Market Aid

Our projects

Launched in July 2001, MarketAid has created over 30 relationships between charities and marketing professionals.

MarketAid has facilitated projects with a broad range of charities working in such diverse areas as children's health to disability rights to crime and social exclusion.

We have worked with the following charities:

Age Concern Leeds	Association for Young People with M.E. (AYME)
Barts City Life Saver	Bliss
Brook London	Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT)
Children's Foundation	Children in Crisis
Children Nationwide Medical Research Fund (Wellchild)	CLIMB: National Information Centre for Metabolic Diseases
Clouds	Community Channel
Employers' Forum for Disability	Groundwork
International Longevity Centre UK	The London Community Cricket Association
People in Aid	PlantLife International
Pond Conservation	Revolving Doors
Richmond Fellowship International (RFI)	SSE Scotland
The Forum@Greenwhich	Waterloo Green Trust

Feedback from senior marketing professionals

"Market Aid is a brilliant idea. It brings together the people who need help in the voluntary sector with hundreds of marketing professionals who know how … I was able to bring my own experience to bear in helping these very talented but less experienced people think through their strategies. In return, I found the whole experience very enjoyable and rewarding."

David Pearson
Chairman - Vividas, ex Chairman - NXTplc, Managing Director - Sony UK

"It's great to work with people who have a single-minded objective that will have a major positive effect on lives."

Phil Lawder - Brand Expert

"Market Aid gave me a chance to use my professional skills in a way that really made a difference to a deserving charity. It was a very satisfying project, not only because I was able to give something back, but also for the intellectual challenge of working in an area very different from my normal marketing territory."

Glyn Harper, Managing Director
The Virtual Marketing Agency

"The challenge is to convince specialists in their own field, of the benefits of a marketing strategy. This is usually geared to the raising of finance - often through an increase in membership and therefore membership subscriptions. The collection, analysis and use of data is a fundamental essential in good marketing for charities and is often their major weakness. To give up one's time freely to help move charities onto a different level can be particularly rewarding."

Stephen Callender, Founder - Black Cat

Charity: Association for Young People with M.E (AYME)
Marketing Professional: Anthony Darell-Brown

MarketAid brokered a relationship between AYME and Anthony Darell-Brown. AYME is the largest national charity for children and young people with M.E. aged 5 to 25 providing support, advice and information to young people with ME and their families.

Anthony offered ongoing strategic marketing advice to the organisation, as well marketing guidance on a project-by-project basis. The first project Anthony assisted with was a fundraising letter from AYME chairperson, Ester Rantzen OBE (who also founded Childline), which coincided with AYME's tenth anniversary.

Though project based work, Anthony has developing strategic effect by refining the way AYME identifies its audience, how it raises money and how it sets a value on its service. In addition, Anthony is assisting AYME with creating a flexible and effective database which is core to their work.

"With his massive experience in direct marketing campaigns, our marketing professional was quick and sharp to give us advice which transformed our national appeal letter into a hard-hitting and effective ask."

Mary Jane Hollins, CEO
AYME - Association of Young People with M.E.

Interested to know more about the Association for Young People with M.E.?
Look at http://www.ayme.org.uk

Charity: Bart's City Life Saver
Marketing Professional: Phil Lawder

MarketAid facilitated a successful partnership between Bart's City Life Saver and Phil Lawder to develop a communications strategy which involved the creation of a new identity for the charity. Bart's City Life Saver is a medical charity that aims to reduce premature death through life saving education, training and research. The charity provides Basic Life Support courses and training in the effective use of Automated External Defibrillators (AED) in dealing with life-threatening medical emergencies.

The new identity hinged on the critical 2-3 minutes it takes for emergency services to arrive when resuscitation and defibrillators can save lives. The project also focused on the specific installation, training and use of defibrillators in offices in the Square Mile.

Phil restructured Bart's City's identity and communications. In addition, though his own professional networks, he secured the services of a leading design agency to provide pro-bono services.

Interested to know more about Bart's City Life Saver?
Look at http://www.bcls.org.uk

Charity: Children Nationwide Medical Research Fund (now WellChild)
Marketing Professional: David Pearson

Children Nationwide Medical Research Fund required strategic marketing advice. WellChild is a charity dedicated to supporting sick children. They support the prevention and cure of childhood disease and illness and work to improve the treatment and care of sick children.

