Hospitality Rising impacting 16- to 30-year-olds

Only five months into the launch of Hospitality Rising’s industry-backed inaugural campaign, ‘Rise Fast, Work Young’, it has reached over 5.5 million of the UK’s 16- to 30-year-olds, equal to half this demographic, via its digital marketing campaign.

Hospitality Rising, the world’s biggest hospitality recruitment initiative, was created to tackle the sector’s challenging jobs crisis. TikTok creators were also engaged to create content that specifically targeted young jobseekers. This alone generated 13.5m impressions, reaching 2.1m young people.

Mark McCulloch, founder of Hospitality Rising and campaign director, said: “We are reaching the 16-30 audience in new ways and it’s working! We know what makes this age group tick and where their attention is. Communicating with them via TikTok campaigns, ads and content creator partnerships means we’re able to engage with them in the most effective way. We now need to focus on reaching all 16-30-year-olds at least four times in a short period, because this is where you see consideration move to action.

“While hospitality businesses are working hard on retaining staff, we’re here to support them in their efforts by finding new and effective ways to attract a new audience into the industry.”

The next step for the campaign is to bring on board operators to back a burst of activity aimed at jobseekers leaving education this summer. With six months of the first year left, those wanting to back the hospitality movement can join from £5 per team member.

Hospitality Rising is backed by some of the biggest names in the UK, including Whitbread, Pret, Welcome Break, Hilton, Soho House, Prezzo, Revolution Bars Group, Parkdean Resorts, Claridge’s, J W Lees and The Pig. On the supplierside, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, hospitality tech supplier Zonal, and guest Wi-Fi-based marketing solution Wireless Social are platinum sponsors.

Celebrity chefs, including Tom Kerridge, Angela Hartnett and Raymond Blanc OBE, have also generously offered their time and support to the initiative.

Businesses wanting more information can email hello@hospitalityrising.org.