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

Asuka Inc. runs a people business for nursery teachers. Feeling a problem with reaching people not yet actively looking, the company began work with us in March 2020.

Having looked at various consultancies, Asuka chose NowVillage. Meeting a partner you can trust is one of the most important things in getting results. What decided it? Here we asked Mr Asami, a director, about it.

Combining the owned media site with YouTube

First, could you tell us about the service NowVillage consults on?

Asuka Inc. has 18 locations nationwide and places nursery teachers on temporary and permanent contracts. We hold around 20,000 childcare vacancies nationwide and have supported more than 10,000 people into work to date.

What prompted you to ask NowVillage?

In recent years we had focused on acquisition aimed at people already in the market, through search advertising and SEO, people who knew us or were interested in nursery work, but that had reached a ceiling, and we felt the need to reach people not yet actively looking, nursery teachers with no current wish to move, or people vaguely considering nursery work in future. Around then, in March last year, I appeared at an event with Mr Imamura, NowVillage’s representative, learned that NowVillage is strong at reaching people not yet looking, and from that connection we came to ask for consulting.

You now run work centred on YouTube to reach those people.
　Was YouTube the target from the start?

We did not decide on it in advance. We already ran an owned media site called Hoikushi Club. It carried text-based articles with all kinds of practical knowledge for nursery teachers, but for explanatory videos we embedded ones posted by other companies and by YouTubers. Seeing that, you told us it was a waste. Making everything ourselves would raise engagement and let us deliver original content to people not yet looking, and so YouTube was decided.

Did you compare other firms before working with NowVillage?

We did talk to several in parallel. But every one of them talked only about means, let us do social media, let us align the tone, with no clear purpose. Among them, NowVillage set the final goal as increasing registrations to Hoikushi Club via YouTube, with YouTube channel subscriptions as the goal before it. Making videos on the basis of an owned site that already had traffic also became a new direction of taking on something new the Asuka way, and it made real sense.

Hitting the goal also brought the staff joy

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

The goal for YouTube subscribers was 1,000, and you committed to it properly and we hit it. I do not think we could have done that with anyone but NowVillage. And while running alongside us you corrected course, or advised us to keep going as we were. I feel you saw it through with us while raising the staff’s motivation.

Mr Imamura and Mr Tagai, who handle our account, always ask whether there is more we could do. That stance makes the management layer realise we must accelerate the business further.

The people business inevitably tilts towards the monthly number of candidates and the revenue. But with this many people watching our YouTube, staff can now feel joy in something other than revenue. We had dabbled in social media before, but this is the first time so many people internally have taken an interest. Being able to publish regularly while holding the quality means we can report it to staff with our heads held high, which is genuinely pleasing.

Pursuing the greatest effect with the least resource

What do you expect from NowVillage next?

Keep running alongside us, and bring us new things beyond social media as they come. And do keep cracking the whip on me and on the staff.

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

Replies are fast, and above all you act. Having all kinds of leading know-how is appealing too. And the personality of Mr Tagai, our main contact, fitted our project well. Even in chat his consideration is visible; supple as a willow, but he does not break. I feel he has a 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; NowVillage proposes making it work somehow with the resources we have, which we appreciate greatly. Even without a marketing department or marketing resource internally, you break it down enough and provide a way of working that someone doing it alongside another role can run.

And since doing it internally inevitably becomes product-out, that you propose with proper logic makes you trustworthy. Even a plan that looks dull from inside the company gets tens of thousands of views. We hope to keep producing good content within NowVillage’s proposals. We look forward to continuing.