NHS Croydon

Super charging recruitment for Croydon NHS Trust

• Concepts
• Campaign copy
• Branding
• Brochure design
• Artwork
• Social media design

From concept to campaign

Croydon NHS Trust needed to attract more school nurses and health visitors to the borough and wanted a campaign that would really stand out. Working on behalf of Verve Communications, I was brought in at the very start: attending client workshops, developing the concept and leading the creative from initial idea through to final artwork.

The brief asked for something that felt authentic to Croydon's vibrant, diverse community.

Bring us your superpower

The answer was Bring us your superpower: a campaign built around the people rather than the job titles. Instead of listing roles and requirements, we asked what each individual brings to the table. It gave the campaign warmth and real flexibility, with every person featured telling their own story.

✎ Outdoor campaign

NHS Croydon Trust Bring Us Your Superpower recruitment poster displayed on a large billboard at a busy Croydon road junction

NHS Croydon Trust Bring Us Your Superpower recruitment poster displayed in a bus shelter in Croydon borough

NHS Croydon Trust Bring Us Your Superpower recruitment poster displayed at a Croydon tram stop, featuring a real NHS staff member

Two branded NHS lanyards featuring staff photography from the Bring Us Your Superpower campaign, designed for NHS Croydon Trust by Julie Nicholls

The campaign ran for six weeks across the borough, appearing at key travel intersections throughout: bus stops, tram stops and billboards, reaching commuters at peak times. Press ads ran in the Metro newspaper. A recruitment brochure gave people the detail they needed to take the next step, social posts extended the reach online, and a microsite brought it all together.

Throughout the campaign, every face you see is a real Croydon NHS staff member. I supplied a detailed photography brief to guide the Trust's own shoot, but the decision to feature actual staff rather than models was central to making the campaign feel genuine. It also gave the staff themselves a moment of recognition. Seeing colleagues celebrated on billboards and bus stops across the borough created a real sense of pride within the teams.

The work landed well with the team at Croydon NHS and Verve Communications have briefed me on many public sector campaigns since. It's a relationship that's now in its 8th year.