LinkedIn coffee truck delivers career advice to young professionals

As part of a new brand campaign, VCCP has staged the live activation, a ‘LinkedIn Know-How To Go’, in London and Manchester

By creative salon

28 February 2024

Professional network LinkedIn and creative agency VCCP London have taken careers advice directly to young professionals as their coffee truck with a twist, visits London and Manchester.

As part of a new brand campaign, VCCP has created the live activation, a ‘LinkedIn Know-How To Go’ coffee truck with a twist and a social learning campaign on LinkedIn and Meta to make career advice more enjoyable.

Young professionals have been diving into career boosting chats over a cup of coffee at LinkedIn’s ‘Know-How To Go’ coffee truck in London and Manchester. The truck has a special menu with items named after corporate jargon - such as ‘Blueberry Sky Thinking Muffin’, ‘COPpuccino’ and ‘Chime-in Chai Latte’ - and young professionals can get these items for free if they can guess what the names mean (or at least attempt it!). LinkedIn Career Experts are on hand to offer useful advice to professionals, tailored to whatever career stage they are in.

Advice from LinkedIn Career Experts is bucketed into the following themes all aimed at helping them make work make sense:

Know-How to Get In: Trying to land a career with a company that matches your values? Help is at hand to get you started on the right path with a variety of career development resources
Know-How to Get On: You’re already in the door. Now what? Build your confidence at work and understand how to build relevant skills and stay up to date with your industry
Know-How to Get Further: Keep growing and building your professional brand with tailored tips to help you stand out from the crowd. LinkedIn can give you tips and knowledge to help you grow and accelerate your career. It’s your time to shine!

LinkedIn’s new UK brand campaign aimed at Gen Z professionals - the fastest growing audience on LinkedIn - was created to help them grow their careers at a time when the world of work is changing quickly and they do not know where to start.

As part of the campaign, VCCP has also developed a social content series idea that will be filmed at the events, fronted by content creator Max Baledge, who will be asking the public for their know-how that can help others navigate the world of work - posing questions such as:

How do you land your dream job?
How do you skill up at work?
How do you stand out in your career?

The content series will be light-hearted to show how (with the tools and products LinkedIn have to offer), the world of work, industry and even jargon is a little easier to navigate. This will run from mid March through to the end of April.

Other influencers will also attend the events and support across their own channels; including, Kennie, Timothy Paul and Ellie Middleton.

LinkedIn’s research finds that while 86 per cent of Gen Z professionals in the UK are open to new job opportunities this year, they’re also the least confident of all generations when it comes to navigating their professional lives or asking for help. To help young professionals jumpstart their careers, LinkedIn’s new brand campaign spotlights the platform’s tools, community, and insights of one billion members that can guide young professionals and arm them with the right skills.

Zara Easton, Head of Brand Marketing UK at LinkedIn, said: “Starting out in your career can be daunting, and our research shows that as a generation that entered the world of work during the pandemic, Gen Z are looking for support in gaining the ‘know-how’ to navigate their careers, match their skills to jobs they want, and build a strong professional network they can turn to for advice. LinkedIn’s supportive professional community of 1 billion members can help young professionals make sense of the world of work and set them up for success.

“Gen Z are the microlearning and coffee-culture generation. The idea is for them to dive into a career-boosting chat over a cup of coffee, and enjoy some easy learning from career experts on-the-go on their daily commute.”

Matt Lloyd, Deputy Executive Creative Director at VCCP London, added: “The world of work can be pretty overwhelming at times with so much jargon to translate, amid constant requests to ‘reach out’ and ‘touch base’ before the dreaded ‘COP’. We thought the best way to ‘push the envelope’ on this was to really ‘grasp the nettle’ and invite people for coffee and cake. Work’s complicated enough, so let’s just have a chat and share some advice.”

Young professionals can spot the ‘Know-How To Go’ coffee truck in Manchester on 29 February. For details on the coffee truck’s location, follow the LinkedIn company page and hashtag, #KnowHowOnLinkedIn, for updates.