The Challenge

Usher’s New Look, founded by world-renowned artist Usher Raymond IV, has been transforming the lives of under-resourced youth for more than 20 years. But as digital behaviors continued to evolve, the ability to cut through the noise became even more challenging. With a relatively recent modernized marketing strategy in place, Usher’s New Look was looking to further advance the strategy to not only increase visibility and credibility, but to also center the voices, energy, and lived experiences of the young people it serves.

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The Approach

Let the young speak! My focus was to amplify youth perspectives in a way that felt current, authentic, and culturally in-tune, including a refresh of the organization’s overall brand to strengthen awareness, engagement, and digital reach. I led and managed the full marketing refresh across platforms, audiences, and programs:

 

• Multi-Channel Campaign Management
  Directed integrated campaigns to attract youth participants and individual and corporate donors while spotlighting the success of students, employees, volunteers, and interns.

• Audience Growth & Donor Visibility
  Grew the email subscriber base by 66% through optimized segmentation, storytelling, and outreach strategies.
  Increased LinkedIn followers by 16%, supporting stronger corporate donor engagement and credibility.

• Website Redesign & Brand Story Alignment
  Managed the full redesign of the organization’s website to better reflect the brand story, mission impact, and program outcomes, resulting in a 55% increase in new website users.
   

The Winning Margin

• Elevated UNL’s voice and visibility in a crowded youth and philanthropy space.

• Strengthened alignment between the organization’s mission and its digital presence.

• Improved donor and corporate partner trust through consistent, impact-driven storytelling.

• Expanded the organization’s reach to students and supporters through measurable channel growth