The European Commission's Youth on the Move initiative was launched as part of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Its aims are to; make education and training more relevant to young people's needs, encourage more of them to take advantage of EU grants to study or train in another country and encourage EU countries to take measures simplifying the transition from education to work.

After successful campaigns on the continent, the EC wanted to bring Youth on the Move to the UK for the first time. To do so, they required a platform that would give them access to a large group of young people from a wide cross section of society, raise awareness of Youth on the Move and engage with audiences. The ultimate aim being to increase the uptake of their various opportunities.

Prior to the Freshers Festival event we built awareness via an advertising campaign in Scotcampus magazine. A full page advert was included in each issue between February & October, placing Youth on the Move at the heart of the magazine's careers section, beside relevant content in which we addressed employment issues and opportunities. At the same time, a solus email marketing campaign capitalised on the increased awareness. For the event itself, we not only laid on buses to ensure maximum attendance, we worked tirelessly to ensure that buzz spread throughout the two days.

The result was phenomenal levels of engagement for Youth on the Move. They registered a significant up-tick in interest from Scottish students during and after the event, and gathered media and data during the event that enabled a further push for months thereafter.

We believe that Youth Theory won the bid over well-known events and organisations across the UK, and managed to make a success of it, because we presented a platform that not only guaranteed access to a huge number of students through our Freshers' Festival, but delivered integrated youth marketing solutions that built their profile among students, and encouraged interest and engagement across Scotland.