Keep Britain Afloat

Our approach aimed to showcase two key issues – firstly, the extremely skilled nature of the British shipbuilding workforce, and secondly, the impact that awarding the contracts to shipyards outside of Britain would have on communities across the country.

The campaign was split into two phases that ran during Autumn 2019 and Summer 2020. For the second phase, we worked closely with our public affairs partners at Westbrook Strategies to align the video content with political engagement and public affairs activity being delivered alongside the campaign.

Filming took place at locations synonymous with British shipbuilding, including on the Forth and Clyde in Scotland, at Appledore and Plymouth in Devon, at Camell Laird on the Mersey and at the last remaining shipyard on the Tyne. We captured the thoughts and experiences of experienced shipyard workers and those just embarking on their careers, as well as strategic views from trade union representatives.

The content was edited into short, social media optimised packages focusing on key campaign issues that were designed to encourage organic sharing through campaign channels and the networks of affiliates. Thematic edits for use in political and media engagement were also produced for use by the CSEU team in lobbying activity.