Marketing and Campaigns

Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)

Developing and launching the first low and no cost marketing campaign for the £80 billion Horizon Europe R&D programme

Priority marketing campaigns to raise awareness and uptake of £80 billion Horizon Europe research and innovation funding opportunities for UK businesses

Short-term interim contract:
· Developing DSIT’s first cross-government ‘Growth Mission’ Horizon Europe low and no cost campaign strategy, across owned, shared, earned and partner marketing channels
· Managing internal and external stakeholders and functions to create integrated approach
· Interim leadership of in-flight large-scale paid digital campaigns including agency and staff management, and stakeholder relations (covering absence)
· Successful adoption of new ways of working, and proven approach leading to DSIT appointing first permanent no- and low-cost Deputy Head of Campaigns role·

Royal College of Anaesthetists

Corporate rebranding and creating new vision, mission and messaging

Medical Royal Colleges are complex membership organisations which play an active role in their medical professions at all stages of careers, from initial training and qualification, through to national guidelines and government policy.

As consultants, we worked with the RCoA on a new brand strategy, which included developing a new vision and mission for the organisation, new corporate values, and a clearly defined messaging matrix across all audiences. Close collaboration and co-development with staff and members ensured valuable input and ownership of the change.

The response to the forward-looking new brand – celebrating the role of anaesthetists at the heart of healthcare – has been very positive.-

NHS Police Mental Health Clinical Advice Line

Launching a new helpline to change behaviours and transform mental health crisis response in London

Led development and delivery of large scale change and adoption campaign across London’s NHS Trusts and Police forces which has transformed responses for people experiencing mental health crises in public, reduced the number of people criminalised via Section 136 orders, and reduced Police time attending incidents.

Launching this new 24-7 telephone service for London’s 45,000+ frontline Police officers meant new ways of working, requiring significant culture and behaviour change.

We worked closely with senior Police officers, alongside NHS clinicians and operational directors to create an informed, partnership campaign.

Results inside the first six months of operation included
· 33% fewer patients detained under S136 (and therefore not ‘criminalised’ – a major breakthrough in reducing associated stigma and long-standing inequalities because of detention, particularly experienced by people from Black communities in south London)
· 31% fewer people taken to Emergency Departments
· 21% reduction in Police Officers’ time attending mental health crisis incidents
· 61% of new contacts onto alternative pathways
· Patients get right care sooner, and are safer
· Established a unique new, integrated cross-organisation service – trailblazer for partnership working

Dimensions of this pan-London implementation and behaviour change campaign
· All 10 NHS mental health trusts
· 45k+ Police officers from the Metropolitan Police Service, British Transport Police, City of London Police
· All NHS Acute Trusts’ Emergency Departments
· London Ambulance Service

We were shortlisted for two high profile awards in the 2024 HSJ Patient Safety Awards, and have presented as best practice to the NHSE national mental health communications director network, and the Scottish Government’s national mental health urgent care forum.

NHS SE London / SEL ICS

Right support, right time, right place – making the 10 Year Health Plan a reality

This campaign aimed to help people living in the most deprived parts of a diverse inner-London borough to find the right help from the NHS when they need it. Data shows this CORE20 population often use emergency departments (ED) when other services may be better for their needs. The campaign incorporated:
· Co-developed with research and insight including 1,000-strong south London People’s Panel, and NHS Urgent and Emergency care experts
· Unique user-driven guide, switching typical NHS ‘directional’ messaging for public focussed
‘this is my problem, where do I go for help?’ content
· Concept co-designed and tested extensively with local people and healthcare staff via zero-cost focus groups and pilot delivery
· Illustrations and short, basic, easy to understand text
· Promoted via low and no-cost digital and offline channels; delivered door-to-door to tightly defined neighbourhoods·

Results of the three-month exceeded ours’ and commissioners’ expectations – reducing ED demand pressure, with people accessing right support, right time, right place:
· NHS App logins increased by 93,594
· Pharmacy First consultations hit a new record of 1,240
· Ambulance handover delays reduced by 10.72%
· The guide is now being rolled out across targeted demographics in all six south east London Integrated Care System boroughs, which have a combined population of more than two million people

NHS 111 for Mental Health

Low-cost digital pilot campaign to drive awareness and uptake of the new specialist south London NHS 111 for Mental Health helpline across partner organisations, and the area’s 3.7 million population.

