In 2021, I pitched the music platform Bandcamp a proposal to build an artist education program I’d been dreaming about for years.

My goal was to help every artist and record label who signed up for Bandcamp understand how to make the most out of the platform and their career/ business.

Initially, the project's scope was fairly narrow. I started by researching users, testing content, and learning about the company.

When I suggested to a senior executive that we needed a marketing person, he replied, “We already have one—you!”

So, in addition to starting the artist education department, I became an unofficial marketing consultant.

This involved co-managing the social media manager with the editorial director, revising the strategy, advising designers and PMs on product, copywriting, outreach events, and working with the CEO on upcoming comms alongside my own project. 

Working in tech was new to me, so I was thrilled that one of my suggestions made the company an extra $100k in a month.

After setting out a broader vision for the education project I secured a six-figure budget and a team of designers, video producers, and a product manager.

We did months of research, data collection, design, interviews with artists and labels, content production, user testing, editorial scheduling, and got the project ready for launch.

Unfortunately at this point Bandcamp was sold for the second time in two years. I lost my team (half the company was let go), my budget, and there was a lot of upheaval.

Although the new owners seemed very excited about the project, I ultimately decided it was time to leave and start my own company.

As head of communications at multidisciplinary arts company Fevered Sleep, the biggest challenge was creating a long-term marketing strategy when the art form and location changed on almost every project.

This meant we couldn’t follow traditional marketing formulas, and every project needed an original strategy. It was also a tiny team, so we had to be scrappy and resourceful.

For Men & Girls Dance, I recruited, trained, and managed 24 “community catalyst” volunteers nationwide and worked with venues to distribute thousands of newspapers about the project.

For This Grief Thing, I booked a billboard and poster campaign, produced a product shoot with 20+ participants, and built a microsite to share our shops and events.

The visual presentation of our work needed development so I fundraised, and we secured the money for a social media producer, a rebrand, and a new website.

We also received press coverage in The Guardian, The Times, and the BBC. Local press really supported us too, which often makes the most impact for touring projects.

Diversity and education are very important to me so I took on the role of “diversity champion”.

This meant leading our diversity action plan; I ran an open day for applicants to meet the team, taught a “how to get a job in the arts” workshop when recruiting, and mentored developing artists.

I loved having the freedom at Fevered Sleep to be ambitious and do things differently, which gave me the confidence to pitch my ideas to Bandcamp.

She Said Jump wanted to release a series of short films about grief which they’d commissioned during the pandemic.

At the time, a deluge of events were happening online, so the challenge was to make them stand out. 

They had a small team with no marketing person but plenty of enthusiasm, and a (very!) small budget from crowdfunding and the funding body Arts Council England.

I came up with two potential routes; programming the release of the videos over a week like a festival, or over a six-week period like a film club.

Each screening would be coupled with an event by the artist who made the film, to help bring it to life (whilst building the company’s email list and social media followers). 

Instead of trying to get a high number of views on YouTube, I proposed a detailed plan for uploading videos natively to various social media platforms and tracking the combined views.

I wrote a detailed strategy and an accompanying schedule, listing each of the tasks and dividing them into important or nice-to-have. 

In the original Arts Council proposal, the company had hoped to engage with 30 participants and get 2,000 views.

After following the strategy (with impressive diligence!), they engaged over 250 participants, had 110,000+ views (not including Instagram), and doubled their social media following.