Client Gemeente Amsterdam, Bureau Leerplicht

Industry Governmental

Services Graphic Design, Editorial Design, Projectmanagement, Illustration, Creative direction, Interactive

I’m in! Are you?

Enabling real conversations with secondary-school dropouts

Seek out your target audience

Where do you find young people to talk with them about school? On the street corner, we thought. The City of Amsterdam’s School Attendance Office (Bureau Leerplicht) wants to communicate creatively with school-age youth who are difficult to reach: the drop-outs and the doubters. We came up with a campaign for an Amsterdam summer offensive against dropping out of school that would be sufficiently challenging to young people. With ambassadors who engage in can interact and get through to young people. The starting point: you have to actively seek out this target audience; not sit back and wait.

I’M IN-Alderman of Education, Lodewijk Asscher::
‘Young people need love and structure when making the right choice of study programme. Structure means keeping your word and love stands for attention. I expect young people to work hard to earn a diploma. Support from parents and friends is very important in this process. When you have a programme that suits you, then you can honestly say: I’m in!’

Bright red caravan

In addition to the alderman, other prominent Dutch individuals show that they are serious about the issue: I’M IN-Princess Maxima launched the campaign and I’M IN-football player Edgar Davids was in the campaign caravan taking selfies with young people. This bright red ‘impossible to miss’ caravan and a campaign team spent the entire summer driving all over Amsterdam in search of the target audience. Inside the caravan, school attendance officers and young people who left school early spoke with doubters and their parents about the reasons for dropping out. Where young people usually have to wait for help, here action could be taken immediately. After all, the school attendance officers are extremely well-informed and have the necessary authority. And it works: when it comes to doubters, you have to get to them in time and offer help quickly. With co-creator Huib Koeleman, the Beautiful Minds design team helped Bureau Leerplicht Plus in developing the concept and implementing the entire campaign.