Sharing Your Brand’s Best Moments from 2021

A year-end brand recap brings together the campaigns, launches and community milestones that mattered most to your audience. Choose a few moments, pair each with a photo or video, and explain what happened and why it mattered.

In 2021, we asked nine creative teams to share the work they were proudest of and what they hoped to do next. Here are their stories in their own words. The roles, results and plans reflect what they shared at the time.

The Bowery Mission honored frontline staff and volunteers

From Laura Childers, Content Manager at The Bowery Mission:

In 2021, The Bowery Mission was honored to introduce a new site, dedicated to the faithful services of our frontline staff and volunteers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. From the moment our worlds changed in March 2020, through the present, these men and women have demonstrated enormous courage in serving New Yorkers experiencing homelessness.

This project is our humble attempt to honor their sacrifice and preserve their voices, their losses and their victories, joys and sorrows. While the world was sheltering in place, they left their families and homes daily to serve New Yorkers without a home, driven by their commitment to love their neighbors well.

Read our introduction to the project, watch videos about our COVID Heroes, and read more stories.

Looking ahead to 2022

In 2022, The Bowery Mission is celebrating 150 years of mission work in New York City. Stay tuned for more!

See how The Bowery Mission tells its story through visual content.

Discover Puerto Rico won three Emmys for a travel series

From Jean-Paul Polo, Creative Director at Discover Puerto Rico:

Sounds like Puerto Rico, our five part narrative series launched during the pandemic, won 3 EMMYS from the National Academy of Arts and Science Suncoast region for Best Magazine series, Best Editing Long Form and Best Cinematography Long Form. We were also nominated for Best Directing Long Form, Best Writing Long Form.

Looking ahead to 2022

We are doing a takeover! Puerto Rico will continue to rise as a destination and our content will diversify to include more long form narrative and episodic offerings.

Explore Discover Puerto Rico’s creative process and campaigns in a related PhotoShelter interview.

Loras College celebrated a playoff win through student photography

From Trent Hanselmann, Assistant Director of Marketing for Digital Media at Loras College:

An exciting moment for our brand was our Women’s soccer team who was undefeated and are heading to the NCAA Division III Women’s final four.

I want to submit this photo on behalf of my student photographer, Owen Funke, who has been a key asset to our creative team on campus. He snagged this photo as the team won in the sweet sixteen a few weeks ago.

Looking ahead to 2022

Continue to show the student experience at Loras College through photos and show what it truly means to be a Duhawk.

Feeding San Diego showed the reach of its Together Tour

From Dana Williams, Director of Marketing & Communications at Feeding San Diego:

Feeding San Diego, the leading hunger relief and food rescue organization in San Diego County, launched the Together Tour in response to the pandemic. It is a series of large-scale free drive-through food distributions in parking lots across San Diego County in areas most in need. Since it launched, we have hosted over 80 distributions, supported over 167,000 people, and distributed more than 2,684,000 lbs of food just through these Together Tour distributions.

We want people to know that we are in this together, hence the name Together Tour, and the “With Love, Feeding San Diego” stickers we put on the side of our food boxes. We want to reduce the barriers to accessing our services and eliminate the stigma that asking for help is a weakness, because it’s actually a strength. We will be here for the community for as long as there is a need.

Looking ahead to 2022

In fiscal year 2022, we aim to distribute more than 45 million meals to the community so we can feed people, not landfills. Last year, we distributed 40.3 million meals and more than 70% of that food was rescued from nearly 600 food donors across San Diego County and California. By diverting more than 27 million pounds of good food from going to waste, we prevented nearly 25,000 metric tons of greenhouse gasses from being emitted into the atmosphere.

Swimming Canada introduced its athletes with manga portraits

From Nathan White, Senior Manager of Communications at Swimming Canada:

We called it “Project Wasabi” – a multi-year project to portray our Olympic and Paralympic athletes as larger than life superheroes, with a nod to the manga art style of our host country Japan. We worked with two Canadian artists to create manga interpretations of every single athlete that made the teams, working on deadlines made even tighter by COVID delaying our team selection trials. Each athlete had input into their likeness and the art formed the basis of our “Meet the Team” campaigns leading into the Games.

Our top social posts during the Games performed 50x our previous records. Obviously the performances of the swimmers themselves deserve the most credit, but I like to think the way we portrayed them in the build-up helped set the stage.

World champion Maggie Mac Neil is ready to compete in the 100-m butterfly at her first Olympic Games! #MeetTheTeam #WeAreTeamCanada #Tokyo2020@Bell pic.twitter.com/y7dzgHrE6S

— Swimming Canada / Natation Canada (@SwimmingCanada) July 8, 2021

Looking ahead to 2022

We spent a year-plus canceling, postponing, planning, re-postponing and re-planning. In 2022 we expect the swimming world to get very busy again – even busier than usual as the normally four-year cycle to the next Olympic and Paralympic Games has been squished into about two and a half. Our small team will do our best to keep promoting the accomplishments of our awesome swimmers, and look for continued engagement from our community as we advocate for the return of our great sport at all levels!

Nutiva unveiled new packaging across its product line

From Nancy Spellman, Senior Graphic Designer at Nutiva:

This year Nutiva rebranded its entire product line with the ‘Bright Futures’ design created by Sterling Brands. In addition, we purchased and subsequently redesigned Coconut Secret™, a brand specializing in organic soy-free Coconut Aminos, so we had not one but two brands under one umbrella. We signed on with PhotoShelter to help us organize all of our newly updated packaging in a digital platform accessible to all of our staff. It’s been quite a year!

