Role
Sophie Hillier is an Assistant Course Leader on the Business Management and Marketing degree. Sophie is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Nottingham Business School (NBS).
Career overview
Previously a lecturer at Birmingham City University in Fashion Business and Promotion. Sophie specialises in PR and Communications, as well as event management, marketing and international retailing. Previous industry experience includes being a director of London PR Agency MAD PR offering an array of communication services including influencer marketing, digital and social media management, celebrity gifting and traditional marketing and PR. Sophie is also an affiliate of the Charted Institute of Marketing and holds a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.
At current Sophie teaches on the Digital Marketeer Degree Apprenticeship at NTU, module leading the CIM Planning Campaigns and Applied Marketing module. In addition Sophie teaches across second year Digital Marketing and Integrated Communications, Integrated Marketing Comms and International Communications.
As an early career researcher, and studying for her PhD, Sophie is establishing herself in a unique international position converging the previously untouched research areas of fashion industry crisis and crisis communication.
Research areas
Sophie is currently studying for her PhD at Leeds Business School, Leeds Beckett University. Her working thesis is entitled:
Fashion Retail and Public Relations: The New Norm is Crisis:
In what ways can Fashion PR co-create value through consumer stakeholder relationships in times of crisis?
Most recently Sophie presented her initial PhD findings at the 12th International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference 2022 in Orlando Florida, discussing the results of her systematic literature review. The first time the conference has seen a fashion industry related submission. The conference proceedings are available to read online.
Sophie is conducting research, writing articles and currently working on a chapter for a Crisis Communication book. She is currently collaborating with Dr Esther Pugh of Leeds Beckett University and Dr Audra Diers-Lawson on several projects including a funded project into fashion charity shop donations, exploring how reputation and non profit crisis can influence donation of goods.
External activity
Sophie is the co-host of fashion podcast “The Fashademix” which has previously been number 3 in the UK iTunes Chart for Fashion and Beauty, as well as hitting the top 10 in many international settings such as Australia, Kuwait, Germany, South Africa and Norway.
Publications
Diers-Lawson, A., Omondi, G. and Hillier, S.L. (2021) “Shooting from the hip or taking careful aim? developing the Vista Analytic Framework comparing English and Scottish visual campaigns for self-protective behaviour throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” Journal of Visual Political Communication, 9(1), pp. 59–97. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1386/jvpc_00017_1.
Diers-Lawson, A. et al. (2021) “Pandemic communication: Information seeking, evaluation, and self-protective behaviors in Vietnam and the Republic of Korea,” Frontiers in Communication, 6. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.731979.
Press expertise
Expertise includes fashion, retail, crisis and PR. Previous coverage for Birmingham City University included ITVNews, Drapers, Retail Gazette, Dazed and Confused and The Daily Mail.
Course(s) I teach on
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Undergraduate | Full-time / Sandwich | 2024https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/nottingham-business-school/ug/next-year/international-business
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Undergraduate | Full-time / Sandwich | 2024COURSE
Marketing - BA (Hons)
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/nottingham-business-school/ug/next-year/marketing