So did the Zurich viral lift the bar for you? (A follow up post)

2 weeks ago I posted a link to a spoof site - BS Recruitment Solutions – and I was interested in what people made of it. Had a few comments which in themselves highlighted some of the execution’s shortcomings. Not least from those people who didn’t realise that there was actually anything beyond the spoof site.

So in case you didn’t read the previous blog and / or can’t be arsed to have a look for yourself then here’s the factual low down:

• BS Recruitment Solutions is a spoof site based on cowboy recruitment consultants (oh yes – apparently they’re out there ;), the motto: “Remember – BS gets you further”. The Tony Andrews look alike (not my spot) waxes lyrical with plenty of BS throughout his intro.
  
• The site goes takes 3 “types” of attractive opportunity type career “sell in” – work for a “Global Company”, the offer of “Diverse Opportunities” or working in a “Cutting Edge Market”. Each of these has a take the p*ss look at the practice of bigging something up to clearly be what it isn’t. Surely no recruitment consultant would partake in that kind of practice?! ;-)
• Your get out then appears as a “Had enough BS?” button
• Final pleading message from Barnabus (more amusing BS terminology) and then you’ll go through to a true message from a Zurich representative.
• Yup – it was all a joke – it’s actually driving you through to a Zurich campaign recruitment site.
• Some more flash video intro tying it all together and you’re in a campaign site for marketing professionals where Zurich can really offer the “Diverse Opportunities” you’d expect of a “Global Company” working in a “Cutting Edge Market”. See what they did there? ;-)

I’m still very interested in what anyone who’s been through / goes through the site thinks, but I did promise my take for what it’s worth (ratecard available on request ;)

Let’s deal with this in two parts. Firstly – the Viral BS element:

• It’s bold and tongue in cheek enough to actually have viral value (in my opinion). In your face and edgy works in viral (see Sinead’s posting of the Caterer.com viral video which I too think is brilliant) – silly / nonsensical / dull / vanilla doesn’t.
• The production of each of the elements of the BS site is high spec and each one of the 3 dummy opportunities is amusing in its own right.
• The BIG failing is that it’s way way way too easy to miss the link through to the Zurich site (wonder if Zurich have spotted this through the site’s MI?). If you leave or close down the site without making the connection then no matter how clever or amusing, the site’s failed to do its job. And I think many people will select “No thanks” by closing their browser window rather than playing along and clicking the “No thanks” button that in the planning team’s mind is how everyone will end their visit to the site and which will then lead them nicely into the campaign site proper. Sorry Chaps/Chapesses – you’ve gotta factor on people not following every step just as you’ve planed it because you’ve planned it that way. Be more blatant.

Then we go through to the campaign website proper:

• OK – I don’t want to be cruel because I’m hoping that the lady who takes over with the intro is an employee, but after what they’ve spent on the viral site production surely they could have stretched to a professional for that too (professionals (should) deliver straight to camera better and believably). And if she is a professional – don’t use ex- Radion actresses.
  
• But I’m sorry to say that she also pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the site. Using templated site formats I understand and don’t mind in themselves, but it shouldn’t take a lot of work to bring them to life. Beyond the home page it’s pretty dull and un-engaging. OK – it’s a poor template. Overuse of terrible stock shots, and nasty nasty 2ndary nav. (I also reckon there’s at least one of those nauseating stock shot images missing too)
• It’s actually also doesn’t hang together at all well. Clicking on recent campaigns and they open up in a new window or as a pop up and this completely disorientates as the nav is all to cock (professional term).  Same for people profiles / case studies which seems to reside on a ghost page.
• And the recent campaigns case studies themselves are flat flat flat. You’re recruiting like minded marketing professionals – surely they too like to see images and execution brought to life rather than just read about it?
• So where are the Job descriptions? It’s stated that they’re after top calibre people, well in my experience top calibre people tend to be quite busy and need a bit more to motivate them into applying for a job as they’re probably quite passive job seekers (hence why you’ve gone to the trouble of creating a wowee viral campaign). But before that there are some massive fundamental gaps – like WHERE and HOW MUCH? Before anything else job changing decisions are, whether you like it or not, driven by these two things – yet I can’t see that explained anywhere (beyond “competitive pay” non committal type BS).
• And the applying screen – I won’t even get started on that – suffice to say this embodies all that I think is rubbish about ATS implementation from a front end candidate interface perspective. Just nasty.

So – how the heck does that kind of review sit with the initial post headline of “The day the bar in Online engagement in recruitment was truly lifted”?

It does quite simply because of the BS piece. They’ve been bold. They’ve produced it to a very high spec and actually produced something I think is strong and amusing enough to sustain a viral element. They’ve also engaged a company to get the viral ball rolling rather than just “hoping” that will happen.

To be honest I’ve seen plenty of half hearted poorly concepted, not thought through or else disappointingly executed “viral pieces” come from our industry over recent time – this is the first one that stood out as something with legs. Yes it’s annoying that it’s too easy to miss the point – and clearly I think the end site is very disappointing (for many quite simple to fix reasons – especially when you consider the time and effort that’s gone into the first part). But if I put the BS piece in isolation then I take my hat off to the Zurich team (and I believe this was indeed a piece by the marketing team themselves – you’d have thought they’d have wanted to take credit for it on the site too, but seemingly not).

I hope that Zurich get wind of these comments and, if they agree with them even slightly, take measures to fix some of the fundamental elements that could help this whole piece so much (in terms of delivering on the recruitment requirement). But I also hope that they submit it to the RADs – just if you do – then make sure to provide it as a standalone viral piece that doesn’t link through beyond the flash message on the campaign site. Judges shouldn’t pull the end campaign site apart if it’s the BS element that’s being submitted (e.g. Best Online Marketing Campaign) – but you just never know sometimes, so do yourselves a favour and keep it cropped to what is really good.

Oh – and thank you Zurich. It’s a bar that very much needed raising.

:)

Comments

[Mike McClelland]

Great post Alex. Agree with you on most points (although I couldn't comment on the actress quality - ahem).

I'm always staggered that clients spend literally hundreds of thousands of pounds on advertising then have a dreadful candidate experience. Why?

How difficult is to make online application forms user friendly?

[Sinead Bunting]

Alex, I agree with you, its not perfect (certainly it will loose people as its too long and drawn out) however its sentiments and ambitions are so positive and impressive that its makes significant inroads in this area despites its flaws.

Very nice.

[thomas delorme]

couldnt agree more.
i'd ad that, to me, the Zurich Lady speech seemed almost as BS as Barnabas himself ...
they should have differentiated more

[Jamie White]

Maybe i've been working with him for too long but that doesn't look anything like Tony Andrews to me. Maybe the bloke out of the Apple ads...