Manning Gottlieb Media wins £1.5m Experience Corps task

The Experience Corps, a £19m scheme set up by the Government to encourage people aged over 50 to become volunteers, has appointed Manning Gottlieb Media (MGM) to handle its £1.5m media buying account.

The agency won the business following a pitch handled by the COI. Saatchi & Saatchi has already been appointed to handle creative work for the national body, which forms part of a £300m Government drive to promote opportunities for voluntary work (MW August 30).

A TV, radio and press campaign to be rolled out in November aims to challenge the traditional image of volunteering as “white, middle-class and female”, in order to persuade 50to 65-year-olds to pass on their skills and experience to others. The campaign will also help develop a distinctive brand identity for the organisation.

The Experience Corps chief executive Maggie Semple says: “This campaign is going to have wit, pace and style. It will show people in our target market how easily they could make a real difference in their own local communities through volunteering.”

The Experience Corps is also in the process of setting up a network of nine regional offices throughout England that will employ 100 local co-ordinators to match volunteers to suitable posts.