Digital Recruiting

The Ferrero Rocher Effect

So we may all remember the supreme  Ferrero Roche 'Ambassador's Party' TV ad - 'Delicieux'...'excellente.'...'Monsieur, with this Roche, you are really spoiling us!'.

Ah - Ambassadors - it's generally recognised that your employee's are/can be the best ambassadors of your employer brand.

A lot of my Aunts's and Uncle's worked in Marks & Spencer's when I was growing up - they were lifetime employee's and I remember they were the very best ambassador's a company could hope for- they weren't shy about telling you all about the benefits (and trials and tribulations, of course) of working for what was certainly a premium employer, back in the day in Belfast.

It's no coincidence that so many companies are using their staff in their TV advertising - Sainsbury's with their Mum returner to work character - brilliant dual branding ad for the employer and consumer brand. B&Q with all their regional staff talking about their products etc

I was watching TV with my friend Mary the other week and one such ad came on TV featuring staff and I said to her 'see all the companies, using their employee's in their ads these days'.

She replied 'Well you know why that is, don't you?, I replied, 'well, yes, its because your staff are the best ambassadors of your brand' (honestly, our conversations aren't usually this tedious..).

She said 'No, its because they can't afford to use real actors these days!'

So cynical...

Anyway to get to the point of my post - I saw yesterday that Primark staff were being investigated for calling customers less than complimetary names on Facebook (i.e. pikey's etc) and were being investigated.

This follows similar issues with Virgin Atlantic, Tesco and Waitrose staff and of course the infamous YouTube video of Domino's staff 'hanging out' in the kitchen..eurgh!.

What's was particularly interesting was Maria on the team mentioned yesterday that her mate has started a new job at a legal firm. One of the clauses on her contract was that they are not allowed to mention work, clients etc on social networking sites such as Facebook or they will face disciplinary action. I imagine this may well be standard across all companies now.

It seems that your employees as ambassadors can be a double edged sword. It's clear that employee's need clear directions on what is and isn't expected from them - i.e. don't slag off customers or clients. However, it's a fine line as you can't be too prescriptive on people's ability to talk about their working life.

In any social media strategy the option of using identified employee 'mavens' is attractive, even preferable, as, at the end of the day, in business and in life, people buy people.

CIPD Awards

We attended the CIPD awards on Tuesday night at the Honourable Artillery Company near Old street.

The sun was shining, the location lovely and MediaCom's work was recognised with three gongs. Two for our work for Shell with JWT (Digital and Innovation) and one for The Met Police with aia (Outdoor) - an integrated media campaign that involved a media recruitment first with a digital six sheet.

This outdoor recruitment first, was one, in a long line of innovative firsts, planned by Celine Marshall in our team here for the Met Police, and so, we were delighted that this was recognised with an award.

It's a fantastic example of how media choice can bring a great creative message to life and make it a real success.

The Met police campaign put me in mind of Dave Trott's recent posts on his blog at Brand Republic on Upstream Media thinking where he gives examples of how media choice and the actual context really makes the ad. He says;

'It wasn’t me that said it, but it’s true. If you’ve got a creative media department, the medium is the message.'

He goes on to say in his Context is Content post :

'Maybe advertising should stop putting all our attention into judging content in a vaccum. Maybe we should only ever judge content in context. Because the ad is the context.'

 

Although it was a successful night, the atmosphere was understandably a bit flat with the recent news of the Barkers/TCS purchase from administration by Penna.

 

This was the main topic of conversation and whilst some people had a view of what happened, I think most people were still trying to get their head around the whole thing and really felt for the people involved.

 

Whilst this type of situation has happened before, especially in times of a severe recession, what's different now is the existence of social media. People have an opportunity to discuss events in a open community forum like Ri5.co.uk - albeit in a predominantly anonymous capacity.

 

Hopefully this dialogue will be a positive thing and cathartic for all parties involved.

 

Biting the hand that feeds you

I was at one of my oldest friend's Charlotte's Solstice day party on Saturday.

It started at 3pm and ended at 3am and was hosted at the commune/shared-housing home that Charlotte lives in in Islington.

The day involved a fig tree ceremony where all party goers congregated in the garden, meditated and made a wish for the community and for themselves. Yup - was full-on, tree-hugger, liberal paradise.

