Bairdyblog

Anyone out there speak Dutch?

Sometimes it seems that with all the excitement about brand identities that stretch across organisations, we forget the good old-fashioned, reliable way of doing things. 'Why should anyone want to do this job?' is still one of the best questions in the book.

Take a look at this video. Seems to me there isn't a proposition anywhere. This clearly is an organisation with nothing to recommend it:

In all seriousness, the voice-over suggests a level of irony I might be missing. However, the automatic translation thingy on Google took one look at it and ran away. Can someone explain, please?

Obama shows future of candidate management

Here's a jolly little viral created by Barack Obama's supporters, designed to get every last Democrat out voting on November 4th. It's not the first time we've seen the idea, but it does  surpass previous iterations in terms of impact, craft and wit.

It seems to me that this would work wonderfully in the employment marketing space:

• As candidate attraction, sent to email addresses of potential applicants
• As an automatic acknowledgment of application
• As a reminder to those who have only started, and not submitted, their online application form
• As a 'keep warm' during the assessment process
• As a pre-joining 'Hiring Room' or induction tool
• Perhaps best of all, as an employee referral tool sent to potential candidates by the referring employees directly

Like other technological advances in creativity, you can see this format having a novelty factor for the short-term, becoming 'passe' and then ultimately re-emerging on platforms that are increasingly subtle, engaging and flattering to the recipient.

The site which set up the Obama viral can be found here.

Come in creatives, your time is up

Those of you in - or roughly adjacent to - Generation Y may be familiar with Current TV, a web site launched a couple of years ago by Al Gore, among others. It's a channel (available here on Virgin & Sky platforms) in which the content is created almost entirely by viewers.

Intriguingly, this includes advertising. How it works is simple - a 'sponsor' (ie advertiser) posts a very brief brief on the station's web site and then viewers produce commercials (or VCAMs - Viewer Created Advertising Messages) which are posted onto the site. Those which are broadcastable and receive the approval of the website viewing public get broadcast on the station, meaning their creators get a payment of at least one thousand pounds, and more if the ad gets syndicated.

Generally, 'sponsors' are currently hawking products of obvious interest to Gen Y (L'Oreal, games producers, Toyota Prius, and so on) which inspires content like this:

No obvious recruitment messages as yet, but it can only be a matter of time. (This would work well for graduate recruitment, clearly.) Not that recruitment-oriented UGC is a new concept, but frameworks such as this could make it cheaper and technologically easier to manage.

There's a sense that most VCAMs are generated by aspirant agency creatives and film directors, but that's no bad thing in itself - a recruitment strand here might serve to bring bright new talent, which has never heard of employment marketing, into the industry?

Shoosmiths: not entirely cobblers

Imagine a weird version of Just A Minute where, rather than asking contestants to talk about a given subject for sixty seconds, they have to recycle every rec ad cliche they can think of. Actually, don't imagine it - just take a look at the first Shoosmiths video on job telly web site my-ijob.com.

Back to Shoosmiths in a moment. First, if you haven't seen this job site yet, you should, because it's (kind of) the future. Basically it's a job board dedicated to video. Some clients are using it and just uploading commercials and other bits of generic film they have knocking around their offices, whilst others have actually taken the trouble to do something specifically career-related.

Shoosmiths, the 'unstuffy' law firm with what looks like a rip-off WHSmith logo, have three videos which aren't that bad. Yes, there are cliches and strange bits. The guy with the pink shirt and tie saying it's all 'fun' doesn't work, and there's never any need to talk about 'really making a difference'. The final tracking shot of a penny farthing stuck on a wall made me smile; it's probably where they got the idea for the production budget.

But what's encouraging is the fact that it's there at all. The organisation has clearly prioritised the importance of making it and has done so with refreshing honesty. It's always good to see employers recognising that yes, at times and without a following wind, working days can be a little bit crap.

