The Hear It Podcast

Season 3 is back and to kick us off we hear from Brett Booth, youth marketing strategist, on what brands and organisations can do to better position themselves to engage youth audiences within their marketing.  Brett is a former partner of Nerds, a UK youth agency working for major brands that celebrates artists and youth voice. Having worked on a whole breadth of campaigns to help brands better c...

In our last episode on the theme of Technology and the Student Experience, we look at how our conversations with prospective students can begin at a very early stage and technology can enable how we can improve these very early impressions.  We speak with Guy Andrews and Mark Higginson, experienced marketing and technology experts from Twenty Thousand Leagues and creators of Cues.ai .  But importa...

This episode we speak with Josh Akapo, co-founder of creative agency Archtype, who facilitate impactful moments of culture for the likes of Lovebox Festival, Stormzy and DLT. Josh also delivers creative research and insights at Hype Collective, a student marketing agency and is part of a youth mentoring non-profit, Joined Up Thinking, helping curate projects particularly for young people of colour...

We’re talking all about “influence” in this episode with Jamie McCracken, Head of Agency at Protein in New York. Jamie’s experience of customer attitudes, behaviours and motivations has informed a whole host of insight reports and strategies, working with a whole host of brands from Nike, YEEZY and Red Bull to Google, Apple and Alexander Wang.    @protein  https://www.proteinagency.com/   Protein’...

This episode we’re joined by Dr Josephine Perry, Chartered Psychologist, Founder of Performance in Mind, journalist and author. Having worked across a breadth of communications roles, from lobbying to being Communications Director at Nuffield Health, her own sporting experience took her into performance psychology, where she has worked with a breadth of athletes and written several books, includin...

This week we’re talking about the latest research into teen girls and sport with Tanya Martin, Insight Manager at Women in Sport, a national charity that works to give every woman and girl the opportunity to experience the transformational rewards of sport.   Tanya Martin @Womeninsport_uk Women in Sport: The Impact of COVID-19 on Girls Lives and Physical Activity, 2021 https://www.womeninsport.org...

This week we’re joined by Nafisa Shafiq, Student Communications Manager at the University of Leeds. Nafisa’s experience across a breadth of sectors had always been driven by the desire for more inclusive communications, not just within her role in higher education, but in the wider sector and indeed her own career and this episode we talk about how student communications have faired over the past...

This week we’re joined by Emma Leech, Director of Marketing and Communications at Nottingham Trent University. Emma’s career spans a breadth of Higher Education Institutions, with her teams winning a multitude of awards for their work in engaging young people. A founding chartered PR Practitioner, Chartered Marketer and Chartered Manager, she has also held industry positions including CIPR Preside...

This week we’re joined by Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor of WONKHE, where he explores the latest research, analysis and policy making impacting students and higher education. A former long-standing director at the National Union of Students, Jim has also worked as CEO at the Students’ Union at UEA in Norwich and is also a fellow at the Royal Society of the Arts. In this episode we discuss some of...

This week we speak with Dr Thomas Curran, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. His research into the personality characteristics of perfectionism and cultural influences upon it have highlighted the growing impact of perfectionism on young people’s mental health, as well as what society needs to do to address it.    Dr Cu...

We explore online life, pressure and perfectionism and its impact on bullying and mental health. Speaking to Sue Jones, Deputy CEO of global youth charity Ditch the Label. Its annual bullying report highlighted the 25% rise in bullying, attributing social media as a major cause, with 47% of young people saying they believe they were bullied based on their appearance. We explore what impact the pan...

Dave Musson from The Access Platform shares his view on why peer to peer student content is the best way to reflect youth voice.  Hear about how his career has brought him to TAP, what makes for the best youth content and how to manage it without being overly prescriptive.  An experienced podcaster himself, on everything from Slipknot to his beloved Coventry Bears team, he also shares what he list...