The sun was still shining when a lady came up to myself and a friend and asked could she have a cigarette, we happily obliged and we got to talking. She was in her fifties, already a bit tipsy and was a journalist - an investigative journalist.

She was now teaching a journalism course in a London Uni and as she put it, was delighted to be giving something back to the younger generation after an illustrious career, working for all the broadsheets.

The talk turned to Twitter, upon where she declared herself a complete technophobe and wanted to know what all this twittering was about. Indeed she was very concerned about what jobs her students would have when they graduated, as all these bloggers, were thinking they could do the job of a proper journalist.....

It was music to my ears, I had in front of me a living and breathing Fleet street dinosaur, aghast at what the Internet was doing to newspapers.

She declared: 'Well, we'll always need newspapers, you know.'

I replied 'Why's that?'

She retorted 'er, well, em...well.....er..can I say that you have a very one track mind?

No, no,' I replied, 'I'm merely playing devil's advocate....'

'Well, people need papers, its important for the brand - you can't have a news brand like the Guardian if it doesn't appear in a paper. These bloggers like Guido Fawkes are biting the hand that feeds them. Take what the Telegraph has recently done with MP's expenses - a splendid job. Now, yes you could call it cheque book journalism, but that has required an army of full time journalist pouring over the fine detail of those expense claims.....how can a blogger like Guido Fawkes ever do that?'

The conversation went on, like this, to and for, was quite enjoyable, although I had to try and not upset her too much with my controversial views - it was a party after all.

I was particularly interested in the article in the Guardian (online) I saw on Monday about the Guardian launching a crowdsourcing project on the MP expenses data:

'The response has been enormous, the results intriguing and, thanks to the efforts of many thousands of Guardian readers, not one MP who has put in a dodgy expenses claim can think about relaxing just yet.

In a groundbreaking "crowd-sourcing" exercise, the Guardian appealed for help in sifting through the huge amount of data on MPs' expenses that was unleashed at the end of last week. Almost 20,000 people have taken part in gathering facts for the online project and about 160,000 pages have been examined.'

Just as well I wasn't aware of this on Saturday.....

Did you know?

As Alex tells us all about the latest 'wave' of advertising below - I thought we could end the week with some stats from attending the recent EIAA conference (European Interactive Advertising Association).

- Total Internet spend in 1999 came to £40m, which was seen back then as massive growth. Ten years later, we're now at £3.3 billion!

- Ten years ago the three largest reaching sites in the UK were MSN, Yahoo and Freeserve! (remember Freeserve? and where is Google?)

- Today, 45% of our Internet time is spent on just 10 sites, meaning the thousands of remaining domains have to fight it out for our remianing online time.

 

Today our audience are'media multi-taskers' - consuming more than one media at a time - e.g. surfing online while watching TV etc etc

In terms of the incredible transformation of the communications landscape, I really liked Evan Williams sentiment, on his recent talk about Twitter and its unexpected uses on ted.com

'Follow the hunch but never assume where it will go......'

What Women Want

Dell have launched Della - a website for women and how their computers can help enhance their lives by looking cute, fashionable and help them count calories.

Look above, at how the happy women, sit closely together with their pastel coloured laptops and share laughs, horopscopes and no doubt, are on Cosmo online, gleaning pearls of wisdom on how to make their relationship work.

Puts me in mind of one of my favourite Harry Enfield schetches - Women know your limits

So, how can I expect to benefit from a netbook as detailed on the Della site?

Well, once I get beyond how darn cute they are I can easily find recipe's, count calories, watch fitness videos and ensure I shop successfully at vintage clothing stores. Then there is the accessories section - where I can shop to my hearts content.

Oh dear...why are women seen as a specific niche audience when it comes to technology, who need to be given child-like tech tips like morons?  it's....well....its just plain insulting.

Note to self - do not ever do this in recruitment.

So, which colour is your favourite? I just can't decide!

Two Tribes...Control v. Creativity

Lately, I've been mulling over the reports that newspapers intend to charge for their online content.

A futile exercise by Murdoch and the like, long after the dam wall has bust?

or justified compensation for valuable content that in fairness should be paid for?

It's a tricky one for sure. To pay or not to pay.