Results included:
· Sustained increase in inbound calls: 6% four-month increase (despite covering traditionally quieter period for NHS service of July and August)
· 5.7m impressions
· 4.2m impressions on Facebook and Instagram
· 1.52m individual users’ reached on Facebook and Instagram
· 357,500 views of video on YouTube – people watched full 29 seconds
· 1.5m impressions across YouTube, Google.com, other Google Ad networks and publisher channels
· Health inequalities campaign: 595k impressions (332k individual users) on Facebook and Instagram
· Content shared on channels by multiple partners including GP surgery screens; Councils’ social media; NHS Acute and Mental Health Trusts’ websites and social media channels; third sector organisations’ direct member and social media

Our innovative approach incorporated
· Brand new creatives and messaging platform including visuals, copy and video
· Both large-scale and audience-specific PPC advertising
· Mini-campaign test variants for underserved communities: geographic areas based on Indices of Multiple Deprivation; ethnic minority audiences via ‘migrated to UK’ self-identifiers, with content automatically translated wherever possible)
· Specific engagement campaign to encourage sharing, likes, comments
· Multi-partner marketing to amplify content and messages via assets provided for owned and organic channels.

Total digital content and PPC cost of the six-week campaign was just £12,800.

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

Creating a communications and engagement strategy for Warneford Park – Oxford’s world-class centre for Mental Health and Brain Sciences

• Consultancy to develop first communications and engagement strategy for a proposed pioneering joint Oxford Health, University of Oxford and philanthropist £500m new hospital, life sciences R&D hub and business incubator, and higher education-clinical research facility.
• Developing and co-creating new brand and benefits proposition, messaging platform, and multi-stakeholder engagement approach in complex political, funding and partnership environment
• Central strand of work in developing Outline Business Case for government’s New Hospitals Programme
• Reporting directly to programme board comprising Trust and University C-suite members, investors, senior academics and clinicians, chaired by former Home Office Permanent Secretary

South East London Integrated Care Board (ICB)

Vaccinations awareness and uptake campaigns

Vaccine Leaflets FrontVaccine Leaflets Front

Developing and delivering campaigns to driving public awareness and take-up of COVID 19, flu, polio, MPox (Monkeypox) and all routine childhood vaccines such as MMR across six boroughs with more than two million combined population. South east London was the top-performing system for vaccination uptake across London, despite incorporating some of the most diverse and underserved communities in the capital.

Work included all elements of devising a cost-effective strategy – at a time when the £millions budgets of COVID-19 were a thing of the past – and then campaign
planning, management and execution.

Forging relationships with partners and stakeholders to deliver innovative tactics across the south east London system was key.

Working with colleagues in Local Authority and NHS provider trusts’ (clinicians, operational and comms teams), GPs, community pharmacies, Public Health, local community groups and third sector organisations of various types and sizes, was essential to effectively reach and engage the most under-served and under-vaccinated communities.

Outcomes were strong. South East London was the top performing system for vaccination uptake across immunisations – with many different vaccines, often for highly targeted and complex audiences cohorts – across all London’s Integrated Care Systems.

Multi-channel engagement and comms activities included:
• Wide-ranging partnership marketing with digital assets and offline collateral in different languages and formats used in hundreds of public-facing environments and trusted relationships across all boroughs
• Paid, owned and earned digital campaigns including low-cost money social media advertising incorporating segmented approaches deployed via Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, on-demand digital audio – radio and podcasts, Instagram, Twitter and text messaging
• Highly targeted out of home advertising to parent and carer cohorts going to where to audience is via buses, mobile digital and distribution
• Innovative Intermediary Campaign enthusing and equipping the wider health and care sector to have conversations with people, raise awareness and use behavioural change techniques including Motivational Interviewing to engage under-vaccinated cohorts

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Recruitment marketing

Vacancy rates at 20%, high staff turnover and excess agency spend were part of the challenges facing St George’s, at the time in financial and quality special measures.

I introduced its first integrated recruitment marketing strategy – new campaigns delivering at low or zero cost. New insight included nurses’ views, helping establish a clear candidate proposition, market differentiator, and messaging platform – and engaging content.

The channel mix included owned and earned digital; and organic, shared and low cost paid social media – with video at the heart. I launched face-to-face and virtual Open Days, attracting hundreds of attendees; and new research and data-driven direct marketing to target final year nursing students across the UK and globally.

The results were dramatic. Nursing vacancy rate dropped to 9%. Commercial temporary staffing agency spend reduced by £25.8 million.

External recognition included:
• Government Communications Service – Communications Excellence Awards, Bronze – 2018
• Silver Award – In-House Recruitment Awards 2018 – Best Use of Social Media
• Winner – Nursing Times Workforce Awards 2020 – Recruitment Marketing

Business Banking Resolution Service (BBRS)

New UK service for SMEs

Marketing and awareness campaign to boost new, ‘niche’ non-profit services organisation, working closely with interim CEO as part of turnaround.

Developed integrated customer marketing and awareness campaign at pace, creating compelling messaging and call-to-action from complicated legal services offering. I established an effective below-the-line channel mix, appointed a new PR agency, and worked with a digital marketing agency to test and deploy full campaign inside 12 days.

