The Association of Graduate recruiters announce annual award winners

The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) announced the winners of its annual awards last night (Monday 12 July) at its annual conference in Newport, Wales. The awards are designed to highlight best practise and raise standards in graduate recruitment.

ASDA was the overall winner of the Innovation in Graduate Recruitment Award. The judges were particularly impressed by the original, challenging and fun approach, which included the staging of an Olympic-style event. Highly commended were Deloitte, whose on-campus happenings involved a juggling fire-eater, silent mime artists and wriggly bendy tubes,

and KPMG, who gave students the chance to learn about the ëtotal experienceí by taking part in IT simulations as well as talking to real people.

Samworth Brothers, a chilled food manufacturing company, won the Integrated Marketing Campaign Award for an entirely new marketing campaign, which combines strong bold colours and packaging tailor-made to the industry. The judges praised the ëstriking and innovative, yet fully integratedí marketing campaign. NGDP (the national graduate development programme for local government) was highly commended for the continuity in its key messages and images. The marketing materials were praised for maintaining a good balance between factual and personal.

The final two awards were judged by members of SIS, the UKís largest non-political student society. The Literature Award, now in itís 34th year, was won by the BBC, whose brochure ësimply stood out from the restí. The brochure was praised for its simple, consistent layout and innovative Q&A style, which pre-empted questions and captured interest.

The seventh annual Website Award went to Lloyds TSB, who have created two graduate recruitment websites. The first is highly interactive and packed with games, features and humour, the second is more serious and contains all the information students require to make an informed career decision. The judges were particularly impressed with the innovative and exciting approach that combines gimmicks and humour with a well-maintained, comprehensive and informative site.

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the AGR comments:

ëThese awards continue to offer the most prestigious recognition of organisationsí efforts to promote their graduate opportunities. The Literature and Website awards are distinguished by the fact that they are judged by the end users - students. We are very proud of the high standards of this yearís entrants, which show that our members continue to strive to be employers of choice for graduates.í