Medway Council

Head of Communications and Marketing
November 2009 onwards

In late 2009 I was promoted to a broader role heading up all the council’s communications and marketing activities. I manage a 22-strong team and am responsible for communications, media and public relations, marketing, web and graphic design.

In this role I am developing an evidence-led approach to communications – developing strategic communications based on on empirical data wherever possible. I also lead the council’s project to relaunch its corporate website in 2010.

Head of Marketing
November 2007 to November 2009

During 2007 I led a comprehensive review of all council marketing activities. This review was intended to ensure that the council’s marketing was as strategic and effective as possible. The recommendations of this review were adopted in full by the council and in November 2007 I took on the role of Head of Marketing.

In this role I was responsible for all council marketing, web and graphic design activity. As part of this role I managed a transition of the marketing team, merging the existing team with marketing staff from throughout the council. I thene led the restructure of the team to ensure it was well placed to deliver the council’s marketing needs in the ever-evolving marketing environment.

I put in place new planning techniques to ensure that marketing activity was joined-up throughout the team and supports the council’s strategic objectives as well as business targets for individual services within the council.

This approach to planned communications ensured that the council’s marketing and communications address the requirements of the Corporate Area Assessments and Local Area Agreements, as well as delivered objectives for individual council services.

I led the development of the council’s direct and digital marketing capability, taking advantage of the customer information already held in customer management systems and improving our marketing data analysis capabilities. This represented a significant step forward for our direct marketing activities which had previously been limited in scope.

In this role I also worked closely with managers in service areas throughout the council and in partner organisations. Effective relationship management was vital to ensure the new structure for marketing delivery worked effectively and delivered benefits to the council and its customers.

Marketing and PR Manager
September 2004 to November 2007

Medway Council is a unitary local authority in south-east England. It provides all local government services for a quarter of a million people. I joined the council’s Corporate Communications team in September 2004 as Marketing and PR Manager.

The council looks after education, environment, social care, housing, planning, business and much more – everything from frontline services such as rubbish collection to work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that services in Medway run smoothly and cost effectively.

I managed a twelve-strong team and am responsible for the council’s marketing, public relations, graphic design and the council’s website.

I developed a wide range marketing and PR strategies, and have managed internal teams and external agencies to deliver successful campaigns. I have also developed the small in-house graphic design team into an income-generating design business, trebling the size of the team and winning new client business from other local public sector organisations.

In December 2006 I managed the development of the UK’s first local authority podcast – the Mixit podcast. This was the first time a UK local authority has used podcasting, a new social media tool, to communicate audiences that can’t be reached with more traditional communications tools. More information about the Mixit podcast is available here.

In 2005 I also led the relaunch of the council’s newspaper, Medway Matters, as an A4 colour magazine. This is delivered to 113,000 households in Medway bi-monthly and is a key communications channel for the council. Since the relaunch readership and reader response has increased dramatically, and the magazine now generates significantly more advertising revenue.