New members and campaigning success for National Education Union

The National Education Union is a trade union for school teachers, further education lecturers, education support staff and teaching assistants. It was formed by the merger of the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in 2017 and is now the largest union of its kind in Europe.

Brief

Following a recommendation, the NEU expressed an interest in securing more members through innovative digital marketing with Distract. With the challenges presented by the pandemic, the NEU also shifted much of its focus onto campaigns relating to school-age children and parents. The union highlighted important issues and campaigns it felt its members agreed with. This included a number of issues including government policies and subsequent petitions the organisation wanted to present to influence change for the better.

Approach

We took control of the NEU’s advertising output across social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat,  TikTok and YouTube. We also broke new ground, becoming the first digital marketing agency in the UK to utilise the innovative new Huawei ads platform. Using content strengthened by the client’s production capabilities, we were able to manage the rollout of high-profile campaigns such as the videos urging parents to sign a petition against testing five year olds in school. 

This particular campaign, presented by comedian Zoe Lyons, was aimed at parents, but other campaigns feature content geared towards teachers and sometimes students too.

Results

The team’s efforts garnered around 10,000 signatures, which is the minimum amount needed to be raised in UK Parliament and be discussed. 

We also achieved amplification across all social media platforms, integral to progressing the issues raised by the NEU. Visibility is incredibly important to campaigns such as this, so to see greater reach is key to seeing a petition or particular cause taking off.

Our Thoughts

“The NEU is a reactive, highly targeted client that we always seek to marry up with an audience that will respond with action. For all its many campaigns, the NEU needs that visibility to ensure they are acted upon and listened to.” Ellie Hocking, Social Account Executive

Share This

9,398

signatures

1 million

reach

86,000

likes

1,431 hours

total play time on video content

Our Thoughts

“The NEU is a reactive, highly targeted client that we always seek to marry up with an audience that will respond with action. For all its many campaigns, the NEU needs that visibility to ensure they are acted upon and listened to.” Ellie Hocking, Social Account Executive

Share This

“The team at Distract are a dream to work with. In only a short space of time, they’ve come to us with so many creative, original campaign ideas, pitched to us in a way that is easy to understand and digest. Our cost per acquisition is well below the target we set them and yet they’re still looking for ways to decrease it further. Nothing is too much trouble and we recommend them as a partner to anyone.”

Mike Joslin

Lead Marketing Officer, NEU