Media Spokesperson
Sam is experienced at giving broadcast interviews on television, radio and print media. He has appeared as an expert commentator on child development issues on TV and radio (including BBC News, ITV News, Channel 4 News, Channel 5 News, Sky News and all major radio stations), and worked as a media spokesperson on campaigns for Barnados, National Trust, The National Forest and Save The Children and others.
Sam has also contributed his own expertise as a child development expert to a range of commercial partnerships. Often, this has involved drawing on his own research findings or contributing to new pieces of child- or parent-facing research.
Sam has worked with PR companies including: Mischief, Champions, markettiers, freuds, Wild Card, Hope & Glory, Brands2Life, Eulogy, Cow, Good Relations, Aduro, and Golley Slater on press campaigns on behalf of brands including Lego City, Lego Duplo, LegoLand, Lego Juniors, TildaRice, Disney+, Sainsbury’s, CompareTheMarket, Optibac, DiscoveryKids, More TH>N, Aardman Animations, Thomas Cook, Argos, Hartleys Jam, New River Retail, Santander, Centre Parcs, Tesco, Sky Kids, Cartoon Network, Dulux, British Gas, Ikea, and others.
Below are some examples of campaigns that Sam has worked on:
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NHS Better Health Start for Life Campaign
Sam worked for the NHS Start for Life Campaign with the Department of Education and Department of Health and Social Care. This work included producing tips for the gov.uk website on ‘5 easy ways to boost your child’s development’ and promoting them across a series of interviews on GBNews and regional radio.
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Department of Education
Sam worked with freuds to front a campaign on behalf of the Department of Education about educating parents about helping children to cope with anxiety about going back to school during COVID. This campaign received blanket press coverage in print (e.g. Telegraph, Mirror, Hello), TV and radio (e.g. BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast).
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Public Health England
Sam acted as a media spokesperson on a Public Health England Start4Life campaign. This included press interviews (e.g. Female First), TV interviews (e.g. Sky News) and radio.
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Bupa
As part of a campaign with Bupa to raise awareness about children’s mental health, Sam appeared on Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, and in a live roundtable with Myleene Klaas and Dr Zoe Williams.
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New River Retail
In one campaign, for example, Sam drew on his own research into how noisy environments affect children to run a campaign with Golley Slater on behalf of New River Retail, who own 35 shopping centres around the UK. The campaign centred on children tantrumming while out shopping. As part of this, Sam contributed to changes to the designs of shopping centres, including child ‘chill-out’ zones, and wrote advice guidelines for security guards to help raise awareness of what they could do to help parents struggling with a tantrumming child. This campaign was featured in local and national print around the UK, as well as extensively on local and national radio and TV.
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Centre Parcs
In another of Prof Wass’ commercial partnerships, Sam worked with Hope & Glory and markettiers on a campaign on behalf of Center Parcs to raise awareness for parents about the importance of spending high-quality time with their children. He prepared a report that presented the latest research findings for parents, and contributed to the design of some consumer research on the topic. Sam also conducted a series of interviews that were covered extensively in national print media, radio and TV.