SARAH-JANE ADAMS
Sarah-Jane Adams is an experienced marketing, communications and copywriting professional, with expertise in content creation, social media and events. Specialising in innovative concepts and campaigns, and the production of engaging publications, Sarah-Jane is a management level creative that is also extensively versed in the disciplines of PR, design and photography.
MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
INNOVATIVE IDEAS AND INSTALLATIONS
From crafting engaging social media campaigns, to installing large scale spectacles in shopping centres, Sarah-Jane specialises in creative concepts for communication which will be spoken about for many seasons to come.
A VERY ROYAL CHRISTMAS
For the 2022 festive period at Royal Tunbridge Wells Together, Sarah-Jane compiled a marketing campaign entitled ‘A Very Royal Christmas,’ a nod to to the royal heritage of Royal Tunbridge Wells.
The elements comprised of two months of adverts, editorial and advertorial running across print and online media, influencer marketing, social media content, light hearted Christmas video advert featuring royal lookalikes and 50k copies of a 56 page Christmas shopping gift guide, which was available to pick up free across the town centre and delivered to local homes.
TIME FOR REMEMBRANCE
The RTW Together Business Improvement District counted down to the period of Remembrance for 2021 with a large-scale display in Royal Tunbridge Wells town centre, created by Sarah-Jane. Commissioning a local floristry business, she dressed the tall clock tower in Calverley Precinct in a striking collection of artificial poppies and autumnal foliage, cascading down the legs and onto the base of the landmark. To support the installation, several event days of activity were delivered, including live music from vintage singers, laying poppy wreaths and living statues paying homage to members of the Armed Forces, in historically accurate Officer uniform.
REMEMBRANCE AT THE MALL
SHOPPING CENTRE REMEMBRANCE DISPLAY
One Maidstone, October / November 2021
In October 2021, Sarah-Jane proudly unveiled her tribute to the Armed Forces, with a towering window display at the Mall shopping centre, in Maidstone town centre, on behalf of One Maidstone.
The occasion was marked with a packed launch event organised by Sarah-Jane for the occasion, attended by representatives of the 36 Engineer Regiment, the Royal British Legion, veterans, the Gurkha veteran community, AeroLegends, local Councillors, business owners and the Mayor of Maidstone. Separate visits were carried out by the Kent Police Crime Commissioner and MP for Maidstone.
The artwork was so well received that The Mall commissioned a replica of the piece to cover an empty unit within the centre, which was utilised as a backdrop for Royal British Legion’s poppy sellers that year. The display appeared hundreds of times across the social media profiles of shoppers and residents, and featured across local press outlets.
MARKETING COLLATERAL
Having worked across various marketing and communications roles, Sarah-Jane is well versed in producing effective and engaging marketing collateral to support events or campaigns. Sarah-Jane can both produce copy for, and design, interesting materials that won’t end up in the recycling bin, and is confident in briefing graphic designers, agencies and print companies.
Sarah-Jane has produced many forms of display and informational pieces, including:
• Banners • Pull up banners • Display boards • Posters • A boards • Goodie bags • Vinyl displays
• Booklets and brochures • Selfie boards • Flyers • Wayfinding and signage • Shop front wraps
• Greeting cards • Postcards • Tourist maps • Colouring books • Adverts • Branded goods
• Store window displays • Commemorative illustrations • Slide decks
COPYWRITING & PUBLICATIONS
COPY THAT HAS A WAY WITH WORDS
Sarah-Jane is an experienced copywriter for both B2B and B2C audiences, having worked in both inhouse and agency roles in this field. Sarah-Jane has written for a number of print and online outlets, including long standing columns with Superdrug, Hello! Magazine and The Daily Sport newspaper.
Throughout her work, she regularly writes high quality:
• Email newsletters • White papers • Blog posts • Articles and columns • Brochures
• Social media content • Interviews • Case studies • Advertorials • Website copy • Press releases • Statements • Product descriptions • Prospectuses • Scripts
• Annual reports
Sarah-Jane is passionate about print media, and has founded two free, highly distributed town centre magazines, for both Maidstone and Royal Tunbridge Wells, as well as being Editor of Borough Insight, the residential magazine of Maidstone Borough Council. She also produced a luxe Christmas gift guide for Royal Tunbridge Wells, of which 50k copies were given away, and an immensely popular free high end colouring book. As well as masterminding the content, Sarah-Jane is instrumental in the design, copywriting and photography for the publications she creates.
