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Research Outline

Prepared for Sam H. | Delivered October 4, 2019

Creative Recruitment Campaign Examples

Goals

To compile and examine a list of successful creative recruitment campaigns created and used by companies across a wide range of industries in order to help inform decisions made by the creative team. The insights gained will help the creative team to understand what a successful campaign can achieve, what the current trends in successful creative recruitment campaigns are, and what type of consistency (if any) there is to the approach and structure of the successful campaigns.

Early Findings

Companies take a variety of approaches when they develop recruitment campaigns. Often, the campaigns are designed in such a way that they automatically attract the sort of potential new hire the company is looking for. Some campaigns rely heavily on media and social media while others don't use either media or social media at all.
  •  LEGO Brick Factor - Finding a LEGO Master Model Builder. This recruitment campaign is actually local events held at Lego Discovery Centers when they need to hire a new master model builder. Potential hires can be anyone who applies. The most recent competition, held in Columbus, Ohio in May 2018. Over 2,000 people applied and from those 70 were selected to compete. Those 70 competitors engaged in two rounds of competition before the winner was selected. The winner of the Master Model Builder competition becomes not just a model builder at a Lego Discovery Center but also a teacher and brand ambassador.
  • Google's "Cryptic Billboard" Campaign - This is an old but still really good example of a campaign that was both selective and successful at the same time. In 2004, Google needed to recruit engineers in Silicon Valley and rather than post on job sites or use traditional recruitment methods, chose a highly unorthodox approach. They advertised on a billboard in Silicon Valley. The billboard posted this challenging math puzzle {first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com as a web address. Those who visited the site and correctly solved the problem were invited to apply to Google. Google's motivation behind the billboard campaign? They didn't want to hire just any engineer. They wanted to hire curious ones. Google still uses recruitment approaches that attract curious people.
  •  IKEA "Career Instructions" - As it was preparing to open a new mega-store in Australia, IKEA used a simple, low tech, yet highly successful recruitment campaign to fill 100 positions. Rather than post on media or social media site, IKEA printed and placed "career instructions" aka job descriptions inside the box of every product sold in that area of Australia. Then end result was 4,285 applications and 280 new hires for not just the new mega store but for other IKEA locations as well.
  • Burger King's "Love Fire? Contact Us." - Burger King isn't the company you normally think of when you think of companies that push the envelope with political messaging or anti-establishment ideas. But, the German arm of the company, in need of new hires created a recruitment campaign that did just that in an attempt to recruit millenials. The ads, which we shown first in print but were quickly picked as interesting new pieces and shown on television and social media, showed millenials literally playing with fire while engaged in protest activities such as throwing fire bombs during a protest. The ads were intentionally provacitive with the intention of telling millenials that Burger King understands that millennials are passionate and they want to help them channel that passion for fire into a career at Burger King
  • Eurowing's Swiping Right on Tinder - Tinder is a social media app with an estimated 5.7 million active users worldwide meaning that almost any company looking to hire could find their perfect candiditate on the app. That was thinking behind German low-cost airline, Eurowings, 2019 recruitment campaign. "Dating profiles" that were actually job descriptions were created and posted on Tinder. Like with any Tinder match, interested applicants could swipe right to get more information and make a potential match. This recruitment campaign won two awards for innovation and originality. It also led to a 40% increase in the number of visits to Eurowing's career page. This successful recruitment campaign showed that social media apps, like Tinder, can be a great place to not just advertise to but directly engage with potential hire.