Welcome

Researcher at the University of Birmingham, UK
English Language Consultant
​Samantha is a Researcher in cognitive and applied linguistics, marketing, and psychology investigating the relationship between linguistic and cognitive phenomena and people's attitude and behaviour, particularly with respect to figurativity, creativity, emotion, and multimodality in advertising.

Samantha is completing a PhD with a Collaborative Doctoral Award funded by the Midlands4Cities Arts and Humanities Research Council (M4C AHRC), and collaborates with Big Cat Marketing Agency to measure the impact of figurative communication in health and social campaigns on consumer attitude and behaviour.

Samantha is also a Consultant, specialising in the English language. They work with marketing agencies, not-for-profit and charity organisations, and businesses that want to make a positive change to people's lives. Please get in touch if you want to find out more.
MA by Research
English Language and Applied Linguistics
University of Birmingham
​Masters Level Scholarship
BA (hons)
English Language
University of Birmingham
Research Project Prize

 Unpacking Creativity:
​The Power of Figurative Communication in Advertising

Figurative communication (the use of metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole and irony) provides economy of expression, clarity, persuasiveness, politeness, evaluation, and communication of emotions. However, it also increases the potential for misunderstanding in situations when people lack shared background knowledge. This book combines theoretical frameworks with empirical studies that measure the effectiveness of different approaches to the use of figurative language in advertisements, to show how to maximise the benefits of creative metaphor and metonymy in global advertising. It highlights how subtle differences in colour, layout, and combinations of different kinds of figurative language affect the reception and appreciation of creative advertising, shedding new light on the nature of figurative communication itself. With a balance between theory, experiments and practical case studies, this book is accessible for academics in linguistics and communication studies, as well as advertising and marketing professionals.

Case study:
The role of metaphor and humour in a sexual health campaign

Samantha works with Big Cat Advertising Agency as part of her collaborative PhD and the EMMA project, examining the impact of figurative language and emotion in advertising on consumer attitude and behaviour.

Brief:
  • Break down the stigma related to sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
  • Raise awareness of sexual health services provided by Umbrella Health Trust in the West Midlands (UK) region
  • Increase orders of home-testing kits for sexually transmitted infections

Approach:
We manipulated the kinds of linguistic metaphors through humorous innuendo in a sexual health testing campaign and measured people's responses, with regards to their interpretation, attitude, and behaivour toward the campaign.

Result:
The campaign was launched in Birmingham and Solihull, UK, in June 2019, and saw an 51% increase in orders for STI home-testing kits and an additional 778 diagnoses of STIs, getting people the treatment that they need. Positive consumer responses were elicited through optimal cognitive effort in figuring out the message, and creative and action metaphors.  

What has Samantha been doing recently?