Creating a new proposition for early careers attraction

Challenges

Targeting a bright future

Early talent is critical for the leadership of tomorrow. A European leader in financial services recognized this as an opportunity to attract candidates who wouldn’t traditionally consider a career in banking.

So, it created a proposition that’d differentiate the employer, support social mobility and provide bright benefits to talent – a postgraduate apprenticeship. This opportunity rivaled a traditional graduate path by allowing candidates to have their degree funded by the bank while they gained on-the-job experience.

But the company needed an experienced partner to help carry out their plan. Enter Cielo.

Solutions

Strategic brand marketing

It was key that Cielo’s creative messaging resonated with the target market and clearly communicated the benefits of the apprenticeship compared to a traditional path. Using employee testimonials, Cielo challenged the preconceptions of investment banking, giving the bank a proposition with edge and appealing to previously uninterested candidates. This was achieved by using a four-part strategy:

1. Attraction: The talent attraction strategy moved away from traditional apprenticeship channels, launching our unique proposition to disrupt the graduate market. Social media was key and through a blend of organic and paid social content, Cielo targeted candidates based on core persona profiles.
2. Engagement: To redefine perceptions of a career in investment banking and to engage with a diverse group of graduate talent, including BAME, females and non-redbrick universities. Cielo also created a video series showcasing the positive impact of a career in banking.
3. Conversion: A new landing page provided an overview of the program, key qualifications and the recruitment process. Integrating this with Cielo’s CRM system drove candidates through to a quick application – key for candidates applying on mobile.
4. Nurturing: Despite uncertainty and instability in the market due to COVID-19, applicants were engaged through personalized content at every stage of the recruitment process, resulting in a high conversion of quality applicants to hire.

Results

Energized early talent

The videos not only reinforced the brand but brought its people to life in a relatable way. It's a series of videos about people who genuinely believe that their careers count for something good, in an industry that’s often pictured as unfeeling.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the video series was released to the external market in two phases:

Phase one (campaign paused after nine days due to COVID-19):

• 234 applications
• 15 talent pool registrations

Phase two:

• 817,575 total media views
• 3,431 campaign applications
• 28 onboarded apprentices starting October 2021
• 51% female
• 79% non-redbrick university
• 42% BAME

Website data:

• 15,028 visits compared to 5,784 last year
• Bounce rate of 78.4% compared to 87.4%
• Time on site 2 minutes, 40 seconds compared to 17 seconds – a massive 2 minute, 23 seconds increase from 2019

Based on the success of the campaign, the bank is preparing to launch another 2021 campaign which will consist of three intakes across the year. Due to the management and engagement with the talent pool, there are already 50+ candidates interested in these opportunities, resulting in a significantly reduced attraction spend in 2021.