The problem remains the same as other online recruitment videos, which is that when people have a video camera and editing suite to play with they seem to forget the importance of determining what the recruitment message should be and articulating it in a consistent, compelling way.

I'm not saying that these things should be scripted. I am saying that (fewer) propositions should be agreed first and that interviewees should be roughly following the same lines.

Anyway, other video on this site that's worth a quick gander comes from Nokia, Astra Zeneca and Morgan Stanley.

'Little Gordon' shows the f&*^ing way

Picked this up from Sinead Bunting's post on Digital Recruiting.

It's a good example of how to make an intelligent, funny, inexpensive viral. Not beyond the ability of any the usual rec ad creative departments (although there are some elements to the content that wouldn't be supported by a conservative client.)

Whilst the last shot is probably my favourite, I can't help but think that they missed a trick by not delivering a killer line at the end. ('Some people have their futures mapped out. For everyone else, there's caterer.com', or something like it?)

YouTube also has Parts 1 and 3 (this is 2) which are almost as good.

BS deserves at least a B++

A bit of chat in the UK digital recruitment space about this latest effort from the Marketing Department at Zurich Financial Services. (I found it on the often excellent Digital Recruiting blog.) It's a brave idea - possibly the client thought such a left-brain concept necessary given the challenge of getting right-thinking individuals to work in financial services nowadays.

Basically, we begin with the comic set-up of 'BS Recruitment' in the unctuous form of 'Barnabas Smythe', who proceeds to sell us a range of crap, over-inflated jobs that even come with their own comic video profiles. (Interesting that this genre is being parodied without even having its own rules set up first.)

Once the penny's dropped, and you realise that the site's a McGuffin, you get transported to the actual ZFS site where a nice lady tells you about proper jobs.

Things I like about it:

1. Someone's spent time and money on the creative.
2. It's been written reasonably well. (Couple of duff lines in the intro to BS, though.)
3. Little details, like the 'hiring' company logos, have had some thought given to them.
4. Looks like they've hired proper actors rather than people around the agency who can 'act a little'.
5. The crap employment propositions are clever reflections of the actual ZFS employment propositions.
6. The transition between 'sites' is a lovely thing.

I'm less sure about:

1. Is there too much 'creative energy' on the BS side, making the ZFS side seem a bit dull?
2. Is the parody too overboard? (I'm thinking of the glint on Barney's teeth.)
3. Do the job 'profiles' go on just a moment too long?
4. Is the stapler game a step too far?
5. Is there something slightly sinister about the 'ZFS' woman? Maybe it's the languorous speed with which she talks. (There's also a slight speech impediment, which is distracting.)
6. Is there a point in parodying recruitment consultants? Will this piece be of more interest to rec cons laughing at themselves than marketeers enjoying a parody at the expense of a different industry?

Still, all credit to whoever did this. (Anyone know?) An interesting benchmark by which to judge future efforts. And as I said at the outset, sufficiently financed to make other clients look shoddy in comparison if they don't put their hands at least half way into their pockets.

When video kills the recruitment star

Time was when rec ad creatives used to lounge around on their sweat-sodden bean bags moaning, 'If only we could do a TV commercial for this account...' Well, now they can pretty well do whatever broadcast treatment they want, given the increased prevalence of online video outlets and decreased production costs. But is video currently good for creative standards?

The McJobBoarders at S1 have recently launched a cheapish video element to their recruiter profiles, and we have a film about Coca-Cola Enterprises to dwell over. It's properly edited. You can hear it. It all makes sense. But is it much good? Um. Not really, no.

The problem, as with all media that's new to its creator, is that it's reductive. The music is clangy and cheap. The messaging is unsophisticated. ('The most important thing is our people.' Ouch.) There's even a dodgy line about providing 'a refreshing lift' to one's career.

All in all, it succeeds in making one of the planet's greatest ever fmcg firms look like Wernham Hogg and Dunder Mifflin. Anyone like to volunteer better examples of the art?