National Centre for Learning Welsh
New learner recruitment campaign
Supporting a national aim to reach one million Welsh speakers by 2050, The National Centre for Learning Welsh briefed Equinox to deliver a multi-audience campaign that would encourage both those familiar with, and new to, the language to partake in beginners’ Welsh courses.
The Centre introduced free courses for 18–25-year-olds and low-cost courses for those aged 25+ — providing new ‘products’ to launch.
Our campaign focused on perception changes of learning Welsh — particularly amongst young people — before encouraging changes in behaviour. The Welsh language needed to be positioned as accessible, useful, and relevant — to encourage the next generation of learners.
Tactics:
18-25:
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TikTok influencer adverts, engaging with influencers known for their connection to the Welsh language and culture.
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Digital advertising across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to raise awareness of the sessions available and to encourage sign ups.
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Social campaign assets designed by Welsh LGBTQ+ independent artist MYTHS N TITS.
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100,000 beer mats featuring MYTHS N TITS’ Gen-Z appealing designs, located at over 100 pubs across Wales encouraging QR code scans leading directly to 18-25 course sign-ups.
25+:
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Conversion tracking digital advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.
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Lead generation ads, coinciding with organic social media, capturing data from warm leads.
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Google Search advertising to drive registrations and reach potential learners.
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Partner social and e-newsletter content in the form of a toolkit.
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Utilising highly targeted advertising, influencer engagement and social media campaigns, Equinox sought to change perceptions of the ‘learning Welsh experience’ by introducing the free courses as an opportunity for personal growth, community, and connection. All content created followed the EAST model for behavioural change — positioning learning Welsh for young people as Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely.
Ensuring a data-driven strategy was at the forefront, Equinox content targeted 18–25-year-olds using paid, earned, shared, and owned channels. Calling for young people to sign-up to free online courses, the ads also cemented learnwelsh.cymru as a leading organisation in the adult language education market.
Considering learnings from previous campaigns, we knew that digital advertising delivered the strongest results for driving registrations among those 25+ in Wales.
To further develop engagement within the 25+ audience, we devised the campaign ‘Welcome to Welsh / Croeso i’r Gymraeg’. ‘Welcome to Welsh’ encouraged audiences to associate learnwelsh.cymru courses with accessibility, relatability, and openness. This meant that even without brand-awareness media channels — such as TV, audio, OOH — we were still able to influence positive perceptions of learnwelsh.cymru.
Campaign success:
18 – 25
Utilising a dynamic influencer partnership and multiple creative assets, we were able to deliver a truly authentic, persuasive campaign to capture the attention of those aged 18-25. Not only did it succeed in driving the target number of sign-ups, the campaign cemented learnwelsh.cymru as a young, accessible brand amongst the Gen-Z audience.
25+
Equinox successfully employed targeted, trackable advertising activity alongside behavioural change tactics — such as showcasing Welsh within relatable, everyday scenarios — to increase course sign-ups amongst 25+ year-olds.
Attaining high levels of engagement effectively demonstrated how there is an appetite to use Welsh in the community, at work and in education settings amongst learners.
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