Opportunity Employers

Key results

The pilot proved that co-marketing creates value in both directions. Guild gained credibility from the association — an 8.2-point lift on "Guild partners with leading employers" — while the partners gained it back: a 6-point lift in likelihood to consider working for an employer that offers Guild, and consideration gains at every one of the three brands. Between 62% and 66% of the exposed audience came away with an improved perception of the employer in the ad.

Engagement ran well ahead of plan too, with a 0.88% click-through rate against a 0.50% goal, and 4,600 click-throughs from the campaign experiences to partner careers pages.

The strategy

Guild's tuition-free education benefit was delivering measurable ROI for partners and tangible outcomes for employees. The problem? Most people thought it was too good to be true.

Rather than argue the case ourselves, we borrowed credibility. We built a co-branded campaign around three well-known employers — Chipotle, Target, and Tyson Foods — and positioned Guild as the ingredient brand that made them employers of choice for anyone looking to grow a career. The audience was frontline workers, reached at the top of the funnel through video, rich media, paid social, and in-app gaming, then carried into co-branded microsites built for each partner.

The whole thing rested on the stories being real. Finding them was the hard part, and the storytelling team worked through hundreds of members to surface and land the three people the campaign was built around. That effort, and the commitment to authenticity, is why the work reads as documentary rather than testimonial.

What I did

As the Campaign Director, I worked closely with our media partner to define our target audience of "frontline workers." We focused on attributes related to education level, years of work experience, and socioeconomic status to zero in on a population that was primed for our message of tuition-free education leading to career growth. Then we built a media plan that met those people on the channels they frequented, including social media and gaming apps. I also worked closely with our partnerships team to pitch our co-marketing partners, securing their participation in the campaign.

As the Creative & Storytelling Lead, I led the team that sourced, vetted, and prepped the learners for filming. I managed our production vendor through storyboarding and creative direction, then served as executive producer on set, guided the interviews, and wrote the scripts for all of the video assets. I oversaw a team of internal copywriters and designers in the creation of the landing page and paid media assets, ensuring consistent messaging throughout the campaign.