Anyone who's a fan of American football, or Cheezhead, or both, will have noticed that prime advertising real-estate night of Superbowl saw the two big US job boards attempt to twat each other around the heads with big, expensive adverts. These were, of course, efforts from Monster and Careerbuilder. Here's one of a series from Monster:
And the one ad from Careerbuilder:
Of course, both have good things going for them. The Monster ads are well produced, witty and arguably could (that's could) strike some chord with the dissatisfied worker. The Careerbuilder ad has a catchy rhythm to it and a healthy dose of iconoclasm. (And it's always nice to see something Antipodean getting punched in the face.) But - oh, dear. What are the underlying messages telling us about the maturity, or otherwise, of the job board market?
Well, it's telling us that market is still prepubescent. Why? Because none of these ads are attempting to differentiate their products in the marketplace, but seeking to grow the marketplace itself. A strategy not usually - ever - associated with market maturity.
What Monster and Careerbuilder are telling us is that if our jobs suck then don't worry - we can find another one by looking on the internet. (Admittedly the Monster ad has some differentiating messages squeezed in at the end, but this isn't where the main creative energy lies.) They're not assuming that the market knows this and is at the comparatively sophisticated stage of working out which online platform to use. (This is the equivalent of Volkswagen running an ad that says: 'Hey! Ever need to get from A to B? Then why not consider buying a car?' Or maybe The Sun running an ad suggesting that people who don't know what's going on would be better off buying a newspaper.)
This isn't the Big Boards fault, of course: I'm sure they've done their research and know to an inch where the markets stand. But it does rather suggest to me that the idea of the western world now entirely consisting of discerning on-rec consumers is complete arse-talk.
Finally, here is one job board ad that does attempt to differentiate. But does it work? I'm slightly puzzled by the fact the little monsters are um, little Monsters - is the suggestion of Trumposaurus deliberate, do you think? More importantly, where does the viewer's sympathy lie at the end - with the little monsters or the big one? All v.v. confusing.
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