Ian Wright Offers Vital Digital Skills Training to Time-Poor Brits in Google Campaign

Ian Wright is fronting a new Google campaign, created by Redwood BBDO, to encourage Brits to use pockets of downtime throughout the day to learn valuable new digital skills which could help them to increase their earning potential, get a new job or grow their business. 

New research by Google has revealed that people believe they have no time to learn new skills, despite knowing it could help them. Google Search trends also show a +5000% increase in the number of people searching for how to make more money and figures show that 10 million UK workers are missing fundamental digital skills needed for today’s workplace. Google’s free courses are designed to help give more people the opportunity to gain those skills. The creative campaign, ‘Skills To Go’, conceived, developed and made by Redwood BBDO, seeks to bring digital skills training to people at different times of the day — from the morning commute to the lunch break to after hours, and everywhere in between.

The ads, which feature Ian Wright alongside commuters and real business owners, not only show audiences how quickly they can access content and learn digital skills, but also see the footballer-turned-pundit sharing career and business lessons during the ads themselves. This brings home the point that new skills can be easily learned whilst doing routine tasks and aims to help make digital skills training more accessible to people who are short on time. 

Government figures highlight the country’s digital skills shortage, and show that almost a third (30)% of vacancies are due to the struggle to recruit people with basic digital skills. The digital skills gap is estimated to cost the UK economy £63 billion per year in lost potential GDP. Google’s new bitesize training courses teach a range of valuable skills which help to give people the skills needed to thrive in these roles and grow their businesses.

Redwood BBDO, also the creative team behind Google’s ‘Dear Local’ campaign, worked closely with Google’s lead talent and culture agency, Attachment, who, alongside securing Ian Wright, also sourced three of Britain’s brightest business minds to support the campaign. Dragon’s Den investor Steven Bartlett, banker-turned-YouTube creator Patricia Bright, and notonthehighstreet.com founder Holly Tucker star in three longer films with the theme ‘In The Time It Takes’ — which offer tangible learnings for viewers in the time it takes to get a haircut, walk the dog or have a cup of tea. Altogether, over 400 pieces of creative were created by Redwood BBDO, and the highly targeted and integrated ad campaign will run on VOD, digital OOH, print, YouTube, Spotify and social. Google today also launches a new Skills To Go website, g.co/grow/skillstogo, where people can find all training courses in one place.

Dan Jude, executive creative director at Redwood BBDO, said: “It’s been fantastic to work again with Google on a campaign that marks the launch of such a valuable resource that can help so many people learn vital skills, aiding career development and businesses. Working with such inspiring talent, we hope this campaign drives people all over the UK to take advantage of the free content that can be accessed in the spare moments almost everyone has.”

Ian Wright, television and radio personality and former professional footballer, said: “When I retired from football and got into TV, I had to become confident in a whole new set of skills very quickly. This was daunting and looking back, I'm glad I invested the learning time and feel very appreciative of the people that helped me upskill. I'm happy to be working with Google to help people use the small amounts of time they have to upskill themselves." 

Steven Bartlett, entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den investor, added: “Even though starting a business and pitching a new concept to potential investors can be challenging, it's such a rewarding feeling when your business concept begins to take shape.  That’s why I’m excited to be working with Google to create training content in which I teach vital digital skills that can help them to make a success of their businesses and careers!”

Alice Mansergh, managing director of Google Customer Solutions, UK & Ireland, says: “At Google, we’re passionate about equipping people in every corner of the country with the skills needed to help them make the most of the opportunities created by the UK’s digital economy.  The labour market is crying out for talented individuals across a number of experience levels and our aim with our snackable Skills to Go campaign is to give more people the opportunity to gain skills that can truly transform their careers and businesses.”