TBWA\London Wins Health & Wellness Cannes Lions Grand Prix for BECO's #StealOurStaff campaign

LONDON, June 21, 2021

The campaign challenged other British businesses to steal its staff in order to raise awareness of the 'Disability Employment Gap'. According to the World Economic Forum, people with disabilities are 50% less likely to have a job and while more than 90% of companies around the world prioritize diversity, less than 4% consider disability.

"'Steal our Staff' was an upside down recruitment campaign by a little soap brand that brought big corporations to task and disrupted employers' outdated attitudes toward people with disabilities," said Andy Jex, chief creative officer for TBWA\London. "Turning it from a thought into a thing was a long road and took a lot of heart and dedication. I'm delighted for the whole team, whose passion and personality shine through in all the work."

The integrated campaign launched in late 2019 with a packaging takeover that incorporated staff CVs on the product labels. The packaging was supported by press executions comprising an open letter that challenged other employers to take a stand when it comes to hiring people with disabilities, as well as OOH executions that amplified the #StealOurStaff message.

In a twist on the traditional recruitment ad, the creative highlights BECO's talent alongside an invitation for these employees to be headhunted by other businesses. The campaign drove a 96% uplift in sales year over year for BECO products and 40+ brands got in touch to hire talent featured in the campaign.

The campaign case study can be viewed in full here.

This is the second Health and Wellness Cannes Lions Grand Prix for the TBWA\ collective in recent years. In 2018 TBWA\India's Blink to Speak won the Lions Health Grand Prix for Good, created for the Asha EK Hope Foundation.