Shining a Spotlight on Our Community
Howerton+White is committed to giving back to our communities. Our favorite way to give is helping organizations reach and engage the audiences they serve. We’ve supported arts and culture organizations like Music Theatre Wichita and the Tallgrass Film Association, education and support organizations like the Women’s Network and OneKC for women, and unique organizations like the Rotary Club of Wichita, the Bartlett Arboretum, the Cosmosphere, and more. Simply put, we love and appreciate the people and organizations that make our community thrive.
One of the organizations mentioned above, the Tallgrass Film Association, is preparing to celebrate their signature event, the 21st Annual Tallgrass Film Festival. Twenty-one years of fostering an appreciation of the cinematic arts provided a great opportunity for the organization to not only celebrate, but to revisit how they might better educate, engage, and grow their audiences.
While best known for the Film Festival, the Tallgrass Film Association delivers year-round programming and events. Partnering with Howerton+White, the organization chose to take a strategic deep dive. Together, we reviewed not only their communication tools, but also the information shared on their social channels and other owned media. It quickly became clear that the objective was better educating audiences about the complete Tallgrass Film Association offering. Once that focus became clear, a plan was put in place to develop a new website and comprehensive content calendar, and create the marketing materials needed to ensure the organization’s annual signature fundraising event would be a success.
Our first priority was the Tallgrass Film Association website. We partnered closely with the Tallgrass team to identify key target audiences and the actions they wanted users to take when navigating the website. This allowed us to address user experience concerns while outlining the key capabilities needed for the organization to have their most desired engagement outcomes. Now, the new Tallgrass website has the SEO, usability, and management tools needed to support their internal team’s success as well as ensure external audiences have a positive experience when visiting the website.
Melanie Addington, Executive Director of the Tallgrass Film Association, commented, “After a lot of hard work from Howerton+White, we have a new, cleaner, smoother site with cleaner images and text, new additions like a membership page, and improved dropdown menus… It’s just a million times improved!”
After our work on the Tallgrass Film Association website, our next step was to develop the communication plan needed to set the organization’s identified goals into action. We then began work developing a new content calendar and engagement plan, prioritizing collaboration between our agency and the Tallgrass team. The developed plan and schedule that followed allowed both teams to easily collaborate and develop the content needed for their efforts. Now, using the new calendar and engagement plan as guidance, the Tallgrass Film Association is successfully raising awareness and driving attendance for film screenings, local filmmaker meet-ups, educational programs, and more.
Our final step was developing the branding necessary to support their signature event, the 21st Annual Tallgrass Film Festival. The artwork and corresponding poster would celebrate the passage of time, as the organization has grown over the years, by embracing the symbolism imbued by the weathering and layering of posted event flyers. Select pieces were “torn away” revealing the past and future of the festival. On top of these colorful layers, was an iconic “21” which could be used in the supporting elements, branding the event materials, and creating easy recognition for all audiences.
Together, we set the Tallgrass Film Association up for success. Throughout the entire process, Howerton+White has diligently managed ad tracking, boosted social posts, and closely monitored digital metrics to help the organization reach its desired results. By doing so, we have been able to validate that goals are being met and target audiences are successfully being reached. This helps shape future content and connect more people to the many exciting events and programs hosted year-round by the Tallgrass Film Association.
Our extensive experience in creating with nonprofits allows us to come alongside your team to help reach your goals and planned outcomes. Let us help you connect with your niche audiences to better educate and engage with your services. Contact us today.