Creative projects and campaigns management
Over my 17 years at the University of Sheffield I responsible for the creation of hundreds of creative projects and campaigns designed to engage 30,000 students and 8,000 staff and numerous external stakeholders. I led and managed a small creative team that consisted of a Videographer, Graphic Designer and a Social Media professional.
Together we created numerous multi-award winning campaigns, films and animations.
As the Head of Creative Video and Visual Design I was not only the team’s manager and leader, but also a film and animation producer, project manager, client relationship manager, budget manager, creative director, art director, script writer, storyboard artist, prop manager, and a runner during shoots.
Campaigns
Student Admin campaign
The Student Admin Campaign was designed to draw attention to administration details that, no doubt students’ found boring. Aware that it was a very dry subject we found an alternative way to communicate the campaign’s key message.
We created cinematic parody films and posters based on The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter.
These films collectively received more than 256,000 views and hundreds of comments on social media.
The campaign won “Best Marketing and PR Campaign” and the HEIST (Higher Education Information Services Trust) awards and was runner up in the “Best Marketing and Communications Award” category at the Guardian Newspaper University Awards.
Drug awareness
The drug awareness campaign was designed to raise student awareness about the potential dangers of taking drugs.
Central to the campaign were posters and three films each with a specific key message: Know the Risks; Know the signs; and Know there is help. A fourth film was also produced where I interviewed the parents of two students who had lost their lives to drugs.
The campaign films have been viewed more than 85,000 times since they were released and won the “Promotional Film Award” and “Special Jury Prize” at the Learning on Screen Awards.
NSS: Be a Hero
Student participation rates in the National Student Survey (NSS) were falling, but the results and feedback from it was vital to University departments and the institution as a whole.
I was tasked with improving the response rate from our student body. Together with my team we came up with a campaign that took a…different…approach.
Jumping on a trend of 80s nostalgia we created a campaign with a bespoke song and music video.
The video received more than 33,000 views upon release and the University’s NSS response rate became the highest in the sector.
Video productions
The Psychology of Counter Strike
This video was designed to highlight an interesting area of university research. It was created specifically for YouTube and targeted at potential students, researchers, gamers and external stakeholders.
The video has received more than 83,000 views.
Hate Crime: Let People Just Be
Many students, unfortunately, will be victims of a hate crime. Often these crimes go unreported and even unrecognised. With this video we set out to educate viewers about hate crime.
The film has been viewed more than 20,000 times on the university’s Facebook account. However, the film has been used within the University and across the HE Sector for years as part of staff and student hate crime training and education, so it’s impossible to know the exact number of views it has had.
Animation productions
Stu Dent: Ucard plasma screen
When it was reported that students were having trouble accessing libraries, the Student Communications Team turned to us to help with messaging.
They had an idea for a plasma screen that would be designed to mimic the video games in the “Ace Attorney” series.
Unfortunately our Graphic Designer didn’t feel able to capture to style of the games. I stepped in, designing and illustrating the characters. With my knowledge of animation from my years of working on the team, I was able to create the characters in a way that made if very easy for them to be animated by another member of my team.
Not only did the campaign work, but the animation became extremely popular on social media with over 300,000 views on TikTok.
Innovation Network South Yorkshire
When colleagues at the university required an explainer video for the Innovation Network South Yorkshire Awards ceremony, they turned to me and my team.
After meeting with them and advising them on what would be the best approach a script was devised. With that script I created a draft storyboard for the short film which became the basis of an animation created by a member of my team.
This animation was then shown to guests and stakeholders at the awards ceremony which included representatives from both the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, senior executives from blue chip companies across South Yorkshire and the Mayor of Sheffield.
In designing the storyboard I used the colours and branding of both universities and the Innovation Network itself.