Introduction

It’s critical that immigrants and refugee communities have access to the necessary services and support they need in order to live healthy lives. There’s especially significant challenges in adapting to a new country — including language barriers, cultural differences and lack of familiarity with local laws — that can often lead to isolation and other negative outcomes.

This is where the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO) comes in. IRCO is an organization based in Portland, Oregon that offers services focused on behavioral health for young immigrants and refugees.

Our Objectives

IRCO worked with Mixte Communications to create a plan to promote their services to newcomers and long-time community members who may not be aware of their services. Specifically, we collaborated on a messaging testing campaign to decipher the best messages and visuals to help encourage these young folks to quit smoking and learn more about IRCO’s services in a culturally relevant and sensitive way.

 

Here’s how we did it:

  • Led listening sessions with IRCO team and community members to inform strategy and narrative — including members from Africa House, Slavic and Eastern European Center, Pacific Islander and Asian Family Center and Greater Middle East Center
  • Developed campaign brief to outline and guide strategy and creative for paid ads — testing which creative best engaged and uplifted target audiences and their preferred channels and methods of communication
  • Crafted culturally relevant and sensitive YouTube video ads encouraging young immigrants and refugees to quit smoking and visit IRCO’s website
  • Drafted landing page recommendations to serve as a central hub to learn more about IRCO’s services
  • Packaged strategy, creative and instructions for IRCO to implement and run campaign independently

The Outcome

Mixte was able to pull insights on culturally sensitive messaging from IRCO’s staff and community members to inform an effective message testing campaign. By providing a ready-to-use package of tools to guide their efforts when the time was right, we were able to set IRCO up for success in figuring out the best approach to connecting with young immigrants and refugees and encouraging them to live healthier lives in a respectful way.