Digital with purpose

Defining a winning proposition

DWP Digital is part of the UK’s largest government department. Their people do important work that affects the lives of over 20 million people. Working here is a big deal and we needed to find a way of expressing this to top talent all over the country.

The digital and technology industries are hotly contested marketplaces, full of ambitious businesses and even more ambitious talent. DWP Digital’s target audience are keen to use the latest technology to solve complex problems and deliver career-defining projects.

They can do all this at DWP Digital. They just didn’t know it yet.

Discovering workplace perceptions

To understand what truly makes DWP Digital unique, we needed to get to know their people. Through a combination of surveys, workshops and interviews involving over 350 people, we identified what attracted people to the organisation and what made them proud to work there.

This all boiled down to a sense of purpose. A belief and a pride in the fact that they were putting their skills to good use; something they couldn’t match anywhere else.

Delightful word play

This is where we started to have some fun. We could see that some sections of our audience already felt like they knew who DWP Digital were. They felt that DWP meant working somewhere slow and not very exciting. So, we decided to change what DWP meant to these people (literally).

All it took was three simple words.

Digital With Purpose.

This positioning line clearly expresses what they do and why it’s a great place to work. It highlights how everything they do has meaning, it separates them from the rest of the marketplace, and it speaks to the greater impact the organisation has on society.

Starting all our headlines with the initials DWP also gave us a wonderful platform to build our communications upon. It allows us to create an instantly recognisable and consistent voice that works across all media and comms channels.

It’s light, it’s fun and there’s a headline for any occasion

Defeating Widespread Problems.
Done With Pride.
Delivering What’s Promised.
Details. Wages. Perks.
Developer. Webmaster. Programmer.
Duties. Work. Projects.
Develop Workplace Potential.
Dedicated Working Parent.
Desired Workplace Proficiency.
Driven With Potential.
Dabbler. Wizard. Performer.

Dreamers. Winners. Pioneers.

In order to show that there’s a real authenticity to all our messages, we decided to put DWP Digital’s people centre-stage. Making heroes of their digital experts helps to dispel any misconceptions about the type of people that work in the public sector.

It also works well from a diversity perspective — something that is obviously important for such a high-profile government department.

Digital. Web. Programmatic.

The beauty of this employer brand is that it’s simple and versatile enough to work across a wide variety of channels. It looks as good on a leaderboard as it does on a billboard.

Delivering. Working. Performing.

The employer brand has only just launched, and although we have yet to see any statistics, the response from the client and internal audiences has been extremely positive.

Colleagues feel like they now belong to a brand that they can believe in, and the campaign messaging has been adopted across all communications with great success.