Can't Erase an Education
Global Education Crisis Campaign • Multi-Stakeholder Engagement
Leading comprehensive 360° campaign strategy that reshaped global perception of refugees from beneficiaries to changemakers, driving unprecedented engagement and policy conversations across 40+ countries through strategic storytelling and multi-platform activation.
24M Children Out of School
5 Stakeholder Groups
40+ Countries Reached
Global Policy Impact
Overview
The Global Education Crisis
Conflict, displacement, and humanitarian crises have left 24 million children out of school worldwide. Traditional education advocacy messaging often focused on statistics rather than the transformative power of education itself. STC needed a campaign that could resonate with diverse global audiences while driving concrete action.
Creative Challenge: How do you make education compelling to audiences who may take it for granted? How do you balance the gravity of educational disruption with hope and agency? The campaign needed to work for refugee families, donor audiences, policy makers, and humanitarian workers simultaneously.
As Creative Director, I needed to develop messaging that transcended cultural and economic boundaries while maintaining authentic connection to STC's field work and the lived experiences of the families we serve globally.
The Global Education Crisis
Conflict, displacement, and humanitarian crises have left 24 million children out of school worldwide. Traditional education advocacy messaging often focused on statistics rather than the transformative power of education itself. STC needed a campaign that could resonate with diverse global audiences while driving concrete action.
Creative Challenge: How do you make education compelling to audiences who may take it for granted? How do you balance the gravity of educational disruption with hope and agency? The campaign needed to work for refugee families, donor audiences, policy makers, and humanitarian workers simultaneously.
As Creative Director, I needed to develop messaging that transcended cultural and economic boundaries while maintaining authentic connection to STC's field work and the lived experiences of the families we serve globally.
Process
Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Strategy
The campaign needed to work for five distinct audiences simultaneously: individual donors, institutional funders, policy makers, humanitarian workers, and most importantly, the crisis-affected families themselves. Each required tailored messaging within the overarching narrative framework.
Stakeholder-Specific Approach:
Individual Donors: Emotional connection through parental fears and hopes, emphasizing education's protective power
Institutional Funders: ROI-focused messaging highlighting education's long-term development and stability impacts
Policy Makers: Policy solution frameworks emphasizing education's role in preventing future conflicts and instability
Humanitarian Workers: Field-tested messaging that honored their direct experience while supporting fundraising efforts
Global Adaptation & Cultural Sensitivity
As Head of Design for IRC's global operations, I ensured the campaign could be adapted across 40+ countries while maintaining core message integrity. This required understanding diverse educational contexts, cultural attitudes toward learning, and regional communication preferences.
Regional Adaptation Strategy: Developed flexible creative framework allowing country offices to adapt imagery, language, and cultural references while preserving the universal truth of education's permanence. This approach respected local contexts while maintaining global campaign coherence.
The success of this approach demonstrated the power of finding universal human truths that transcend cultural boundaries while allowing for authentic local expression. Regional teams felt empowered to make the campaign their own while contributing to a larger global narrative.
Outcome
Creative Execution & Asset Development
I led creative direction for comprehensive asset development including photography, video content, infographics, digital assets, and experiential materials. Each asset needed to work independently while contributing to the larger campaign ecosystem.
This campaign reinforced my expertise in developing universal human narratives that transcend cultural boundaries while enabling authentic local adaptation. The approach has become a template for other global campaign development within STC and demonstrates the strategic value of creative leadership in complex humanitarian communications.
