Targeted care recruitment campaign

Summary

Bexley Wellbeing Partnership (BWP), representing 17 local organisations, commissioned Blue Lozenge to address carer workforce shortages through a targeted recruitment campaign. Blue Lozenge developed a five-week, multi-channel campaign aimed at three demographic groups: mothers with school-age children, school leavers, and men aged 20–39. Messaging was tailored to each group, with delivery across paid search, Meta platforms, outdoor advertising, and partner toolkits. The campaign exceeded engagement expectations while maximising a limited budget. Partner toolkits provided BWP with reusable legacy materials for ongoing recruitment activity beyond the campaign period.

Addressing workforce shortages through targeted recruitment campaign

Bexley Wellbeing Partnership (BWP), who represent 17 local partner organisations, faced significant carer workforce shortages and needed to run a recruitment campaign targeting underrepresented groups within the caring workforce. They wanted to showcase a distinct local identity while positively positioning careers in care, attracting new people to the profession, encouraging applications, and signposting to Care Jobs Open Week.

Approach

At Blue Lozenge we designed a five-week campaign targeting three core demographic groups with tailored messaging:

  • Mums with school-age children (emphasising flexibility)
  • School leavers (highlighting career prospects without tertiary education requirements)
  • Men aged 20-39 (challenging gender stereotypes in care)

We developed a core narrative and messaging framework, creating benefit-led key messages for each demographic, and selecting diverse visual content to reflect Bexley’s community. We deployed multi-channel delivery through paid search targeting job-related keywords, paid socials via Meta platforms with audience segmentation, outdoor advertising with QR codes in high-footfall areas, and partner toolkits for stakeholder amplification.

Impact

The campaign successfully used data and insight to determine where the limited budget should be spent to maximise value for money. This informed strategy was successful and led to ad engagement that surpassed expectations. The toolkits that were developed for this campaign meant that the BWP had legacy material that could be used after the campaign was finished to ensure ongoing engagement.

“Blue Lozenge are experts in the field of NHS communications and have a wealth of knowledge across the sector. Their fantastic team of communications experts have helped us with planning strategic away days with internal colleagues as well as large-scale recruitment campaigns. They are professional, beyond helpful and have worked with us to successfully land key messaging with underserved communities and helped us to engage with colleagues after lockdown came to an end by facilitating constructive and well received away days. I cannot recommend Rachel and her team enough.”

Aysha Awan, Head of Communications and Engagement — Bexley, NHS South East London Integrated Care Board

Helping Lewisham residents access primary care services

Summary

South East London Integrated Care Board (SEL ICB) commissioned Blue Lozenge to raise awareness of primary care services among Lewisham residents, including the NHS app and pharmacy services. Blue Lozenge developed a targeted, multichannel campaign incorporating a photoshoot featuring local primary care staff, custom digital assets, a stakeholder toolkit, a two-week paid digital advertising campaign, and an A4 leaflet. The campaign reached approximately 10% of Lewisham’s population, with peak engagement among women aged 35–44 and 65 and over. Campaign assets provided SEL ICB with reusable materials for ongoing community engagement.

Informing residents of primary care services using targeted communications

South East London Integrated Care Board (SEL ICB) wanted a campaign to inform the local residents of Lewisham about the range of primary care services available to access. A targeted and localised communications campaign was needed to increase awareness of primary care services and digital resources, including the NHS app and pharmacy services.

Approach

Blue Lozenge collaborated with SEL ICB to create a targeted, multichannel communications campaign. We focused on creating accessible, community-centred content that would resonate with the residents of Lewisham. Our approach combined strategic planning, authentic visual storytelling, and targeted digital advertising.

We began by ensuring that messaging aligned with Lewisham’s specific community needs. We then ran a one-day photoshoot featuring real Lewisham primary care staff bringing authenticity to the campaign by capturing the diverse workforce behind local healthcare services.

Over the course of the campaign, we also:

  • Created custom-designed digital assets to be used across social media, websites and digital screens
  • Developed a comprehensive stakeholder toolkit to share with partners in the community
  • Ran a strategic two-week paid digital advertising campaign targeting Lewisham residents
  • Designed an A4 leaflet for Lewisham residents.

Impact

The campaign achieved strong reach and engagement, connecting with approximately 10% of Lewisham’s population. Peak engagement occurred between 5pm and 7pm with females aged 65+ and between 35 and 44 being the engaging the most.

The suite of campaign assets and photographs of local staff provided SEL ICB with a toolkit for ongoing community engagement beyond this project.

Ready to reach your audience with an impactful campaign?

Contact our team today to discuss how we can create an insight driven, creative, and targeted campaign to support your organisation’s objectives.

Email: hello@bluelozenge.co.uk