How one Employer Delivered the Ultimate High Fliers Campaign

A case study detailing our award-winning campaign with Lidl, a Top 100 Graduate Employer.

The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers is an extremely straightforward guide that helps university leavers to understand the increasingly complex graduate job market. The guide has been running for 17 years and is published by the High Fliers Research – an independent annual assessment of graduate employers.

The research is compiled on campus, with more than 18,000 students being asked the open-ended question: “which employer do you think offers the best opportunities for graduates?” The results to this question produce a ranking of Great Britain’s most respected and sought-after graduate employers. Every year, hundreds of employers compete to be included in this list.

The challenge of High Fliers

At Campus Media, we tend to hear the same concerns from employers about carrying out an on campus marketing campaigns during this highly competitive and hectic period.

Recently we worked with Lidl against these challenges. The employer had climbed the ranks of The Times Top 100, from 89th place to 25th in six years – but staying in the listing is no small trick and several big players have slipped in the ranks over the years.

Lidl knew that they needed to provide students with a memorable experience and carry out meaningful conversations that would stick at the forefront of their minds during the High Fliers research period (as well as after university when beginning job applications.)

They stayed true to their key marketing messages and objectives

It can be easy for employers to get caught up in the challenge of having the biggest presence on campus, and as a result, forget about why they are doing the campaign in the first place. Lidl knew that in order to increase their graduate employer ranking, they couldn’t compromise on their marketing messages.

They therefore clearly defined what they wanted to communicate to students:

Lidl has opportunities for Graduates to work for them.
The Lidl Graduate Schemes act as a great foundation for fresh talent who are taking their first steps in the working world.

They provided students with a highly engaging experience

It was important that students had a fun and unique interaction with the brand in order to be more memorable, yet it was equally as important to drive awareness of Lidl’s unbelievable graduate opportunities. This is how the idea of a memory-busting game pod was born and the campaign was given its name, Lidl Game Changers.

Check out the campaign video below:

Lidl employed Campus Media to create and take the game pod to 47 university campuses across the country. A leaderboard was shown at the top of the pod and the students that got the most points could win a pair of Beats headphones.

Student brand ambassadors that already had a strong presence on their campus were employed to draw in the passing crowds to encourage more players to compete. They also created additional social chatter around the campus visits by posting about them on their own social media accounts using the hashtag #LidlGraduates.

More than 3,000 students played the game and the social media activity got a reach of more than three million.

They reinforced their graduate recruitment marketing message

To keep their presence ongoing, Lidl parked branded cars at high student footfall areas, such as outside of university Student Unions. Lidl Graduates and Campus Media student brand ambassadors worked together to grab passersby, tell them about the graduate schemes and pass out brochures. If the brightly coloured cars weren’t enough to attract attention, the free Lidl branded chocolate really incentivised the students to come over and investigate what was happening!

Having another stream of activity meant that each university got hit with two high-impact promotions, keeping the employer fresh in the minds of students during the period that High Fliers research was being carried out.

The end result

Lidl delivered an innovative experiential campaign that produced serious results. The company increased its ranking in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employer 2016 list by an impressive 11 places and the campaign itself earned an award at the Target Graduate Jobs award in 2016.

Use our network of student brand ambassadors to amplify the success of your High Fliers campaign. Click here to get in touch.