National Skills Academy for Food and Drink (NSAFD)

The Client

The National Skills Academy for Food and Drink (NSAFD) is the main source of training, careers and information for the UK’s food and drink industry. It provides businesses in the UK’s food and drink manufacturing and processing industry with access to high quality workforce training, vocational study and skill upgrades designed to boost productivity, profitability and growth.

The Brief

The UK’s food and drink industry is facing a generational time-bomb with more than a third of its workforce due to retire in the next few years, so The Right Agency (TRA) was approached to plan and deliver a PR campaign to:

  • Raise sector awareness of the scale and gravity of the skills shortage facing the industry and galvanise food and drink manufacturers to participate in industry consultations
  • Position NSAFD as the ‘go-to’ experts in the food and drink sector, and the food and drink sector as an attractive place to work
  • Support the growth of NSAFD’s member base by promoting the benefits of membership
  • Launch NSAFD’s Trailblazer apprenticeships to employers
  • Support NSAFD in retaining its share of voice against competitor organisations
What We Did

The Right Agency created a campaign which combined thought leadership articles on key themes, including training and increasing productivity, with hard working media relations linked to key events in the food and drink calendar.

By using employment statistics and market data sourced from NSAFD’s members, we built a picture of the skills challenges facing the sector and drafted a press release supported by hard-hitting research on the depth of the skills shortage to raise awareness of the issue.

We also created apprenticeship case studies for big name brands to demonstrate the opportunities available to young people and the benefits of working with NSAFD.

Results

In one year, we achieved 174 pieces of coverage in key food and drink publications including The Grocer and Food Manufacture, as well as in national newspapers including The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail.

112 pieces of coverage appeared during National Apprenticeship Week, causing a huge spike in traffic to the NSAFD website and raising awareness of its Trailblazer apprenticeships during a critical period. As a result, NSAFD received 31% more mentions than its main competitor during National Apprenticeship Week.

Digital coverage delivered an online readership of 4.2 million and was shared on social media channels 2,882 times, supporting growth of NSAFD’s social media channels.

“From the beginning, TRA was totally focused on learning about our business and fully immersed themselves in our industry, and they did a fantastic job of getting our name out there to the publications, people and companies that mattered.”