Digital Recruiting

Creative Media Planning

Ok i was asked to do a talk at the Online recruitment 2007 conference yesterday, there were some very interesting presentations esecially from simplyhired.com. But for those of you would could not attend; here is the transcript.

‘In this new world neither geography nor history, religion nor politics exerts the influence it once did. And as external fashions have changed in the last half-century, so too have the internal certainties.’

Jeremy Paxman

… It is the final line saying how internal certainties have change that grabbed me.  Because the internal certainties in recruitment have changed.

I listen to a lot of people at work saying that they are not creative and it does tend to grate on me.  Desmond Morris (in the Human Zoo) has a great description of creativity; he believed we educated creativity out of ourselves.

1. Children ask new questions; adults answer old ones; THE CHILD LIKE ADULT FINDS ANSWERS TO NEW QUESTIONS
2. The child is inventive; the adult is productive; THE CHILD LIKE ADULT IS INVENTIVELY PRODUCTIVE
3. The child explores; the adult organises; THE CHILD LIKE ADULT ORGANISES EXPLORATIONS AND BY BRINGING ORDER – STRENGTHENS THEM

Good planning is a combination of quantitative information from the likes of ABCe, NORAS, Comscore etc … With a good level of qualitative judgement looking at user experience, product knowledge and a good level of common sense. BUT that is good media planning; CREATIVE MEDIA PLANNING IS THE ART OF MAKING ONE PLUS ONE EQUAL ELEVEN

‘Creativity only comes when you have a deep understanding of the relationship a person has with the media.’

John Hegarty

You will be happy to know that I am not going to show the latest TMP creative, I have no schedules for you and no more equations. But I am going to show you ways you can understand the consumer decision making process and how you can effect it.

Getting a job is one of the most important things of your life. This is why PEOPLE are always the most important factor when planning a campaign.

People tend to run through the following process when getting a job;

I want a job?

Information search

Application

Interview

Do I want the job?

We use different information sources depending upon the stage in the job hunting process we are at. So people use jobsites to scope out what is out there but rely of information directly from companies and friends/family when it comes to making their final decision.

This information gathering process is not a funnel, it is an iterative process. People are gathering information from a variety of sources right up until the final decision.

I have no idea why people are shocked to find out that the internet is the most utilised way of sourcing information through the process.

I THINK PEOPLE STILL DO NOT ACCEPT THAT THOSE INTERNAL CERTAINTIES IN RECRUITMENT HAVE GONE.

In fact a recent focus group we ran for a client came back saying that people would only use the evening standard and google when researching a particular employer – EVEN JOBSITES DID NOT GET A LOOK IN.

What we find is that people use search, jobsites and advertising to guide the process. PEOPLE and DIRECT EMPLOYER information is the most valued information source.

What we are seeing is a merger of influence.  Friends and family working with the media and marketing to create a social media network. This is all designed by people to make their decisions – not a forced process.

There is an ability to amplify your message through the internet and to support people through the process with the right information. THE PROBLEM IS MOST ORGANISATIONS ARE NOT DOING THIS- LET ALONE GAINING ADVANTAGE FROM IT.

So far we have seen;

1. We need to be creative
2. There is an art to media planning
3. People use different media at different times in the process

SO HOW DOES THIS COME TOGETHER?

HR are essential to the process but make sure we work together in the right way

-         We need to get a full brief

-         People rush to get things done rather than doing the right thing, people don’t get sacked for late work but they do get sacked for work that does not work.

-         - Communicate feelings, write things down but also don’t forget to be visual and aural to make sure everyone understands each other.

-         - BE OPEN as this is where most relationships fall down

Now we could spend time guessing what people want but it is pointless we need to answer the following questions.

•         Who are your audience?

•         Where are your audience?

•         When do you want/need to reach them?

•         How are you going to communicate with them?

•         How much do you need to communicate with them?

•         What else?

You develop the strategies to meet the objectives

•         Target audience strategies

•         Geographic strategies

•         Scheduling

•         Engagement strategy

•         Tracking

•         Testing

This is how we are being creative by exploring the objectives and from this providing a solution. A CREATIVE SOLUTION IS ALWAYS NEEDED AS EVERY BRIEF IS DIFFERENT.

How much to spend on advertising?

