Greater Manchester Youth Network's billboard campaign
Public relations and media

Success of billboard campaign for youth charity

Greater Manchester Youth Network (GMYN)

The challenge – a new approach for campaigning for support

Greater Manchester Youth Network (GMYN) aimed to gain more support from local businesses to raise money for the programmes they run for young people. 

They sought to utilise a city-wide billboard campaign, in partnership with JCDecaux, to increase visibility and engagement with potential supporters. 

This was a significant step in the campaign as it involved accessing advertising opportunities through JCDecaux’s Community Channel initiative. GMYN had not taken part in advertising in this way before.

Our approach – positioning young people in leadership positions

The campaign was meticulously planned and executed with significant input from the young people who are beneficiaries of GMYN. 

They led the creative direction and expressed their goals and pride in being part of the campaign. This shaped the campaign’s message and presentation. 

Over a year of collaboration, High-Rise team supported GMYN with PR and communications. We wanted to emphasise the young people’s visions and ensuring their active participation throughout the campaign process. 

The campaign material was on display across 90 billboards in Manchester’s city centre, involving these young people at every stage, from concept to launch.

Results & impact – new business and awareness

The billboard campaign successfully attracted attention, as evidenced by the success of the breakfast business event. This drew 60 new businesses and individuals, resulting in 30 direct pledges of support, including two donations.

This outreach contributed to an audience of over 2 million people viewing the campaign coverage. 

Alex Fairweather, CEO and Founder of GMYN, says: “We really appreciated this opportunity from JCDecaux and would love to do it again. To allow a charity to have such a visible digital presence for several weeks is very rare and something we couldn’t do without your help.  This has been a unique and very rewarding experience for GMYN.

“The project also promoted GMYN’s brand as well as the need for more business support. It has been great getting our name and impact known more widely. It was the first time we had been seen so prominently across the city and many of our supporters and partners commented on how good it looked.

“The campaign will continue as we will now be following up on the engagements from the event. We will be running our employability campaign until next July with a pledge to support 200 young people.”

We look forward to working with GMYN on their further projects, as we have enjoyed all aspects of this business engagement campaign. To find out more about the campaigning work we have done, please see here.

We’re grateful for High-Rise’s support throughout this campaign and are excited to continue to work with them in the future.
Alex Fairweather
Greater Manchester Youth Network (GMYN)
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