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Business Writing
In this assignment, I crafted a response to a local charity's request for a $5,000 donation on behalf of Thompson Event Management and Supplies.
As the Communications Director, I had to politely decline their request for a cash donation, explaining the company's budget constraints.
However, I offered an alternative in-kind contribution, which included products and services that aligned with the charity's needs, ensuring that Thompson's commitment to supporting the community remained intact.
The response was strategically framed to maintain a positive relationship with the charity, emphasizing Thompson's ongoing support and willingness to explore other ways of contributing to the cause.
Thompson Event Management and Supplies
P.O. Box 2034
Hamilton, ON. L8N 3T2
November 1, 2024
Janet Smith
132 Charity Pro Lane
Charity City, Ontario L2B 7B3
Dear Janet Smith:
We appreciate you reaching out and for considering us as a partner in support of Happy Charity and the incredible work your organization does within our community. We would be honoured to partner with your organization, within our means.
However, at this time we can only help through in-kind contributions, such as lending staff for volunteering and supplying tables, chairs or other event supplies. While we would love to contribute financially to support your mission, our cash donations budget of $25,000 has been fully allocated as we’ve had an increased volume of requests this fall.
Thank you again for considering us for this opportunity, and please let us know if the alternative support we are offering aligns with your fundraising goals. We would love the opportunity to further discuss how we can meaningfully contribute to the amazing work your organization does.
Otherwise, we hope that you will stay connected and reach out to us next fall so that we can offer you financial donation.
Sincerely,
John Karkavanidis,
Student
cc: students of PR class, 2024
Print Feature
For this assignment, I wrote a feature article focusing on a topic aligned with the client's public relations goals. The article includes interviews, quotes, and research to create an engaging and informative piece. It aims to highlight a unique aspect of the client or organization that contributes to their PR objectives.
Feature
Contact: John Karkavanidis
Student, PR and Corporate Communications
The Agency–Mohawk College
905-234-5443
Enhancing Healthcare Through Visual Communication
Halton Healthcare has community in mind, empowering them to understand their care
OAKVILLE - March 24,2025 – Each second counts in the chaotic whirlwind of healthcare’s high-pressure atmosphere. How an organization communicates often makes for a seamless or bumpy patient experience. While doctors and nurses focus on delivering compassionate and critical care, a crucial element in healthcare goes unnoticed–design.
Visual communication is essential to making hospitals navigable for patients, visitors, and staff, helping people understand critical health information, and reassuring individuals in moments of uncertainty. Design is not just about looks; it's the key procedure of a well-thought-out patient journey. For the public relations and Corporate Communications team at Halton Healthcare, design is carefully thought out, from wayfinding to patient education materials to enhance clarity, engagement, and accessibility.
Designing a Thoughtful EnvironmentWhen entering a hospital, individuals encounter a plethora of information, from departments and directional signs to electronic screens and safety measures like hand sanitizing, masking, and social distancing. This mental onslaught of information can quickly become overwhelming without a carefully designed strategy. Halton Healthcare has done its best to implement a cohesive wayfinding system across its three hospitals—Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, Milton District Hospital, and Georgetown Hospital—ensuring that navigation is intuitive and stress-free. However, wayfinding confuses many people for many reasons, including language barriers. Volunteers and staff (when asked) help to guide those patients and visitors efficiently. A well-organized system like this helps to eliminate the frustration of getting lost in an unfamiliar environment, allowing individuals to focus on their medical needs rather than worrying about finding the right department.
“Comms staff work hard to make sure any communications posted on a wall aligns with the brand, but in a large organization it’s difficult to police it.” says John Karkavanidis, graphic designer and advocate for standardizing design in healthcare.
Simplifying Complex Medical Information
It is crucial that patients and their families are able to comprehend healthcare information so that they can make informed decisions about their health care. However, medical terminology and jargon are often complicated and difficult to understand. Halton Healthcare has been reworking patient-facing education materials to serve their communities better and make them simple, easy to read, and accessible to all literacy levels.
Instead of dense, compact pamphlets, resources incorporated structured layouts, colour-coded headings, and graphic illustrations to convey key messages efficiently and briefly. By breaking up long-form text into digestible sentences, and clarifying complicated information with infographics, key health directions can be reinforced and emphasized via step-by-step text and images. Additionally, straightforward call-to-actions direct patients to engage with digital resources, including video explanations and interactive tools relevant to the patients’ care.
Building Trust Through Consistency
Branding and visual consistency increase trust and credibility. Halton Healthcare uses a select colour palette, Typefaces, and visual theme in all printed and electronic media. Whether through their website, social media, or printed manuals and brochures, their consistency portrays professionalism and reliability.
“An organization doesn’t necessarily need a strong brand, but they do need a consistent brand to gain the trust of their audience and be perceived as credible,” adds John.