Now this is always a difficult question to answer but only one methodology that works – APPLIED MATHS. Under-spending always results in not enough candidates and over-spending results in an expensive CPH. It would take far too long to explain every model you can use but you need to look at

Audience Reached

Response Rates

The value of the buy

And you level of risk

Now no more on this as it is about creativity.

So how do you pull together your media strategy? Lets go back to the process people run through when looking for a job; your media selection should reflect the stages people go through.

I want a job?

Information search

Application

Interview

Do I want the job?

The creative used at each stage should engage people. THIS IS CREATIVE MEDIA PLANNING, EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST DOING NEW THNGS.

So what have we seen;

1. CREATIVITY IS NATURAL
2. PLANNING IS AN ART, NOT A NUMBER
3. UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP PEOPLE HAVE WITH THE MEDIA IS KEY TO BEING CREATIVE.
4. LETS STOP THINKING THAT DOING NEW THINGS IS BEING CREATIVE
5. CREATIVE MEDIA PLANNING IS ALL ABOUT ENGAGING YOUR AUDIENCE.

Please discuss is you feel like it.

Paul and Matt go offline!

Both myself and Mr Paul "Web 2.0, I've got a piece for the Blog soon" Harrison were quoted in the Personnel Today guide to Employer Branding this week. Nice set of articles but a shame it doesn't appear to be on their website. Slightly ironic as we were both talking about digital channels of communication!

Digital Salvation

So why have I put this on the blog?

Is it....

a) An attempt to start a discussion about recruitment videos on Youtube

b) An attempt to start a discussion about the skill shortages in the digital industry

c) Blatant self promotion for our recuitment campaign at Barkers

Answers in the comments please!

Stop lurking and join in!!

Well the blog is almost three months old and I think we've all been delighted by the sheer number of people who are reading it! Thanks to you all and also thanks to those who have taken the time to leave comments or link to us.

Interestingly "Digital Recruiting" has also sparked a few debates and comments that some of us have been party to "off blog" as it were. It would be fantastic if we could get more of this debate happening on the blog itself. There are some people with some very strong opinions on digital recruitment out there and I know you are reading this. It would great to see you all posting comments and joining in.  Go on you know you want to, what's the worst that could happen!

There are currently a number of new articles "in production" from various people so make sure you've subscribed via the RSS feed as I'm sure you won't want to miss them ;-)

Matt

Really Appalling Decisions

OK – so we’ve had the piece contributed on this blog about whether the RADs are truly a celebration of the widest spectrum of the great and the good within our little niche industry. Think we broadly agree that’s a no then (although am still waiting for someone to fill me in on how you’d measure success effectively enough to give awards for media planning). So what about how well the RADs actually judges creativity within the digital arena. I think Ricky Gervais summed it up best when he coined the phrase “are you having a laugh?!”

So, Best Website. I’d imagine that if I’m reading this whilst sitting in a Stafford Long office I’d still be pinching myself. On the other hand – if sitting in the Empower side of JWT SC/EC then I’d be pinching myself too – but of course for very different reasons. What Severn Trent have is quite a nice and slightly quirky site (in as much as it has some drawings rather than rubbish people shots). Better than run of the mill? Definitely. Significant issues with the navigation where it’s trying to be too clever and actually restricts the user journey? I reckon. Terrible execution of the people profiles section? You betcha. Worthy of an award for leading creativity? Are you having… well you know.

And then we have the abomination that was that prick dancing around a launderette in a particularly un-engaging, not funny, ridiculous viral video effort. Sorry – I say effort – I of course mean THE BEST THING OUR INDUSTRY HAS PRODUCED ALL YEAR! I’m nearly, but not quite, lost for words.

Bold use of a new medium – shocking abuse of the once good name of the RADs if you ask me. The world of social media is a dangerous one to try and penetrate – and admittedly there are few advertisers (recruiters or product) who have the balls (or budget) to give it a decent crack, so I’m not diss’ing Work for getting Unilever to give it a go – but giving something a go with a pretty lame scripted piece of tripe underpinned by an equally lame and un-engaging (and with very little of a recruitment message I could see) website is just not, cannot be, should not be the best work of the year.

