Pioneering social media to break out of the skills bubble
In 2013-14, youth unemployment in the UK was at record levels, with around a million young people out of work.
The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), which works to promote employment opportunities, came to Neo for help generating awareness of the benefits of employing more young people.
The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), which works to promote employment opportunities, came to Neo for help generating awareness of the benefits of employing more young people.
The UKCES comms team had already made a splash in the media with research that signalled ‘the end of the Saturday job’. But now they wanted a six-month programme of digital activity, anchored around the monthly release of the official unemployment figures.
The idea was to time messages around these recurring peaks of media interest in the statistics, and raise awareness around solutions to youth unemployment.
We began by auditing the Commission’s content, online and offline, to get to grips with what unique research and insights could form the heart of our communications.
UKCES had a lot to say — in the form of case studies, reports, blog posts. Together we scoured what was available to discover what could travel further as part of this campaign.
Looking at the habits of our target audiences — employers, business people and the business media — we could see that opinion, tips and advice, and visual content were all valued, with inspirational quotes and headline statistics proving popular.
At the same time, Twitter’s update to preview images within timelines gave us an opportunity to try a different approach.
#NotJustMakingTea
The impact? UKCES found their messages getting unprecedented reach, and triggering richer interaction around them.
We knew that to break out of the ‘skills bubble’ we needed something with wider appeal than the conventional, statistics-led messages. With work experience as our first focus, we put our heads together with the UKCES team to find something everyone could relate to. Out of that came the concept: #NOTJUSTMAKINGTEA.
In the run-up to the release of the unemployment figures, the UKCES team asked their partners and contacts to share their experiences of work experience. We created animated slides picking out some of the most useful facts and stats, and as soon as the latest unemployment figure was released, we highlighted the youth-related insight in a stop-motion Vine video.
Unprecedented reach
The impact? UKCES found its messages getting unprecedented reach, and triggering richer interaction around them.
By having an accessible, interactive basis for conversation — #NotJustMakingTea rather than jargon — we created more opportunities to generate attention. The UKCES team were energetic, warming up partners ahead of the day and fostering the conversation as it happened across social-media channels. And the designed content assets gave them more to talk about, and more for people to share.
#ThanksForTheBreak
We started a social-media chain reaction of appreciation… it attracted even more interaction.
Taking what we’d learned, for the January 2014 campaign we wanted to make the conversation go further. Just as most of us have personal anecdotes of work experience, everyone has people that they’d like to thank for help in their career. The kind of help that young people need now from employers that give them a chance.
So we started a social-media chain reaction of appreciation, asking people to share their gratitude.
Fuelled by brightly designed e-cards tagged with #ThanksForTheBreak, the campaign took a feel good, nostalgic approach and attracted even greater reach and more interaction than #notjustmakingtea.
As a result of our campaigns we are now being looked upon as forerunners in our sector when it comes to use of social media.
– Adam Raistrick, UKCES communications manager
#ToMyYoungerSelf
The previous month’s campaign showed that UKCES could generate attention around an idea not specifically tied to a sector or type of employment opportunity.
With #ToMyYoungerSelf, we pushed the idea of engaging with people’s personal experiences of work, and thinking about what they might do differently if just starting out now.
Developing the shareable e-cards that had travelled so well before, we made editable templates that the UKCES team could populate with the messages they saw coming in on social media.
The impact was even bigger than for previous campaigns, with the highest engagement levels across the six months.
Shifting attitudes
UKCES wanted to shift the way that employers think about employing young people, and really appreciate the benefits and support available. And as part of that, they wanted a shift in perspective about them as an organisation; they wanted to be seen as an attractive partner for businesses, and go-to people for reliable, well-communicated information about employment and skills.
“As a result of our campaigns we are now being looked upon as forerunners in our sector when it comes to use of social media,” said Adam Raistrick, UKCES communications manager.
Together we saw how positive messages can be just as powerful as alarming ones, and how serious messages can be delivered with a light, conversational touch and without funeral colours.
The right kind of figures
We are now able to apply this learning to further campaigns and have adjusted our approach to using social media to incorporate the significant lessons we’ve learnt during our time with Neo.
– Adam Raistrick, UKCES communications manager
Through the course of the campaigns, UKCES’ Twitter following grew by a quarter — to more than 7,500 people. By the end of 2014 it exceeded 9,000.
The messages were picked up and spread by bigger government departments, such as the Department of Education and Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, and major employers such as Nestle, Hilton Worldwide and O2.
Even more excitingly for the team, the campaigns enabled UKCES to interact with many individuals and small organisations for the first time, outside the ‘skills bubble’.
And UKCES has a plan for the future.
“We are now able to apply this learning to further campaigns and have adjusted our approach to using social media to incorporate the significant lessons we’ve learnt during our time with Neo,” says Adam Raistrick, UKCES communications manager.