In terms of recruitment, we blogged about the subscription model on recruitment sites, such as The Ladders a while back and more recently and much deeper into the recession, Matt has got the debate going nicely on his own blog.

I read an article from the Observer recently and it made me think.

It was all about Charles Percy Snows 'infectious idea/meme' that there exists two cultures in society.

Literary Intellectuals v. Natural Scientists - both who had mutual incomprehension and mistrust which had negative repercussions for society.

According to John Naughton, today its about those obsessed with control and those who celebrate openness and creativity.

Here is where it gets interesting - its the early 1990's when the dawn of electronic networking is being recognised. He presents two options from which we could choose from:

1/ 'Government-provided terminals in every home on which appear information and services from a small number of approved providers (the BBC and Guardian for news, the Met Office for weather information, Reuters for stockmarket information, and so on).

Everything is controlled and reliable.

2/A publishing system in which anybody can publish anything - including lies, propaganda and pornography - with no prior approval. '

Question: which system would you have chosen?

Second scenario: -to design the world's first global encyclopedia

1/ A huge project with top minds and thinkers, experienced editors who source the best most authoritative articles - all rigorously checked for impartiality and accuracy.

2/'The alternative proposal is from a guy who says "Well, I think we should put up a website and ask people to write stuff for it."

Which one would you have chosen?'

Now lets think of a recruitment scenario. You are looking for a job and you are given two future options:

1/An online recruitment service that provides jobs in your specific industry, houses your CV and matches your skills and personality to an organisations' cultural fit -

You Pay for this tailored service.

2/An online recruitment service that provides jobs in your specific industry, houses your CV and matches your skills and personality to an organisations' cultural fit -

You do not pay for this tailored service.

Which one would you have chosen?

Sorry - It's Gone with the Wind

It's Bank holiday Monday and in the absence of anything decent of TV, I've put on one of my favourite movies, Gone with the Wind whilst I tip-tap on my laptop. The opening quote of the movie describes the fall of the American old south - Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization gone with the wind..."

Simultaneously I've been catching up with the latest news online and came across the article on how The Evening Standard is about to launch an advertising blitz ahead of it's relaunch this month-

Evening Standard launches ad campaign to say sorry to Londoners

After carrying out market research it found that Londoners have deserted the paper due to it being overly negative, too partisan and anti Ken Livingstone, too national in its outlook and not London focused enough.

'...Buses and tubes will carry a series of messages throughout the week that begin with the word "sorry." The first says "Sorry for losing touch". Subsequent slogans say sorry for being negative, for taking you for granted, for being complacent and for being predictable'...

It would seem the free London newspapers with their celebrity filled content on the latest starlet to fall out of the Mahiki club, has been a suitable reading substitute for commuters on their evening commute home.

There seems to be no mention of how the Internet, which will act as the main source of the latest news for Londoners throughout their day, may have impacted on the irrelevance of the Standard as a viable, reputable news source.

In fact, the access to news, as and when it happens, via visits to websites and RSS feeds may mean that the London free papers are a welcome diversion from reality on the way home.

I like the way that the Standard realises there is a issue and is trying to sell itself and in effect, its medium, to its target audience. To do this would have seemed inconceivable a number of years ago. However, is it fighting a battle when the war and its digital winner is already a foregone conclusion? 

It is absolutely right to get back to the local angle - as this is perhaps the one USP that it can still demonstrate its value to for its London target audience.

Everything else it would seem is Gone with the Wind. (sorry had to say it).

In the words of Captain Rhett Butler who after years of being in love with Scarlett is worn down by her seeming indifference to him (and their misunderstandings and cross-purposes), gets to the stage where even though he still loves, he utters his famous line 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn'.

Breaks my heart every time.

Twinternship for the twins

So, I have a little brother and sister who are twins and are in university at the moment. Gavin and Louise are their names, they are the babies of our family and although I may be biased, they are pretty great.

They are looking for a paid internship to start in September for a year and are finding it pretty tough to get one. Lou studies marketing and Gavin studies engineering. It's looking like they may have to go to plan B and volunteer for a few days a week at a company and continue to work in their part time jobs to keep them going.

It's pretty critical they get experience in the workplace if they are to stand a chance of getting a job when they graduate. And you know, I don't think its a bad thing to volunteer in exchange for really useful experience, especially in the current economic climate.

