Visual Marketing:
Putting Our Best Face Forward
Amanda Shaw | Director of Marketing, ARTA
“A picture is worth a thousand
words” is a common adage
referring to the notion that a
picture can convey meaning
more effectively than verbal
description. When marketing
the Alberta Retired Teachers’
Association, it is often a
challenge to find imagery that
reflects our members accurately.
Too often, an image search
returns results far too staged
to be taken seriously or that
portray retirees as lacking in
mobility and ability. At ARTA,
that simply isn’t the case for
all members. Our most recent
member general interest survey
indicated over ninety-three per
cent of respondents participate
in regular physical activity,
and ninety-four per cent travel
at least once annually. These
results are corroborated in our
benefits plan as well: eighty-two
per cent of benefits enrolments
are in a plan that
includes travel insurance.
It is important to us that we
represent ARTA through
imagery that
is representative
of the vast
majority of our
members — those
living an active,
engaged lifestyle
in retirement.
As part of
this mandate,
we recently organized an
ARTA photo shoot with all
of the models current ARTA
members — we had retired
teachers, nurses, and public
servants join us for a busy day
capturing custom imagery for
our marketing use. The focus
of this winter photo shoot
was to capture the essence of
our physically active ARTA
members, both indoors and
outdoors in the snow. We look
forward to a summer photo
shoot that will capture ARTA
members with a passion for
the arts and nature. The photos
from both photo sessions will
be used for all of ARTA’s
communications media,
including news&views
magazine, ARTAfacts,
ARTA’s website, and
Facebook, as well as
for materials that
include marketing
packages for both the education
sector and for the public and
private sectors, Teachers
Convention exhibitor supplies,
and advertisements in relevant
industry publications.
We hope that accurately
representing our membership
through imagery will encourage
prospective members to join
ARTA and its retiree benefits
plan, continually growing the
plan and creating long-term
sustainability. Above are three
of the photos we have taken.
We hope that you agree with
us that they represent ARTA
members much better! ●
news&views SUMMER 2019 | 31