THE
SUTTONIAN AND YOUNG SUTTONIAN
Sutton Valence School is a private school which has operated in Maidstone for 450 years. As part of that heritage, the school has produced an annual publication, The Suttonian, in print since 1880.
As Marketing Manager, Sarah-Jane became custodian to the publication, which had fallen out of production for a period of years. Determined to reinstate it, Sarah-Jane wrote, photographed and designed an augmented edition for the 308th issue, coming in at 186 a4 pages.
Not content with the one version, SarahJane simultaneously produced the sister publication for Sutton Valence Prep School, equally as large.
To mark the distribution of both copies, Sarah-Jane commissioned a documentary video, interviewing the school archivist, to discuss the history of the magazine and the release of the new issues.
Copies of The Suttonian and Young Suttonian were provided to school families, but also used for promotional purposes on open days, and at external fairs and publicity events.
Since1880!
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
SUTTON VALENCE SCHOOL
Art Week!
VIRAL COLOURING BOOK
At the RTW Together Business Improvement District, Sarah-Jane created the first Royal Tunbridge Wells colouring book, as part of its inaugural Art Week event.
Featuring familiar scenes from across the town centre, she commissioned local illustrators for the project, featuring talent from Royal Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge and Sevenoaks. The 40 page professionally produced book was completely free to pick up around the town centre, including outlets such as Paperchase, and quickly became the local must have item, requiring an immediate reprint of double the volume to meet demand.
At the time, as BID Director Sarah-Jane Adams said she was thrilled with the response: “The first town centre colouring book has proven to be very popular, even before launch, with rumours circulating on social media about where to get your hands on one! We really wanted this piece to look exactly like a professional colouring book and the fact that we’re able to supply it for free enables us to bring extra visitors into businesses who are stocking it. It’s also a real celebration of the beautiful vistas and architecture that make up the centre of Royal Tunbridge Wells, and showcases a mixture of outdoor scenes and business frontages – and grown ups are going to love it too!”
Right: Businesses in Tunbridge Wells saw increased footfall by stocking the colouring book.
COLOURING COMPETITION
To activate interest in the colouring book still further, Sarah-Jane organised a colouring competition, with enthusiastic artists able to scribble their way to success.
Completing a page in the book could win creative colourers £100 hampers of art goodies from either Rymans or M. Saltmarsh. Sue Luck cast her expert eye over the entries as judge, as proprietor of M. Saltmarsh, the oldest art shop in England.
The competition led to a fresh wave of engagement across social media, with parents tagging their child’s entry and showing families sourcing a free book and then enjoying the activity together.
Art Week!
ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS
JUDGING WAS TENSE AT M.SALTMARSH!
LOCAL YOUNGSTERS ENTERED THE COLOURING COMPETITION
CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE
As part of her A Very Royal Christmas campaign, Sarah-Jane produced 50,000 copies of a luxe Christmas gift guide to drive footfall to Royal Tunbridge Wells.
The free 56 page magazine featured items and businesses within Royal Tunbridge Wells town centre, and were distributed to local homes and with local newspapers, as well as being available to collect at pick up points across the town.
Content, graphic design and photography by Sarah-Jane Adams.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS
TOWN CENTRE MAGAZINE
ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Heading up the Business Improvement District for Royal Tunbridge Wells town centre, representing over 700 businesses, Sarah-Jane introduced a free magazine, to be distributed across the town centre, to engage businesses with the work she was carrying out on their behalf, and to act as a promotional tool to encourage tourists and trade to Tunbridge Wells.
Over a number of issues, Sarah-Jane showcased hundreds of town centre brands, as well as publicising events and raising the profile of the Business Improvement District.
Magazine founder
Around 40,000 copies of each issue were produced, delivered to town centre businesses and local homes, and available to pick up on point of sale stands.
As Editor, Sarah-Jane decided upon content, and photographed, wrote and designed each issue.
