Communication Consultant, The Philippines

Vital Strategies is a global public health organization working in 70+ countries to strengthen public health systems. It is headquartered in New York City and has offices in Paris, Singapore, Jinan, São Paulo, and Addis Ababa. Vital develops and oversees programs that address leading causes of morbidity and mortality, providing expertise in project implementation and management, strategic communication, epidemiology and surveillance, and other core public health capacities. Our specific programs include road safety, food policy, tobacco control, and activities to strengthen public health data systems and the use of public health data to guide policy and decision-making. Activities are based in low- and middle income countries and cities in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific. Please visit our website at www.vitalstrategies.org to find out more about our work.

About the Communications Consultancy:

The Communication Consultant, Philippines, will work with the Vital Strategies’ Policy Advocacy and Communication Division’s global team of more than 60 people from various backgrounds from public relations to advertising to communication research. The team has a collaborative culture, clustering people with different skills and backgrounds to execute projects. Vital Strategies’ global team values diversity and multicultural fluency. The strategic communication Vital supports seek to work on policy and behavior change campaigns at scale.

We seek a Communication Consultant with experience in strategic communication, public relations, and digital media campaigns. The consultant will work with Vital Strategies’ PAC and tobacco control teams as well as city, state, and national level government agencies, and civil society partners as appropriate.

Strategic Communication:

The Communication Consultant will collaborate closely with Vital Strategies’ Philippines team, its industry monitoring focal point, global program leads, government stakeholders and civil society partners. They will provide strategic communication counsel on whether and how to respond to legislative developments and industry interference. They will develop and execute communication plans to support a rapidly evolving and complex policy environment.

Policy Advocacy and Social Marketing Campaigns:

The consultant will provide technical support to government agencies on the planning and implementation of evidence-based communication campaigns that build support for public health policies and promote healthy behaviors. Communication campaigns will be aligned with local and national governmental priorities and other civil society stakeholders.

Training and Technical Support:

The Communication Consultant will organize and manage strategic communication and capacity building workshops for government, civil society stakeholders and media.

Consultant Qualifications:

The ideal consultant will have significant experience communicating about health issues, including working with journalists on a proactive and reactive basis; developing persuasive data-driven content, and executing traditional and digital media campaigns that motivate policy and behavior change. They will have a track record of engaging productively with subject matter experts, organizational executives and policy makers.

Deliverables:

Partner engagement and content creation –

• Participate in regional and global PAC and Tobacco Control Division meetings.
• Serve as a resource to national, subnational, regional and global partners.
• Contribute to Philippines tobacco control workplans
• Write and execute communication plans based on stakeholder inputs and priorities.
• Develop key messaging with supporting evidence.
• Write, edit and disseminate content to key stakeholders.
• Create PR materials as needed —- key message documents, media statements, press releases, presentations, spokesperson talking points, and/or work with team consultants and vendors on production and quality oversight of these materials.
• Support content development and marketing using web, SEO, email and social media strategies.

Media Campaigns –

• Lead social marketing campaigns from conceptualization to production, media delivery, launch and evaluation.
• Align stakeholders on campaign objectives, strategies, tactics, timelines, roles and budgets.
• Manage vendors including creative, production and media planning and research and evaluation.
• Plan and execute campaign launches via events, press activity.

Capacity Building –

• Plan and execute training workshops for journalists, advocates and government stakeholders.

Reporting –

• Write and send monthly activity reports focused on results and deliverables met.
• Contribute to quarterly and annual reports to donors and external stakeholders
• Provide regular updates to PAC leadership regarding policy activity, industry interference or communication needs.

Consultant Qualities and Qualifications:

• Excellent communicator including high proficiency in English writing.
• Excellent judgment, strategic thinking Collaborative spirit: a strong track record of working closely and collaboratively with stakeholders, including governmental agencies.
• Have a knack for storytelling and/or working with others to enable storytelling. Ready and willing to take initiative.
• Experience and enthusiasm for creating media campaigns.
• A deep understanding of the traditional and digital media landscape in The Philippines
• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to successfully manage competing priorities and meet deadlines.
• Solid knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams).
• Familiarity with social media content and execution, especially on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X
• Preferably resides in Metro Manilla, The Philippines.