established 1985
Our collaboration with Tim Smyrk and the Digital Marketing students at FitzWilliam Institute has been nothing less than a game-changer for the Dublin Well Woman Centre. I met initially with Tim and his class in April 2015; it gave me the opportunity to present them with the challenges we faced - although we are a long-established brand, we were concerned that we were losing our visibility and relevance to women in the 18-30 age group. Tim’s students grilled me with a thoroughness and exactitude which surprised and impressed me. The result of this engagement was that several months later, I received a detailed Digital Marketing Strategy from the group, which had been written up by Tim Smyrk. The Strategy included valuable research into the needs / behaviours of the various demographics a new website needed to target. It made it clear that information on women’s health needed to be communicated across literacy levels. The site needed to be mobile-friendly as healthcare information is primarily accessed via mobile, and to ensure greater privacy for women accessing the site. Online appointment booking needed to be included, and the content hierarchy had to be clear so that women could find information quickly. On the basis of the strategy produced by FitzWilliam Institute’s students, we were able to engage a Digital Marketing Consultant as Project Manager, along with a Web Designer for our new website, which went live during summer 2016. However, the Strategy went much further, and contained detailed recommendations on social media, Google Adwords, blogging and other ways of engaging the mobile generation. Our website is modern and colourful, and uses imagery and videos to help women identify with the service. There is a translation function, and an Appointment Booking form for clients who require discretion in contacting us, and which connects directly with the Reception Desk in the clinics. There are also some innovative features, such as a smear test calculator. The value of the guidance and recommendations drawn up by Tim Smyrk and the students of FitzWilliam Institute was formally recognised in recent weeks, when the Dublin Well Woman Centre won the Best Charity / Not for Profit website at the prestigious eir Spiders website awards. As an organisation operating in the social economy, we have limited resources and do not have in-house marketing staff. Suffice to say, we would not have had the skill or expertise to create the route-map for Well Woman to negotiate the Digital Marketing environment as skilfully as FitzWilliam Institute did. We cannot thank the students, or Tim Smyrk for his guidance, wisdom and enthusiasm, enough.
At Cogs & Marvel, we have a great working relationship with Fitzwilliam Institute. In the last six months, we’ve offered three internships to recent graduates, one of whom has recently been promoted to a Junior Project Manager position. With many of our team having graduated from Fitzwilliam Institute, we value the training they have received there in preparing them for a career in Event Management.
Burrell Marketing and Publicity have been welcoming the Fitzwilliam Institutes students on work experience placements for a number of years. We have found the candidates to be of a consistently high standard, with a strong academic background in Public Relations provided by the courses they have enrolled in. A number of the students were taken on in full time employment following their placement period, showing the level of professionalism and skill they offered us as a company. Would highly recommend this institute.