Oeno Gallery

Type

Employment

Year

2022-24

Oeno is a contemporary, commercial fine art gallery specializing in outdoor sculpture. Located on the grounds of Huff Estates Winery in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Oeno Gallery sells contemporary and historical works to clients — shipping paintings and sculptures on a global scale. Oeno is most recognized for its unique, 3-acre public sculpture garden that boasts over one hundred figurative and abstract works from prominent Canadian and American sculptors.

Role

Social Media and Content Marketing Manager

I ensured the successful design and dissemination of digital marketing content, independently managing/monitoring digital channels and analyzing performance to identify opportunities. I managed social media accounts, PPC advertising, email campaigns, and assisted with website improvement and maintenance. I redeveloped the company’s marketing strategy and actively engaged with stakeholders on digital platforms and in-person events.

Social Media

Sharing eye-catching visual content to elevate social media presence and broaden reach.

I independently led Oeno’s social media and content strategy — capturing and designing original, compelling video content and captivating carousel posts. I attended exhibition openings, engaged with artists, filmed artist talks, and shared content captured at events such as artist interviews or exhibition openings. I leveraged tools and applications to improve efficiency and maximize Oeno’s potential on social platforms: Asana, Meta Business Suite, Adobe Creative Cloud, Canva and Linktree.

  • I created the weekly Artist Spotlight to highlight the accomplishments of represented artists and promote artwork sales. These carousel posts showcase the versatility of each artist and include 6-10 works in a single post. This campaign continues to see positive feedback and a high volume of ‘post reshares’ which has helped attract new artists and audiences.

    Artist Spotlight Example 1
    Artist Spotlight Example 2

  • As a queer-owned 2SLGBTQI+ business, Oeno strives to be a local leader in inclusivity. I communicated the gallery’s commitment to diversity and inclusion across all marketing channels, ensuring everyone felt welcome. I was on Oeno’s Inclusivity Committee and assisted in the gallery’s successful Rainbow Registered Application by preparing the visual presentation and gathering content.

    Rainbow Registered
    #NTR2023
    Women’sDay
    #PrideMonth

    • Researching, designing and deploying ongoing Meta Ad Campaigns (custom ads, boosted posts, boosted events)

    • Developing and implementing new social media advertising strategies to increase brand awareness, driving website traffic, generating leads for the business both organically and with regular paid ads to target audiences of designers and art buyers worldwide

    • Ad Campaign Examples: Annual Canada-wide Call for Outdoor Sculpture, Annual Online Art Auction

Social Media Reels

Campaigns

Marketing Lead for Art Auction Fundraiser, Bid for the Build: Raising $375,000 for the Local Hospital

I represented Oeno Gallery on the ‘Bid for the Build’ campaign committee working with other local galleries and community stakeholders to ensure successful communications activities leading up to this year’s highly anticipated auction to support the build of a new local hospital. I was independently responsible for designing the logo and brand materials for the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital Foundation — branding, posters, social media graphics and newspaper ads. I worked closely with the other committee members on developing the marketing strategy and assisted with the planning and preparing the event.

Leading Oeno Gallery’s Annual Canada-wide Call for Outdoor Sculpture

For two years, I was independently responsible for promoting Oeno Gallery’s annual Canada-wide Call for Outdoor Sculpture campaign. I developed the campaign design, deployed email campaigns, and designed branded photo and video ads on Instagram, Facebook, Google and Akimbo. These efforts have helped the gallery’s Sculpture Garden team meet their targets for the number and quality of applicants for Outdoor Sculpture Submissions. The 2024 campaign resulted in 40 new outdoor sculptures installed in the garden and an onboarding of about 10 new and distinguished artists to our roster. Watch the video

Driving Digital Marketing Initiatives Including Paid Advertising and Email Campaigns

I created a strategic plan to improve the quality of content and overall user experience to drive conversions on oenogallery.com and reach target art communities worldwide. I regularly evaluate and report on performance and create organic/paid ad campaigns to targeted audience groups to meet goals. Expand the categories below to learn more.

    • Regularly run paid ad campaigns; Google Ad Display, Youtube Ads, Performance Max, Search Ads

    • Conduct keyword research, identify emerging and industry-relevant ad trends, custom design/edit photo and video ads tailored to unique campaigns, monitor and adjust ad budget or copy as needed, evaluate and report on results, manage advertising budget

    • Monitor and analyze performance metrics using G4 analytics and other tools to optimize campaigns

    • Track performance on social media, company website, Google Business Profile, Google Ads, sales platforms

    • Design and produce monthly, quarterly and annual reports summarizing performance and key takeaways

    • Independently responsible for the creative development and deployment of emails to artists, interior designers, architects, collectors and general audiences.

