Hacking the Future
A Gen-Z Digital Skills Revolution
Social Media
For three consecutive years, I led creative strategy for a multinational CSR initiative tackling youth digital skills gaps across the EU. The problem wasn’t the program’s value - it was its voice. Corporate lingo about "upskilling" and "future-proofing careers" left Gen Z cold, while the ask - committing to an in-person summer school - felt out of touch with a generation used to bite-sized, digital-first experiences.
Challenge
The challenge: overcome high participation barriers for a premium summer school targeting students, where traditional outreach yielded minimal engagement. Our solution centered on dynamic video campaigns designed to reframe ‘professional guidance’ as aspirational storytelling – transforming complex digital themes into relatable journeys for Gen Z audiences. Our mission was to make digital skills feel less like homework and more like a backstage pass to the future.
Objective
We: Ditched corporate jargon for aspirational storytelling, framing tech skills as tools to "build your own future." Created scroll-stopping video ads. Deployed a military-precision retargeting strategy, ensuring every EU student encountered the campaign 2–6 times across platforms. Partnered with stakeholders to lend authenticity, avoiding polished "brand ambassador" vibes.
Results
We deployed a multi-platform retargeting strategy achieving unprecedented saturation: videos reached every university student in the EU 2–6 times through precision ad sequencing. This generated a 192% average increase in applicants across four iterations. The final campaign alone drove: 3.8M+ video views 52.4% growth in Instagram followers Overflow applicant pools requiring selection committees.
