ABOUT

Concept:

In the wake of the cost-of-living crisis, competition for support in the charity sector is fiercer than ever.

We needed to fight for the attention of big businesses and start a conversation about London’s youth unemployment cycle. But rather than London Youth’s traditional approach of cold calling, leading with a CSR message or appealing to the businesses’ charity initiatives, we needed a new way to cut through. This meant not acting like a charity.

So, instead of targeting partnership managers or CSR directors with a charity message, we targeted Executives, Directors, and CEO’s with exactly what they were looking for.

That meant finding a new way to get to those who are hardest to reach and most time poor - the people who have the power to make the biggest difference and are responsible for creating a diverse and competitive workforce.

Execution:

With zero media budget we needed a smart way to get noticed. So, from November 2022 to February 2023, we identified hundreds of live jobs across London that matched the ambitions of our young people. We went after the recognisable brands and roles that young people aspire to.

We analysed the skills and experience required for each job and made sure the recipients saw the criteria they were looking for as soon as possible. This ensured that our applications were not only opened but read long enough for us to reveal the real reason for our communication.

Finally in March 2023, we amplified the idea across London, with an ‘open application.’ Places and spaces across the city were repurposed – everything from shop windows, construction hoardings and street art acted as makeshift media, promoting the needs of this ambitious young generation, and getting the capital’s professionals talking about the campaign.

Results:

This one-to-one approach, creating an emotional connection between the future employer and potential employee, reduced the time it takes to get warm corporate leads by 92%. And, generated 8x more leads in 4 weeks than London Youth average in 12-18 months.

In response, big corporates and household brand names asked London Youth how they can get involved.

 “Would love to chat about how Bloom & Wild might be able to get more involved in the future?” - Bloom and Wild

“Hospitality is a great industry to start and build careers. Perhaps we can connect” - Dorchester

This means more corporates can now offer life changing opportunities to help young Londoners reach their potential.

Furthermore, the ‘open application’ across London meant that London Youth reached more people than ever before. Combing the reach across radio, TV, press and social media The London Youth brand has now reached around 95 million across the country.