Oil industry jobs are becoming less prestigious among young people every year. Research by HH.ru* shows that more and more students and young professionals are choosing careers in IT and PR, while interest in oil-related jobs is fading. * https://spb.hh.ru/article/31760
Problem
Problem: Many people think* oil will become useless soon because they believe it's only used for gasoline. In just a few years, electric cars may leave oil and oil-related jobs far behind. * Survey in Gazprom Neft's social media. Goal: Improve the company's position in the top employers in Russia and attract young specialists to work for Gazprom Neft.
Solution
Mission: To change the young generation's perception of the relevance of the oil and gas industry. To show that gasoline is far from the only petroleum product that is involved in our lives. Household appliances and chemicals, clothes and cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and other things we are used to — all of this is created from oil. Insight: According to statistics*, 66% of users most often view entertainment content, and only 27% view educational content. We decided not just to inform the audience, but to engage them in the topic through an understandable and popular topic - fashion. After all, clothes and style are an important part of young people's self-expression. This is how we came up with the idea to create an online service called сl_OIL_thes – an interactive platform for selecting a closet from things created from oil. * Research by Ingosstrakh in cooperation with the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Idea: Create an online service where users can: — select a stylish closet of items created from petroleum products; — get individual recommendations on closet design from a stylist; — learn interesting facts about synthetic fabrics. We paid special attention to the section on how synthetic fabrics help to save natural resources — after all, care about ecology is as important for young people as style. For us, the project became a part of realizing the goals of corporate social responsibility in improving the company's reputation. We introduced readers to Gazprom Neft's plastic recycling projects and highlighted the launch of a plastic recycling plant in the Leningrad Region. Realization: To successfully reach our target audience, we needed an authoritative and relevant media outlet. We chose BURO, one of the leading online fashion magazines popular among young people. BURO became not only a partner but also an ambassador of the project, creating a series of thematic publications about synthetic fabrics, their environmental benefits and the importance of petroleum products in the fashion industry. Communication channels and tools: — announcement of the special project in BURO: material about the launch of the project; — announcements at Gazprom Neft's sites: a series of news and posts about the service; — PR support in the media: publications about the launch of a service to find things made from oil in Russia; — sowing an infopromotional campaign on social networks: we used popular communities among young people to promote сl_OIL_thes. Special attention was paid to ecology: in parallel with the project promotional campaign, we told about the company's plastic recycling projects in Gazprom Neft's social networks.
Result
The project was featured in the well-known online fashion magazine BURO and received widespread media coverage: 229 media and social media mentions of the project; 154.4 million contacts — total publication reach (OTS).* With this project we made an important step in maintaining the image of the oil and gas industry and proved that working in an oil company is in trend. By the end of 2024, Gazprom Neft moved up to 6th place in the ranking of Russia’s best employers, based on a survey of students and young professionals.* It outperformed many IT companies. * Best Company Award ranking. The study included students from 40 Russian universities and 2024 graduates.
