PORTFOLIO
PHOEBE SPRINGETT
CAMPAIGN - ESS 2025
A community-powered recognition campaign that put real people at its centre, inviting the emergency services to nominate colleagues whose courage and dedication deserved a spotlight.
48
nominees recognised
26
attended the celebration
3Mon
concept to event
8+
social posts created
THE BRIEF
PUTTING PEOPLE AT THE CENTRE
The Emergency Services Show needed to reach a wider cross-section of frontline workers, not just senior leadership or procurement teams, but the everyday professionals who give everything to the communities they serve.
The challenge was to make the show feel relevant and emotionally compelling to people who rarely seek the spotlight and to do it on a minimal budget with a three-month runway.
"The people who save lives every day deserve to be celebrated. We just needed to give their community a way to do that — and make attending the show the reward."
OBJECTIVES
Drive brand awareness across the emergency services community; increase event attendance from frontline workers; create emotional engagement through community storytelling.
TIMELINE
Three months from concept to event activation, minimal budget, with no paid media spend.
MY ROLE
Campaign lead. Responsible for the microbrand, all social and email content, goodie bag creation, branded event assets, wall design, and on-site coordination.
THE STRATEGY
RECOGNITION AS THE HOOK
The insight was simple but powerful: emergency service workers don't nominate themselves. But they would nominate a colleague, especially if that colleague's story could be shared with their community and celebrated in person at the show.
By making the campaign people-centric and nomination-driven, we created content that wrote itself. Every nominee submission came with a photograph and a personal story, giving us authentic, emotionally resonant content that no brief could manufacture. The Happy Hour celebration at ESS gave nominees a tangible reason to attend.
01
COMMUNITY POWERED
Colleagues, friends and family submitted nominations with stories and images, making every piece of content genuinely human.
02
ATTENDANCE AS THE REWARD
Nominees were personally invited to an exclusive Happy Hour at ESS, turning recognition into a reason to attend the show.
03
ZERO-BUDGET REACH
With no paid spend, organic social, email, and community sharing carried the campaign entirely, proving the power of the right message.
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THE MICROBRAND
DESIGNED FROM THE GROUND UP
I created the full Unsung Heroes visual identity, logo, colour system, typographic hierarchy, and tone of voice, to sit within the ESS brand while having a distinct campaign personality. Bold, respectful, and instantly recognisable.
Designed the "Emergency Services Unsung Heroes" logo and campaign wordmark
Created a consistent graphic language across social, email, and event materials
Designed the branded photo frame used on the show floor for social sharing moments
Designed and briefed a physical nominee wall, displayed at ESS to showcase all 38 heroes
Created and curated branded goodie bags for all nominees who attended
CAMPAIGN EXECUTION
THREE CHANNELS. ONE STORY.
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15+ posts across LinkedIn and Facebook
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Nomination calls, hero spotlights, event countdowns
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Nominee collage posts tagging participants
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Live event day countdown and Happy Hour promotion
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Performed above industry average engagement
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6-email sequence over the campaign window
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Nomination call, reminder, nominee confirmation, event invite, day-before, and follow-up
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Personalised nominee communications to drive attendance
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Targeted to the ESS database of emergency service professionals
EVENT
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Exclusive Happy Hour for nominees at the ESS Networking Café
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Physical nominee wall showcasing all heroes
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Branded goodie bags for every attending nominee
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Branded photo frame for shareable show floor moments
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Free professional headshot opportunity for all nominees
CONTENT IN THE WILD
THE POSTS
The campaign's social content evolved through three distinct phases, awareness and nominations, nominee spotlights, and event activation, each with a distinct tone and purpose.
ON THE GROUND
THE CELEBRATION
HAPPY HOUR AT ESS 2025
The event activation was the campaign's centrepiece, a dedicated celebration for nominees at the ESS Networking Café on 18 September, bringing together frontline workers who had been recognised by their peers, families, and colleagues.
20 of the 38 nominees attended, a remarkable turnout given the constraints of shift patterns, rotas, and the reality of emergency service budgets. Each attendee received a branded goodie bag and the opportunity for a free professional headshot.
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The nominee wall, designed and produced as part of the campaign, displayed every hero's story and photo on the show floor, giving the campaign a permanent physical presence across both days of the event.
GOODIE BAGS
Designed and sourced for all 38 nominees, curated, branded, and distributed on the day
BRANDED FRAME
Designed a branded ESS photo frame for social-sharing moments on the show floor
NOMINEE WALL
Designed a physical display wall showcasing all 38 heroes, visible across both event days
FREE HEADSHOT
Professional photography offered to every nominee as part of the celebration package
THE COMMUNITY
48 HEROES. EVERY ONE REAL.
Every nominee came with a story submitted by someone who knew them, a colleague, a family member, a manager who saw what others didn't. That authenticity was the campaign's greatest asset.
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The nominee collage post, combining all 48 faces around the Unsung Heroes wordmark, became one of the campaign's strongest performing pieces, driving organic shares as nominees tagged their own networks and encouraged further nominations.
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The campaign celebrated bravery, leadership, and the quiet, consistent dedication that holds blue light teams together. Not just the dramatic moments, but the everyday heroism that rarely makes the news.
THE RESULTS
WHAT IT DELIVERED
53%
Nominee Attendance Rate
20 of 38 nominees attended the Happy Hour, exceptional for an audience working shift patterns, with rota constraints and limited travel budgets. A 53% conversion from nomination to physical event attendance.
£0
Media Budget
The entire campaign reached its audience through organic social, email, and community sharing, proving that the right story, told well, doesn't need a media budget
48
Nominees Recognised
38 emergency service workers nominated, featured, and celebrated, each one representing a story that reached their personal and professional networks, extending the campaign's organic reach far beyond the ESS audience.
3MON
Concept to Activation
Full campaign delivered in three months, microbrand, content, email, event assets, physical production, and on-site coordination
"The campaign performed above industry average on social engagement and we were especially proud of the turnout at the Happy Hour, given the real-world constraints emergency service workers face with rotas and budgets, getting 26 people into a room to be celebrated felt like the campaign's most meaningful result."