Transforming an engagement model

Designing a hybrid learning experience for the next generation of creatives

The National Saturday Club is an educational charity that provides weekend extra-curricular sessions for 13-16 year-olds in the UK in collaboration with renowned institutions and individual artists.

It was founded in 1999, to inspire creativity in young people, especially those in schools that can’t offer varied arts programmes. The arrival of Covid 19 challenged the organisation’s in-person programme and accelerated the need for transformation.

The Covid-19 pandemic shook up the way that education was delivered. Making it more difficult for traditional teaching to happen, but opening up new possibilities on new channels and platforms.

We enabled The Saturday Club to take advantage of this change, by transforming their engagement model to become more digitally-led, while preserving the creative, collaborative ethos of the programme.

Quick wins, setting direction for change

Through research into the lives of young people, tutors and stakeholders within the Trust, together with fresh insights into hybrid engagement models in and out of category, we developed a digital strategy to guide the medium-term transformation of the Trust’s activities, along with a series of quick win tactical initiatives.

The Summer Show

For the Summer Show, we conceived and designed an online art exhibition platform. This came complete with live-streamed ‘openings’ that allowed the programme to deliver its annual Summer Show to a wider audience, with more in-depth content that gave greater exposure to the young stars.

Virtual engagement

Other quick wins included a series of virtual events and live broadcasts. This new digital engagement stream ran throughout term time and allowed The Saturday Club to widen its reach to members across the whole of the UK, inspiring more young people than ever before.

For the brand

Through organisational change and new digital initiatives, The Saturday Club is more accessible for young people and their families across the UK. Our strategy future-proofed the club, ensuring it will continue to inspire the next generation of young creatives, scientists, engineers, writers and activists.