Prudential Momentum Campaign

The brief

Find 25 passionate, ambitious, global citizens with three to five years’ work experience to join Momentum, Prudential’s management development programme.

It was no easy task. We were looking for a very special kind of person.

Prudential required people always ready for change, people who would be comfortable with ambiguity, with international travel – and with starting a real job from day one, in a different culture, without having their hands held. They weren’t looking for talents with egos. They were looking for individuals keen to use their experience of leading and making a difference to work together and progress towards future leadership positions.

Momentum isn’t an easy ride. But for the right kind of person, it offers the kind of rewards they simply won’t find anywhere else.

Momentees would take up a real role within Commercial Management, HR, Finance, Internal Audit and Communications. The benefits of the programme are that candidates would be able to immerse themselves in a different culture, with its own markets and customers, and so be able to offer a fresh perspective on Prudential’s local operations on the other side of the globe.

Not only that, they’d be able to keep an eye on the Groups’ business as a whole, thanks to the global network of peers they’d create with their fellow Momentees, as well as unrestricted access to senior management.

The idea is that this cultural change, combined with their ability to see the business from a global and local perspective, and their powerful people networks, would result in the best equipped future leaders Prudential could hope for.

Our solution

The solution was an entire recruitment process that demonstrated ‘a richer experience’ from beginning to end.

We targeted experienced candidates all over the world with press ads, banner ads and social media. Rich, colourful backgrounds reflected the different cultures of the countries participating in the Momentum programme. And the copy outlined the benefits to pique their interest to find out more on our website.

Here, we brought the Momentum programme to life with profile films shot in different countries around the world, including Mumbai and Hong Kong. In this way, candidates could find out the reality of what a role at Prudential would really be like, by discovering the stories of people who had successfully joined the previous year.

We also gave candidates every bit of information we could about Prudential and Momentum and why they would want to be a part of this company and programme. And we provided a fully branded application tracking system (ATS) on which candidates could register, complete or return to later with their own personal login password.

Assessment centre

The assessment took place in London and Hong Kong. Candidates gave plenty of positive feedback. For example, one said: ‘A really interesting and insightful day. Allowed me to find out more about the programme, as well as meet interesting people from the business and the candidate pool.’ Other candidates noted how well organised and informative the centre was. One even commented how it was the best work-related day they’d spent in six months.

Feedback email

In addition to personal emails keeping candidates informed of their progress through the recruitment process, we sent out emails to ask for feedback on how people felt about the Momentum experience.

Candidate information pack

Assessment centres can be daunting. We created a candidate information pack to help them prepare. It included everything from a personal welcome letter and further insight into the Momentum Programme to hints and tips on what to expect on the day of assessment.

Induction week

For a bespoke event, we created, designed, filmed and produced collateral for an induction week that took place in November 2008.

Successful candidates were flown to London from around the world to attend induction week and meet last year’s intake and find out first hand what life on Momentum was like.

The first event was titled ‘Your richer experience starts here’ and took place in a specially branded reception room at the Hempel Hotel, London. Red uplighters and ‘richer experience’ backgrounds helped set the scene. And new Momentees were treated to sights, sounds and tastes of the countries in which they would be taking up their roles.

Champagne and canapés from around the world were served as candidates met each other as well as key staff and mentors from Prudential. In the background, profile movies played, as well as music from the different countries that were represented.

We also gave participants a personalised scrapbook to record (and later share) their thoughts, feelings and experiences – and we filmed the whole event to share with the next year’s intake to ensure they indentified with their future colleagues.

Mentor toolkit

Our work did not finish when candidates took up their roles within Momentum. We created a branded toolkit for mentors to use, to guide them in their behaviour towards new Momentees, whom they were responsible for. The consistent and engaging brand tone continued.

The result

We measured results by tracking online media and through a feedback email sent to all candidates applying to Prudential Momentum.

Our website received over 20, 000 visits (over 17, 000 unique) between mid May and the end of June, 2008. And we received over 800 applications. From this number, 12 candidates were selected, two more than the previous year, with Prudential stating they would not hire the wrong people just to make up numbers.

What changed as a result? We made amends to both the media schedule and website copy to focus on and better reflect each particular stream of the course: HR, communications, finance and general management.

Candidate feedback

97% of people said they were fully briefed on the specifics of the Momentum Programme.

Internal stakeholder feedback

‘We really do appreciate your steer and advice on so many areas. You have been the most outstanding provider in terms of service and results.‘ – Talent Development Manager, Prudential.