Case Study
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Establishing credibility for a new, government-created, UK strategy body faced by sceptical business audiences
Project – Improve is one of 25 sector skills councils (SSCs) newly established by the government to represent employers’ needs throughout the UK and to take the lead in driving up skills in the workplace in order to promote higher productivity and stronger competitiveness for UK businesses in the global market.
Responsible for the food and drink manufacturing sector, Improve initially faced considerable scepticism from employers, and equally from the training providers, such as colleges and private commercial training organisations, which it sought to influence. All these audiences had witnessed the failure of previous government initiatives in skills.
From the start, Improve was a high-achieving organisation but to continue succeeding at an acceptable pace it needed very quickly to win greater support and commitment from its key audiences. It hired Nexnet to organise a media campaign to help promote and develop the reputation the organisation deserved, and in particular to help stimulate more engagement by employers.
Audiences – Employer CEOs and HR directors, leaders of employer trade organisations, leaders of training providers, and decision makers and influencers in devolved governments, regional development organisations, and relevant UK government departments.
Campaign – Nexnet worked to position Improve through the media as not only the most authoritative voice in skills in the food and drink manufacturing sector, but also as one of the leading voices in workplace skills in the country as a whole, thereby raising the profile of the sector and pitching it at the forefront of innovation in skills, while also establishing gravitas for the leaders of Improve.
The perception created could be demonstrably backed up by Improve’s achievements in delivering innovations that were relevant to the needs of employers and training providers, not least in producing far better labour-market information than had previously been available, and by leading the first comprehensive review and subsequent reform of vocational training and qualifications.
Nexnet managed a continually developing matrix of news opportunities, exploiting the political will of the government to keep skills high up the news agenda by constantly offering journalists evidence of policy in action, and by ensuring that the leaders of Improve were seen to be thoroughly engaged in the skills debate, wherever it took place.
Results – Within a year of Nexnet’s appointment, favourable coverage of Improve rose quickly from an average of three cuttings a month in all media to 25 a month. Positive media interest has been sustained at that level or higher ever since, meaning that Improve consistently achieves more than a fifth of the total coverage achieved by all 25 SSCs.
Government research into employer satisfaction with the work of SSCs showed that Improve’s ranking in a league table of all the SSCs rose from 21st to seventh in two years.
Soon afterwards, partly on the strength of the enhanced reputation of Improve, employers in the food and drink manufacturing sector were among the first to bid successfully for government approval to establish their own National Skills Academy.
Budget – £100,000 per annum.
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