Ian Fannon

Managing Director

Ian Fannon

Ian has over 24 years’ experience in journalism and communications, mostly with public and not-for-profit organisations and specialising in developing impactful campaigns in the health sector.

He has worked in-house in leadership roles at the MS Society and Teenage Cancer Trust, overseeing various campaigns from policy and behaviour change initiatives on welfare reform and access to treatments to major fundraising appeals.

He has developed major behaviour change campaigns with the British Heart Foundation and Department of Health, covering territory such as smoking, healthy eating and alcohol. He is as comfortable working on national multi-channel campaigns as he is planning grass-roots community and stakeholder relations activities, such as recent projects to drive up cervical screening attendance among ethnic minority communities and to support recruitment to medical research projects such as NHS-Galleri, SUMMIT and YouScreen.

In recent years, Ian has begun to specialise in developing campaigns and interventions using co-design – going beyond qualitative research to work closely with a group of representatives of the target audience to ideate and plan together. This has been applied to work with Our Future Health, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Imperial College London, Bowel Cancer UK and others.

Ian has also led strategic communications work and message development projects for clients such as NHS England, UN World Food Programme, Mind, Diabetes UK and Versus Arthritis. He likes nothing better than unpicking complex issues and finding the golden nuggets that help organisations focus on what matters most.

As a former journalist, Ian still enjoys writing when he gets chance to flex his creative muscles. He is also a passionate advocate of the value of the charity sector and is a CharityComms mentor and trainer.

Ian likes to still think of himself as sporty, but these days is less likely to be found making home runs for the softball team and more likely to be seen wading around the shallow end with his two small children.

Ian's blog posts

  1. We’re hiring!

    2023 has got off to a flying start at Claremont and we’re looking to expand the team with two important hires. We’re looking for a director and senior consultant to…

    Ian Fannon

    Ian Fannon on Feb 7, 2023

  3. The work I was always meant to do

    Across my teenage years, my Grandad slowly faded away. Alzheimer’s Disease chipped away at everything that made him my Grandad. It started when he got lost driving around Coventry’s ring…

    Ian Fannon

    Ian Fannon on Mar 15, 2021

  6. Campaign of the month: Pass It On

    In the behaviour change world, passing new legislation to change a default is the equivalent of pressing the nuclear button. But sometimes it’s the right answer – and so this…

    Ian Fannon

    Ian Fannon on Jan 6, 2020

  7. Unveiling Stop MS: a proud moment

    Yesterday the MS Society publicly launched its Stop MS Appeal: an immensely ambitious campaign to raise £100m to find treatments for everyone with multiple sclerosis. It’s the biggest campaign…

    Ian Fannon

    Ian Fannon on Oct 8, 2019

  8. When audience first isn’t enough

    Planning behaviour change campaigns without putting your audience first: a commonly accepted no-no. But how far should you take this? Is it enough to gather insights from research or should…

    Ian Fannon

    Ian Fannon on Jul 30, 2019