From kitchens and swimming pools to Content Strategy...
When I left college in 2010, I went to university in Cambridge to study Photography. I supported myself by working in kitchens and selling laptops, and I was desperate to get my foot in the (creative) door. Eventually I stumbled across a part time opportunity to work as a photographer in a swimming pool - all those years of synchronised swimming as a child finally paid off!
I went on to study my MA in Advertising, Branding and Communications in London, and I continued working my part time photography job and working in kitchens to support myself. Once I graduated, I was given the opportunity to present my thesis, which was focused on the diversification of advertising media, at the Global Brand Conference of 2018.
I then landed a fantastic role at TUI as Lifestyle & Marketing Photo & Video Producer within the Content Team. This role allowed me to work on a myriad of projects, ranging from creative production through to strategy. A proud moment for me was being asked to present our video strategy at Brightcove's 'Play! 2019' conference.
Fast forward to the end of 2021, and I moved into the Content Strategy Manager role. This role has been a fantastic journey, allowing me to develop a new team (including creating a framework and prioritisation model to guide our work). I also lead a Content Diversity & Inclusion working group to ensure we are actively seeking opportunities to produce new and improve existing content.
I explore how best content can support wider business objectives
The primary aim of Content Strategy is to deliver the right content to the right audience at the right time.
Working alongside stakeholders from the wider business, the Content Strategy team work to solve customer pain points, support business objectives and identify any content needs. The goal is to produce content that is based on research and business expertise that ultimately improves the value of our content offering.
To do this, we will work with a wide range of teams (such as Commercial, SEO, Opti, Digital Experience, CMS teams, Customer Insights...) and use a handful of tools (for heat maps, analytics, customer feedback...) to really harness the expertise across the business.
The output of our work ranges - it could be webpages being properly optimised for their audience, or improved SEO value of a page, or an engaging piece of content that drives customers to the website for consideration, or increased visibility of a commercial message....the list goes on!
Developing and establishing a new team with great impact
The Content Strategy team is still a fairly new team and I have thoroughly enjoyed developing our framework, process and prioritisation model. We are continually evolving which makes every passing week interesting.
We demonstrate our worth by not only supporting the Content Team but the wider business as well. This means I liaise with people around the business and learn how other teams work which a great benefit in such a large business. From Weddings to Sustainability, the projects I work on vary which also makes this role very interesting.
I also love working for TUI - I believe our values and dedication to personal development really make for a great place to work.
Take the opportunities that come to you, no matter how big or small
I'm the sort of person that says "go for it" and "what's the worst that can happen?"
I struggled for years not being able to get my foot in the (creative) door. I wound up managing a kitchen for a large pub chain - which is an absolutely fine career, but it simply wasn't for me.
I started to apply to every role and opportunity that could offer me some experience to add to my CV - this included assisting photographers hang their work for upcoming exhibitions and photographing charity events for PR assets - all in my spare time.
All of this rather random experience allowed me to start understanding which avenues I'd like to explore for my career. That career ended up beginning at TUI and i've never looked back.
2 things - my distinction and my team
In my personal life, I was so thrilled to graduate my Master's degree with a distinction. It was the result of hard work and dedication so it felt great to know my sacrifices had paid off! For me, the reality of going in to further education meant 2 jobs, hours of commuting, and not one day off for 52 weeks (excluding Christmas Day). So when I received my result, I was extremely proud.
In my work life, I'm very proud of my team - we have come so far in the first year of existing and I look forward to how we continue to develop. I am also proud of my award-winning wider Content Team.
