RE-BRANDING PROJECT AND DISTRIBUTED BUSINESS ACCESS

As the business processes have merged, rationalisation of Army branding has become essential. I have worked on several rebranding projects, the most recent being a rebranding following the merger of regular and territorial army recruiting processes which has required a new solution to be developed..

A challenge to achieve within a media environment guaranteed to challenge investments in change and with a requirement to apply rebranding across 500 retail points in the UK, on all Communication materials (ATL, Print, Published, POP and Fleet). The branding is in development and I will be in a position to start a transitional brand launch from April 2007. It will be supported by an online business management tool allowing access to financial management and evaluation, brand tools, media buying, creative services and advertising - effectively distributing access UK wide to central marketing services through wireless internet.

As the project progresses other Government Departments are monitoring our rebranding as a transitional case, resulting from my membership of the Cabinet Office Brand Practitioners Forum.


ONE ARMY CONSUMER MARKETING

I have lead an ongoing business analysis of sales and communications activities to drive the organisation to shape the offer around the consumer. This has been a really hard task as consumer friendly and Armyare not normally words uttered in the same sentence. It has taken time and persistance but has finally lead to an improvements programme with innovation across the marketing delivery spectrum, bringing new technologies, inbound and outbound customer management, lead management and major transitions in sales training programme together for a military field force of 2,000. I have also implemented Interactive TV, SMS, Online Broadcasting and I am working towards delivering Web 2.0 Digital Marketing strategies, to increase consumer traffic into this improved business system.


LAUNCH OF YOUTH LOYALTY PROGRAMME

One of the most exciting innovations I have brought to the Army is Camouflage (it has its own section on the website).

When I started working with the Army it was apparent that their activities with the younger end of the market revolved around the activities of 45 schools careers advisors and they were making little headway. Most youth activity targeted media who were to say the least unpredictable - not a sound basis for a strategy. I built the programme from scratch based on the concept of providing the members with a magazine ("Loaded/FHM" style for the military), with a parallel website and Camo:Live (- a touring live experience which attended military and public events). The programme now has 297,000 members and has delivered 10,000 enlistments since its launch in 2000. It has been recognised through a range of industry awards but most important it now delivers 15% of recruits per annum.

BUILDING A REGIONAL MARKETING NETWORK

In 2000 I built a bespoke network of regional marketing and PR services in 2000. In this instance there was no existing supplier network in the UK fit to service our regional needs, so I worked in partnership with Golley Slater, Northern Profile, Talented PR, Shandwicks and Drury Communications (NI) to build a network of Client Service Teams to offer the regional military client access to professional services. The network is going through an overhaul at present to align it to the needs of a single business service as the regular and TA parts of the recruiting organisation merge. I personally review the network and all suppliers in formal review meetings twice a year to ensure everything is delivering to high standards. I am currently in the process of recruiting a network of 10 marketing professionals to establish a management solution for national and regional marketing integration.


10 YEAR STRATEGIC CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATION PLAN

Over the last decade i have implemented a major programme of overhaul to the Armys public facing business services. From conception to the delivery and implementation of a strategic communications plan. This has included re-packaging and marketing Army Careers into relevant product streams and a major contracts re-organisation programme to produce a multi channel network providing an industry recognised model of best practice in marketing integration.

LEAD MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME

The LMP project is an outbound programme of sales conversion for lead enquiries generated from advertising, using commercial call and web agents. It took me nearly 5 years to achieve Army buy-in to the understanding that the recruiting offices were offering a relatively weak service to consumers. It has generated over 8,000 applications since it was launched in 2005, nearky 2,000 enlistments into the Army and is now applied to leads for regular officer, TA and soldier enquiries...proving the perseverance was worth the effort.

SAVINGS AND GROWTH

I have achieved budget efficiency savings (valued in excess of 40m over the last decade) and compound business growth output improvements every year since 1998.