Deutsche Telekom has a long standing commitment to Gen Z. The brand is on a mission to use the strength of its networks and expertise in digital connectivity to empower young people to face any current societal and environmental challenges.

In 2021, as young people's futures were being disrupted by a global recession, our brief was to design an online experience that helped the next generation uncover their hidden value, gain insight into the future of work and provide practical support to help them realise their potential.

Project FutureProof is an integrated platform to connect young people to the futures they actually want, by giving them resources for every step of their careers.

It gave them access to:

-An intuitive app that enabled them to figure out their strengths and the different possibilities it would open.

-Free workspaces, recording studios and in-person seminars to grow and train.

-The Telekom HR department to learn how to best sell themselves.

-A massive internship program to get the work experience that would unlock further opportunities.

Research highlighted a tension between what Gen Z would look for in a job and what is available to them. On the one hand we have a generation driven by passion that values meaningful careers. On the other hand, we found a generation that had their horizons narrowed and were feeling the pressure of securing any job.

We resolved this tension in two ways:

Firstly, with an inspiring campaign of digital optimism stressing the career opportunities that are naturally evolving from this generations’ passions.

Secondly, with a tangible tech solution designed to support Gen Z and show them in a personalised way how their passions can help them build a future they can be excited about.

By focusing on established Gen Z passions and their predicted futures, by showing up in places where those passions resonate, we managed to drive intrigue to visit the platform and boost direct response credentials.

We launched the campaign with an optimistic short film that invited young people to choose utopia over dystopia and trust that their passion will support them. Billie Eilish, who cameos in the film, amplified the launch on social media together with a host of Gen Z influencers. To build on the momentum, we launched a Snap lens and partnered with TikTok creators to showcase the career opportunities linked to various generational passions.

All these assets directed them to our platform, where they could find tools and resources to keep building their career. We also went out and created real world spaces and opportunities such as an internship programme, a Chief Tomorrow Officer recruitment drive, online classes, one-on-one career advice with recruiters and talent managers and more.

The Project FutureProof tool was used by almost 2M Gen Z with active users spending an average of 5 minutes 34 seconds. The campaign generated an overall earned reach of 559M+.

More importantly, we seem to have caught the zeitgeist as whether we look at the US, the UK or Germany, in every country young people are saying no to low paid, low skill “dead end jobs” and demanding more from themselves and employers post pandemic.