Consultancy

Athena Media, led by Helen Shaw, has been a strategic communications consultancy since 2004. We’ve worked with public and private agencies on their strategic communications with a particular focus on digital storytelling. We’ve won and completed tenders for public and private agencies including the Ombudsman for Children Office (OCO), Arts Council of Ireland, Higher Education Authority (HEA), DIAS, UCD, the Institute for Public Health, the Irish Traditional Music Archives (ITMA), the Central Bank, AIB and the Royal College of Physicians. We’ve worked on developing communications strategies and implementing solutions, including digital content and podcasting, for clients including the Irish Times, Contemporary Music Centre, BIM (Bord Iascaigh Mhara), Engineers Ireland, Jigsaw and Vhi Healthcare.

Case study: Higher Education Authority : Strategic Communications

Athena Media won a competitive tender to produce a communications audit for the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and to assist the HEA in creating a sustainable communications strategy that reflected both off and online communications and the diverse relationships of the organisation. The HEA is the independent state body responsible for higher education in Ireland and the organisation’s umbrella structure includes the Irish Research Council which has its own identity, mission and management.

Athena Media ran a communications audit of the HEA and the Irish Research Council and followed the audit report with internal workshops on communications, identity and mission with all staff within the organisation.

The workshops facilitated an internal conversation around key issues, challenges and opportunities and concluded with a communications plan for the HEA to move forward. Digital and social media training was also provided to staff and a key objective was to draw together offline and online communications and provide the client with an objective mapping of both problems and solutions to support internal resources.