An innovative approach to digital marketing and communications has secured ACCA UK’s first Marketing Star Gold award.

With jobs and employability hot topics among the 18-24 age group, ACCA UK’s accolade was for a UK-wide digital strategy designed to engage and inspire young audiences about a career in the accountancy profession.

Organised by The Marketing Society and now in their 16^th year, these awards celebrate innovation, leadership and drive in recognition of marketing work that achieves results.

Speaking of the win, Karen Smith, head of ACCA UK marketing said: ‘Our plan encouraged those aged 15 to 22 - Gen Z - to connect with us. We knew this would be a challenge as Gen Z don’t necessarily know what a professional body is. We wanted to show how exciting, impactful and relevant the profession can be, challenging pre-conceptions and winning their hearts by confidently delivering messages that resonate with them, using the channels they use - TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube.’

Through the smarter use of social media and digital technologies, ACCA UK identified a range of talented and relevant partners to support the campaign, including the Economist for a campaign called ‘Those who excel’; and a content partnership with GradTouch called ‘Gaming accountants’ which explored humorous, down-to-earth, lively, and colloquial content ideas to inspire new audiences on young and fresh platforms and show accountants in a new light.

Karen Smith adds: ‘We also profiled and highlighted career opportunities in our small and medium sized pacesetter practices to showcase the innovation in the SME sector, rebranding small business as an alternative employment choice for Gen Z. The ACCA UK team is delighted with this Gold award – it’s proof that our innovative approach, and one that no other accountancy body has done, resonates really strongly and attracts attention.’

The results impressed the judges, including:

• Half a million views and 20,000 clicks across Snapchat
• One million views across TikTok, 200,000 hearts and 1,000 comments
• 1.5 million impressions and 40,000 engagements across Instagram
• Over 500,000 views on YouTube and an engagement rate of over 6%
• 28,000 video completions, 28.6% engagement rate at £0.23 cost per engagement on the Economist platforms

Karen Smith concludes: ‘This campaign has given us great insights which we’ll will use to inform future campaigns and share with our colleagues around the world to inspire and enable them to apply this learning to campaigns in their market too.’