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The Assignment

Take photos of Thanksgiving and Christmas product offerings for online store, create branded in-store signage and bagging flyers, develop and implement an e-mail marketing and social networking strategy.

Approach

To account for the photos I needed for the online store, I made a list of products and broke them into two photo shoots. I provided Local Foods' cafe chef with the list and some styling direction so he could have them ready to go. Due to the homey nature of the campaign, I secured an offsite location in a home and made sure we were there the best time of day for natural light. I sourced a number of props, from antique silver to gravy boats, serving platters and centerpieces. While I was working on the photos, I delegated the Thanksgiving design work to one of their in-house designers. I provided him with the photos, copy and size requirements as well as some general style guidelines. Once we finalized the design for the Thanksgiving signage and flyers, I used them as templates to create the ones needed for Christmas. I developed an email schedule that served readers twice a week over the course of two months and focused on helpful content as well as information about the store's offerings, discounts and deadlines. Content included "How Much Food to Order/Make", "An Interview With Our Turkey Farmer", "Cranberries - Beyond Cranberry Sauce", "Recipes for Leftovers". Social media posts supported the content in the email campaigns. Posts were made once a week during the first month of the campaign (during October) and once a day during the second month of the campaign (during November).

Product Photos

Flyers and Signage

E-mail Campaigns

Testimonial

Katherine played a key role in launching and honing the brand and voice of Local Foods for two years beginning in 2015. Katherine played a jack-of-all-trades marketer role. She worked closely with me in setting the brand tone and managing all elements of marketing production--from photography to copywriting to email, events and social execution to analytics. Katherine was flexible and successful – she helped evolve the marketing as the consumer business grew from a handful of customers per week to several hundred. Katherine is a consummate professional who brought a relentless drive to accomplishing our marketing mission and truly supporting the growth of the brand. She is creative, responsive and a brilliant executor, and we were lucky to have her.

Ryan Kimura

Co-Founder of Local Foods

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The Nonprofit

My passion for food, community and gardening/farming is, in part, due to my experience working for Capital Roots, a nonprofit in upstate New York. Capital Roots reduces the impact of poor nutrition on public health by organizing community gardens, providing healthy food access, offering nutritional and horticultural education for all ages and coordinating urban greening programs. I had the honor of serving as their PR & Marketing Coordinator for nearly four years , starting in March of 2011 and ending in December of 2014.

The Job

My time at Capital Roots consisted of interviewing the nonprofit's constituents and photographing people, gardens, farms, food and events. I then used the information and photos I gathered to generate various forms of content. Each year I documented and promoted the daily activities for 11 programs, 4 annual events, a number of press conferences and new products. I created social media and website content, press releases, annual reports, print and digital newsletters, direct mail, signs, flyers, advertisements and brochures. I oversaw the work of a marketing intern to help manage the workload during the busier summer months. As a member of the organization's Communications Committee, my work was guided, reviewed and critiqued by the other committee members - a team of six marketing/communications professionals. In addition to raising awareness about the organization and supporting a rebrand roll-out, the content I created helped raise the funds needed to support an annual operating budget of $1.4 million and a $2.8 million capital campaign for the creation of a food hub.

Program and Event Photos

During my tenure at Capital Roots I interviewed and photographed hundreds of people involved in their programs and events. I built a collection of hundreds of photographs that the organization continues to use for press submissions, marketing material, website content and social media.

Video

I worked with WMHT (local PBS) to produce a video that Capital Roots uses at orientation for its volunteers and donors. I wrote the voice-over script, secured locations and interviewees, provided cameramen with b-roll and interview direction, reviewed and chose usable footage, selected music and sat in on the editing sessions.

Copywriting for brochures

I outsourced some of Capital Roots' design projects to another graphic designer. For these projects I provided the designer with copy, photos, brand guidance and design requirements.

Press Releases

During my time at Capital Roots (formerly Capital District Community Gardens) I wrote dozens of press releases and organized press conferences, resulting in hundreds of media mentions and features each year.

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