the future is ship-shaped

Scotland has proud history in shipbuilding. In the last century some of the most famous ocean liners in the world took shape in Scotland. Times changed and the contraction of the industry left only a handful of yards, but the expertise had not gone.

In 2008 the remaining yards ambitiously won the tender for one of the most illustrious projects – the creation of two of the largest aircraft carriers the Royal Navy has commissioned. Prompted by the contract, orders for build and refit flooded in and today shipbuilding is one of the fastest growing industries in Scotland.
The swiftness of the economic turnaround left a big issue – the lack of a skilled workforce. Scottish Enterprise’s response was the creation of a multi-facetted project aimed at the engagement, recruitment and training of new engineers.

The challenge to tangible was ‘how do we get over the core perception that shipbuilding is an industry in decline?’

The passionate proposition “the future is ship-shape” and the iconic creative captured the hearts and minds, not only of the school leavers, students and engineers that we targeted, but also their influencers (parents, teachers, careers advisors) and the delivery partners.

Tangible achieved 100% of the target apprenticeships through an integrated campaign, including web, awareness and direct marketing, and led our client to say:

‘...we have had nothing other than a full-throated effort from the team enabling us to hit the project deadlines...and to do so with what I consider to be a highly effective approach.’

Ian McMahon
Head of Aerospace, Defence and Marine