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Digital Shift

Elephant Arcade building in front of LCC campus, with trees in background and foreground.
Copyright: Photography: Mitsi Moulson

Digital Shift was a digital marketing skills development and support programme for 8 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and community organisations in Elephant and Castle and Walworth. It was funded by Southwark Council’s Thriving High Streets Fund, and was aligned to Southwark Council’s 2030 strategy and its ambition to help SMEs meet their business goals and navigate their way through the cost-of-living crisis.

SMEs were supported to grow and strengthen resilience through improving their digital marketing and communications skills, knowledge and confidence. Participating organisations received 2 digital marketing skills training workshops led by LCC experts, an individual business consultancy session focused on marketing and communications priorities, and month-long student work placements focused on dedicated marketing projects.

Through these activities, organisations gained new knowledge and skills for sustainable business models, giving them the impetus to take action to improve marketing and business resilience, and contribute to the local economy. By working with students, businesses were able to benefit from new ideas and fresh perspectives, and forge closer relationships with the local student community. In turn, students gained valuable experience working on real-world creative communications projects with clients.

Contact

LCC Business and Innovation
Email: partnerships@lcc.arts.ac.uk

The programme has catalysed our focus on digital marketing and communications. This tended to take a 'back seat' with other priorities in the past. However, the Digital Shift programme gave us the impetus to put together our digital aims and begin to take action on a range of key tasks including website development, digital content creation, and competitor analysis.

— Digital Shift participant