Refugee Week

Founded in 1998, Refugee Week is an arts and culture festival that celebrates the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.

Refugee Week is a platform for people who have sought sanctuary to share their experiences, perspectives and creative work on their own terms. The festival encourages a deeper understanding of displacement and the challenges people face when seeking safety so that people have more informed and welcoming attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers.

Counterpoints Arts, the coordinators of Refugee Week UK, asked me to develop a new marketing and communications strategy for Refugee Week to exponentially raise awareness of the festival, increase participation and change attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers.

Together we defined an ambitious vision for 50% awareness of Refugee Week in the UK by 2035. From this foundation I created an actionable and memorable three-part strategy:

1. Insight: Audience insight and understanding

2. Influence: Influence with PR and partnerships

3. Instagram: Invest in Instagram

These recommendations result from a mix of festival evaluations, in depth market research, social media analytics and competitor analysis.

The marketing and communications strategy includes advice about how to apply a similar approach to Counterpoint Arts’ other projects as well so that it can have an impact beyond Refugee Week alone.