Marketing boss takes her business up a degree

A boss at marketing agency MacMartin has gone back to studying at the University of Derby so she can be at the heart of the latest research into creating positive behaviour change in today’s society.

Anna Hutton, director of communications and behaviour change at the firm, is now back in the university’s lecture hall, where she is studying for an MSc in Behaviour Change.

The course is the first masters qualification of its kind and is aimed at professionals and graduates keen to learn how to create positive changes in people’s behaviour – increasingly a key part of UK policy.

Anna, who is already a graduate of the University of Derby with a first-class honours degree in Occupational Therapy, said she was loving the opportunity to study again alongside her role as a founder and director of a busy and successful marketing agency.

MacMartin, which has been going for seven years, is now specialising in behaviour change campaigns and has been commissioned by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire to create a campaign aimed at reducing anti-social behaviour in key areas where it has been a big problem for local business owners.

The Every Action Counts campaign, which included posters, digital screens and social media, reached a million people and resulted in a significant reduction in anti-social behaviour through encouraging people to report instances as well as appealing to perpetrators’ feelings of guilt over not letting down family members with their actions.

Anna said: “When I qualified as an occupational therapist through the NHS back in 2012, I specialised in mental health and that has been a keen interest of mine ever since.

“Studying occupational therapy gave me some psychological understanding.

“It’s a fascinating field of study that also uses theories and models of behaviour change.

“The qualification that I gained and the personal values I developed from becoming an occupational therapist has always driven the work that I do now, within marketing and communications.

“After developing a particular interest in behaviour change specifically, and consuming many, many books, research papers and podcasts on the topic, I stumbled across the MSc course right on our doorstep, at the University of Derby.

“It has proved to be a brilliant opportunity to develop my knowledge and skills further, as well as meet amazing professionals who are changing behaviours on a daily basis.

“It also gives me a chance to be at the very heart of the university’s research in this important area.”

Dr Jenny Lunt, programme leader for MSc Behaviour Change at the University of Derby, said: “It is always pleasing and rewarding to hear how the students undertaking our MSc in Behaviour Change use it to become effective game-changers in such a diverse range of areas, especially when so many of today’s challenges, including health, safety, the environment, or our sense of security and community, can be linked to behaviour.”