purchased a package received their analytics report for free. The Freedom Forum Advertising Report was my first client who purchased a digital package. The report outlines deliverables across multiple channels—email marketing, website advertising, print ads, and social media promotion—with detailed analytics. Key performance metrics include 377,489 impressions and 617 clicks (excluding print advertising). Providing an analytics report to clients is crucial because it offers data-driven transparency,  accountability, and demonstrates advertising efficacy through ROI to clients. This sales strategy helped coax the client into contract renewal and exploring additional advertising.