IPA President assembles team to launch hospitality recruitment campaign

Working with Hospitality Rising, a collaborative movement within the hospitality industry, the crack team has been assembled by Julian Douglas as part of his IPA Presidential 10X THINK Agenda with the ambition of doubling the amount of people considering a job in the sector.

According to UK Hospitality data, the sector is experiencing chronic worker shortages with over 400,000 hospitality vacancies. Coupled with this, research from KAM and Hospitality Rising has revealed that only one in five (21%) UK workers think hospitality is an appealing industry to work in, and hospitality has been increasingly viewed as a vocation with short term career progression as opposed to offering valuable long-term skills. An opinion that has only been exacerbated by the Pandemic. An opinion that has only been exacerbated by the Pandemic.

The crack team consists of strategy delivered by Matt Waxman from Ogilvy who is famed for his IPA Grand Prix winning recruitment work for the British Army, creative direction from Creative and Innovation agency Forever Beta, and account handling and project management delivered by VCCP London.

The campaign aims to reframe the sector by showing its target audience of younger workers that a career in hospitality is anything but boring. Instead, the campaign positions it as an exhilarating career path that is fun, energetic, that is all about collaboration and teamwork, their mission is to encourage people to “Rise Fast. Work Young.” One that keeps people young at heart, and that gives them the freedom to break from a 9-5 job, as well as the ability to reach a higher position faster than an office job.

Bringing this to life, the creative features animated hospitality workers: a chef, waiting staff, barista, mixologist, room attendant and member of management highlighted on colourful backgrounds in the midst of their trade, such as pouring a drink, on the way to make an artisan coffee and holding a notepad ready to take an order. With slogans such as, ‘Sounds like some fun shift’, ‘Don’t grow old for a living,’ and ‘Work on the frontline of fun’. Showing that working in the industry is not only for the younger generation but keeps people young at heart, having the freedom to break from a 9-5 job as well as the ability to reach a higher position faster than an office job.

Mark McCulloch, Founder of Hospitality Rising, said:

"The pandemic has hit many industries particularly hard, and young people have also felt the effects. They are desperate to socialise and look towards the future. Hospitality is a great industry where people can come together. This campaign breaks the perception that hospitality is a stop gap and shows all the opportunities and career growth that can be possible. Partnering with such a star studded agency list has given us the ability to communicate on a large scale how rewarding it can be to be part of something collaborative and bigger than yourself."

Julian Douglas, IPA President and International CEO of VCCP, added:

"As part of my IPA presidential agenda, my Think 10X initiative sets out to show the world what advertising’s brightest thinkers are capable of through creativity, ideas and their skills in engagement and persuasion. I am therefore delighted to have teamed up with Hospitality Rising to enable our expertise to be put to such vital use to save our hotels, pubs and restaurants by creating a recruitment campaign to reframe and rejuvenate the sector before it’s too late."

Paulo Areas, Creative Chief Officer at Forever Beta, noted:

"Hospitality is an exciting and unpredictable career. It offers flexibility, freedom and fast-paced career progression but mostly, it is not boring like sitting on a desk from 9 to 5, and that is the most appealing argument to enlist young people. Our campaign highlights the fun aspect of this friendship economy, and how it develops youngsters' people skills. We have delivered a fresh and colourful visual code that is not like any other recruitment campaign and that pushes back on the negative and focuses on the aspirational and positive aspect of working in hospitality. At the end, we want people to feel proud of working here."

The campaign launches in October running across digital, cinema, OOH, Instagram and TikTok that will be handled by Antler, with Smithfield handling outdoor and other digital. To continue to fund the recruitment campaign, the initiative is seeking a pledge of £10 per employee.