‘Open Arms’ is an image campaign
aimed at working in nursing- and rest homes, home care and maternity
care. The sector is mainly hoping to appeal to students of the VMBO
(preparatory secondary vocational education) and lateral-entrants.
The sector dearly needs such employees due to the dejuvenation and
ageing of the staff and an ever ageing population in general.
The campaign is an initiative by A+O
VVT, an organisation
involved in the labour market and training
policies in the nursing-, rest home and home care sector, and is
being executed by Maximum, which in turn called in NMTrix. The first
phase of the campaign in 2010 was a huge success: it reached over a
third of the determined target groups and the campaign (message and
characters) were very well received. It is because of this success
that it has been decided to build out the campaign along the same
lines and re-launch it.
On the ‘Open Arms’ website four
animated characters each introduce a part of the sector. The site
also includes links to information regarding work and education. The
campaign also makes use of online media such as banners and video
mailings. In addition to this, posters will be put up at all VMBO
schools. Those same posters are currently on billboards at a large
number of train stations. In addition, the characters are brought to
life using social media, allowing you to talk, or pose a question to
Uncle Bert, Constance van Aerdenne, Auntie Lenie or Little Brian on
Hyves, Twitter and Facebook.