A YouTube channel for nursery teachers passed 1,000 subscribers, and lifted staff motivation too

Asuka Inc. runs a staffing business for nursery teachers. Feeling that reaching latent candidates was a challenge, the company began working with us in March 2020.

Having looked at a range of consultancies, Asuka chose NowVillage. Finding a partner you can trust is one of the most important things in getting results from your initiatives, so what was the deciding factor? Here we asked Mr Asami, a director, about it.

Starting an initiative combining owned media and YouTube

―First, could you give us an overview of the service NowVillage consulted on?

Asuka Inc. has 18 offices across Japan and supports nursery teachers through temporary staffing and placement into permanent jobs. We hold around 20,000 childcare vacancies nationwide and have helped more than 10,000 people into work to date.

―What led you to approach NowVillage?

In recent years we had focused on acquiring people who were already actively interested, “people who know us or are interested in nursery jobs”, through search ads and SEO. But that acquisition had plateaued, and we felt we needed to reach latent candidates as well, “nursery teachers with no current wish to change jobs, or people vaguely thinking about becoming nursery teachers in future”. Around then, in March last year, I spoke at an event alongside Mr Imamura, NowVillage’s representative, and learned that NowVillage is strong at attracting latent audiences. That connection led to us asking them for consulting.

―You now run initiatives centred on YouTube to attract latent candidates,
　but was YouTube your target from the start?

We hadn’t settled on it from the start. We already ran an owned media site called Hoikushi Club. It carried text-based articles with all kinds of practical know-how for nursery teachers, but for explanatory videos we embedded ones posted by other companies and YouTubers. Seeing that, NowVillage told us, “This is a missed opportunity.” Producing everything in-house would raise engagement and let us deliver original content to latent candidates too, so we decided on YouTube.

―Did you compare other firms before working with NowVillage?

Yes, we were talking to several firms in parallel. But every one of them talked only about means, “Let’s do social media”, “Let’s align the tone and manner”, and the purpose wasn’t clear. NowVillage, on the other hand, set the final goal as increasing registrations to Hoikushi Club via YouTube, with YouTube channel subscriptions as the target before that. Building video production around the owned media site that already had traffic also became a new policy of “taking on new challenges the Asuka way”, and it made complete sense to us.

Hitting the goal also brought joy to the staff

―Thank you! With that, the work began in March 2020. Looking back,
　could you assess the service in qualitative and quantitative terms?

Our target for YouTube channel subscribers was 1,000, and NowVillage committed to it fully and we achieved it. I don’t think we could have done it with anyone other than NowVillage. Also, while running alongside us, they corrected our course and advised us when to “keep going as we are”… I feel they saw it through with us while raising our staff’s motivation.

Mr Imamura and Mr Tagai, who handle our account, always ask, “Is there anything more we can do?” That attitude makes our management realise that “we need to accelerate the business even more”.

The staffing business inevitably tends to focus on the monthly number of job seekers and on revenue. But with so many people watching our YouTube, our staff can now feel joy in things other than revenue. We had dabbled in social media before, but this is the first time so many people in the company have taken an interest! We can now post regularly while maintaining quality, so being able to report it to our staff with pride is really pleasing.

Pursuing the maximum effect with minimal resources

―What kind of work do you expect from NowVillage going forward?

We’d like them to keep running alongside us, and to keep proposing anything new, beyond social media too. And to keep cracking the whip on me and the rest of the staff (laughs).

―From your point of view, Mr Asami, what kind of company is NowVillage?

They respond quickly, and above all they take action. Their wide range of cutting-edge know-how is also attractive. And the personality of Mr Tagai, our main contact, fitted our project well. Even just chatting with him, his consideration is clear; he is supple like a willow, but he doesn’t break. I feel he has a strong core. Each consultant has their own character, and that suited us.

Some consultancies say “You absolutely must do it this way” or “You should change the organisation first”, but NowVillage proposes “Let’s find a way to make it work with the resources you have now”, which we really appreciate. Even if a company has no marketing department or marketing resources in-house, they break things down to a certain degree and provide a system that even staff with other roles can run.

Also, when we do things internally we inevitably become product-out, so we trust them because they make proposals backed by sound logic. Even ideas that seem “boring” from inside the company get tens of thousands of views. We hope to keep creating good content based on NowVillage’s proposals. We look forward to continuing to work with them!