Welcome! My name is Christina Abel and I am a strategic marketer, brand champion and communicator. With more than 20 years of experience in marketing and communications, I have helped companies in a variety of industries find their authentic brand voice and then champion that brand through websites, marketing materials, advertising and more to create a cohesive and holistic story. The links below include samples of my work in a variety of categories including employee communications, life cycle branding, email marketing, corporate communications, advertising and more.
I am not a designer, however I work closely with my design team from inception to conceptualize the look, feel, layout and overall design of any campaign I work on from social, to landing pages, to sales slicks. The work below and on subsequent pages represents my content development and copy writing experience, plus analysis of the marketing statistics, unless otherwise noted.
Christina Abel - ibeabel@hotmail.com
Select a category below to view samples:
Branding - Telling a comprehensive story, through:
Words: Context and Content
Imagery: Look and Feel
Platforms: Online, digital, print, social
All of the campaigns on the following pages are various parts of brand campaigns that I created while working at DaVita, TeleTech and Cordant Health Solutions (formerly Sterling Healthcare Services). From brand launch campaigns, to maintaining a corporate brand throughout all segments of a business, from internal communications and platforms, to corporate social responsibility and environmental reporting, the company's brand must be the underlying theme connecting all components and creating cohesion.
As a brand champion I have more than 15 years’ experience helping companies identify their brand, then developing strategies to tell their brand story—from colors and imagery, to thoughtfully crafted messaging, to layout and design— resulting in a cohesive picture.
Creating a brand story means taking into account every piece of collateral and every platform to create a cohesive, holistic message.
Corporate Social Responsibility Marketing
When I took on all of the marketing, communications and branding for the TeleTech Community Foundation, the non-profit arm of the company had little visibility among employees globally, and almost no participation in its grant program. Through a multi-channel brand awareness campaign over the course of several months, participation in the grant program rose 50% and employee donations increased 25%. See details below.
The campaign differed from what the Foundation had used historically in its use of vibrant colors and playful imagery. The tagline that I used over four quarters of campaigns was "Help the next generation of little (Mozarts),(Compose) the future."
Each campaign per quarter featured a different historic icon, including Mozart, Einstein, Edison and Frida Kahlo. The verb used in the campaign played off whatever that person was known for, "compose", "invent", "imagine", and "create", respectively.
The recruitment and onboarding period in an employee's experience with a company is critically important. Creating a consistent look, feel and message will help new employees feel aligned and attuned with the organization. These early touch points also foster employee engagement.
For this campaign, I worked closely with designer, from choosing stock photos, to the complimentary colors, to the values selected for each image. The intent was to create a global, vibrant, diverse and fun message to potential recruits.
Once employees are onboarded, it's important that the internal communications and programs that they see are still connected to the recruitment and onboarding themes, even when the pieces take on a more formal and corporate tone.
This report was the capstone of a year's effort to gain global recognition and participation in the TeleTech Community Foundation. Because each campaign for the non-profit arm of the TeleTech organization was very visible, colorful and playful, so too was the annual report. Also, due to the fact that the Foundation had such a huge impact on employees and on the communities where they live and work, we chose to use real photos to demonstrate the exceptional strides that had been made in the lives and communities of our employees. See the web version here.
Telling the story of how a corporation mitigates its environmental impact is typically a rather dry report. However, we took the opportunity to create something very visual and compelling by using an organic look and feel and several infographics to tell the story.
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram campaigns
Each social media platform is different and each requires special nuances. Creating a thoughtful, strategic calendar for social media posts is critical to develop a regular, cadence and engagement with your followers.
We live in a world where the conversation never stops and where social platforms, once considered personal spaces, are ultimately tied in with business. It's a place where work, social life, and community intersect.
Given this, a thoughtful presence is necessary. It necessitates a real person monitoring and interacting with the online community.
Social media is also a great place foster employee engagement and celebrate employee stories, events and community interaction.
I have experience with both traditional print advertising and online advertising.
As a former newspaper reporter for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, I have great respect for reporters. I understand the process it takes to report a balanced, comprehensive story on a daily deadline. Given that, when working in a public relations capacity, I try to tailor the topic for the publication, audience and the reporter's beat. Below are a few examples of press releases that were picked up by news publications.
Check out PDFs below, or for original article links, click here
DaVita and Falcon EHR were featured in Renal Business Today.
Working the press to get local news stories covered can be a challenge but the benefits of such exposure are well worth the efforts.
Case studies give an organization the opportunity to tell a comprehensive story, from the initial problem through the successful conclusion. Not only does the story showcase problem solving, it can demonstrate the partnership with the client and the evolution of the relationship.
These are student, alumni, faculty and staff profiles I have written at the University of Northern Colorado.