Claire Walsh - |-
PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT
Senior Media and Campaigns Officer | YoungMinds | November 2019 – current
Key responsibilities
Developed and delivered in house media training for spokespeople at various levels within the organization.
Developed spokespeople briefings on key and emerging issues relating to young people’s mental health.
Project management of video production for an external client as well as for a high profile cross-sector campaign, working closely with several teams across the charity. This involved close management of an agency to deliver to a tight deadline.
Harnessed relationships with celebrity charity ambassadors.
Developed supporter journeys for prominent campaigns, ensuring different audiences are engaged at all stages of the campaign, ensuring relevant information is communicated to each audience segment.
Worked closely with Media and Campaigns Manager to develop campaign ideas, developing messaging and PR hooks.
Created monthly evaluations of media coverage which I presented to the senior leadership team.
Lead on PR for projects lead by other teams across the charity, consulting on most effective media strategy and securing coverage accordingly whilst also building relationships with journalists.
Line management of the media assistant in fielding media enquiries, overseeing conflicting priorities and management of our admin processes.
Communications Officer | Versus Arthritis | January 2017 - October 2019
Key responsibilities
Played a critical role in the first national above-the-line campaign as a newly merged charity with a new brand and tone of voice.
Lead weekly internal delivery group meetings with stakeholders at various levels across the charity
Created weekly status reports for heads and directors, maintaining risk logs and escalating issues where appropriate
Close agency management of the appointed PR agency, cultivating a strong working relationship between them and the inhouse media team
Developed strategic integrated communications plans for various strands of work including research announcements and policy reports.
Worked with the wider communications team to develop a case study management process, build our case study database and harness their stories for social content and media coverage.
Responded at speed to reactive press enquiries for breaking stories, providing comments, interviews and spokespeople to appear on live broadcast, whilst managing other projects priorities.
Regularly developed engaging and varied content for the website - from tips, to personal stories, and repurposed these for social media channels. Often content was developed in response to external hooks and insights from internal teams – such as the research team or the helpline.
Key achievements
Operated at manger level for the planning and delivery of an integrated marketing campaign, and the first national above-the-line campaign with the new brand identity. I worked closely with head of communications to project manage the wider campaign including film production, supporter journey development, website content and social media plans, and worked closely with a PR agency to develop and deliver PR activity.
Communications and Media Officer | UK Council for Psychotherapy | September 2015 – December 2016
Key responsibilities
Developed and implemented communications plans for all work undertaken by the communications team.
Acted as project manager for the organisations’ flagship magazine with circulation to 8,000+ members published three times a year. In addition to liaising with guest editors, an editorial board and all contributors, I also worked to secure advertising to reach a set revenue target for each issue, which I met or exceeded on each edition of the magazine.
First point of contact for PR and media enquiries, and worked with the rest of the team to develop a media strategy, drafting press releases, using Gorkana to monitor coverage.
Oversaw the communications assistant in the delivery of internal communications activities and all mass email communications to our members.
Key achievements
Planned & executed a campaign in the lead up to elections for a new Chair.
Supported head of communications to develop press office processes
Communications Officer | Time to Change | November 2013 - September 2015
Key responsibilities
Managed the implementation of an email communications plan for the annual Time to Talk Day. I ensured specified target audiences including individual supporters and businesses were sent tailored communications. I also worked to align with external stakeholder plans and timeframes to ensure timely communications through their channels.
Managed regular email communications to our main email database of 40,000 supporters and supported other targeted email newsletters to key stakeholder groups.
Supported teams across the campaign to develop and produce materials to support their activities ensuring they are disseminated to appropriate audiences
Key achievements
Developed and implemented an integrated email communication engagement plan for the first ever Time to Talk Day, a national awareness day
Established regular email marketing reporting
Travels | February 2013 - August 2013
For six months I took some time away from my career to travel the world, visiting three continents and 10 countries in total.
Marketing and Events Officer | Mental Health Foundation | April 2012 - February 2013
Marketing and Events Assistant | October 2010 - April 2012
Acted as lead brand guardian and on embedding the new brand ensuring that a high level of quality and consistency is maintained in internal and external communications
Managing production of materials from proof reading and design through to print and dissemination. This can involve using In Design as part of my role to design in-house, or liaising with external designers and printers
EDUCATION & QUALIFICATIONS
BSc (Hons) Business Management (2:1) | University of Surrey | 2006 - 2010
Awarded distinction for the professional training undertaken at LSI Logic Europe Ltd
Subjects included: Project Management, Marketing Principles, Research in Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Entrepreneurial Business Development, Consumer Behaviour, Financial Accounting, and Business Finance
Final Year Project: “Does adopting a philanthropic strategy boost morale among employees of a company better than teambuilding exercises?”
Southend High School for Girls, Southend-on-Sea | 1999 - 2006
A Levels (2006): Business Studies (B) German (C) Psychology (C)
GCSE’s (2004): 10 including Mathematics (B) English (B) and Double Science (CC)
RELEVANT SKILLS
CRM databases | Working knowledge of mail chimp, storing data and scheduling emails to supporters
HTML coding| Basic working knowledge of html coding
CMS systems | Working knowledge of various CMS systems – uploading and maintaining website content
Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop| Basic working knowledge of the creative suite including intermediate knowledge of Adobe Lightroom
Media databases | Working knowledge maintaining media lists and issuing press releases through the system
Google analytics | working knowledge of understanding performance and traffic to web pages Sprout social | Monitoring engagement, responding to comments, publishing content, generating evaluation reports
Tweetdeck | Monitoring engagement and social activity
Project Management | In house training at Versus Arthritis combined with on the job experience
Referees available upon request