ONE MAIDSTONE MAGAZINE
As Marketing and Communications Manager for One Maidstone Business Improvement District, representing 450 town centre businesses, Sarah-Jane founded a new publication, the One Maidstone magazine.
Increasing with each issue, around 30,000 free copies were available, delivered to local homes and town centre businesses, and available to collect from pick up points.
Unitended of its original purpose, the magazine became a key communication tool for the BID during the Covid pandemic. Created despite a year of business lockdowns, the winter 2020 issue of the One Maidstone town centre magazine spoke to traders to garner their perspective on a difficult economic year. Delivered directly to local homes, the spring 2021 ‘re-opening’ issue of the One Maidstone town centre magazine was designed to support businesses as lockdown restrictions lifted.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
MAIDSTONE TOWN CENTRE
BOROUGH INSIGHT MAGAZINE
Sarah-Jane became Editor of Borough Insight, the residential magazine of Maidstone Borough Council in Spring 2019, having been a copywriter on two previous issues.
Determined to make the publication more engaging, she introduced a more editorial feel, introducing a wide range of local interest stories and interviews to sit alongside Council stories, and a fresh new visual look.
Sarah-Jane was also Editor of the Summer 2019 edition, which was delivered to 70,000 residents, producing all copywriting and photography, and providing art direction to two graphic designers.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL
EVENT MANAGEMENT
EVENT CONCEPTS AND DELIVERY
From concept to organisational planning, budgeting and management on the day, Sarah-Jane is experienced in delivering events on all scales. From small scale internal activities to engage staff, to large public facing events to be enjoyed by an entire town centre, Sarah-Jane’s events are well constructed, smoothly operated, strongly publicised and popular with their intended audiences.
Whilst working in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Sarah-Jane created and delivered two new highly successful annual events for the town centre, in the form of Cake Off and Art Week, the latter involving over 40 events across 7 days, and brought a Christmas lights switch on back after an absence of several years.
Sarah-Jane is experienced in facilitating and attending corporate events, and has led sessions of public consulatation and information drop ins.
Alongside event innovation and management, Sarah-Jane has a wide range of marketing skills to promote and document events, such as copywriting, generating exposure and coverage, advertising campaingns, social media content, photography and running influencer partnerships.
CHRISTMAS LIGHT SWITCH ONS
Sarah-Jane Adams, BID Director for Royal Tunbridge Wells Together Business Improvement District brought not one, but two Christmas light switch on events back to the town centre, as the organisation behind supplying and funding the Christmas lights for the town centre.
In November 2022, Carols in Chapel Place saw beautifully festive carol singers from King Charles the Martyr church provide live festive music, with Scrooge character and Victorian friends serving free hot food and drink, including chestnut stand, panettone from Arte Biance, chocolate from Goupie and festive canapes from Larratt&Co Butchers. Before darkness fell, radio station KMFM hosted the musical offering, with the Mayor of Tunbridge Wells switching on the Chapel Place Christmas lights after a loud countdown from the heaving crowd.
The second event, Party on The Pantiles, saw live music from Miss Holiday Swing, appearances from Elf, gingerbread characters and the Jack in the Beanstalk panto stars, with additional music and chat from KMFM.
Sarah-Jane was also instrumental in the organising of the Maidstone town centre Christmas lights switch on, attracting 5,000 people, for One Maidstone Business Improvement District.
ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS CAKE OFF
On behalf of Royal Tunbridge Wells Together Business Improvement District, Sarah-Jane announced her event marking the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend, the Royal Tunbridge Wells Cake Off! Taking place on Saturday 4th June, on the famous Georgian Pantiles, members of the public sampled a variety of free ‘royal themed’ cake from a selection of town centre hospitality businesses, and voted for their favourite. The day was hugely popular, with large crowds descending on the Cake Off tents.
The event also featured live music from vintage jazz band Miss Kiddy and the Cads, as well as compering and music from KMFM. Other attractions included free face painting for children, and goodie bag giveaways.