Devised and led stakeholder outreach programme, appointing and equipping temporary staff to deliver at pace, I secured support from central and local government, intermediary and sector-specific trade bodies nationally and regionally.

Exceeded targets in four months:
• 56 million+ opportunities to see
• 73k campaign landing page website visits
• Enhanced digital customer journey through analysing behavioural insights. Used agile project management to improve website, improve customer service and contact centre offer, and simplify customer acquisition process

Rural Payments Agency

£10 billion Government priority programme

A new below-the-line marketing strategy driving this Cabinet Office priority project so England’s farmers could meet new Common Agricultural Policy Basic Payments Scheme requirements, register, and apply for the first of this five-year £2 billion annual subsidy before deadline. They faced complicated new guidance and had to prove detailed information on their land use via a new online system.

I introduced a two-stage application and registration process, to secure up to date data, drive behaviours and action, and leverage trusted intermediaries (agents), responsible for c33% of claims. My multi-channel campaign included effective stakeholder relations with the sector’s influential national bodies to secure partner-marketing support; media relations; innovative social media approaches; direct marketing across print and digital; wide-ranging co-ordinated industry outreach; and a full events programme.

Leading a cross-agency team, and working with central government and other bodies, I met all targets: 86,000 farmers registered inside three months, and 88,000 claimed subsidies within deadline. The total campaign cost was less than £1.90 per customer.

What clients say

David has developed strategies and implemented large-scale multi-channel national marketing campaigns for me that have delivered real and measurable results. This work has been completed in challenging and high-profile environments with full regard of the stakeholder issues and challenges.

David combines a range of strong marketing and communications skills with the ability to operate at the most senior levels.He has also demonstrated the ability to purposefully engage with stakeholders and secure buy-in and involvement from colleagues and external organisations.

His breadth of experience and ability to identify the key challenges and opportunities in new sectors means he can deploy effective, innovative approaches that are truly focussed on results.

As a CEO leading turnaround and transformation of complex, high profile organisations, it is essential to me that when I bring in senior interim resources, I need people who can understand the challenges and add value quickly through consultancy and delivery. David has played a valuable role in two such situations, one a £10bn+ programme that underpinned a government executive agency turnaround and was a Cabinet Office priority.

I value his advice, his rapid understanding of the challenges and drivers, and his ability to develop and then deliver solutions. Working in demanding, high profile environment makes it essential to forge positive relationships with internal, partner and external stakeholders. He brings these abilities, and the resilience to stay focused on the true objectives. David has these attributes and more, creating value for me as a valued member of my executive team.

Mark Grimshaw CEO, Business Banking Resolution Service
Formerly CEO, Rural Payments Agency

David is an exceptional comms professional who brings an excellent strategic brain combined with the ability to deliver on his strategies. I had the pleasure of working with him in a government Executive Agency where he successfully devised and implemented a high profile and contentious multi-channel campaign.

David excels at stakeholder management, quickly understanding stakeholder positions and calmly and professionally bringing them along with him. This applies equally to internal and external relationships and David works very well with colleagues at all levels and I found him a popular and dependable member of the team.

Jayne Spence Head of Policy and Communications, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
Formerly Head of Communications, Rural Payments Agency

I recommend David Rose as an outstanding professional within the industry. David demonstrated skill and knowledge in every aspect of business operations, completing multiple marketing campaigns for St George’s and then the SWL Hub, for four NHS Acute Trusts in South West London.

His consultancy and campaign delivery work within Diagnostics and Nursing made a significant impact on reducing the overall vacancy rate.

With his knowledge and expertise gained from years of working within the industry, he very quickly recognised areas for improvement and implemented best practice, having a significant impact on Trusts' recruitment. He also helped staff understand ways to be more efficient and develop new strategies. By improving our processes and performance, we were nominated and successfully awarded Public Sector Not-for-Profit Recruitment team of the Year 2018 in the national In-house Recruitment Association Awards, and Best Recruitment Experience winner in the Nursing Times Awards 2019. ,b.It has been a real pleasure to work with David over the past five years and I would highly recommend him as a true professional.

Sarah Shoesmith Head of Recruitment (Head of Service)
South West London NHS Recruitment Hub

David developed and delivered successful communications and engagement plans for some of our key projects at St George’s during a hugely challenging time. His approach and work with clinicians, operational staff, external stakeholders and the corporate comms team made a real impact in supporting improvement. I appreciated his support across many campaigns – from operating theatres improvement to reducing nursing vacancies, key clinical safety change programmes to outpatients’ transformation and reducing missed appointments.

Chris Rolfe Director of Communications King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

07976 658208

david@davidroseconsultancy.com