ACA in the running to win Marketing Campaign of the Year

ACA was recognised for its highly innovative multi-channel youth engagement campaign which, coupled with a complete re-brand of the business, an overhaul of operations and the repositioning of the brand as the company to work for – meant that the business was able to propel itself to new heights. This activity, paired with the use of viral social media marketing techniques and pop-up activations in youth-centric venues around Western Sydney has allowed ACA to stand shoulders above its competitors in a declining market.

#DontWorkForJackson was a critical component of the campaign, which involved a skit-style video featuring comedian Jackson O’Doherty and popular NRL player, Matt Moylan. The clip aimed to transform how apprenticeships and traineeships were perceived to enhance their appeal as an ideal post-school pathway. Making apprenticeships and traineeships cool again was a key objective the ACA team wanted to achieve, something its competitors struggled to do. 
The skits, which aimed to strike the perfect cord between sarcastic and playful while also delivering a serious message of don’t work for Jackson—or anyone else—work for ACA to access the best jobs in the industry, made the business’ job applications and website traffic soar. The video, which went viral, had over 6 million hits and increased ACA’s website traffic by 981%, figures which are no small feat given that the current market of Group Training Organisations is shrinking. 

Apprenticeship Careers Australia’s Senior Marketing Manager, Amanda Wood, says “It was time to do things differently; we needed to get the attention of young people. We had Western Sydney business owners talking to us on a regular basis saying they were struggling to hire apprentices and trainees and that the skills shortage was hitting them hard. Yet, at the same time, we were seeing soaring rates of youth unemployment so we needed a fresh strategy that would transition these young people into successful employment.” 

“However, as marketing and recruitment specialists we know that job interviews and the entire job application process can be really intimidating and off-putting for young people. So, we got their attention with video and then took the application processes to them in an environment they would be comfortable in” says Amanda. 

   
To capitalise on the rapidly growing audience generated by the #DontWorkForJackson campaign, ACA ran a series of pop-up recruitment events in Western Sydney that interviewed young people for jobs, on the spot, at trendy cafes and eateries. These casual, speed dating style, job interviews grew to job frenzy status when ACA pushed for its inaugural “100 Jobs in a 100 Hours” event; something ACA have now run two years in a row and are hoping to hold annually. This was later replicated in a smaller, scalable format under the banner of “Meet N Eat” pop-up events, devised around the same speed dating and eatery styled interview process. These events have also seen huge successes and are rapidly growing to become a regular feature for ACA.  

ACA’s marketing techniques are moving away from traditional advertising methods to campaigns that harness social media and speak directly to young people. ACA’s pop-up job interviews have gone from having a focus on Western Sydney to now being used as a recruitment technique across Australia.