The winner received the Cake Off glass trophy, specially commissioned by Sarah-Jane with Monson Road creative Glass by Claudia. In partnership with the Tunbridge Wells Hotel, Pantiles, the winning business also received an overnight stay for two in the honeymoon suite. The victorious cake maker also starred on the front cover of the July issue of local SO Magazine, as well as the BID’s own town centre publication.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS ART WEEK
PAINTING THE TOWN RED
For the Royal Tunbridge Wells Together Business Improvement District, Sarah-Jane brought the first Art Week to Royal Tunbridge Wells town centre with an entire week of activities from August 22 to 29 A programme of arts and crafts related classes, workshops and online talks were offered to the public completely for free, with 547 spaces available to secure a place.
Items up for grabs included photography classes and watercolour painting on The Pantiles, making moving toys with Whirligig Toys at the Amelia Scott, hand tied bouquet floristy workshops at The Cove, bath bomb making at Lush, design a duck painting at Manic Ceramix, embroidery, a gemology class, still life, millinery, and glass making at Glass by Claudia. The timetable offered a mixture of activities for both adults and children, with the extensive timetbale of sessions taking place in businesses represented by the BID across the town centre.
The scheme was so popular that events could have been filled several times over, and waiting lists were in operation. Sarah-Jane delivered the event at half of the budget allocated, whilst achieving impression traction - website traffic increased 857%, with 97% being new visitors. Social media followers increased 5%, accounts engaged rose by 71% and content engagement went up by 125%.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
ART WEEK: ORGANIC SOCIAL MEDIA
With so many free classes and visually appealing activities on offer for both families and groups of friends, Royal Tunbridge Wells Together received hundreds of mentions and free promotion across social media as attendees documented the fun sessions. During the crafts, guests were reminded of the social media handles to use and encouraged to share their photos.
STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
PROFESSIONAL
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Sarah-Jane is an experienced stakeholder manager. As Communications and Engagement Manager for South East Water, she worked closely with residents, political parties, local community groups, and parish councils, to engage stakeholders on a high profile, large scale infrastructure project, Broad Oak reservoir, in Canterbury. She led on public consultation, both informal and statutory, and survey work, gathering community feedback and insight. One such method for this was forming a Stakeholder Advisory Group, identifying and inviting representatives from local businesses, environmental groups, residents’ associations, and Councillors to participate in an ongoing forum for providing updates on the scheme to the community, and collating their input, gathering local knowledge which can mitigate any risk to the scheme, to then feed directly back into the project management and engineering teams, to directly inform the project. She also regularly presented updates on the project to borough councils, MPs, Kent County Council, working and steering groups and communities, and championed the forming of a Social Value Charter, to outline the commitments of the project to the local area through education, regeneration and employment.
Working for two Business Improvement Districts (BID) in Kent, one as CEO and Marketing and Communications Director, the other as Marketing and Communications Manager, Sarah-jane was responsible for the huge undertaking of encouraging large numbers of businesses and stakeholders, across a town centre, and wider borough, to engage with the work of the BID. A Business Improvement
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
District represents a town centre, and is funded by town centre business owners via a mandatory payment known as the BID levy. In Maidstone, Sarah-Jane headed up the marketing, communications and engagement strategy for reaching the community of 450 businesses, whilst in Royal Tunbridge Wells, this was over 700 businesses.
In both roles, Sarah-Jane led on ensuring that the activities and aims of the BID were understood and communicated to BID businesses, and other stakeholders, such as local authorities, community groups, residents, etc, with a view to gathering support, raising awareness, delivering community projects and disseminating information. She managed the engagement and relationships with town centre businesses and their staff, to inform them how projects were being carried out, and became the point of contact for town centre matters for many organisations.
Sarah-Jane also worked closely with a wide variety of other stakeholders as part of a number of Council working groups, in both Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, such as the re-opening committee for Maidstone town centre after Covid lockdowns, and TWBC town centre plan, Cultural Tunbridge Wells and Creative Tunbridge Wells. Sarah-Jane was also a member of a Kent Police steering group, and organised events on their behalf, as well as a board member of the Safe Town Partnership. She attended meetings of the Town Forum, a local residents and authorities group, and regularly presented to them on BID and town centre matters. Sarah-Jane is very experienced in working with Councillors, political parties and MPs, routinely presenting at Councillor briefings, and regularly meeting with the Leader of the Council. She has also worked with Kent County Council in various capacities, and reported to a board of directors, publishing board meeting minutes and governance documents for stakeholders.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
REACHING THE RIGHT PEOPLE
Sarah-Jane is passionate about community outreach, and loves building strong relationships. She has acted as the point of contact for residents and business owners across a number of communications and engagement roles.