David Pearson met with Kedge Martin and other staff to establish the brief. It also became apparent that personal mentoring of the CEO was also needed. Over a two year period, the Kedge and David met for an hour a month until office moves by both parties made the meetings more difficult to arrange. Both also felt that the partnership has satisfied the existing need, and was no longer necessary.

For the CEO, mentoring advice covered strategic issues such as Board-level relationships, as well as issues relating to time management, other relationship management and influencing stakeholders. For the professional, this experience catalysed an expanded role as consultant offering professional mentoring.

"MarketAid's assistance was invaluable to both my own development, and the effectiveness of the organisation. I was mentored by someone with exceptional powers of strategic thinking."

Kedge Martin, CEO
WellChild

Interested to know more about WellChild?
Look at http://www.wellchild.org.uk

Charity: Clouds
Marketing Professional: Glyn Harper

Clouds is a charity working in the area of drug rehabilitation. It provides residential treatment, community rehabilitation and support to families. They also provide professional education through a partnership with the University of Bath to offer a Foundation Degree in Addictions Counselling.

Clouds needed advise regarding the marketing of the degree course since numerous drug counselling diploma courses exist which are cheaper and shorter than degree qualifications. Glyn assisted the organisation with classical marketing guidance including how to position their offering, target their audience and outline a marketing programme. Glyn guided the organisation in identifying their strengths which included their reputation and existing profile and weaknesses which included the fact the Clouds was seen as a 'physical house' or treatment centre and not as a training facility. Glyn identified the necessary change in mindset that was necessary to reposition Clouds as an educational institution. Glyn assisted Clouds to develop a detailed business plan which was signed off as a marketing strategy by the Board.

Glyn said: "I felt that I really added value and brought fresh ideas into their thinking. They were very challenging and stimulating to work with, really passionate about their work - it was one of the most satisfying pieces of work I have done. I left feeling proud of the work I had done".

Interested to know more about Clouds?
Look at http://www.clouds.org.uk

Charity: Employers' Forum on Disability
Marketing Professional: Phil Lawder

The Forum identified an urgent need to produce a high-level strategic document that would be distributed to its membership, serve an international audience and would act as a calling card for the organisation. The Forum saw the document as a key strategic communication to highlight the business case and encourage business investment in the issue of disability employment.

After an initial brief by the Employers' Forum for Disability Forum, MarketAid brokered a relationship between the Forum's Rhiannon Suter and a senior marketing professional, Phil Lawder, a specialist in Public Relations. The thrust of the partnership was a targeted and discrete intervention had refined the existing material. The professional brief was to focus on the strategic communication brochure highlighting disability confidence. Realising potential: Disability Confidence builds better business reflected the Forum's core activities, raises organisational profile and, critically, established the Forum as a thought leader.

Realising potential is being translated into other languages for the Forum's international membership. Over 10 000 copies were printed for sales and distribution to international stakeholders.

Riannon Suter of the Forum described the partnership as 'really, really useful given the document is a strategic lynchpin, and the assistance was also very timely'.

Interested to know more about the Employers Forum on Disability?
Look at www.employers-foum.co.uk

Charity: Plantlife International
Marketing Professional: Stephen Callendar

MarketAid facilitated a partnership between Plantlife International and professional, Stephen Callender. Plantlife International is a charity concerned exclusively to conserving all forms of plans life in their natural habitats, working in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

Over 2-3 months, Stephen Callendar worked with Christopher Broadbent, a trustee, to develop a brief, which through further consultation (including with Chairman Philip Mould), was redrafted, simplified and focused. The objective was primarily membership recruitment drive to increase organisation revenue. In addition, Stephen reviewed the information, data and processes of Plantlife to in his consultation.

Stephen developed a marketing recruitment strategy for Plantlife and presented his response to the Board of Trustees and executives.

"I am a trustee of two charities in the conservation sector and we have benefited from MarketAid's resources and network on several occasions. Without doubt the ability to access extremely senior people in the marketing industry for ad hoc advice and counsel is priceless. We have been extremely impressed both with the quality of advice and the time and commitment the advisors showed. We have also attended one of the organisations' seminars, and left it absolutely loaded with new thinking, ideas and inspiration. It is undoubtedly one of the most important resources we could access and we hope it continues to thrive."

