Do you have experience of creating impactful marketing campaigns based around travel and tourism? Do you have a successful track record of developing game-changing messaging for arts, culture and heritage destinations? Can you package up Derby’s unique heritage offer to generate more overnight visitors and increase dwell time and spend at Derby Museums’ three sites?

The Brief

Are you a travel-focused marketing expert, certain that you can radically change footfall at Derby Museums in summer 2025?

We are looking for a creative pitch that encapsulates the Derby Museums brand and includes a clear plan on how to reach and activate overnight visitors to Derby.

We are looking for a marketing plan brimming with confidence and excitement in Derby’s unique heritage offer, positioning the museums as central attractions for visitors to base overnight breaks around, with a resultant plan for increased income for the Museums Trust from donations, concessions and catering.

Within this commission we would ideally like you to be confident in using demographic analysis to identify audiences from 2+ hours drive time that we might not currently be reaching with our current marketing resource. How would you reach these audiences? Which partnerships would you bring in to attract these audiences? And what assets would you produce to put Derby Museums front and centre in their travel plans?

The Role

We’re looking for a freelance marketing consultant or agency with a proven track record in creating and delivering engaging content designed to inspire tourism. You will be a creative individual or agency with experience in producing impactful messaging that will help us to drive overnight footfall, dwell time, spend and donations at Derby Museums.

The role includes but is not limited to:

• Produce a compelling marketing plan to reach audiences from further afield
• Work with our marketing team to produce assets (which could include digital and print advertising, video and commissioning influencers) from the £15,000 budget
• Activate the campaign and report on its impact, ensuring it sits within the brand framework for Derby Museums

This opportunity is funded by Arts Council England for a project that is designed to build museum audiences.

The freelancer/consultant will be supported by our Marketing and Communications Manager and Director of Commercial and Operations.

Potential candidates must be highly organised with strong communication skills. They must have the confidence to lead projects in a relatively short time frame with the ability to inspire and think creatively. Experience of creating similar content for a heritage or charitable organisation is desirable though not necessary.

We believe that diversity and equality within our workplace, programmes and in our outlook
is crucial. We therefore particularly welcome applications from candidates that are under-represented at Derby Museums and within the heritage sector, including black and minority ethnic candidates and/or candidates with a disability.

Key details

Total budget for the commission: Up to £15,000, including all marketing costs and freelance fees, to be paid in an agreed schedule

Hours: Hours can be worked flexibly with an agreed schedule within a 6-month period (February – July 2025)

Deadline for applications: Wednesday 22 January at midday

Interviews for shortlisted candidates: Friday 31 January

How to apply: If you think you have the skills and experience to take on this role, please send your CV and a brief proposal in PDF or Microsoft Word format to info@derbymuseums.org putting the reference number AR-FR24 in the subject line of the email. Your proposal should include a brief outline of your creative proposal, your approach to the project, estimated budget and estimated timeline. Please also include links to relevant work where possible.

Download this job listing as a Word document here.

This opportunity is supported by Arts Council England.

About Arts Council England

• Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. artscouncil.org.uk
• Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. We are also one of several bodies administering the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund and unprecedented support package of £1.57 billion for the culture and heritage sector. Find out more at artscouncil.org.uk/covid19