However, all you “you’ve gotta measure it to prove it” junkies – word of warning. Figures are only any good in context. I’d imagine that Work put together quite a compelling case as to the success of this which led the judges to comment “effective use of the YouTube Channel” (as compelling as you can do when the video only seems to have gone live October 25th). But let’s look at some metrics that the judges may not of been aware of / had the time to research:

Since being placed it’s only generated 563 views so far (successful online videos of a truly viral nature generate hundreds of thousands, even millions of views – I’d bet several hundred of these views came through the judging process and after the awards). Oh – and this is the best bit – just the 1 comment, from a guy who only registered 2 months ago, has watched only 11 videos and has this listed as his only favourite. Anyone else thinking NickDes1 just maybe works at Work? Conspiracy theorist? Moi? Surely not!!!

So – “effective use of the YouTube channel” – effective in gaining some major industry accolade that’s for certain, but other than that I reckon that execution was as effective as me loading up the edited highlights of my Christmas morning footage for my family to view.

Let’s be honest – this is just one step on from the delivery driver toilet roll advertising of 2-3years ago that gained an award having appeared outside of someone’s Dad’s takeaway. So Best Innovation – OK, maybe, to be honest I haven’t seen the work from Barkers or aia, but Best Work of the Year? Forget having a laugh – you’re taking the piss out of us all!

:-[

Digital Recruits

Less than two months old and we're already expanding! Welcome to two new authors keen to to jump on our vanity publishing bandwagon, old stager John Whitehurst and the new boy in the agency world Ciaran O'Sullivan. Let the banter / ranting / insightful debate commence

No Longer Sponsored by Jobster!

Well I had to take the Jobster widget off as it was making the blog take ages to download.....a case of user experience winning over commerciality! Also I was getting bored with it showing the same four UK jobs all the time. Points for debate and speculation: -

1) A jobs widget that works properly with UK content would be great - who is going to be first to create one?

2) In the light of their layoffs and change of strategy are Jobster going to get any more UK content and if so how?

Putting the RADical into the RADS

I will be attending the RADS (Recruitment Advertising Awards) on Thursday and am looking forward to catching up with friends and clients as well as seeing the creme de la creme of our industries work over the last year. The RADS sees itself as the Oscars of our industry it 'rewards the brightest people and the best recruitment marketing in the business.'

Whilst I am sure I will definitely see old friends, clients and as always, have a great night, I'm not so sure that I will definitely be viewing the best recruitment solutions our industry has to offer. Don't get me wrong, the winners will no doubt be benefactors of some very creative concepts and executions, that may deserve to be recognized and rewarded in some context. However, I have some doubts as to whether the actual winning entry will have been the best example of recruitment marketing our business has to offer and indeed the most effective in its category.

Why do I have these doubts? especially when there are 14 RAD judges who its safe to say whether from personal experience or simply reading their profiles definitely know a thing or two about recruitment and advertising.

Well, here's where I will get straight to the point. Creativity is fundamental to the success of an advertising campaign, that's obvious. However you can have an excellent creative concept and execution but if its not put in the places where your target audiences are, then it simply will not be an effective recruitment solution. Similarly in terms of effectiveness, there doesn't seem to be the importance given to this area that there should be and needs to be. You can have the best creative with the best media research and planning, (or so your planning tools and approach would lead you to believe) however, if the campaign simply does not result in the actual hires, enhancement of employer brand or whatever the specific objective may be, this is not the best example of recruitment marketing, why? because the solution has not worked. There is too much focus on the creative concept and execution of a traditional press ad and not enough credence given to the other areas such as media planning and media tracking and optimisation that go to ensuring our clients receive an effective recruitment marketing solution.

Broadband has killed Broadcasting but Brought us Accountability

When you think that the RADS was established seventeen years ago, why would media choice and effectiveness be part of the equation? Seventeen years ago the gambit of media choice was more limited. You placed your press ad in the recruitment sections of a newspaper or industry journal and hey presto! you would received a deluge of suitable/non suitable response, why? because thats were job seekers looked for a job. The media landscape was a much simpler place where consumers and candidates had a finite number of media channels to access and were subject to messages and advertising being pushed to them as they simply had no other choices. The advertiser was King and the more creative you could be, the more of an edge (if not one of the only edges ) over your competitors you would have.

