As oikos keeps evolving as a community, but also regarding our in-house initiatives, partnerships and alumni, the development needs to be accompanied by clear and vibrant communication. We want to powerfully tell our stories and create outstanding recognizability of the oikos brand. Communicating about all we are and all we do is very complex and has high potential in leveraging our efforts to move towards our vision.
Why is communication important?
In the world of today, precise communication that speaks to the receiver is crucial to remain visible and relevant in the sea of information we are constantly exposed to. Our work is people-oriented, and we want to inspire as many observers as possible to become a part of the change, demanding and driving transformation towards sustainability. Our stories have the potential to touch people.
Who do we communicate to, and what are our objectives?
As our activities aim to prepare and encourage student-change agents to take part and write their own stories, the aim of our communication is to reach students worldwide, as well as further players in our ecosystem: academia, other organizations in the field of sustainability and (potential) institutional partners, but also the general public. Objectives range from simply raising awareness on our issues and opportunities, to getting them actively involved or supporting us in what we do or just sharing our story.
How do we communicate?
On the international level, we use several channels to communicate. On social media we have a diverse audience across different channels which allows for a greater reach when aiming at the general public, but also more effectiveness when addressing a specific target group (learn more here).
The newsletter is a monthly publication with all of the news from the previous month and announcements of upcoming events and projects by oikos International, our chapters and our partners.
| Our brand identity |
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| Many voices, one song: communication of, with, about chapters and the oikos community |
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We have a defined oikos Brand which is primary for oikos International, while the chapters are encouraged to adopt it and use it in their own activities. Based on the oikos Brand we have created the Branding Guidelines which provide an in-depth look into how the oikos Brand is applied, Google Workspace and Canva templates which are based on the brand for the chapters to use.
xx Read more in our branding guide
In our communication, we wish to include and represent our global community, and we see how the oikos brand is growing richer through the chapters using and leveraging it. We developed a number of tools and recommendations for the community here, and are actively exchanging with the chapters through their social media channels. Reposting, forwarding, sharing are some of our main practices. We also invite chapters to proactively share their work on onsite events and on our community board on the oikosmos.