Marketing Magic!

A couple of months ago I was given the fantastic opportunity of some paid work here at the castle, doing marketing, advertising and looking after the social media pages for the castle. This is such a brilliant opportunity for me to learn another important area of running a trust property, and of course the money doesn’t hurt, just in time for Christmas shopping!

Our Christmas theme

It has been quite a challenge as the work is not like anything I have done before, but I have really started to enjoy the work, the more so the more I get to grips with it. This new aspect of my work here at Powis involves looking after the facebook and twitter, which I was already pretty au fait with, creating posters, flyers and leaflets and distributing them, writing press releases and communicating with local press and companies that we could work with to advertise what is happening here. It is also going to be part of my role to maintain the Powis Castle web-page, so my next task will be to learn how to use what we call ‘nurture’, the National Trust web design software.

Santa is coming to Powis Castle

Making posters is good fun now I have wrapped my head around the software. There is an online system that we use which has templates for everything from posters and leaflets to adverts in all sizes and shapes. There is a picture library specific to each property on the program, and it links directly to National Trust Images which is very useful. The most challenging part is coming up with the text! Although it is sometimes frustrating that we are somewhat limited, in order to ensure a uniform look through out the Trust, the system is quick and easy to use. This is great because we have so many events coming up at the moment I seem to have been making hundreds of posters.

Powis Castle Lunch Club

I did my first poster mail-out the other day and co-wrote a press release which has been sent to all the local newspapers. It is all very exciting and very grown up too!! I have put links to some of the posters I have made throughout the text, do have a look and if it catches your fancy the castle is open everyday for the rest of the year, except Christmas day, I’m not sure how I’d feel about working that one! And if I haven’t mentioned it already the castle is looking fabulous thanks to our Fairy Tale takeover!

It’s Christmas!! Well it is for us anyway.

As I have been hinting at for a little while we have quite a magical theme happening her at Powis Castle this Christmas! We are having some very special guests to come and stay with us during the festive season, straight out of the pages of your favourite book of Fairy Tales!

This little lady got more than she bargained for when having a snack in our kitchens!

Tea anyone?

Uh oh someone has eaten all the sweets!

Who has lost their shoe on our Grand Staircase?

This cute little kitty is fiercer than he looks!

It has been absolutely mad these past couple of weeks getting everything ready for Christmas, with a tight budget and not enough time, but I am so pleased with our results! The castle looks so amazing, very magical. Even though it has been hard work I have really enjoyed decorating the castle for Christmas, doing the State Dining Room yesterday made me think I’d really enjoy a career as a set dresser (I’ll add it to my many possible career options). And the finished result is so worth it all, I’m so proud of the team for all the hard work that has been put in! I cannot wait to see the visitors reactions to the theme! It really looks stunning, I get so excited every time I walk into a room and see it all dresses up.

A little peak of what I was doing in the State Dining Room

I promise more photos in a couple of weeks, so if you’re really eager to see the magic, come on down to Powis Castle! Also I realized that on my post about my Hot Air Balloon ride I promised more photos, well there is a selection of photos from the event on the Powis Castle and Gardens Facebook page. Here is a link to the album: https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.420764757971104.88681.137042753009974&type=3