Christopher Broadbent, Trustee
PlantLife International and Pond Conservation

Interested to know more about Plantlife International?
Look at http://www.plantlife.org.uk

Charity: Pond Conservation: The Water Habitats Trust
Marketing Professional: Stephen Callendar

Stephen Callendar worked with Pond Conservation: the Water Habitats Trust. Pond Conservation's need revolved around fundraising and memberships. A key challenge for Pond Conservation involved the relatively large number of small charities working in overlapping areas of interest. Stephen Callender refined and interpreted the given brief for the work. The task involved identifying the core focus and key issues for Pond Conservation. It also looked at what the organisation's particular cause was, and how the public might relate to this. The crux of the consultancy established the ways in which Pond Conservation would create a membership-base and how funding through subscription could be levered.

Interested to know more about Pond Conservation?
Look at http://www.pondconservation.org.uk

Charity: The London Community Cricket Association
Marketing Professional: David Pearson

The LCCA was founded in response to the Brixton Riots. Its work began in the Inner London communities where it became a source of hope for otherwise hopeless and disadvantaged black youths. The skills developed in those situations were then adapted to the teaching of cricket to the blind and other disabled people. The success enjoyed in these areas brought the charity to the notice of the international community and it has worked its magic as far apart as Afghanistan and Zambia.

David assisted Tom Rodwell (who had some agency background) in strategic thinking about LCCA. Tom was both CEO and chairman of the organisation but is not operating exclusively as CEO. The danger within LCCA was not prioritising streams and therefore not being as effective as possible. David assisted in developing a strategic vision and plan. The formal relationship ended once it was deemed that this strategic vision was accomplished and is elements were to be implemented. However, David acts on an ongoing basis as sporadic advisor and touchstone. David said that he 'got a lot out of the relationship'.

Interested to know more about London Community Cricket Association?
Look at http://www.thelcca.org.uk/

Charity: The Community Channel
Marketing Professional: Anthony Darell-Brown

The Community Channel required assistance in recruiting a marketing director. Community Channel is the only TV station totally dedicated to highlighting issues from both local and international communities as well as the voluntary and charitable sectors. The Community Channel approached MarketAid to identify a senior marketer to assist them in recruiting a senior marketing executive. Anthony Darell-Brown worked closely with the Community Channel executives to create a personnel profile, a job description and a hiring brief. He also sat on the interview panel. In addition, Anthony also assisted the Community Channel by developing a matrix for advertising revenues. He advised them on what they could sell and what modest rates they might charge for advertising.

Interested to know more about The Community Channel?
Look at http://www.communitychannel.org/

Charity: Revolving Doors Agency
Marketing Professional: Anthony Darell-Brown

Anthony Darell-Brown assisted Revolving Doors Agency, the only charity of its kind in the UK dedicated to improving the lives of people who are caught up in a damaging cycle of crisis, crime and mental illness. Revolving Doors needed the help of a marketing person to work on a number of specific issues, the first of which was a mail shot. Anthony also facilitated an introduction to Carlton TV and a number of five-minute shows were produced. Unfortunately, the timing of this initiative coincided with Carlton's merger with ITV and the segments were never aired. Anthony also assisted Revolving Doors to produce a CD Rom targeted at the police, prison and probation services on how to better run multi-agency programmes. The idea behind the CD is critically important to Revolving Doors: failure of support agencies to co-ordinate their efforts increased the likelihood of customers emerging form care and back into a life of transgression. Finally, the partnership also identified that a key weakness for the organisation was the absence of a effective database. An appropriate and flexible database was of critical importance to the functioning of the charity.

Interested to know more about Revolving Doors?
Look at http://www.revolving-doors.co.uk

Charity: Waterloo Green Trust
Marketing Professional: Phil Lawder

Waterloo Millennium Green is the first new park in Lambeth for 20 years. In 1997 Waterloo Green Trust (WGT) converted the derelict site into one of the most innovative multi purpose sites in South London. Local communities and schools were involved, contributing both design ideas and resources to the site’s successful regeneration. The Green provides a green space, a play space for children and young adults and space for an eco-friendly social enterprise.

MaketAid identified Phil Lawder as the marketing professional to assist the Waterloo Green Trust. The project involved a number of mentoring sessions with the then Director about how to manage the Project's PR challenges and deliver thought and focus to the brief, after which Phil worked more widely with the Board of Trustees. Here the parameters for a PR campaign were established which included imbuing marketing sense and structure into the Project's offering. Whilst the project was ultimately successful, it appeared that the Director and the Board had different expectations of the professional. This has highlighted for MarketAid the critical importance of having a clear brief (which might involve some initial work in identifying the core issues), and also having clarity of expectations among all stakeholders.

Interested to know more about Waterloo Green?
Look at http://www.waterloogreen.org.uk