The brief

PricewaterhouseCoopers gave us an interesting challenge – they wanted to relaunch their Graduate Recruitment Programme. The goals were very clear:

• Set  PwC apart from the competition, particularly in the University roadshow environment
• Increase the number of graduates applying
• Raise the standard of applicants across the board
• Use existing tagline, ‘Be who you want to be”

What we did

Rather than follow the typical conservative themes adopted by those professional firms, we created a campaign designed to engage an intrigue their primarily young target market.

Using PwC employees, we developed thought-provoking images. While fun and humanity were emphasized, the theme was designed to inform graduates that PwC was a contemporary global firm that understood that graduates were looking for flexibility, career path options and connections to worldwide business.

The launch campaign included national advertising, careers fair (utilizing brochures, posters and a 4 minute film).

The results

In the first year, PwC reported huge gains on all previous campaigns, with a record number of applications and considerably higher standard of candidates overall. The acceptance rate of 87% compared to the previous high point of around 75%.

 The campaign also won PwC the 2006 National HR Award for Best Graduate Intake Campaign.

 In 2007, the campaign evolved and the brochure became a full-flight magazine, which won the 2007 award for Best Printed Materials by the Australian Association of Graduate Employers.

 In 2008, the campaign took another major step forward – the firm’s involvement with environmental issues provided the ‘green’ theme and the magazine grew to 64 pages (included paid advertising). Another first for Graduate Recruitment Marketing.