Introduction
From redwood groves and desert springs to urban parks and lighthouses, Parks California works to make California parks more welcoming, accessible and relevant to all visitors. As a relatively new organization, Parks California has a goal of connecting a younger and more diverse audience across the state to the beauty found in state parks. Parks California worked with Mixte Communications on integrated marketing and communications strategies that elevated the organization’s leadership and helped bring California’s parks into the homes of new audiences.
Our Objectives
Mixte has joined Parks California on a journey to help elevate its brand – helping to establish the nonprofit’s reputation. With tailored communications and digital marketing plans, Mixte brings to life the stories of people and programs across California for the common goal of strengthening the state park system and making parks welcoming, inclusive and climate-resilient for all people.
Here’s how we did it:
- We transformed newsletters from quarterly to monthly and increased the open and engagement rates above the industry average for non-profit organizations.
- Parks California held no virtual events before Mixte started working with the organization. Starting in 2020, Mixte helped launch signature virtual events that have become popular amongst the organization’s followers.
- Mixte helped Parks California develop and launch a completely new website that was more representative of the organization’s brand.This helped increase organic traffic and an uptick in average time on page, with a huge drop in bounce rate.
- We have consistently increased overall engagement across all social media platforms. We achieved this by creating a comprehensive content calendar and a social media strategy that caters the needs of the organization’s followers.
- Mixte developed and streamlined internal systems to create more cohesiveness in the organization across departments. This helped incorporate more communications needs for the impactful work being done by Parks California.
The Outcome
To better build Parks California’s reputation with current and future stakeholders across California, we created a marketing and communications plan with strategies that prioritize developing partnerships and establishing the organization as a leader with a voice on equity and sustainability in state parks.
In 2020, Mixte and Parks California were recognized by the San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America with the following awards:
- Bronze Bernays Award of Excellence in “Newsletters” category: Mixte Communications for Parks California for Elevating Voices of State Parks
- Bronze Bernays Award of Merit winner in “Research/Evaluation” category: Mixte Communications and Parks California for An Exploration into Parks California’s Reputation
- Silver Bernays Award of Merit winner in “Campaigns: Integrated Communications” category: Mixte Communications and Parks California for Connecting Californians to Nature
- Silver Bernays Award of Excellence winner in “Campaigns: Public Service” category: Mixte Communications & Parks California for Sharing Important Parks News with California
- Silver Bernays Award of Merit winner in “Campaigns: Reputation/Brand Management” category: Mixte Communications & Parks California for Establishing a Voice for Equity in California State Parks
- Silver Bernays Award of Excellence winner in “Campaigns: Social/Digital Media” category: Mixte Communications & Parks California for Bringing Parks to Living Rooms
