Aurora Humanitarian Initiative
A global non-profit founded on behalf of Armenian Genocide survivors in gratitude to their saviors by Moderna Co-founder Noubar Afeyan, Carnegie Corporation President Vartan Gregorian, philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan and actor George Clooney to bring awareness to modern-day selfless acts of heroism that save lives.
Context and project goals
Leverage a global news event to put Armenia on the world map
Shift media narrative from victimhood to survival, thriving, and gratitude
Launch a new global humanitarian award
Create an international humanitarian forum in Armenia
Reconnect Armenians around the world with their historic homeland
Team and scope of work
1x Editorial Director (me)
1x Deputy Editorial Director
6x Regional editors
2x Researchers
1x Graphic designer
1x Video producer
XFN Stakeholders: Founders, PR agency, fundraising team, prize management team
SOW: Launch a world-class publication optimized for viral user engagement, laying the foundation for the “gratitude narrative” and driving awareness.
Defined editorial and content strategy for 100 LIVES and Aurora Prize websites in 6 languages
Prototyped site architecture, wireframes, and design
Created editorial workflows for publishing survivor stories and Armenia-focused content
Hired, trained, and mentored a globally distributed editorial team
Managed freelance and agency content budgets
Established relationships with potential donors
100 LIVES Aurora Humanitarian Initiative Country Branding Campaign
100 LIVES
100 LIVES Website
Create an international editorial powerhouse and launch websites in six languages, featuring Genocide survival stories, news and articles stories about Armenia, words of support and interviews with famous Armenians.
100 LIVES Stories
Commission, write, edit and publish hundreds of survival and savior stories told by famous Armenians from all over the world, as well as stories crowdsourced from Armenian readers through online submissions.
Interactive “Survival” Story
100 LIVES Book Proposal
Combine multimedia formats such as text, video, image galleries, archival documents, and others to create an engaging experience for the reader.
A proposal to publish a collection of 100 Armenian Genocide survival stories from the 100 LIVES website in book form.
Armenia & Armenians Landing Page
Create an online information hub focused on all things Armenia as part of the 100 LIVES project, featuring publications about Armenia, its people, history, culture, diaspora, business, travel, and education opportunities.
Articles About Armenia
Publish articles such as “10 Ways Armenia Makes Life Better” that leverage interesting facts about Armenia and may generate interest on behalf of non-Armenians.
Aurora Humanitarian Initiative
Aurora Humanitarian Initiative Website
Create a landing page for The Aurora Prize with information about the award and its founders, the selection committee, the nominations process, the laureates, and other extraordinary individuals who risk their lives to save others.
#Share4Aurora Social Media Campaign
Ask world-famous Armenians, such as System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian, to talk about modern-day heroes who put themselves at risk to save others and spread awareness of the Aurora Prize.
Country Branding Campaign
Country Branding Campaign
After the Genocide Centennial, propose to transform 100 LIVES into a global branding and PR campaign that would employ content, digital and experiential marketing techniques to make Armenia interesting and relevant to the rest of the world and attract tourism, investment, and talent.
Outcomes
Audience
400+ original publications
1.6M unique readers
5.5M pageviews
500K core audience
350K social media followers
100 million media reach
Foundation for expanding initiative to include Aurora Dialogues, Aurora Index, Aurora Grants, #AraratChallenge
Fundraising
Instrumental in helping the project exceed fundraising targets and allowing Aurora Prize to be awarded for 8 years and counting
Industry
2015 Lovie Award winner
Facebook’s case study on our social media growth