Brief & Strategy
A Comprehensive Marketing Roadmap
The Evanston-based McGaw YMCA cultivates the whole person, strengthens community, and provides equitable access to transformational experiences that uplift the mind, body, and spirit. The organization came to Statement to optimize and streamline its high-volume digital marketing program. With a single marketing leader handling all activities, McGaw needed a way to meet important membership and fundraising goals more efficiently.
Statement led McGaw through our Roadmap process to create a comprehensive marketing plan that would make the best use of its resources. We analyzed the organization's growth strategy, brand and marketing materials, and project management tools and workflows to provide:
- A refreshed messaging strategy and persona profiles
- A visual stylescape to guide the design of McGaw's marketing materials
- An integrated content marketing plan, including a new digital ad strategy and KPIs
- Project management tool and workflow recommendations
Statement then stayed on to implement the yearlong plan, helping McGaw increase marketing efficiency, engagement and revenue.
Design Systems & Templates
Crafting a Flexible and Dynamic Design System
McGaw YMCA desired a more unified look across its materials. Building upon the Y-USA brand guidelines, we designed a brand system that captures the unique energy of the McGaw community. We applied a vibrant and colorful design approach, incorporating distinct graphic devices capable of accommodating a wide range of photography, from portraits to action shots. We created the templates in McGaw's cloud-based design tool, Marq, to allow easy updating by their internal team.
Content Marketing Partnership
Bringing Capacity and Expertise to a High-Volume Communications Program
After the Roadmap and systems buildout were complete, Statement continued to partner with McGaw to execute its new content marketing plan. Our goal was to help the lean team reduce time spent on tasks like graphics production and posting, while also bringing a fresh creative eye to the communications to drive engagement and action. We established a streamlined social media planning process, wrote and designed materials from digital graphics to printed collateral, and created a new monthly insights report to help McGaw do more of what was working.
Results
Driving Growth With A Solid Foundation
By establishing brand standards and content guidelines, we empowered McGaw YMCA to streamline its communication assets. This project resulted in cohesive, impactful, and on-brand communications, seamlessly extending across various mediums in McGaw’s communication program. McGaw continued the partnership by engaging Statement for creative development of the McGaw's Men's Residence capital campaign.
