Samantha Ford
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The Cool Down Series

6/7/2020

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During June 2020, Big Cat Agency has partnered with ActionPact to host a series of panel discussions featuring expert guest speakers from across the health, fitness, and wellbeing sectors. I reported on three of the first four webinars concerning training, and health and nutrition. Access them via Creative Brief or download the reports below.

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The Cool Down #4 26.06.2020.pdf
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The Cool Down #1 29.05.2020.pdf
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The Cool Down #2 05.06.2020.pdf
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Insight paper published on Creative Brief

9/6/2020

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Update: You can download the full report below. Also see Publications.

In March, I worked with Big Cat Agency on a new project investigating the reasons why people go to the gym. The report of this project is featured on Creative Brief.

The report assessed the experiences and behavioural habits and preferences of gym-goers who have or have had gym membership. Free-text responses from a survey constituting 68 gym-goers were analysed to gain an insight into how they feel about gym accessibility, their emotional and physical reactions to gym classes, 
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Identifying the behavioural habits of gym-goers to inform an emotional ‘hook’ campaign for boutique gym classes
the impact the gym has on their lifestyle (i.e. diet, sleep, and spending), and their preferences for types of training formats and fitness classes.
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I used a thematic analysis approach to identify the common concepts, thoughts, and opinions gym-goers had in response to the questions posed. From this analysis, I was able to draw key behavioural practices and emotional reactions to attending the gym and fitness classes.

Health and Fitness Insight Paper
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Talking taboo using metaphor in a sexual health campaign

9/10/2019

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Watch this video to find out how I worked with Jeannette Littlemore, Paula Perez-Sobrino, and David Houghton, and Big Cat Advertising Agency to effectively implement metaphor into a campaign that talked about sexual health. For more information about the campaign and the EMMA project, click here. 
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EMMA and Big Cat launch sexual health campaign in Birmingham

4/9/2019

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In June and July 2019, Big Cat and EMMA launched their collaborative campaign for Umbrella Health, an NHS sexual health trust, across Birmingham and Solihull. EMMA tested the effectiveness of metaphor use in a sexual health campaign advertising an STI home-testing kit for Umbrella Health. Measures for effectiveness included consumer understanding, appeal, and reported engagement of the campaign when metaphor was used as an innuendo for places in Birmingham, United Kingdom (e.g. Popping in his Mailbox?, Exploring her Botanical Gardens?).

​With a regional Qualtrics survey, EMMA
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The campaign featured across Birmingham and Solihull, including the Grand Central Station, near the Bullring.
examined whether participant responses varied according to: (a) participant age, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, and (b) the figurative nature of twelve campaign adverts, in order to establish which figurative factors shape the extent to which consumers report that they find the adverts funny, appealing, and say they would engage with the campaign’s call to action (i.e. to order an STI kit) or its presence on social media. The figurative nature of the adverts varied three-way: (1) the level of conceptual work required to decode the adverts’ meaning; (2) the progression of the sexual conquest narrative (i.e. where in the progression of the sexual act from dating to sexual intercourse was referred to via metaphor); (3) the level of creativity (conventional to novel) in the adverts.

To read the full article, click here.

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Birmingham Post's 2018 'Partnership of the Year Award'

1/11/2018

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On 1st November 2018, the collaborative project between the University of Birmingham and Big Cat Marketing Communications Agency was awarded the Birmingham Post's Partnership of the Year Award. ​The project worked with non-profit organisations Solihull Community Housing Association and the Aspire charity (research, rehabilitation, and reintegration for people with spinal-cord injury) as part of their Aspire Channel Swim campaign. 
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The Partnership of the Year Award is presented at the Birmingham Post Awards ceremony 2018

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Of Strong Mind: A Collaboration With Darren Gibson

16/5/2018

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From February to April 2018, Samantha has collaborated with Darren Gibson, a Master's Composition student from the University of Salford. Darren Gibson's atmospheric music brings to life the poetry of Samantha Ford, telling the story of ancient origins that has a modern moral at its core.  The musical prose is based on the legend of Finn MacCool and the creation of the Giants Causeway and Isle of Man. Watch the video and read the poem below.

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Academics and Advertising Agency Collaboration

10/4/2018

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On 6th February 2018, I started working with Professor Jeannette Littlemore and Dr Paula Perez-Sobrino on a collaborative project with a local Birmingham advertising agency, Big Cat Agency. The project aims to investigate how figurative messaging can impact people's responses to advertising campaigns through the 
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Read the Business Birmingham article for more
use of innovative technology. With a particular emphasis on non-profit organisations, the advertising campaigns and creative designs produced by Big Cat containing figurative messaging will be tested using eye-tracking technology (ET), qualitative interviews, and electrodermal activity measurement (EDA). ​
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Introducing EMMA

11/2/2018

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​The collaboration between the University of Birmingham, involving academics from the English Language and Linguistics department and Marketing department, and the Big Cat Marketing Communications Agency forms a part of the EMMA project, which has been running since 2015. 

A new website: 
The University of Birmingham provided funding to the EMMA project to continue its investigation into figurative messaging involving metaphor and metonymy in advertising from 2017. A new website is being developed at the University of Birmingham that includes updates on EMMA's activities from 2017 onwards. Why not check it out here?

Meet the team: 
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EMMA consists of five core members: Professor 
Jeannette Littlemore (left), Dr Paula Perez-Sobrino (right), Dr David Houghton (centre-right), and Samantha Ford MA (centre-left). ​
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Find out more about EMMA at the University of Birmingham.
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