Telegraph Media Group, in partnership with That Little Agency

The Telegraph Media Group’s newspaper brands are among the best known in the UK. The biggest challenge is that the consumers of their product, who are generally positioned right of centre politically, are not the group’s typical employees, who are traditionally left of centre. The company is increasingly pivoting into a digitally focused business. This means that they are looking to engage talent outside of their traditional market of editorial and journalism professionals.

The Telegraph and That Little Agency worked together to help reposition the group as a digital media business.

  • The result was a top-to-tail review. Surveys, focus groups and executive interviews across employment groups (editorial, commercial/sales, business enablement, technical and digital) and the UK.
  • The research enabled them to define their employer brand personality. This fed into the creative brief as they looked to articulate this through an instantly recognisable and strong look and feel.
  • Having launched in January 2020, the ‘You make the story’ employer proposition is still evolving, but some encouraging trends are visible. All data has been taken from Google Analytics, the Workable applicant tracking system and directly from the Telegraph resourcing team. Website performance: 126% increase in website traffic (2020 vs 2019); 44% increase in job applications (2020 vs 2010); 70% of website traffic from non-paid-for sources; 21% of website traffic from social media sources; and 43% of website traffic through organic searches on Google.

Judges’ comments: “This business has understood that while they may be famous, their existing brand could work against them and they needed a large perceptional shift. The research gave them better insight into their employment experience. The branded assets are beautiful in their design, and cohesive across channels. And all done at an impressively low price point.”

Also: The judges acknowledged that there are many beautifully researched and expressed employer brands, and would like to encourage further participation from the sector and more entries next time.