We speak with Dr Emma Ross, co-founder of the Well HQ and former Head of Physiology at the English Institute of Sport. Emma has not only led research into the data gap that exists within high performance sport to better inform practice and performance of some of Britain’s leading female athletes, she has authored Train Like a Woman (Out March 2021) and launched the Well HQ to break down the barrie...

In order to influence behaviour, from the development of your campaign through to how your measure it's impact, has to delve deeper than 'likes' or 'reach' in order to be effective, not least when it comes to habits and behaviours that influence health.  This episode we speak with Shayoni Lynn, founder of Lynn PR and industry expert in data-driven strategic communications and applied behavioural s...

This episode we're talking all things behaviour change and health as we chat with communications specialist Leanne Hughes from NHS Lothian. We're starting this theme with perhaps the most tricky with youth audiences - sexual health. How to avoid embarrassing, offending, or missing the point all together when it comes to getting vital messaging out to influence behaviours with a youth audience when...

When it comes to creating campaigns and advertising that lands with young people, you'd fall pretty short of the mark if you weren't talking about culture.  This episode we're speaking with Amy Kean, not only has she had a successful career in the advertising, media and PR industry for over 15 years, she's a lecturer, author, columnist and recently founded her own agency, Six Impossible Things as...

This episode we speak with Jay Richards, Co-Founder of Imagen Insights - who's main aim is connecting brands and organisations with Gen Z for brutally honest insights.  Their 1700+ consultants get opportunities to work with organisations, often getting opportunity to work directly on specific projects and most importantly, getting valuable experience and being paid for it.  We talk about the chanc...

A theme which runs through almost all other episode - the importance of working and creating with young people. But what does this actually mean and how can we better do this? We speak with Harry Beard , a 21 year old entrepreneur, named one of Ernst & Young's Best Student Entrepreneurs in their 'Founders 30' competition and co-founder of Future Labs providing 'Gen Z' consultancy expertise and rep...

As the pandemic continues to force the digitisation of the student experience, what opportunities have presented themselves over the past year - and more importantly, what might stay? We continue to explore technology and the student experience but in this episode we speak with Nathan Monk from Smile , the award-winning digital agency working with universities and colleges on websites and creative...

With millions of students around the world forced to learn at a distance during lockdown and many universities providing virtual solutions in the short term, how is technology aiding or disrupting the student experience – from recruitment through to learning? This episode we speak with Eric Stoller, a thought leader in education technology and the student experience. With a background in student a...

The ‘youth vote’ is talked about regularly, often as an important group to get onside within any election – but what do political groups do to engage young people, listen, inform and influence? The podcast will explore this topic from a UK perspective in season 2, but we were fortunate enough to speak with Jessica Blair just before the US election and felt this episode was relevant to share with y...

The Importance of parental influence of youth engagement: How much influence do parents have and how do you reflect this in campaigns to children and young people? This episode we're extending this to talk about the role of parents and teachers, two of the most significant influencers on children and young people in their day-to-day lives.  Amanda Vernalls, Head of Research & Insight at the Youth...

The Importance of parental influence of youth engagement: How much influence do parents have and how do you reflect this in campaigns to children and young people? This episode we speak to Nick Richardson, CEO of Kids Insights, global leaders in kids’ market intelligence, looking at attitudes, behaviours and consumption of children and their parents, in order to translate that to inform business....

The Importance of parental influence of youth engagement: How much influence do parents have and how do you reflect this in campaigns to children and young people? This episode we speak to Simon Lucey, MD of the Hype Collective , a student marketing agency that works with a breadth of brands whilst creating opportunities for students - from work experience, society funding or brand partnerships. B...

Cat Prill, Marketing Coordinator at Lancaster University having worked at departmental, central and faculty level in a range of roles. All of this helps to position her skills in contributing to building the community the University has across its social channels. Cat works with the campaigns team at Lancaster, creating and amplifying fresh and distinctive content. An advocate for student voice, a...