    • Tailor messaging and visual content for unique market segments, test links, review content for quality assurance, evaluate performance, provide reports/feedback to management

    • Collaborate with the curatorial team to brainstorm topics, manage the eblast schedule, sort audience lists, and write copy

Art of the Gift Holiday Catalogue Design

I independently designed a Gift Guide to promote Holiday sales in 2022.

Website/UX

Fulfilled a Product Lead Role for Oenogallery.com

In 2023, I became the lead for the Website Improvement Project where I was responsible for project management/product management, creative direction and UX design, acting in the company's best interest and prioritizing their digital goals. I spent several months collaborating closely with a web development team to improve the website's design and functionality. Expand sections for more information and view examples below.

    • Act as the liaison between Oeno + web developers, maintaining a positive relationship between the two parties and bridging communications 

    • Maintain a finger on the pulse for project deliverables, timeline, budget 

    • Communicate changes/edits to web developers in Asana, provide direction and guidance with the prioritization of tasks, check in on tasks and progress every week, and deliberate and troubleshoot with web developers to find solutions that meet the needs of the gallery

    • Act in the gallery’s best interest and approve/disapprove of edits, prioritize tasks, propose alternative solutions

    • Provide creative direction for the project, working towards a user-friendly, intuitive experience for users, researching design ideas and industry best practices, identifying gaps and pain points in the user experience 

    • Collaborate with the Oeno team and lead the ideation of designs and functionality, present ideas for management to sign off on

    • Responsible for the UX Design/UI Design deliverables such as wireframes, and mockups, considering the colour, layout, type, layout and interactivity of the elements

    • Create mockups in Photoshop for the desktop and mobile design to hand over to web developers 

    • Create written documentation with instructions for implementing design/notes about functionality 

    • Provide suggestions on improving web pages for SEO, researching keywords, performing a website SEO audit, testing page performance/page speed, reviewing Google Search Console Updates

    • Update meta titles, meta descriptions, changing photo formats/quality for faster loading speeds, merging pages/removing duplicate content, requesting page crawls in Google Search Console

Improving User Experience of the Artwork Search Functionality

Challenges
✖ design is frustrating for users
✖ overly complicated/too many options
✖ no artwork preview in viewport

Solutions
✓ simplified design, improved spacing/colour
✓ eliminated non-essential filters on mobile
✓ improved consistency
✓ displayed artwork preview in viewport

Improving Forms and Visitor Communications Throughout Website

Challenges
✖ no e-commerce (sales via phone/email)
✖ forms lacked credibility & clarity
✖ email confirmation to users were confusing

Solutions
✓ mimicked the buying process
✓ added logo + artwork image to reassure users
✓ added more form fields to speed up transaction
✓ redesigned all email confirmations

Testimonial

We thoroughly enjoyed working with Erika on the oenogallery.com website. Erika filled two primary roles. First, is her creative talent. She has a great eye for design: understanding the value of both aesthetics, as well as user-experience. Second, Erika acted as a vendor manager (i.e., "Product Owner", in Agile terms). She helped scope and prioritize tasks with us (the development team), while also working with her team to translate this activity and get approvals. Erika also took on a number of other duties including (but not limited to): analytics, testing, writing, and research.

— Rob Mac Neil (Lead Developer)
WebBuilders

Videography for Oeno Gallery
Screenshot 2024-10-21 at 11.18.09 AM.jpg

Photo/Video

I was responsible for capturing and editing eye-catching, on-brand photo and video content to reach target audiences and advance the organization’s marketing initiatives.

Premier Pro
Adobe Rush
Creative Direction

DSLR Photography
Videography
Photoshop

Exhibition photography, exhibition openings, product photography, and portraits of artists for social media, website, and print publishing. All Rights Reserved to Oeno Gallery.

Video Artist Interview Series for Oeno Gallery

I was responsible for the creative direction, interviewing the artists, video production, and video editing. Film Credit: Dialogue Creative

Video Editing for Oeno’s Call for Sculpture Campaign

I was responsible for developing and managing the gallery’s Call for Outdoor Sculpture 2024 (branding, digital marketing, graphic design, video editing). This video was used in Canada-wide PPC advertising for the campaign.

Videography, Video Editing and Production for Oeno Gallery’s SCULPT exhibition

I shot and edited the Walkthrough Video for Oeno’s SCULPT exhibition, filling in last-minute for the videographer to meet the tight deadline.

Milestones

20th Anniversary Celebration Event

In 2023, I helped create the gallery’s 20th-anniversary logo and integrated the design into all visual materials throughout the year. I helped coordinate the Anniversary Celebration and was responsible for promoting the event, which attracted a record number of over 4,000 guests throughout the day.

Pop-Up Gallery @ The Royal Hotel

In 2022, I helped Oeno launch a pop-up location at The Royal Hotel in Picton, Ontario. For the duration of the 8-month pop-up, Oeno Gallery in the Royal Annex, I represented the gallery at both locations where I networked with customers and independently managed the advertising of 2 shows a month.