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Developing Young Workforce:
The Campaign Brief
Developing the Young Workforce is here to help young people get work ready and ensure employers have access to the skills to help them and our region grow. Following the successful launch of the #learnaliving concept in 2018, Cunningly Good Group was invited by the team at Developing Young Workforce Perth & Kinross (DYWPK) to develop a 2019 refresh of the campaign to drive engagement with businesses in Perth & Kinross. The purpose of the campaign was to generate work experience placements for students at secondary school stage.
Cunningly Good Group’s Approach
The client had a clear idea of what they wanted to achieve with the 2019 campaign, in order to build on the good work generated in 2018. The objectives of the campaign were set as:
- Increase awareness of DYWPK within Perth & Kinross.
- Deliver effective PR “moments” to create a positive presence for DYW and generate momentum among the local business community for the 2019 #LEARNALIVING campaign.
- Generate positive publicity opportunities for local employers.
- Develop contacts with local media outlets driving coverage during the campaign.
- Secure 3 or more pieces of positive coverage for the launch of the campaign across a range of print and digital publications.
- Drive a 3% increase in social media following during the launch period of the campaign from current level of 1680 followers.
- Drive a 25% increase in traffic to the Employers’ page on the DYW website from its current average of 60 people per month.
Cunningly Good Group looked at how we could infuse the campaign with the key message (easy to sign up) and a direct call to action from industry peers (I’m offering a young person a work placement. Will you?). We:
- Focused investment in content development while re-using content developed for the original 2018 campaign.
- Streamlined investment in outdoor media, removing 48 sheets and enhancing the use of bus rears to maximise reach.
- Increased investment in public relations activity to create focus around the launch and drive earned media coverage.
- Streamlined digital content targeting the digital advertising budget on driving shared content engagement.
The Cunningly Good Results
The launch period of the campaign took place between 1st April and 31st May 2019 and activity included: Acquiring fresh testimonials and case studies from local employers that could be multi-purposed for PR and digital. Those approached were asked to emphasise how easy it was to get involved; Engaging with key employers using the scheme to identify potential case studies that would help us secure coverage; Selling in the campaign to BBC Scotland’s The Nine; Issuing a media release launching the campaign to local media; Rolling out local outdoor media to support the conversation including Bus Rears and Petrol Pump advertising; Developing postcards to be used at employer engagement events; Rolling out a digital campaign designed to provoke engagement from employers and traffic to the Placements page on the DYW website.
The campaign was an immediate hit, creating positive engagement with employers, schools and the local media. Successes included:
- Securing 6 new testimonials from high profile local employers including the John Reynolds, CEO of Castle Water and Stephen Leckie, CEO of Crieff Hydro.
- Securing engagement with key employers across a range of business types and industries including hairdressing, hospitality, construction, engineering as well as small family run businesses to larger PLCs.
- BBC Scotland’s The Nine ran an 8 minute feature on uptake of work placements at Crieff Hydro, featuring local school pupils and current employees whose career path was initiated by a work placement, and comment from DYWPK. The Nine also shared it on Twitter to almost 40k followers.
- Generating 5 pieces of positive coverage (2 more than target) with the broadcast element an unexpected bonus:
National broadcast coverage on The Nine
Two page feature in Perthshire Chamber of Commerce Magazine.
Half Page Feature in employment section of The Courier
Digital coverage in The Perthshire Magazine
News coverage in The Courier
- 25% increase in website traffic during the launch phase.
-
25.4% increase in regional traffic specifically from Perth & Kinross.
- 4% increase in social media following (exceeding target of 3%)
- 142% increase in traffic to the Placements page to an average 145 people per month.
-
232% increase on traffic to the Placements page from the previous year’s campaign.
- 316% increase in web traffic from social media platforms.
- 25,183 Facebook video views with an engagement rate of 12.2%
- 34% increase in average impressions per tweet on Twitter
- 301% increase in LinkedIn impressions compared to the previous two months, an 85% increase in post engagement and 1800% increase in shared content.