Today we live in a digital age which has fragmented the media landscape and its audience beyond recognition. We have so many media sources to choose from and so many devices from which to receive it that we can consume our very own personalized media selection free from mainstream taste and opinion. It is much more difficult to broadcast our message to a very wide audience in the traditional sense e.g. through the most popular TV channel in a nation with four TV channels (or in the recruitment pages of a local or national newspaper). Instead with the niche opportunities and tastes that Digital TV and the Internet etc offers consumers, we as advertisers have the opportunity to be very targeted or shall we say we can much more easily 'narowcast'.

As one would expect the jobseeking audience has fragmented with recruitment pages in newspapers and journals not being able to guarantee the audience they once were been able to. Yet we still need to hire our people, raise employer brands.............. but here's the thing, the digital world whether it be through all the options of online advertising, web builds, mobile phones, IPods, Digital TV etc enables us unlike any time before, to be truly interactive and effective in our recruitment marketing solutions.

In 2007 we are faced with an challenging media landscape that requires us to be innovative and creative in how we engage and communicate with both active and passive jobseekers. How can we persuade our audience to 'pull' our message in a digital age where the candidate/consumer rules the roost and decides what they want to digest? We simply cannot rely on a really cool and incisive recruitment ad in a newspaper to deliver the goods. Media research and planning tools can give us insight as to where our audience actually are thus achieving the 'cut through' to candidates that is required to communicate our recruitment message. (creative concept and execution is just as critical online as offline).

To get to the point, excellence in media planning needs to be recognised and rewarded as more and more it is and will be critical to success.

In addition to making sure the media planning choices we make, engage with our audience, we should all be benefiting from one of the truly great attributes of the digital age – its accountability. For the past six years I've worked with clients and waxed lyrical about the accountability of the Internet, to the point where people took the p*ss out of me for using the word 'Accountability' so much when I spoke about online advertising (usually mimicking a bad Irish accent in the process).

Whilst there is so much room for improvement if not actual take up of online advertising tracking (another blog, another time) what we have found and will find even more so, is that the digital age is stimulating accountability in other media platforms as they realize that they need to compete with their digital counterparts to prove effectiveness.

Digital will and is actually perpetuating best practice in accountability in the wider recruitment media landscape. This can already be seen with the Intelligence and MI (Management Information) offerings of certain agencies. Clients have bought into the benefits of online advertising ROI and want to see what other media is and is not delivering for them. All media like never before is being held to account.

Perhaps the RADS can say, they are a creative awards ceremony and they have never pretended to be anything other than that. Perhaps they will say (quite rightly too) that 'media choice' and 'effectiveness' are two areas/criteria that need to be filled in in the actual entry form. However it is clear that creative is paramount, with the inclusion of these two areas being there to serve the purpose of showing a 'wider picture', padding out the story, proving that it actually appeared in a media at some stage.

To me, when you set out your stall as the Oscars of an industry you cannot limit the main criteria of success to one (albeit important) criteria. If you do you are not reflecting the work and true worth of an industry. We are currently working in the most exciting period that our industry has experienced. It is what all we interactive/digital bods hoped for and believed would happen, even in the years when people simply dismissed our work as a whimsical Internet fad.

To reflect this new age we need an industry awards ceremony that reflects the actual work that goes into making the best recruitment marketing solutions that this industry has to offer and has been offering over the past few years. We need an awards criteria that encourages clients to embrace best practice in media planning and accountability tools, we want criteria that reflects reality, stimulates change and provide aspirations and inspiration to our industry.

We require an 'Oscar' in all categories that rewards and reflects the pillars that underpin an effective recruitment solution; Media Research and Planning, Creativity, Accountability and the fuel of successful ongoing communication (whatever the 'Age') - Innovation.

Discuss.

Sponsored by Jobster?

More perceptive readers will have noticed the addition of the Jobster widget to the blog. I actually put it there to illustrate a point (although if you click through enough we might get some cash as well!). There were only four job sites offering some kind of contextual or preference based job feed via a widget that I could find, all of them american with little UK content. Jobster won my vote as it actually had some kind of geographically relevant jobs. Where are the Monster.co.uks and Totaljobs...surely missing a trick with so many UK blogs now out there!

Is this what it's really like?

This really made me laugh!