For our sixth guest blog post, we hear from Ollie Drackford at YouthNet with a preview of what he’ll be sharing at the NFPtweetup this Thursday:
YouthNet’s online guide to life, TheSite.org, is a trusted source of information, advice and guidance on whole plethora of issues, ranging from relationships and sex, to the law and health. It also holds a wealth of impartial articles, videos and podcasts about finance, supporting thousands of young people a month through problems around budgeting, bankruptcy and debt.
The recent economic crisis has heightened these problems for young people: with financial issues also impacting their job prospects, their study choices, relationships and mental health. With this in mind, we set out to develop a campaign that would generate greater awareness of the related content, services and support available on TheSite.org. Finance, however, doesn’t have quite the same ‘sex appeal’ as some of TheSite.org’s other website content – so how could we encourage young people to express their opinions on this topic?
The idea: a creative competition, ‘LifeSupport: Change through art’, asking 16 to 25-year-olds to submit artwork based on their experiences of the recession. A competition that would engage and encourage them to share their thoughts and experiences on these troubling times, offering them a place for their voices to be heard on the issues, whilst at the same time signposting them to the support and advice on offer from TheSite.org.
With funding from the Citi Foundation, support from our agencies, beautiful world and Theobald Fox, and the involvement of our entire Communications and Marketing team, what started as a relatively small idea grew to a major integrated marketing and PR campaign.
Through a mixture of offline and online activities (with a particular focus on social media work), we were able to create a unique and pretty exciting campaign. You need only look at the awards exhibition, or the shortlisted entries and jaw-dropping winning video to see how successful and unique it was.
Join us on Thursday to find out more.
Ollie Drackford
