AIGA (The Profesional Association for Design) is the oldest and largest not-for-profit design organization in the United States. In 2021, the organization faced a pressing imperative to accomplish measurable growth in its international membership base attract a new generation of design and design-adjacent professionals. Traditionally, the organization had educated, celebrated, and advanced the design community through events. However, with everything pushed online due to the pandemic, AIGA had to rethink how to attract, engage, and retain its member base.
AIGA and its editorial platform, Eye on Design (EoD) turned to Dragon Army to strategize and deploy a holistic social media effort. Through a multi-platform organic and paid approach, we leveraged the power of visual design and the stories behind them. Campaigns and posts shined a light on the gifted individuals and groups in the AIGA community, covered issues important to the global design world, engaged audiences through community management, and brought everyone into and even behind the veil of design.
The result of this dynamic, always-on social media effort was close to 30% growth in membership over the first three quarters, renewals that exceeded traditional AIGA annual benchmarks by 25%, more than 335,000 engagements, and 18.5 million impressions across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin.
