Today, for the fourth part of our five-part series on recruitment marketing, we’ll focus on some of the most effective, entertaining, and eye-catching recruitment marketing campaigns around, to underline just what kind of outside-the-box thinking is most effective in this arena. The previous three parts of this series focused on Recruitment Marketing: Definition and Strategy, Best Recruitment Marketing Software, Tools, and Platforms, and Recruitment Marketing: Best Social Media Practices.
Mailchimp‘s trading cards – For one recruitment marketing campaign, Mailchimp produced a set of trading cards to hand out at recruitment fairs intended to reach top-flight tech talent. The modestly-sized cards were an unassuming handout, and easy to prospective candidates to file into their wallets.
Google’s mystery equation – A 2004 billboard in the Silicon Valley area presented a mathematical puzzle to passersby. Those who solved it were taken to another strange site where they faced another challenge. After that, they were presented with the message, “Nice work. Well done. Mazel tov. You’ve made it to Google Labs and we’re glad you’re here. One thing we learned while building Google is that it’s easier to find what you’re looking for if it comes looking for you. What we’re looking for are the best engineers in the world. And here you are.” The billboard gag gave Google Labs access to the most skilled and enthusiastic problem solvers, a group they prize for potential candidates.
Deloitte’s film festival – In 2007, Deloitte hosted the Deloitte Film Festival, a company-wide short film competition focused on showing the lives of Deloitte employees. The films, at three minutes each, were designed to attract Gen Y talent as well as encourage warm feelings about the employer brand from their existing employees. 5% of the workforce went to the trouble of making films, and 75% watched and voted during the film festival. 31 national news channels covered Deloitte’s campaign. That’s how you earn an A+ in making news around employee testimonials.
Walmart’s interactive “Change the Way the World Shops” campaign -Walmart Labs designed an interactive microsite that aimed to give interested candidates a real feeling to the experiences of Walmart workers on a day-to-day basis. Interested parties could follow a “Toys,” “Fashion,” or “Home” path based on the departments they were interested in. At the end of the interactive experience, those candidates ended up at Walmart’s careers website for easy application. Again, here is a company leveraging real employee testimonials to show off their employer brand and attract new hires.
Goldman Sachs offers a career quiz – Goldman Sachs did a brilliant job of targeting the intended candidates by placing the below ads on Spotify with the text, “You majored in something you cared about. Use it to make a major impact. Take the Goldman Sachs Careers Quiz.”
Spotify recruits with a playlist – Spotify recruirter Andre Hellstrom came up with the idea to approach top development candidates with a custom-made playlist. The approach was effective, and Spotify has returned to it more than once, even sometimes responding to prized applicants with a follow-up “Have a Great Day” playlist.
Atlassian makes plans to “steal the geeks” – Atlassian, frustrated by a lack of engineers in Australia, launched a clever campaign meant to “steal Europe’s geeks” and spirit 15 engineers away to new jobs in Sydney.
The MGM Grand takes over The Iron Chef – When in need of a new head chef for one of its restaurants, The MGM Grand hotel decided to look internally by putting on a version of the popular TV cooking competition show, The Iron Chef. Teams from all 16 of the hotel’s eateries – including top chefs and short-order cooks – competed. Each was given a particular ingredient and asked to craft a 4-course meal in less than 60 minutes. The 23-year-old sous chef from the hotel’s 24-hour coffee shop won the competition and the role.
Ikea’s hidden “Career Instructions” – In Australia, Swedish furniture retail giant Ikea at stuck hidden job description inside ever pack of furniture sold, literally getting customers do the legwork form them of delivering the information. The info was titles “Career Instructions” and included directions to “assemble your future.” The zero-cost campaign resulted in 4285 applications and 280 new hires.
Red Five Studios‘ personal iPods – In trying to compete with larger, sexier software companies, Red Five Studios used social media to research 100 of the most desirable candidates, and delivered each a uniquely personalized iPod with a message to them each specifically from the company’s CEO. 90% of the dream candidates responded, and left their then-current positions to join Red Five.
McDonald’s turns Snapchat into an asset – Looking to reach Gen Z candidates, McDonald’s went right for social media, organizing a campaign wherein short video advertisements called “snaplications” were shared through Snapchat. The videos smartly made use of real testimonials from real McDonald’s employees – always worth the weight of gold in recruitment marketing – and interested candidates who clicked the ad were given a custom Snapchat filter that put added McDonald’s uniforms to their images. And then those candidates could send McDonald’s back a 10-second introduction that went to the manager of their local restaurant.
Mixmax gets interested applicants to play “find the CEO” – Mixmax, an email marketing tool, used a similar method as Google did in 2004 to create a funnel for the most desirable candidates. Job descriptions were shared, but maddeningly without any contact info. Candidates were instead tasked with finding the CEO’s personal internet address somewhere out in the wild, wooly internet. Finding the address got them in the door, and helped MixMax gather candidates who had specialized email marketing skills – just the kind that they were looking for to fill the jobs.
If you’d like to learn more about us please visit Comparably to learn more about the company and the tools we offer.
Tomorrow, in part five of our five-part series on recruitment marketing, we’ll focus on new ideas in recruitment marketing. The previous three parts focused on Recruitment Marketing: Definition and Strategy, Best Recruitment Marketing Software, Tools, and Platforms and Recruitment Marketing: Best Social Media Practices.
We recently completed a 5-part series on employer branding. The parts of this series are available here: I: Employer Brand Definition, Strategy, & Benefits. II: 12 Examples of Great Employer Brands III: The Best Employer Branding Software Solutions. IV: New Employer Branding Ideas.V: Employer Brand vs Recruitment Marketing
