Now Foster weekend carers recruitment campaign

Project summary

Research and insights
Campaign identity development
Campaign strategy
Lead generation
AI-assisted design

Approach

Now Foster decided that a whole new approach was needed. So, in partnership with two London local authorities (Ealing Council and Newham Council), they devised an initiative allowing individuals and couples to foster a child or young person for just one weekend a month. This flexible model opens doors for those who can’t commit to full-time fostering but still want to make a significant impact. And it means that a cared for child gets to build a relationship with another significant adult over a longer period. It is that rarest of things – a win win.

Our task was clear - to help Now Foster recruit 30 new weekenders by raising awareness and attracting quality applications. For us, the answer lay in challenging existing preconceptions of fostering to allow new (and younger) audiences to engage with this new compelling proposition.

We knew that traditional fostering campaign imagery wouldn’t work here as stock photos often felt overly staged, and we couldn’t use real images of children in foster care due to privacy concerns. So, we used AI to generate photorealistic images for our ads, maintaining authenticity without breaching privacy or resorting to clichéd representations.

Impact

Within just one month of launching the campaign, over 400 people registered their interest in becoming Weekender carers, and of those 60 went on to become Weekenders – achieving 200% of our initial target of 30! While the campaign was live, the website received 30x its usual traffic. The success of this pilot has prompted Now Foster to seek partnerships with more London local authorities, with the goal of expanding the Weekender programme.

Now Foster’s Weekender campaign isn’t just a recruitment success. It’s a reimagining of how fostering can fit into modern lifestyles, providing children with additional support while creating a new pool of committed, part-time carers. We couldn’t be more excited about being part of it.