Digital Recruiting

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)

Best Blogs

So, I was reading the Sunday Times at the weekend and had a look at their best blogs article.

I was of course, shocked and bewildered that digitalrecruiting.co.uk wasn't on there, but hey ho....

Anyhoo - there's a blog on there on the Advertising world from a copy-writing fella named Dave Trott.

I've been reading it ever since and am loving the content and his writing style.

Check it out if have a moment - some great content on what a client briefs you and what they actually mean, a fantastic post on whether in design, all elements should be purely functional or should include non essential emotional elements to enhance and complete the full design- the WW2 story of the British colonel, the Nazi concentration camp and lipstick made a real impact.

The oft-fricticious relationship between the client facing Account Manager and the internal creative department . This particular post put me in mind of the old days at my previous agency and the relationship between the Account Handlers and the 'Interactive' department as it was once called.

Was having some banter with a colleague in the pub last week who was an Account Handler back then at same agency.

I did my impression of Account handlers back then;

'Hi Mr Client, whats that you say? you want a fully functioning website with ATS/annual online media strategy  in two days?  - sure no problem - that's completely feasible, its very easy you know...

'Hi Interactive team - what do you mean you can't do it!!!! - you guys are so obstructive and useless - JUST do it!' MR MD, Interactive are being cr*ap again'!!

She retorted with her impression of the Interactive team:

'Ok, so we are a commercial business with targets to hit and are trying to get our clients to do some best-practice interactive stuff - have managed to sell this is and its a bloody hard sell....

'Hi interactive, can you please do this project that is sustaining your department and team? Whats that you say - you need 6 months to do it?, a Prince 2 diploma project plan, with gant charts...for no apparent reason, just for the sake of it?? - argh!!!!

Good times. Good memories. :)

Fired Up! Ready to Go!!

Last Friday we held a seminar for clients on Obama and his fantastic use of marketing and branding to help bring him to power.

One of the speakers was an author, who is currently featuring in our 'Smarter ways of working bookclub'. It was a corker of an event and myself and hopefully our clients found it really useful.

The author Ian Leslie talked us through amongst other things, Obama and his teams use of technology (iphone apps etc), social media, the positioning of the campaign as a grassroots campaign as opposed to the traditional top down approach, fund raising and the the Obama logo   itself being a symbol of change and optimism.

The country, as a result of Bush etc was crying out for change and 'man did meet the moment.'

The presentation climaxed with a clip from Youtube, (where else) of the man himself delivering a speech to a USA trade union. This clip really brought home to me what a charismatic, fantastic orator Obama is - his brand ultimately succeeded because, he himself, is authentic - and really seems to be genuinely willing and able to bring change - lets hope so!

Its well worth a watch, fast forward to 2:52 seconds to see the best story and the mark of the man. Fanbloodytastic!

Fired Up! Ready to Go!!

 

The Rads - Two Years on.

It's two years, nearly to the day that I posted my first entry on this blog. It was titled 'Putting the RADical into the RAD's'. Two years ago!....where has the time gone?

My post wasn't pithy, in fact it could have given War and Peace a run for its money, but I certainly got a lot off my chest and you know, I found it quite cathartic. (good to know blogging is good for my state of mind then).

I had some beef with our industrys' awards ceremonies/judging criteria and my view was that the judging of the RAD awards and CIPD's was based solely on creativity and little notice or importance was given to the media/channels used to engage with the target audience or the actual effectiveness of the ad/campaign.

As such, this limited focus on creative wasn't a reflection on the best solutions and work our industry had to offer, especially in our current communications and media landscape.

Fast forward two years on and again I'll be donning my frock to attend the RAD's this Thursday, but will I be moved to write another post outlining my concerns or has our industry or the RAD's evolved and moved on?

In the wake of my post, I got a call from Richard Andrews, who runs the awards and we had a good discussion. I was subsequently asked to be a judge for last years event,(really interesting and enjoyable) a clear sign that the RADs and Richard were open to feedback, change and that they recognised that digital, media selection and tracking were key elements of recruitment solutions.

There were a few of us 'digi' types involved, such as John Buffey from Barkers and after the event we both met with Richard to work on honing the judging criteria for this years event.

This year Matt Alder and Drew Spencer are part of the judging panel so again there will be focus on the importance of all elements in the mix and with these guys, great representation.

Perhaps another key sign that the RAD's has evolved and wants to be the awards ceremony that recognises the best work in the industry, was its openness to accepting entries from multiple parties who have worked together to 'develop and deliver the recruitment solution collectively'.

What this means is that for the first time, a media communications agency like MediaCom will be recognised along with our creative agency partners in the awards ceremony.  Yay!! (in the past even though an agency may have provided the research, media planning and channel innovation along with the tracking and data on effectiveness it was the creative agency who got the nomination and award on the night).

Now, I know that I'm not 100% objective on this development, ;) but this can only be a good thing and it genuinely demonstrates that our industry is moving in the right direction. All aspects of the recruitment solution including the results of our most innovative and creative solutions are being reviewed in the selection process.

Now, any awards aren't perfect (in fact I'm gutted one of our submissions didn't make it through to the second round in the innovationcategory - it was blooming marvellous!! :) and although there are improvements that can and will be made, I'll definitely be a bit more confident on Thursday night that the nomination and winners on the night are a good reflection of what our industry has to offer.

Oh, and give us a cheer when you hear our name and wish us luck...

p.s. think my posts are still too long...