Shell Parkour Campaign

Shell’s brief to us was clear. As a major recruiter of graduates in the UK and globally, Shell are ranked at no 12 in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers league table (High Fliers Research). They are an active participant in Milkround Careers presentations, and were planning to present at their top 20 targeted Universities during October 2005.

• To enhance their reputation and profile on-campus, differentiate their proposition, and maximise the potential numbers of students attending each Presentation, they asked Dawson Walker to conceive and develop a new on-campus marketing initiative.
• Competing graduate recruiters have used a number of ‘unusual’ ideas to achieve this end, and we were conscious that ‘gimmicks’ were poorly perceived by the target audience – primarily 3rd and 4th year students studying engineering, business/commercial or arts disciplines.
• They also wanted to create an on-campus concept that fully reflected their employee value proposition (EVP) – “Achieving more together”. Namely, that Shell offers graduates a collaborative culture, and the freedom to determine their own future – in the recruitment process, in fulfilling their potential and achieving their career aspirations.

We proposed a new concept that would effectively mirror the proposition, engage with the target audience and that, by its very nature, would gain high levels of awareness on-campus.

The solution was focused on using a team of parkour or Free-Runners – a relatively new concept to the UK that was first launched in France, and had recently had some exposure on UK TV channels. The Free-Runners are highly skilled, trained athletes and acrobats – typically aged between 16 and 24 – who jump, somersault, tumble and vault at ground level, off walls and other solid structures.

In addition, we created a new sub-brand for Shell’s graduate marketing programme – ‘Choose your own path’, to bring the Shell EVP and Parkour concept to life. Integral to this was the design and production of a suite of supporting on-campus marketing (ads, posters, flyers, on-line banners, beer mats, T-shirts, umbrellas, table-cloths, pads & pens) and presentation display stand materials. As an added incentive, and as a means of maximising student data capture and follow-up, we also promoted a competition to win an iPod Nano 4g – for all students that attended the presentations.

We arranged a 2 day film shoot by the Thames to use as a video show reel – this was presented at the beginning of each Milkround presentation.

In addition, we organised, with the co-operation of University Careers Advisors and Health & Safety/Estates contacts, a programme of Parkour events – each involving a team of Free-Runners, Stunt Co-ordinator, Paramedic, crash mats, and Dawson Walker staff, who handed out flyers to students, inviting them to attend the presentations.

Although definitive numbers have yet to be finalised, the overall results were excellent. In almost every location where Parkour Events were held, the projected numbers of students attending the events was exceeded substantially. In Aberdeen, student attendance rose by over 120% over last year. The Event was a ‘sell-out’, with people standing in the aisles – in fact, the room was so full, we even had to turn 50 people away!

We are in the process of researching the students that attended to understand their perceptions of the Parkour Events, and the influence that they had in promoting Shell’s brand and the Presentations – anecdotal feedback gained during the Presentations was however very positive on both counts.

One student commented that: “anyone can hand over leaflets but no one really does this kind of crazy stuff. It certainly catches the eye and really seems to tie in with what you're trying to say”.

Navjot Singh of Shell commented “We wanted a completely fresh and ‘left-field’ concept that would not only raise our on-campus profile, but also help to bring our Employee Value Proposition to life in an imaginative and relevant way – the Parkour campaign has been a great success and will help us to achieve both objectives”.

Louise Donaghy, Events and Marketing Coordinator at Loughborough University added: “I thought the Parkour worked very well in terms of attracting people to the presentation. The event clearly motivated students to attend and resulted in a higher turnout than is usually the case. “The principles behind Parkour are very positive also and it aims to show people working in harmony together which should help in the promotion of the company and reflect them in a good light. Parkour is also very interesting to watch which attracts attention and therefore raises awareness of the employer”.