In 2023, EY built its immersive virtual career centre, Adventure Awaits, where entry-level talent could build employability skills and learn more about the company. It wanted to stand out in the crowded graduate recruitment market by delivering a distinctive new campus event design, busting misconceptions about working in professional services.

The campaign acknowledges that – for young people – the digital world is an extension of the real world. By embedding Adventure Awaits into every aspect of the hiring process, it intended to connect students consistently across digital and real-world environments. At campus events, students already familiar with EY could try out a virtual reality experience and have in-depth conversations with the team, while the augmented reality Adventure Awaits experience attracted newcomers as a fun, innovative game.

Students accessed the AR experience using a QR code and were in with the chance of winning a prize. A tree was planted for every AR interaction, aligning to the firm’s sustainability strategy. Static and video social assets were shared with the launch of each zone of the adventure. These were promoted across platforms such as Instagram as well as across campus social media. Targeted emails connected with students who signed up for the experiences, and the EY Experience Day provided a dynamic way to assess how applicants would perform in the business. An Escape Room game was designed so groups could tackle a number of challenges at once. The new assessment centre generated extremely high satisfaction rates and the various touchpoints garnered thousands of new candidates to add to EY’s talent pool.