BUSINESS BIO

Where are you based? Brixton, London

Key business markets: Youth engagement, marketing & PR, training, communications, media, music

Annual turnover: £2 million

% of turnover which is trading income (as opposed to grants): 100%

Number of employees: 30 full-time

www.livity.co.uk

ambassadors

Sam Conniff

Sam Conniff
  • Livity

  • 32

  • Co-founder

  • London

Involving young people at the front end of the creative process – up to 50 in one day – has made youth marketing agency Livity a proposition that big brands like Playstation and Penguin want to be part of

When Social Enterprise Ambassador Sam Conniff first tried to engage young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs), he got it all wrong. “I gave a talk at a youth club and they just laughed at me,” he cringes. “I soon learned it’s not what you say, it’s how well you listen.”

By listening to teenagers’ stories, ambitions and frustrations, Sam has created one of the UK’s most vibrant social enterprises. Livity is a marketing agency that helps charities, brands and government to connect with young people. Unlike its competitors, Livity doesn’t canvas ideas through focus groups. It collaborates directly with young people –every working day. It isn’t the quietest office, but it produces the best results for the business, its clients and the young people.

The buzzword is co-creation, explains Sam. “We believe that if you show someone, they will remember, but if you involve them, they will learn.”

Sam first earned his marketing stripes through Don’t Panic, a flyer pack distribution business that he set up from his bedroom. But the south Londoner didn’t enjoy selling products for the sake of it. He wanted to see if marketing could be used to benefit society.

In answering the question, Livity has aimed high. Sam knew that to interest marginalised youth, he had to attract brands such as Nike and the BBC . Today, Livity’s clients include Channel 4, National Blood Service and Teenage Cancer Trust. Livity has devised a sun safety advert for the Teenage Cancer Trust and launched ‘Bebo’s Big Think’ - a collaborative campaign between Bebo and Livity, an opportunity for young people across the UK to say what they want for the future, for themselves, for their communities and for the country.

Livity has set out to see if the power of marketing can be harnessed for positive effect and they’re doing something unique: applying one of the most modern techniques, youth marketing, to one of the most enduring of challenges, helping young people to fulfil their potential. The result is their flourishing youth marketing agency, Livity, and their successful youth training and communication initiative, LIVE - Gordon Brown, Britain’s Everyday Heroes

 

When publishers Penguin wanted to create Spinebreakers, a new website to promote teen reading, they came to Livity.

“Livity genuinely champion and understand the young people they are working with,” says Anna Rafferty, digital marketing director at Penguin Books. “It’s fantastically valuable for us and their spirit of co-creation is exactly what we needed for Spinebreakers. That they’re a social enterprise only adds to their credibility.”

Besides its marketing agency, Livity is also home to a magazine run by young people and youth music apprenticeship scheme Music 4 Good. Besides offering training and workspace, Livity redirects 25% of its profits into bursaries and grants to help disadvantaged young people access employment.

Providing a first step on the career ladder remains the primary focus for Sam. Today, Livity has a full-time careers officer looking for work placements for its young people. “If every firm in London gave up one graduate placement to a young person, we would decimate the NEET population,” he says.

Having doubled in size in the last year, Livity is doing its best to provide as much of that employment readiness as possible.

“When a young person arrives, there’s usually some hesitation,” says Sam.  “Then they gain a bit of experience and something switches on. After a while, they’ll wonder ‘Why am I doing this for free?’ That’s when we know they’re ready to go.”

Quick Facts

  • Livity's non profit arm, LIVE Magazine, based in Brixton, has just launched its east London office, with north and west London magazine launches planned in 2010/11.
  • Livity produced the multi award winning Dubplate Drama, the multi platform TV series for Childline. The format has now been sold internationally with versions in development in the US and Canada.
  • Livity created Music4Good, apprentices for the UK music industry from Universal, Sony, EMI and iTunes to BPI, MCPS and the independent sector, with a 100% success rate for young people into employment.

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