Last week I read that Pizza Hut have advertised a position for a Twintern in the USA.

'..According to the company’s site, the position will include sharing insights and experiences via social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, attending marketing meetings, ad shoots and other events, monitoring social media for happenings that may be of interest to loyal Pizza Hut fan, working on PR programs.'....

This sounds like the ideal job for 'digital natives' like the twins - especially for Louise, who studies marketing. So, fingers crossed Louise can get some experience by offering her services in a social media monitoring and response mechanism capacity. Fantastic for her in terms of gaining vital experience and great for the prospective company, in terms of a much need social media resource.

Of course there are a stack of tools that facilitate social media monitoring and response (certainly a considered strategy with content creation and distribution in social media is critical for our clients). However often one of the concerns of companies is the internal resource required to manage a social media strategy. 

Does the precarious economic and job situation that students find themselves in, offer companies access to a willing pool of digital savvy resource? Will students and graduates provide the necessary skills and time to execute a considered social media strategy for companies?

They just might.

Sinead

The Philosopy of Work

So, I was at the SouthBank centre last night attending a talk by one of my favourite writers, Alain De Botton. I've read all his books since one of my good friends bought me the book Status Anxiety a number of years ago for my birthday (take from that, what you will....).

The genius of Alain is his ability to articulate and make simple the biggest challenges and issues we face in life, be that love, success, friendship etc. He makes philosophy accessible to the masses.

His latest book is all about work called The Pleasure and Sorrows of Work.

He noted that if you were to look to art - be that TV, movies, books etc there is very little coverage of our real working lives - something that takes up a huge amount of our time.

It would seem in movies and TV that everyone works in three professions - Medicine, Law and Criminality and spend most of their waking lives, falling in and out of love etc.

Where is the movie on the world of recruitment advertising I ask?

He said a few interesting things from a recruitment and employer branding perspective. He explained how he had spent a number of months with the HR department of the UK's largest Accountancy firm (whose HQ's are by the Thames..).

He was suprised that there was a whole floor of these HR bods, all working on initiatives and processes for their staff. However, he began to see the important role that HR played, as when you think about it, there were over 15,000 people in this organisation - all of whom, had to get on with each other as much as possible to ensure maximum productivity and ensure success.

Unlike in love when if you p*ss each other off you can 'throw the crockery' at each other, this really isn't possible in the working environment.....pity.

What this example did reveal for me, is that a company's culture and values should really promote openess and straight-talking to alleviate stress, upset and miscommunications etc. 

The other interesting thing he noted is that there is a universal desire in all people to have a 'meaningful' job- this is what makes them happy and fulfilled.

This doesn't have to be through saving a persons life in a hospital - this can be making a difference in peoples lives through; fixing their squeaky door, booking them a holiday or producing beautiful photgraphs that make people happy etc

If a company can show employees what they do is something 'meaningful' - then jobs a winner, as they say.

Sinead

So, Digital Czars, what time is your Interview at?

I  read the following headline in my digital newsletter today:

'Government slammed for £160,000 digital-czar job posting'

Crikey, I thought - is that the price of a job posting these days? - no wonder people are a bit upset - back to the Sunday Times we go....

On closer inspection, the government has created a new post for a Digital Czar to help the government connect with people through the digital social environment - on such things such as Twitter, Facebook etc

Is this a grotesque use of public money, as one opponent exclaimed? - well no, I don't think it is.

If the role is to genuinely engage the public in dialogue, share information and involve them in the democratic environment, staving off apathy in the process, then it is to be welcomed.

Enabling participation and giving people a voice is one of the most positive lessons we can take from Obama's recent election campaign.

In a similar vein, is the future use of technology and social media in Labour's future re-election campaign.

What I found interesting last week was Obama's marketing guru Thomas Gensemer pitching for Gordon Brown/Labour party business.

Gensemer makes the point himself, that there must be, in conjunction, with the smart use of technology a clear message and objective.

For all the Twittering , Facebooking, iphone apps and mybarackobma.com sites in the world, unless the message and content is genuine and compelling, the desired result or election win, through clever uses of social media and technology is by no means guaranteed.

Back to the Digital Czar job:....

'This role is not for everyone - success will be achieved by influence and encouragement, not by issuing instructions from the centre.'

 

Should make it interesting ;0)