2023 Gold Inclusive Marketing

Agency: RAPP

Client: London Youth

Campaign Name: Ambitious Applications

Campaign Overview

Thousands of disadvantaged young people in London live alongside the world’s biggest businesses. Because of inequalities and biases, they are ignored by the capital’s brutal job market, with young people of colour twice as likely to end up unemployed as their white peers. How could a small charity get noticed by the world’s elite firms?

Strategy

London Youth supports 600 youth clubs in the city: free, inclusive spaces where they can learn vital employability skills and build confidence. But between government cuts and the cost-of-living crisis, the organisation was forced to find new corporate leads to help keep the lights on.

RAPP and its partners hacked the recruitment market, turning London’s job ads into a new, free direct media channel between the youth of London, and business leaders with the power to help them.

Applications were made for each C-suite vacancy with the perfect candidate—before it was revealed that each candidate was actually a young, marginalised Londoner, and they’d never be ready for the job without the support of the business they were applying to.

Creativity

The work threw a focus on candidates’ skills, passion, and ambition. The campaign made it clear they were worthy of investment, not charity donations, showing big businesses the future talent they could be missing out on if they failed to act.

Every application letter spoke directly to business leaders, meeting their criteria to avoid instant rejection by using the complex, professional language the audience expected. That meant letters were read long enough for the young people to reveal their message and drive business leaders to act.

The campaign was amplified by targeting London professionals with an ‘open application’. Places across the city's most affluent suburbs were repurposed. Shop windows, construction hoardings and street art acted as makeshift media, promoting the needs of ambitious young people, and ensuring the right people in corporate businesses got the message.

Results

The one-to-one approach created an emotional connection between future employers and potential employees. It generated eight times more leads in four weeks than London Youth averages in 12 to 18 months, reducing the time taken to obtain warm corporate leads by 92%.

Big corporations asked London Youth how they could support the city’s diverse talent, including the BBC, Boeing, Cannon, Deutsche Bank, The FA, Liberty, and Bloom and Wild. London estate agent KFH and construction firm McGee offered to partner with London Youth to help the capital’s disadvantaged young people.

Their support included taking over 59 KFH shop windows and three of McGee’s central London construction sites, resulting in London Youth’s largest integrated campaign ever.

The initiative was picked up across radio, TV and press, resulting in over £350k-worth of earned media: equivalent to reaching every professional in London 24 times.

More corporates than ever can now offer life-changing opportunities to help young Londoners reach their full potential.

The Team

RAPP- Oliver Easthope, Senior Copywriter - Jason Cascarina, Executive Creative Director - Lily Tidy, Planning Director - Cathy Crocker, Senior Art Director - Rosie Atherfold, Senior Project Manager - Al Mackie, CCO - Gabrielle Ludzker, CEO - Chris Evans, VP Project Management - Caroline Parkes, CSO - Muniira Ali, Copywriter - Jamie Barnet, Strategist - Julie Adams, Head of Copy - Nicole Waller, Copywriter - Caroline Garner, Deputy Head of Copy and Content - Ruby Randall-Cutler, Junior Art Director - Lily Barclay, Junior Creative

Global Street Art - Peter Barber, Artist - Adam Clement, Artist - Luke Eglington, Artist - Chris Dillon, Designer - Mark Allum, Designer - Courtney Richards, Designer - Rose Zhyan, Client Services Consultant - Lee Bofkin, CEO

FleishmanHillard - Lesley Anderson, Consumer Director - Kelly Hewitt, Account Director - Alastair Lyon, Account Director - Jole Herga, Associate Director - Vijaya Varilly, Head of Youth Culture & Partnerships

Contributors

Global Street Art, FleishmanHillard and The Stage EC2