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A smiling woman wearing a burgundy hijab looking directly at the camera, used as the hero image for the NHS Epsom and St Helier Be More recruitment campaign case study by Julie Nicholls

Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

Changing perceptions of a career in the NHS

• Campaign concepts
• Campaign logo design
• Headline copy
• Outdoor advertising
• Press advertising
• Social media design
• Internal communications 

From concept to campaign

Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust needed to recruit people across a wide range of roles, not just medically trained staff. The challenge was to reach people who had never considered a career in the NHS and show them that the skills they already had, whether in administration, facilities, IT or dozens of other disciplines, were exactly what the Trust needed.

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Working on behalf of Verve Communications, I was involved from the very start, attending client briefings and workshops and developing the campaign concept from scratch. The Be More campaign was built around a simple but powerful idea: a career in the NHS allows you to be more than you might expect. More fulfilled, more valued, more part of something that really matters.

Be More campaign logo showing a blue letter B with the words Be More and the supporting line More Than Just a Job, designed for the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust recruitment campaign by Julie Nicholls

The campaign needed to work across a lot of different surfaces and contexts. Outdoor advertising ran across the borough at billboards, bus shelters and station sites. Press ads ran in local publications. A digital and social campaign targeted people who may never have considered NHS roles, particularly those from the private sector with transferable skills. And internally, a programme of posters across both hospital sites made sure existing staff felt part of the campaign too.​

Three outdoor poster sites showing the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust Be More recruitment campaign featuring real members of NHS staff, designed by Julie Nicholls for Verve Communications
Bus shelter advertising poster for the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust Be More NHS recruitment campaign showing a real member of staff, designed by Julie Nicholls for Verve Communications
Bus shelter advertising poster for the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust Be More NHS recruitment campaign showing a real member of staff, designed by Julie Nicholls for Verve Communications
Large format station billboard showing the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust Be More recruitment campaign poster featuring a real NHS staff member, designed by Julie Nicholls
Underground advertising posters for the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust Be More recruitment campaign showing the campaign running across multiple underground poster formats, designed by Julie Nicholls
Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust Be More recruitment campaign social media advertising shown on a mobile phone screen, designed by Julie Nicholls for Verve Communications

All photography featured real members of Epsom & St Helier staff. I wrote the photography brief and supplied examples to guide the Trust's own photographer on the shoot, making sure the imagery felt consistent with the campaign creative from day one.

Be More campaign branding applied to a white staff mug showing the campaign logo and More Than Just a Job messaging, designed for Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust by Julie Nicholls
Be More campaign branding applied to a staff lanyard showing the campaign logo, designed for internal staff communications at Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust by Julie Nicholls

The outcome

The campaign ran across the borough and throughout both hospital sites, giving the Trust a consistent and distinctive voice in the recruitment market. The Be More concept gave the campaign real flexibility, working equally well for a carpenter, an administrator or a nurse, which was exactly what the brief required.

"I wanted to say a big thank you for your continued support with the creation and launch of this campaign. I really appreciate your time and the effort that you put in. You really looked after us!"

Emral Jarrold, People Strategy and Transformation Lead, Epsom & St Helier NHS Trust

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