Creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi has announced ITV as its founding partner for Upriser, a free creative schools platform that launched towards the end of 2022.
A response to the ‘creative crisis’, Upriser offers young people aged 11-18 an introduction and route into the creative industries.
To scale the platform across the UK, Saatchi & Saatchi are inviting any British creative company that wants to facilitate ‘meaningful change’ to enroll as a school partner. ITV is the first major name to be announced, with a number of other partners reportedly being matched and onboarded at schools across the UK.
According to the creative company, a sustained lack of funding for creative and cultural programmes in school – equating to just £9.40 a year per student – is on track to deal a ‘devastating blow’ to the UK’s creative output due to a lack of future talent coming into the industry.
As part of the initiative, partners are matched with schools local to them and work closely with Saatchi & Saatchi to implement a long term programme which is tailored to each company’s specialisms, skills and capabilities. Schools are also given access to a 70-page open-source playbook, which offers a sustainable blueprint of multi-layered 1:1 mentoring programmes, lesson plans, workplace visits and other creative initiatives.
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“So often, school-focused initiatives from businesses look great, but end up being a flash in the pan,” ITV director of client strategy and planning, Kate Waters, said. “So when we learned about Upriser – and specifically that Saatchi’s expected us to make a long term commitment to the programme and our partner school – we quickly knew this was something we needed to be a part of. We often talk about the power of TV and this is a real opportunity to create change through a sustainable platform.”
Saatchi & Saatchi chief creative officer Franki Goodwin added: “We’ve been clear from the start that we can’t implement meaningful change by ourselves. This is a problem that needs the weight of our entire industry thrown at it, and we could not have hoped for a better founding partner than ITV. Not only are they a household name with a nationwide network, their team has also quickly proved themselves to be exactly the kind of people we need in the programme – upbeat, driven, kind and determined to drive change. We’re excited to see the impact they have.”
