Communications Strategy, Content Creation and Marketing

How a Tribal led-effort to restore access to the Nation’s second largest waterfall became an issue that bridged multiple communities, and the communications hurdles that came along with it.

Willamette Falls is a place of deep cultural significance to many Tribes in Oregon, but for more than a century access to this place of power has been restricted behind locked fences and riddled with the scars of early 20th century industrialization.

The Willamette Falls Trust emerged as an organizational leader in the restoration effort, bridging municipal and government interests and those of the Tribes with connections to the land. 

Willamette Falls, photo by Daryl Robbins.

The project had been through many phases

and had arrived at a communications turning point; how could they continue to articulate project momentum and keep the community involved, while introducing more Tribe-centered content in line with their organizational values?

That’s the challenge I was tasked with addressing. Starting with a round of Brand Language exploration and re-tooling, I updated the client’s website to more accurately reflect the state of the project and their organizational values. From there, it became clear that the organization needed to to re-start their communications efforts which had become a daunting task to staff that was otherwise occupied with their day-to-day roles.

Tribal Partners gather on the Oregon City Arch Bridge, photo by Leslie Mason.

After conducting a landscape and competitor analysis, I was able to create a Social Media Strategy that then moved into content production that included creative direction, copywriting, image sourcing and implementation. From there we built a reporting process that allowed us to strategically pivot when we needed to cultivate additional audiences while keeping our original followers engaged.

Deliverables: Social Media Strategy, Copywriting Services, MailChimp Analytics Reporting, Creative Direction, Project Management, Website Development, Social Media Marketing.