She is also very experienced in making visits to schools, charities and businesses in order to create content to tell the stories of local people.
Sarah-Jane also has experience of engaging with and producing communications content for residents, particularly during her role as Senior Communications Officer at Maidstone Borough Council. Managing the Council’s high profile social media accounts involved dealing with a large volume of public queries and customer complaints, and the role required creating campaigns and content to relay often complex information to ensure it was easily understood by all sections of society, such as details and processes for local elections.
VIDEO CONTENT
SEEN ON SCREEN
Throughout her marketing roles, Sarah-Jane has utilised video content for increasing engagement and documenting activities, increasing subscribers to Youtube channels and social media platforms. Whether behind the camera, or directing her own concepts with videographers or agencies, she has worked on a number of popular promotional videos designed to showcase places, people and products.
THE SECRET SWITCH ON
ONE MAIDSTONE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
Concept, organisation, filming, editing and photography
November 2020
With a traditional Christmas lights switch on event unable to take place in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, Sarah-Jane was determined that the moment should still be marked. One Maidstone announced the Secret Switch On, a pre-recorded and socially distanced hour long concert film going online on the evening the traditional Maidstone town centre switch on show would have taken place.
Sarah-Jane co-ordinated and filmed performances from local singers and dancers, in high profile venues around the town centre, out of hours and without an audience, combined to create an evening of entertainment and shown during lockdown, November 2020. Local businesses, charities and authorities, such as Kent Fire and Rescue submitted their own Christmas video messages which were inserted throughout the film. The livestream was watched by around 7k people.
PR & PRESS COVERAGE
PR, ADVERTISING & CRISIS COMMS
Throughout her roles, Sarah-Jane has forged strong connections to local press outlets, and is experienced in the writing and distribution of press releases and press packs, creating media lists, providing quote and commentary on relevant news stories, achieving coverage for clients, writing columns and opinion pieces, inviting press to events, influencer marketing, briefing clients for media appearances and managing advertising campaigns and advertorials.
PHOTOGRAPHY: CORPORATE
Sarah-Jane is an experienced photographer with the capability to capture smart, crisp images for professional settings, or for content to accompany corporate stories. Sarah-Jane has worked with hundreds of businesses across a multitude of sectors and is confident in showcasing varying industries.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
PHOTOGRAPHY: TOURISM
In a number of her roles, Sarah-Jane has worked across the tourism and placemaking sector, and has honed her eye for photography that shows places and their people in the best light. From promotional imagery to landscapes, Sarah-Jane can highlight venues, products and experiences.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
PHOTOGRAPHY: EVENTS
From smiling faces to wow moments, Sarah-Jane has photographed many events, whether casual or formal. Having worked in events, Sarah-Jane unbderstands the shots that event organisers are looking for, and is confident in circulating amongst a gathering and getting the photographs that truly depict the joy and energy of the day.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
PHOTOGRAPHY: EDUCATION
As Marketing Manager for Sutton Valence School and Sutton Valence Prep School, SarahJane took on the role of in-house photographer, documenting both the ceremony of special occasions and the fun of daily life. Sarah-Jane is happy working with children from the youngest years right up to school leavers.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
PHOTOGRAPHY: EARLY YEARS
Working to promote Little Lambs Nursery, Sarah-Jane had occasion to work with tiny tots as they navigated their first experiences of education. Engaging patience and skill, (and some luck), Sarah-Jane is always thrilled to catch the cheekiest of expressions.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
PHOTOGRAPHY: CIVIC
Having spent some years working on Mayoral communications, for local authorities and building stakeholder relationships across Kent, Sarah-Jane has attended many civic occasions, and military events. Photographing members of the Armed Forces is always a particular honour.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
PHOTOGRAPHY: THEATRICAL
When the spotlights are shining, Sarah-jane is on hand for professional production shoots. Photographing perfomers of all ages, Sarah-Jane can capture the essence of the delivery and set the scene accordingly, for memories that live on after the curtain call.
SARAH-JANE ADAMS
