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Early careers marketing built for people, not process.

This is our work

We help employers earn the attention of future talent.

Tonic is a strategic and creative consultancy specialising in employer brand, talent marketing and audience-led communications.

Our early careers offer is built for organisations that want more than campaign delivery.

We help clients understand the people they are trying to attract, shape a more compelling proposition, and create communications that improve engagement from first impression to application.

 

 

 

We bring together insight, strategy, creative thinking and practical execution. That means our work is easy for for talent teams to use, and distinctive enough to make a difference in market.

This is not graduate recruitment marketing as an admin task. It's talent as a commercial discipline.

Done well, it improves attraction, strengthens brand perception and helps employers build the capability they need for the future.

Barclays
Dentons
Atkins
TeachFirst
Babock
GSK
BritishArmy
Currys
JLR
EY
PrincesTrust
Clyde&Co

Experience goes a long way when you're planning what will work.

Our experience in early careers communications goes back years, before social was even a thing. We've helped organisations attract graduates, apprentices, interns and school leavers across changing markets, changing technologies and changing candidate expectations.

Over that time, one thing has remained true. The employers who perform best are not always the loudest, or the biggest, or the most recognisable. 

 

 

 

 

They are the ones who understand their audience best and design experiences that feel clear, credible and worth the effort.

That belief lives throughout our offer.

It is shaped by years of employer brand work, years of attraction campaigns, and years of watching how good intentions get lost when process takes priority over people.

 

We can help you

Untitled design (5)

Diagnose

  • Audience Review
  • Audience understanding
  • Proposition Review
  • Journey Audit
  • Competitor Insight
  • Early Careers Experience Assessment
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Design

  • Early Careers Positioning
  • Message Framework
  • Campaign Development
  • Content Architecture
  • Channel Strategy
  • Employer Brand Adaptation for Early Careers
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Activate

  • Campaign Creative
  • Landing pages
  • Social content
  • Event support
  • candidate nuture
  • Recruiter Toolkits
  • Effectiveness reporting
We can work as your strategic partner, your creative partner, or both.

 

Only from Tonic

There are some things you'll only get from us. If you need to unblock the process to make sure that you attract, onboard and keep the talent you need, check out The Future Talent System. If you need to understand how emerging talent really think about work, The Future Talent Barometer will help. And if you need a quick fix right now, then have a look at What's Up. All designed to take the guesswork and risk out of early talent recruitment.

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Copy of A POINT of view, not a pile of tactics
Copy of A POINT of view, not a pile of tactics
Selected work

knowledge and creativity in action

Our team use their wide-ranging skills to help our clients succeed. Here's a small selection of solutions we've delivered. If you'd like to know more, just let us know.

Immersive Candidate Journey

The British Army

Immersive Candidate Journey
reframing Perception

Newton

Newton
Distinctive positioning

Dentons

Dentons
Brand experience

Mars

Mars-1
Showing up differently

Barclays

Barclays-1
Improving conversion

Teach First

TeachFirst-1
0
Awards
0
grand prix
0
Agency of the year
The things people say...

about working with Tonic

Tonic from the get-go seemed different to the other creative agencies we asked to pitch...It was my first time working in graduate recruitment and running a Milkround campaign, so I really relied on their expertise to help guide me through the array of deliverables required. 

Jessica Tobias-George Newton

At the heart, I appreciate the human nature of the business - dealing with individuals who care and listen.  There is a soul to the organisation.

Col. Mark Howard The British Army

We have had a really great year and our relationship has continued to go from strength to strength.  I have seen excellence in the work that is aligning our strategic vision being turned into reality with outputs that are innovative, creative and insightful.  

Victoria Reilly Currys

Meet our team

A team of future talent experts

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Practice Lead

Sarah

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Strategy

Fergus

Kylie
Head of Social

Kylie

3-3
Brand Strategist

Sam

Mark Horley
CCO

Mark

Tom
Chief Executive

Tom

work with us · CREATE A PROJECT

We love to share our thinking

Here's where we'll be soon

  • Empowrd | May '26 | Oslo

    Mark & Tom are speaking at Empowrd about why employer brands could benefit hugely from being actively managed, just like the wider brand ecosystem.

  • ISE Conference | June '26 | Brighton

    Sarah's hosting a session about the latest results from the Future Talent Barometer. 

That's it from us

what will you do next?

Wonderful work, that works

Early talent communications & brands that people want to work for

With more than a decade as one of the world's leading employer brand agencies, we can help you build a talent brand that adds real business value

If we can help you, we'd love to hear from you. We enjoy a coffee and a chat.