Vision+Media is promoting the virtues of work placements this month with a new marketing campaign to encourage businesses to ‘Plug in’ to placements.
The ‘Plug in’ campaign will last six weeks, targeting digital and creative businesses in the North West, in a bid to generate more host companies for its various placement programmes.
Planned and devised by Vision+Media’s marketing team, the creative has been designed by freelance creative Ian Hogg. The campaign consists of email, direct mail, print and online media as well as a social media element for companies to show their support for placements and ‘tag’ other companies who ought to ‘Plug in’.
Headlines such as ‘Looking for digital talent? Plug in.’ ‘Some placements make the tea, ours make business sense. Plug in’ have been created to demonstrate how trainee placements can have a positive impact on businesses and dispel misconceptions of placements doing menial tasks around the office.
In the last two years, Vision+Media has facilitated over 300 placements within the TV, Radio, Film, Games and Digital and Creative Services.
The campaign is being backed by several creative agencies who have previously hosted a Vision+Media placement.
Mark Beaumont, Creative Director of Manchester based advertising agency Dinosaur said: “If you run a creative business and have struggled to get new talent into the company or want to diversify your offering without committing to a new member of staff – then a trainee placement organised by industry experts, Vision+Media could be right for you.
“Our placement was the esteemed TV Director Matt Bloom, who helped us to think in a completely new way about the process of film production. We’ve collaborated on projects together with him since which has led to fireworks! I’d definitely recommend a placement to anyone who is interested in expanding their horizons in new creative areas.”
Lee Turner, MD at Fluid Creative said: “The reason we decided to get a placement is because we were growing as a business and were finding it increasingly difficult to find good quality developers. Jeff Lloyd came to us via Vision+Media, who part funded his placement.
“From day one he was treated like one of the team, getting involved in client and internal projects. At the end of the placement we offered Jeff a job. That was 12 months ago and I’m pleased to say that he’s still with us. Placements help ensure a healthy pipeline of talent.”
Simon Wharton, Managing Director at PushOnLtd said: “We used Vision+Media’s training placement programme to add to our SEO team. The training placement was well run, made a minimum impact on the business, in terms of time to deliver and we’ve gone on to employ our trainee, whose abilities draw envious looks from our competitors.”
Head of Marketing at Vision+Media, Simon Alexander said: “The role of trainee placements is to close skills gaps and attract new talent to the digital and creative sectors. Last year, Vision+Media’s placement and apprenticeship programmes created over 30 new full time industry jobs and 88 freelance positions in the North West.
“Vision+Media is asking new creative companies based in the North West, to Plug In to the possibilities and act as host companies for a range of training placements and apprenticeships. We hope that this campaign will communicate the real benefits that our placements can offer, differentiating them from traditional work experience and intern programmes.
“Naturally, the campaign trades on the main strengths of our training placements (versus other internships, placements and work experiences): the high percentage of Vision+Media placements that go on to employment; that we can cover up to half the costs, are truly unique selling points for us”
Companies wanting to find out more can visit: visionandmedia.co.uk/plugin
