Addressing the Refugee Crisis
with Cross-Cultural Solutions
as Marketing Coordinator
Problem:
In 2015 over 60,000 people from Syria fled their homes seeking safety from their war-torn countries.
The
Problem
Since 2015 more than one million refugees, fleeing war, persecution, and poverty, have traveled to Greece in search of safety and a dignified life in Europe. With the increased forced migration of Syrian refugees to Greece seeking asylum, there was an influx of people and not enough resources to assist them. Refugees were forced into camps with substandard living conditions lacking adequate food, clothing, and medical care.
Cross-Cultural Solutions stepped up to the plate and created a new volunteer program to help address this need. With taking on the responsibility of running a clothing and food distribution store at Ritsona Refugee Camp, we needed a certain amount of funds and volunteers to assure that everything ran smoothly.
With a limited budget, we needed more volunteers, clothing donations, and monetary donations to address this urgent crisis.
The Solution: Targeted Goals
The Campaigns:
Mobilizing Volunteers & Donors
Education & Awareness
Education and spreading awareness was our first goal. The lack of mainstream media attention towards this issue made it difficult to get volunteers and for people to understand the reality of this crisis.
Increasing Engagement
Our second goal was to increase engagement across our platforms. We wanted people to engage with the content we were putting out and spread awareness to their network as well.
Action & Change
Our final goal was to mobilize interested individuals to take action--either join us on the ground in Greece or make a donation to help cover the cost for the distribution center.
To address the growing needs in Greece, I was stationed there to gather on-the-ground content and help mobilize more people. I worked with a fully remote team across the world to help target this need and make a lasting impact. Creative content creation and capturing the dialogue occurring on the ground was vital for the success of this operation.
We did outreach through:
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Email Marketing
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Social Media (Facebook & Instagram)
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Blog Posts
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Website Updates
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YouTube
RESULTS
Within the 6 months I worked on this campaign, we received:
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90 Volunteers
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Roughly $30,000 in donations
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500+ pounds of usable clothing donations
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Distributed 24,000 necessary resources
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Assisted 750 refugees
Email Marketing
With specific needs and a limited budget, email marketing was key to the success of this operation. With a list of 600,000 potential leads in MailChimp, I strategized to optimize our targeted email blasts based on past engagement. I effectively A/B tested different subject lines to assure we maximized our impact. We kept our content fresh and up-to-date with my videography, photography, and blog posts. Email content was drafted and designed by me and distributed after consultation and changes with the company president.
Initial Email
Refugee Day Call-to-Action
I used Refugee Day to leverage action across to an interested lead segment that interacted with our previous email. I used A/B testing to see which subject line would preform the best.
Additional Email Campaigns to Address This Crisis
Videography
I filmed this video using a Nikon D5600. I wrote the script based on the dialogue that was occurring on the ground--to capture the needs and discuss the history. I used video editing program Wondershare Filmora to Edit this video. This video was featured in email blasts, conversations with potential volunteers, and on our website to help energize others and spread awareness.
1,900+ Views on YouTube
Website Blog
While in Greece, I drafted numerous blogs about my experience to share with others so that they could understand what was going on. I also interviewed an array of volunteers to show that anyone has the ability to volunteer and make an impact. I used the CMS platform drupal to code blogs into the website. The blog has since been taken down, but you can view my other writing samples here.
Social Media
Through Social Media, it was important to put out creative content to educate viewers while also remaining fun and engaging. We also boosted targeted posts and put out Instagram ads to expand our outreach.
Results
Within the 6 months I worked on this campaign, we received:
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90 Volunteers
-
Roughly $30,000 in donations
-
500+ pounds of usable clothing donations
-
Distributed 24,000 necessary resources
-
Assisted 750 refugees
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