Kerry Graduates

Kerry is one of the largest food, ingredient and flavours companies in the world and employs around 100 graduates each year across the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe. It's a high profile business, but its graduate marketing was outdated and wasn't delivering. In fact, it was in need of a complete overhaul.

It failed to adequately convey the many opportunities that exist within Kerry, was copy heavy and uninspiring. No more was this more prevelant, than in the website. It was very corporate with no personality - which was surprising as that's something Kerry is full of. It was obvious Kerry needed a complete re-brand, one that helped change perceptions of the company within the graduate market and encouraged the right graduates to apply.

/Research

Kerry conducted focus group research with all 104 of the 2013 graduate intake to see how they were perceived. An overview of the results is below. This feedback helped define our objectives, and much of the content for the site:

- Huge lack of presence within the graduate market, especially the Ingredients and Flavours side of the business.
- When recognised though, they were known to be an successful company, synonymous with high performance. This feedback was largely from Irish graduates who had a better knowledge of the Kerry brand.
- Not the obvious 1st choice option for career, with little information on the website as to why it should be. No clarity on what Kerry want from graduates.
- Too traditional. Farmers and leafy fields - not career minded graduates.

/Objectives

Using this feedback, and other goals highlighted by Kerry, the following objectives were created:

- Create a campaign that's full of personality. One that conveys Kerry's passion about food, people and ingredients through lively content, photography, videos and copy. One that encourages the right graduates to engage with, and apply to, Kerry.
- Communicate the great opportunities that exist within Kerry for graduates. Shout about innovation, ideas and creativity, and dispel any myths that surround the company and/or careers at Kerry.
- Create an innovative website with CMS that can be viewed on any device (desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile).
- All marketing materials should complement each other, whether on or offline, providing a consistent on-going experience for candidates.

/Our solution

The creative campaign we developed for Kerry was a breath of fresh air for the business. A unique 'notebook' design, backed up by one big message - Taste your future. This meant all comunications had to do just that - enable graduates to get a taste of what a career at Kerry could be like.

On and offline comms used a mix of eye-catching and lively imagery, illustration and engaging copy to attract graduates and the website itself was designed with innovation in mind. It's responsive design was packed with video content, but not copy, allowing graduates to make an informed decision without having to spend hours on the website - which we know they never do.
Click here to visit kerrygraduates.com

All content helped to convey the spirit of innovation, passion and creativity that exists within Kerry and educate ambitious graduates on the opportunities available there.

Simple, clear facts about Kerry, its brands and success stories then helped dispelled any myths surrounding the company.

Wherever possible we injected an element of fun and innovation, whether that was exhibition giveaways in the form of new, not yet released products, or VIP events where carefully selected candidates and Senior Kerry managers met face-to-face.

/Results and effectiveness

The graduate campaign was, we're happy to say, a huge success. The website provided some amazing stats (through Google Analytics) in its first season.

During that graduate season there were over 50,000 unique visits and over 75,000 visits. 37% of visitors returned to engage with the site more than once and an impressive 14%, more than one in ten graduates visiting the site, completed the full application process.
Other statistics of note:

- Over 200,000 pages views
- Average time on site of 3.5 minutes
- Over 20,000 video plays, the 'Our story' video receiving over 6,000 plays alone
- 17% of visitors accessed site using a mobile or tablet.

Kerry were looking to fill 120 roles and, from a recruitment perspective, the site forfilled that wish. They received 5773 applications, and of these applicants over 1200 were interviewed and assessed. All 120 positions were filled and Kerry did not have to do any 'top up' recruitment to do this.

Assessment centres (the final stage of the recruitment process) actually started early because the recruitment team were so overwhelmed by the quality of candidates applying. 25 graduates were invited to attend an assessment before Christmas and 15 offers were made from that session alone (a full month before assessment traditionally starts for Kerry).

Kerry were also keen to point out that everyone interviewed so far 'had a far better and clearer understanding of the Kerry business and the opportunities therein'. With standards so high, they are confident this years' intake will be the best yet.

Kerry loved the website so much that we then worked with them to develop a new version for the Asia-Pacific region. And, the Kerry Foods Careers site took its inspiration from the graduate site too, ensuring a consistent look and feel across all digital comms.

The website also picked up nominations in the RADs, Target National Graduate Awards, Irish Graduate Recruitment Awards and the CIPD RMA's much to our delight.