Gold Coast Engineering Hub

To attract engineers to Westpac Bank’s Gold Coast Engineering Hub (GCEH) we needed to do more than just run a campaign. We needed to create a brand that was as unique as the destination itself. Because not only was our target candidate one of the most sought-after groups in the recruitment game, but we also needed to convince them that they could have a major city career in a regional town.

Our ‘Find your tech happy place’ brand campaign was created to dispel the cliché of the loner techie crouched over a computer in a dark room wearing a hoodie and headphones.

In our extensive discovery interviews with GCEH engineers we discovered an incredibly international and collaborative group who love getting out in nature as much as they love coding. And coming from all over the world means that no-one is an outsider – a very attractive message for someone about to relocate their family.

So, every aspect of our recruitment campaign carried the ‘Find your tech happy place’ branding with bespoke and authentic imagery and video footage of our GCEH engineers living the dream of a capital city career in a relaxed seaside environment.

The campaign consisted of four long-form and six short-form videos blending authentic storytelling, lifestyle footage, and playful creativity. Each format had a role in showing that the GCEH isn’t just a workplace - it’s a community and a way of life.

We created a dedicated careers website page featuring a video of our CIO explaining how he believes getting out of the office, breathing in fresh sea air, and clearing your mind can boost innovation and productivity. LinkedIn life pages and LinkedIn banners carried images of ‘Find your tech happy place’ written in code in the sand. We even created ‘Teams’ backgrounds and pull up banners with motivational messaging such as ‘Surf, Code, Sleep, Repeat’ to ensure our GCEH resonated internally as well as externally. The result was a joyful, lifestyle-driven narrative that elevated GCEH as not just a place to work, but a place to thrive.

The ‘Find your tech happy place’ video campaign was an unqualified success receiving over 7 million impressions and resulting in the cohort of the GCEH more than doubling.