Visual Communication Moving ForwardAs healthcare increases, so does design's role in patient communications. Hospitals can think about new technology like augmented reality (AR) to enhance wayfinding and provide interactive patient education experiences. Interactive patient applications are making it easier and more efficient for patients to manage appointments and access medical records, all within visually optimized, user-friendly interfaces.
Another engaging tactic public relations teams can benefit from by integrating into their visual communications is motion graphics, short animations explaining procedures or recovery guidelines. These help simplify complex medical concepts, making them effective patient engagement and educational resources.
The Cornerstone of Patient-Centered Care
Design in healthcare is not about "jazzing up" written communications. It's about functionality, accessibility, and enhancing the overall healthcare experience. Halton Healthcare's commitment to strategic design shows that good visual communication is an invaluable resource for delivering exceptional patient care. By making accessibility and clarity a priority, they continue to set the bar high for community hospitals to leverage design to advance health outcomes and overall well-being for patients.
To see how Halton Healthcare is empowering communities they serve. Visit haltonhealthcare.com.
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Write Ad Copy-Generation Plus
In PR writing, we wrote ad copy in class using heads, leads, body copy, and a wrap-up. This ad is classified as institutional/image building with a targeted headline.
What Do Farmers Use to Fertilize Their Crops?
For over 37 years, Generation Plus has been converting waste into fertilizer that farmers use to grow crops that feed families
As one of Canada’s top 100 employers, we’re proud to bring over 120 new jobs to the Melonville community while contributing to keeping green spaces clean and green.
Our biosolids are safe for the environment and keep our lakes free from the wastewater we all create. They help reduce our carbon footprint and make our planet safer for the next generation.
At Generation Plus, We Believe in a Greener Tomorrow, Today
Integrated Marketing Communications Plan
Developed a comprehensive Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Plan for launching a product, encompassing a market analysis, audience segmentation, and a multi-channel promotional strategy.
Delivered the presentation using visual aids that emphasized key campaign components and strategic messaging, highlighting key campaign elements and strategic messaging.
Overview
DesignSparrow is an agency that provides graphic design as a product to support small businesses and teams. For a fixed monthly subscription, DesignSparrow offers unlimited design requests and revisions with an average turnaround time of 72 hours.
Some of the services provided are branding, including art direction, visual identity design and brand style guides; Print design, including document formatting, booklets, brochures and manuals; and digital design, including social media posts, icons, digital ads, and more.
Situational Analysis
We require a plan to increase awareness and adoption of the subscription-based model. The competitive and oversaturated market makes it difficult to communicate the value of subscription-based design to small business and corporate teams.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Communications Objectives
1. To inform small businesses and corporate teams, leading to 15 new inquiries about DesignSparrow services, by June 15, 2025.
2. To engage our targeted audience and acquire 3 new subscribers to DesignSparrow by August 29, 2025.
Audeinces
Primary audience:
Secondary audience:
Strategies
1. Launch an information campaign to create brand awareness of DesignSparrow and the services it offers through social channels and email marketing.
2. Demonstrate our technical knowledge.
3. Do pro bono work with not-for-profits to build client work and garner testimonials about the service.
Theme/Slogan
"Skies the limit."
Key Messages
1. “DesignSparrow offers unlimited design solutions tailored to help your business stand out, all for a fixed and affordable monthly subscription.”
2. “With DesignSparrow, you can save time and resources while ensuring your designs are always on brand.”
Tactics
Social media
Launch a social media campaign on Instagram and LinkedIn highlighting the benefits of using a hassle-free subscription service for small businesses and teams, emphasizing the affordability and quality of the design work. The campaign will help create awareness of the DesignSparrow brand.
Email marketing
Develop an email marketing campaign targeting potential subscribers, highlighting the service's ease of use and cost-effectiveness. Creating a limited time offer with a redemption code will help incentivize and track user interest.
Blog and case studies
Create a series of blog posts and case studies of successful projects–on graphic design and how it can help small businesses/teams through testimonials, promoting the blog on our website and creating smaller posts for social channels. Having our audience visit the website to read blogs will show interest in the topic and make it easier to funnel them to the main site to read about the services provided.
Web and social Ads
Run Google and social media ads targeting small business and corporate teams in major urban areas. Unlike the social media campaign, ads will target our main audience, giving us a better idea of interest in our service.
Referral program
By offering existing clients a 5% referral fee off their monthly subscription for every new subscriber they refer (up to 15% off). We can incentivize them to retain their subscription and promote the service to others, creating greater exposure.
Podcasts
Reach out to podcasters in the graphic design, corporate communications, marketing or entrepreneurial space to be a guest on their platform. Discussing the importance of graphic design and offering tips on branding and design best practices, positioning DesignSparrow as an expert resource for small business and corporate teams.
Evaluation
Objective: Inform businesses of services.
Metric: Fifteen new inquiries about DesignSparrow services.
Evaluation
Objective: Engage and aquire potential subscribers.
Metric: Obtain three new monthly subscribers.
Evaluation: