3D animation

There’s a new girl on the block

Leyland SDM is a decorating and DIY specialist, and with 33 retail stores across Central London as well as an established e-commerce presence, they’re a well-known brand in the DIY industry. But they were struggling to recruit retail staff quickly enough for their rapidly expanding network of stores. Oh, and they wanted to remind people that they’re about more than just paint…

Meet Leyla

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Our focus groups dug deep to uncover something really unique: ‘Training’. But this wasn't just any old training. We’re talking academy style. In fact, Leyland went way beyond other big box retailers. The knowledge and expertise they gave their new recruits were sublime.

Bingo – we had a concept: we’d ask potential candidates to ‘Be the Local Expert’.

But we wanted to do more than create a great slogan. We knew that to attract the best talent we’d need to bring their employer brand to life. And what better way to do that than to create a character who’d embody everything Leyland SDM stands for.

What we did

She sings, she dances, she balances on tins of paint… in fact, Leyla can do anything we want her to do, which made her the perfect ambassador for Leyland SDM’s recruitment campaign.

We used Leyla as the visual brand identity in a targeted social media campaign to attract candidates to dedicated landing pages for Leyland’s high volume roles (store managers and retail assistants).

Then we used a series of animations, videos and print assets to help Leyla resonate with both existing hires and prospects – including taking over the physical store space with cardboard cut outs and floor stickers.

It was unlike anything Leyland SDM had done before and was totally unique to employer branding in general – especially when we introduced Leyla’s very own store front.

Finally, we elevated Leyla to become the Leyland SDM brand, so she could do everything from onboarding new staff to training and rewarding existing ones. This made her the perfect way to showcase Leyland SDM’s commitment to developing talent.