Santander aims to be a business focused on people, transformation and community, and wanted to attract early talent who had a desire to embrace change while remaining true to themselves. Historically, the bank had recruited by each specific programme, but this campaign focused on getting skills that were required across all early talent programmes. This enabled students to recognise their own skills and identify which route would be best for them.

Santander drew on insights about what school-leavers, second jobbers and parents were looking for from early careers roles. It discovered that they were seeking development opportunities, preparation for the world of work, a commitment to mental health and wellbeing, and authentic and relatable content. The campaign also needed to align with the bank’s new EVP, ‘It Starts Here’, so they landed on ‘The Next Chapter: It Starts Here’, adding authentic imagery of apprentices in real-life situations. Two hero films brought apprentices’ experiences to life.

It established a group of existing apprentices to be campaign ambassadors. They created content to share across socials and supported Santander at in-person and virtual events. Other stakeholders created content for the ‘parent’ audience, demystifying Santander and how it looks after its talent. A CareersFest Event focused on helping potential applicants to feel more prepared about entering the world of work, and successful candidates were invited to a ‘sneak preview’ event in the summer before joining as a way of keeping them engaged. This massively reduced renege rates, and the campaign overall generated considerably more candidates than previous years, particularly from under-represented groups.