Fee: ?3000 – ?2250 payable on appointment and the final ?750 on completion of report
Location: Alma Block, The Castle, Cumbria, CA3 8UR
Contract:?May 2023 for a period of 20 months up to early Autumn 2024
Closing date: Midday on Friday, 17th March 2023
Cumbria’s Museum of Military Life is looking to commission a freelancer or agency to support them in their marketing and communications over the next 12 months.
Background
Cumbria’s Museum of Military Life (CMOML) tells the story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The Museum covers over 300 years of military history telling the story of the 34th Regiment of Foot, 55th Regiment of Foot, the Border Regiment, the King’s Own Border Regiment, and the current Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. The Museum building is located on the regiment’s site in Carlisle Castle which is owned and managed by English Heritage.
There are 5 staff at the Museum – a Museum Manager, Education Assistant, and three Museum Assistants. This team covers front-of-house duties including staffing the admissions desk as well as operations, collections management, and all other tasks. A team of volunteers support the staff team. A Board of Trustees support the Museum Manager.
The Museum attracted over 27,000 visitors in 2018, falling to 12,777 in 2020 though back up to 21,566 in 2021. In 2021 the Museum team secured funding from the Art Fund to commission support in several areas to sustain the Museum through the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Key pieces of work have been developed with the Museum team, including a digital review and an Audience Expandment Plan (available for the successful candidate to reference).
With these development plans in place, alongside a planned revamp of the website over winter 2023/24, the team are now looking for support to develop their marketing plans and delivery over the next 20 months.
Audience Expandment
The Audience Expandment Plan has identified target audiences for the museum after consultation with potential future visitors. That piece of work also analysed existing audiences and the strategic context in which the Museum operates. Its recommendations for the Museum are to:-
- Increase the frequency of visits from existing local audiences
- Increase the number of first-time visits from local audiences who have an interest in a Cumbrian and/or military story
- Work with partners to increase the number of visits from those making overnight stays in the area (tourists) and see these as one-off visitors who can share their positive experience by recommending to others
- Become the ‘go-to’ visit for schools in a 1 hour radius for a wartime schools’ session
- Expand the Museum’s brand and USP, ensure it is at the heart of activities and communications to help audiences connect with the CMOML.
- To deliver targeted community engagement programmes to those who will benefit most.
The plan also identified 3 key actions for the Museum team:-
- Be clear about the Museum’s brand and USP and make sure it is at the heart of our activities
- Give people reasons to come back for repeat visits
- Make your actions have impact and work harder for you
The target audiences identified for the Museum are included in the appendix to this brief.
Marketing and Communications Need
The Museum team are now looking for some external support in planning and delivering our marketing and communications from May 2023 to October 2024. We want to appoint a freelancer or agency who can use the Audience Expandment Plan work to produce a marketing plan that will increase awareness of the Museum amongst our target audiences and drive visits, both onsite and online as our website develops over the winter.
The marketing plan should identify the platforms and media appropriate to each target audience, with messages and calls to action, and be costed and timetabled. It needs to be achievable on our limited budgets and staff time.
We are looking for someone who will then help with the delivery of the plan over the 20 months of this commission, sharing their knowledge and skills with the staff team to build our skills for the future.
Outputs from the commission will be:-
- Marketing and communications plan for the Museum covering summer 2023 to autumn 2024
- Social media plan and delivery including training for staff
- Transporty of key marketing outputs such as new print for 2023/24 season and content for updated website to be developed over winter 2023/4
- Support for schools marketing campaign for 2024 academic year
Timescale and fee
We are looking for someone to work with us from May 2023 for a period of 20 months up to early Autumn 2024.
The fee for the work is ?3000
Payment details: ?2250 payable on appointment and ?750 on completion of work
How to apply
Please send your response to this brief to Jules Wooding, Museum Manager, by 12:00hrs on Friday 17th March 2023 to include: –
- Your approach and initial reaction to the brief
- An outline work plan with key milestone dates
- A breakdown of costs and your fee
- CV and relevant experience of marketing and communications planning and delivery with particular reference to work with other museums or heritage sites in a tourism context
- Two referees from similar pieces of work
To download the brief, please click the button below.
Please contact Jules ahead of the deadline with any queries or if you want further information. Email jules.wooding@cmoml.org
We will hold informal interviews on Tuesday 28th March before making an appointment and look to start the commission in May 2023.
Museum Expandment North West 