Examples of strategies and campaigns
National Emergency Services Museum plan
At the National Emergency Services Museum (NESM) I was responsible for developing and delivering its marketing and communications plan, ensuring it was impactful but also sustainable and achievable within the museum's limited resources. This included managing the museum’s social media channels, writing news releases, articles, blog posts and marketing material, and managing the museum’s website. During my time there visitor numbers increased by around 30 per cent per year, and engagement with the museum’s social media channels increased year on year.
Acquiring the Swanson archive
In 2021 the National Emergency Services Museum acquired the personal archive of former Scotland Yard chief Donald Swanson, who led the investigation into the Jack the Ripper murders. This was a huge coup for the museum, which had secured the collection ahead of major national museums. I managed a media campaign to maximise coverage of this acquisition, including planning and delivering a media launch, producing a news release, developing a media pack with video and audio resources, producing social media content, and conducting interviews where required. You can view a sample of the coverage via the links below.
Kids in Museums award
In 2022 the National Emergency Services Museum was named the UK's best family friendly museum by the charity Kids in Museums. I worked closely with the charity's communications team to maximise positive publicity around the award, producing new releases, social media content, blogs, video content and associated marketing material. The campaign resulted in excellent coverage across both broadcast and written media. which had a demonstrable impact on the museum's reputation and profile, leading to increased visitor numbers and a variety of new partnerships and networking opportunities. See some of the coverage via the links below.
From Good to GREAT
At Sheffield Hallam University I led on communications and engagement for a staff development plan across estates and facilities management, called Good to GREAT. The project was a 'hearts and minds' exercise which aimed to engage all the department's staff in a new improvement strategy and to give the large, diverse team a sense of ownership in the changes. I developed and managed a full communications plan incorporating staff events, an intranet site, email updates, verbal briefing notes, banners and posters, and supporting literature, ensuring staff without regular access to digital and online channels (such as porters and cleaners) were fully included. The response to the campaign was overwhelmingly positive and received excellent engagement from all staff.
Securing our Future Business
During my time at Sheffield Hallam University I acted as communications and engagement lead for a major change project within Health and Wellbeing, ‘Securing our Future Business’. The intended outcome of this programme was a strategy which would allow the faculty to better respond to the new and changing higher education environment. Staff engagement activities delivered as part of the communications strategy included face to face briefings, master classes with external speakers, drop-in sessions, staff workshops, written updates and reports, and the development of a dedicated intranet site.
The lifesaver league
At the National Blood Service I devised a PR and marketing campaign called the 'lifesaver league'. I secured the involvement of all football league clubs across South Yorkshire and the East Midlands for the campaign, which pitted teams against each other to see which could recruit the most blood donors over a given period. I worked with the clubs to provide content for print and broadcast media, and well as liaising with their communications teams to promote the campaign internally. The result was a significant amount of coverage and hundreds of new blood donors signed up.