Hospitality Rising launches recruitment campaign

By James Lawrence

Published: 18 November, 2021

Hospitality Rising, a collaborative movement dedicated to increasing recruitment levels in the industry, is aiming to raise £5m by running “the biggest hospitality recruitment advertising campaign the world has ever seen”.

The campaigning begins this week, involving a coalition of businesses led by ex YO! Sushi marketer Mark McCulloch, in a drive to reignite and rescue the hospitality sector.

As has been widely reported, chronic staff shortages are continuing to put many venues at risk.

McCulloch has already raised £200k from a range of companies backing the campaign. Headline contributors include: Butlin’s, Rhubarb Hospitality Group, Hilton, Buzzworks, Pizza Pilgrims, The Dog at Wingham, Wahaca, Hawksmoor and Pizza Express.

“The support we’ve had from the industry and some of our marketing contacts has been amazing. We now need to raise enough money to really land a high profile that will both attract people back into the industry or make those who haven’t considered our sector as a viable, exciting, creative and rewarding career,” said McCullloch.

Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, added: “We’re very pleased to be working closely with Mark and Hospitality Rising to develop and promote a comprehensive campaign to address chronic labour and skills shortages in the hospitality industry with a range of short and long-term plans, and in particular to raise awareness of the need for all-important campaign funding. It has our full backing and we’re excited to see such early and positive momentum.”

The campaign has already secured £250,000 worth of pro bono creative strategy time and concept development from a clutch of top agencies via the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), led by Julian Douglas. He has pulled together the best advertising agencies in the UK to crack the hospitality talent challenge including VCCP (O2 and Cadbury), Ogilvy (Burger King and Coca Cola), and Forever Beta (Google and Amazon).

Printer friendly version