Case Study
Raising awareness and understanding about the important and varied roles food scientists play in the food industry, and promoting food science as a career option in order to tackle a chronic shortage of food scientists and technologists
Nexnet client Improve, the UK food and drink sector skills council, produced research findings .jpg)
warning of a serious shortage of food scientists and technologists (FSTs) employed in the food processing industry, with one in four vacancies for FST positions classed as ‘hard-to-fill’. Improve is responsible for driving the reform of publicly accredited training and qualifications and so it set about working with employers, colleges, universities and private training companies to devise new and innovative approaches to learning provision.
warning of a serious shortage of food scientists and technologists (FSTs) employed in the food processing industry, with one in four vacancies for FST positions classed as ‘hard-to-fill’. Improve is responsible for driving the reform of publicly accredited training and qualifications and so it set about working with employers, colleges, universities and private training companies to devise new and innovative approaches to learning provision.PR objective - Through media coverage, to alert food industry employers and learning providers to the scale of the problem, encourage their participation in finding solutions, report progress, and to promote FST careers to young people, while continuously projecting Improve as the sector’s authoritative voice on skills.
Campaign - The media campaign has been based on gaining exposure for substantive action and stimulating audience responses to new opportunities, and so it is the timing of these events that has determined the schedule of PR activity.
The activity aimed at raising awareness of the problem among employers began in February 2007 with a series of press releases announcing the results of the initial research sent to the trade press and regional and national business media. Coverage that month carried a total Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) of £34,867 and gave Improve a 20 per cent share of all media coverage mentioning any of the 25 sector skills councils. The story was covered in The Daily Telegraph.
Further in-depth research into the reasons behind the FST shortage in priority regions was published. Press releases were again issued to the food trade and regional business press and this secured 68 press cuttings for Improve with an overall circulation of 1.2 million and an AVE of £60,000.
As good early progress was achieved towards developing new courses and qualifications, the opportunity was seized in May to communicate via the media with A-Level students considering their university choices, and their parents, teachers, and careers advisers. News releases and case studies promoted the wide variety of food science courses available at university and the reasons why it is a good option. The regional press was prioritised as the medium that offered the quickest and most productive return on investment in terms of audience reached and impact on the page. In the first month of this activity Improve had a 57 per cent share of all regional press coverage mentioning any of the 25 sector skills councils. In the autumn releases were issued to the trade and regional business press to encourage employers to attend university careers fairs to promote the industry to graduates. Between September and October, Improve secured 65 cuttings in the trade and regional business press with an AVE of £47,000.
Encouraged by further progress on the reform of courses and qualifications for people entering food science and technology jobs at every level from apprentice to graduate, it was decided to push for more coverage for FST careers with a series of high-impact features in the national press highlighting the diversity of the paths available. The first success was a feature in Look! magazine in November detailing the work of a chocolate recipe developer working for Green & Blacks. A month later, the Daily Mail careers section ran an article outlining the role FSTs play in developing and producing seasonal Christmas food, based around an interview with the chief executive of Improve.
Further national coverage followed in Spring 2008 with a careers feature in the Daily Express about a food technologist who made Easter Eggs for a living and a special food science supplement in The Independent, which featured a lead column from Improve’s chief executive and an interview with its development director discussing how food scientists are the driving force behind dietary health campaigns. This was backed up by a series of news releases promoting food science careers aimed at the regional press. Between February and April 2008, this produced coverage reaching a readership of 3,805,043 with an AVE of £181,369.
Results - Over an 18-month period, the media campaign provided the main marketing support for Improve’s work tackling the FST shortage. Interim reports ahead of new research suggest that the number of hard-to-fill FST vacancies in the industry have halved since 2006, while the number of FST courses offered by colleges and universities has risen from 180 in 2006 to 299 in 2009, suggesting a significant increase in demand.
Budget - Not specified – part of an overall budget for corporate trade and consumer PR for Improve the food and drink sector skills council.
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