It’s a BIG day for us! We’re unveiling our brand new packaging. This new look really feels like us—bold, vibrant, and extra-nourishing. Our new identity was made with our mission in mind; to revolutionize the way the world eats through foods that nourish people and planet ✨⁠ pic.twitter.com/NbgbSXXaCR

— Nutiva (@nutiva) November 17, 2021

Looking ahead to 2022

Complete the rebrand, and proceed with innovating new products to spur both Nutiva’s and Coconut Secret’s growth.

University College Cork photographed a Frederick Douglass commemoration

From Tomas Tyner, University Photographer at University College Cork:

In the autumn of 1845, a young and charismatic African-American abolitionist sailed from America to Ireland for a four-month lecture tour of the island. Frederick Douglass had been born into slavery but escaped bondage on a plantation in Maryland by fleeing to the North, to become a prominent anti-slavery activist. Douglass lectured to large and enthusiastic audiences in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Belfast and also reflected upon the devastating effects of the famine then beginning to sweep the nation.

In February 2021, Kenneth B. Morris Jr., Douglass’ great-great-great-grandson, helped launch the 12-stop Cork Abolitionist Trail in Cork City with University College Cork hosting a Douglass Week – February 8-14. Direct Frederick Douglass descendant and Co-Founder & President of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. said “I am so excited to be traveling back to Ireland and especially to Cork, where my great ancestor found solace and friendship, and was a place so special to him. I know I’ll get emotional when retracing his footsteps on the same streets he trod over 175 years ago.”

The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Simon Coveney welcomed 21 brilliant young Frederick Douglass Global Fellows to Ireland and said that they would be following in Douglass’ footsteps 175 years after his famous visit. Douglass arrived in Ireland in 1845 as a 27-year-old fugitive slave and later described his four months in Ireland as “transformative” and the “happiest time of his life”. Former UCC President was also a supporter of the legacy of Frederick Douglass as is shown by a keepsake in his office.

This photo shows Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. and some of the Frederick Douglass Global Fellows in the famous Quad in UCC.

Looking ahead to 2022

Keeping open to new possibilities. Tech is great but really….it’s all about the people.

Find more examples of campus storytelling from university photographers.

FreshDirect took its photography to a Washington, D.C., billboard

From John J. Kelly III, Senior Managing Photographer at FreshDirect:

While there were many unique and challenging subjects shot this year, including my first trip to one of our partner farms in several years, one of the most rewarding moments for me was an out-of-home advertising campaign launched in the Spring in Washington, D.C., one of FreshDirect’s newer markets. Knowing that my photos were going to be displayed in bold fashion in the city where I grew up and where many of my friends still live, was inspiring.

Specifically, a billboard for which I created an original photo had particular personal significance. The photo was emblazoned on the side of a building which, as a child, I used to pass every few months on my way to and from my grandma’s house. I probably stared at that building through the windows of my parents’ minivan dozens of times, wondering where fate would take me. That someday, something I had made would occupy that massive space is something I never would have imagined at that time. I wish I could tell that past self, who probably felt so small and insignificant, that my future had such momentous feelings of value and fulfillment in store.

Looking ahead to 2022

In 2022, the organization has very strong goals for growth. To accomplish those goals, there will likely be significant challenges to our Creative Team, including myself, to create assets to both continue to maintain the quality of imagery that our current customers expect and to entice customers who have yet to discover our service. This will likely include increasingly ambitious stills and video created in our humble studio finding their way to potential customers in exciting new ways. As a photographer, to see my work on billboards, bags, and trucks, covering the exterior of charter buses, inside subway cars, and, frequently, on TV as I exercise at the gym, is incredibly rewarding. I can’t wait to see where in the world our photos will be seen next!

See how FreshDirect develops its visual content.

Free Wheelchair Mission held its first hybrid fundraiser

From Brad Cooper, Head of Marketing at Free Wheelchair Mission:

In July 2021, we held our first-ever fully hybrid Miracle of Mobility Live event. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the prior year could only be a virtual livestream. This year, we combined local, regional events in places like Southern California and Arizona, with a livestream that included actor Mario Lopez. We featured three wonderful wheelchair recipients as part of the event: Margaret from Kenya, Octavio and Alfonso from Nicaragua, and Linh from Vietnam. The event was a big success, helping us to raise more than $1.7M and sending more than 21,000 wheelchairs to those in need around the world!

Looking ahead to 2022

We are looking forward to launching a brand new way for supporters to engage with our mission and connect with our wheelchair recipients around the world.

Read more about Free Wheelchair Mission’s approach to visual storytelling.

How to put together a year-end brand recap

1. Choose the moments your audience will care about. Start with a shortlist of launches, events, milestones or behind-the-scenes stories. Ask the people who worked on each one what made it memorable.
2. Find a visual for each story. Pull a photo, clip or piece of campaign artwork. Confirm credits and usage permissions, and add a caption that explains what the audience is seeing.
3. Give each highlight context. Explain what happened, who made it possible and what changed. If you include a result, name what you measured and when.
4. Publish and save the approved assets. Choose a format that fits your audience, such as a blog roundup, email or social carousel. Keep the approved files and captions together in a shareable gallery so teammates can find them for future campaigns.

Sharing a year-end recap of your own? Tag PhotoShelter on Instagram.