Connection Crew launches national campaign

Leading flagship social enterprise Connection Crew, launched a major recruitment advertising campaign as it prepares for further expansion following a 132 per cent revenue increase last year. 

As a Living Wage Employer, the company aims to help break the minimum wage ceiling, and recruit new staff. Connection Crew is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of crew to the film industry.

The campaign is being delivered by global advertising agency TBWA\London, through a billboard and referral marketing campaign that involves Connection Crew’s existing staff identifying potential recruits. The campaign will be seen across dozens of poster sites.  

The advertising campaign highlights opportunities to work in exciting jobs in crewing at film locations, television locations, and exhibitions, festivals, concerts, and other events, as well as construction. To drive job applications, Connection Crew team members are being challenged to find ambitious gig economy workers, including delivery drivers, security, bar and catering staff, and students, and present them with a card with links to a job application form. 

‘We’ve grown significantly in the last two years while maintaining our high standards and providing employment opportunities for those that need it most. Now we need to support another phase of expansion,’ says Connection Crew director, Warren Rogers. ‘Part of the measurement of our success is that we demonstrate that social enterprises can be highly successful as commercial operators, competing against other major companies. Our aim is to continue breaking new ground both as a crewing company, and as a social enterprise.’  

The success of Connection Crew as a supplier of trained crew for major events such as the Coronation, London Marathon, Ideal Home Show, Clerkenwell Design Week, Glastonbury-BBC and Creamfields, is evidence of how a social enterprise can outcompete traditional business model rivals. It provided crew for more than 3,600 events in 2022. Long standing clients include BAFTA, Underbelly, Media 10 and Wates Group. The organisation’s premium level service ethos, and reliability has enabled it to establish a unique position as a crew provider within the events, television, film and construction industries, where staff are needed for an array of manual handling and technical work.  

In parallel with its commercial success, Connection Crew has recently hit the significant milestone of providing more than 200,000 hours of employment to those that have experienced, or been at risk of, homelessness. 

A major part the organisation’s success, is its Academy, that provides a hands on three day employment preparation programme. Graduates are guaranteed an interview, and a 12 week mentoring scheme in which Academy graduates are provided with an experienced crew member as mentor, who is a trained volunteer for the role.