GPJ partners with PwC to completely reimagine an experience aimed at securing their most precious resource – their employees.
Reimagining a Tradition Into an Iconic Brand Moment
Every year, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) interns culminate their Advance Internship experience with an excursion to The Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, to learn even more about the firm and what it would be like to join full-time. As its new agency partner, GPJ was tasked with completely rethinking this crucial event, that had remained relatively unchanged for 19 years.
GPJ worked closely with PwC to reimagine this Disney tradition into an iconic brand experience that would;
- Highlight PwC’s brand and differentiate it from other top firms
- Drive an increase in full-time offer acceptance rates
- Immerse more than 4,000 interns in the possibilities of their future with PwC
Rebuilt From the Ground Up
GPJ began by developing an entirely new event strategy, rooted in turning Impact into a festival of ideas and possibilities. Every aspect of this new 3-day event was designed to allow interns to shape their own experience while celebrating their plans and goals for themselves, the firm, and their communities. To drive stronger participation among our high-achieving and highly competitive audience, a layer of gamification was also developed and applied to the whole event.
On the ground, GPJ transformed the experience from a series of small group experiences over the course of weeks into a single, unified event that took over Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort and parts of the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. The result was PwC’s largest intern event, and the largest in-person gathering of PwC leaders, ever.
A Powerful Journey
Impact began with a special opening celebration headlined by the incomparable Bebe Rexha, where interns celebrated the hard work that had gotten them to this incredible moment. Then, Impact continued with two days of learning, sharing, and giving back through a customizable curriculum of more than 90 sessions co-created by GPJ and PwC. The highly curated content included topics ranging from the state of diversity & inclusion to unconscious biases, powerful storytelling to design thinking, data analytics to developing successful CSR campaigns.
GPJ also developed The Impact Zone, an immersive experience that enabled interns to connect with and contribute to nonprofit groups taking on some of today’s most important causes. Interns also got an exclusive look at PwC’s executive-level Experience Center, and discovered new ways to increase their own personal impact. In all, the Impact Zone generated more than 40,000 individual acts of impact in the name of improving the world. The festival’s closing session tied the entire experience together with a message of thanks from DonorsChoose CEO Charles Best, a series of profound stories, interactive performances, and a vision of the impact interns could make as PwC employees.
The Impact of Impact
This reimagined experience was a resounding success. Interns felt PwC’s dedication to their personal journey, and responded that their time at Impact would factor heavily in their decision to join the firm. By appreciating the individuality of each entry-level professional and crafting experiences that honored all they’ve achieved in life so far, we significantly raised the bar on how to engage with Gen Z attendees. Now, PwC has an even stronger recruiting tool; a meaningful beacon of what future interns can expect as part of this world-class organization.