NTUC Income's 'longest bursary' rallies LinkedIn community to donate

NTUC Income's community development and involvement arm OrangeAid is rallying working professionals on LinkedIn to fund education for youths in need. Titled "Longest Bursary", the initiative offers donors a personalised asset that can be shared with their network on LinkedIn and as well as the option to add their name to the bursary on their microsite.The campaign by BBH Singapore has collected over SG$11,000 from some 360 donors within the first week of the launch. The call for donations through the "Longest Bursary" will continue into the second quarter of this year.Chief marketing officer of Income Marcus Chew said that this is the first time the company has engaged the LinkedIn community to raise funds. He added in a statement to Marketing, “It provides a platform for our donors to inspire others to do the same by sharing their contributions. Most people on LinkedIn are likely to have received a good education, so it allowed us to draw awareness towards a section of the community who are not as fortunate as them."Besides investing media spend on LinkedIn, Chew told Marketing that his team has also pitched the initiative to selected influencers to lend their support to the cause, including certain power influencers on LinkedIn. Income will be extending this initiative to other social media platforms in the coming weeks."Our key goal of the campaign is to maximise our return-on-investment, by growing the total donation amount through targeting specific audiences that have a higher propensity to contribute to our cause, whilst also choosing prudent ways to promote the campaign. Whilst there is a focus on driving donations, this campaign also gives us the opportunity to further raise awareness of OrangeAid," added Chew.The FDP offers underprivileged ITE and Polytechnic students bursaries which aim to defray their school fees and living expenses, as well as provide them financial literacy skills and career guidance.This is not the first innovative effort by NTUC Income on social media. Last October, it NTUC Income partnered with popular one-minute video channel, Nas Daily on Facebook to feature front man Nuseir Yassin in its retirement campaign. Meanwhile, according to social media listening tool Socialbakers, NTUC Income took the lead amongst the "Most Loved Singaporean Brands" with more than 140,000 “love” reactions in 2018.