Digital Recruiting

Employer Branding - setting the right expectations

It's late on Friday afternoon as I write / copy this, but it jumped out as so bang on that I couldn't help but copy it here.

I'll be upfront - this came from www.utalkmarketing.com (I like this site and really recommend their weekly newsletter) and was contributed by Nigel Cooper who seems to be a very very busy man (Divisional Managing Director of Motivcom PLC, Managing Director P&MM Travel, Chairman of Zibrant, Chairman of AYMTM and former Chairman of trade association Eventia).

Anyway - to quote that amiable bloke who won the last series of The Apprentice with the dodgy CV: "Now dat's what I'm talking abowt!" (please put as dodgy a wide boy London accent on that as you can - sporting a fat tie a definite bonus).

Nothing particularly rocket science in what follows, just nice to hear someone from outside of our niche market making sense of it all. And gives me further hope that the transparency that the web now offers will indeed increasingly lead brand guardians to finally realise that their Employer Brand is every bit as, if not more, powerful an entity (especially when it's not right) as anything they can cultivate themselves in their consumer focused marketing departments and therefore worth the time and effort to get right, beyond hollow senior management words.

Well - a man can dream can't he?
:) 

How to get staff to live your brand
By Nigel Cooper

Selling and marketing your product and service to the public is a major challenge which every industry sector faces, but how do you get your own employees to buy into your brand?

1. Aim to obtain 'buy in' from employees at all levels.

A campaign is only truly effective if the whole company identify with and live with the brand values. I think of the brand as the "soul" or spirit of the business. A brand should be an outward projection of the inner belief.

2. Research for best results.

If the ultimate objective of a campaign is to change employee attitudes and subsequently, their behaviour, research is essential to develop a solid understanding of what attitudes exist and reveal how they can be changed.

From concept stage through to final delivery, when looking to drive the behavioural changes that all projects depend upon, knowing your staff and what motivates and encourages them is what will drive the change.

3. HR people are not marcoms people!

This is not meant to be disrespectful to the global HR community, but companies employ marketing communications experts to market their brand and values to customers, so why not the staff!

Many employee branding programmes fail because the message is not compelling or personal enough or because they are under-funded and under resourced.

Take into account your audience age groups, and demographics where possible and find the right collateral, theme, and appeal which will grab their attention. 

4. Form working parties to define the brand.

Companies will need to form working parties across the business to define what they believe the brand should stand for. This in turn will effect the values that the staff and the company should live up to.

5. Apply internal marketing - the same principles and many of the same processes as brand marketing to customers.

The difference is that it is focused on influencing the attitudes and behaviour of staff. The core of a marketer's role is to be the guardian of his or her product.

This translates into understanding the needs and dynamics of the internal marketplace to ensure not only that the messages are delivered but in a way that maximises the chances of the benefits being realised. 

It takes real effort to change customers' or consumers' behaviour. Yet that same type of consumer probably works in your organisation, and when you are restructuring or introducing new working practices, the success of your project depends on changing their behaviour and that of their colleagues and managers.

Let staff own the brand.  They must be involved in establishing what the brand means today and what it is going to mean and in turn the values.

6. Set measurable goals.

How will companies be able to evaluate whether their internal staff branding campaign has worked?

Companies must have a clear sense of how many of true brand ambassadors they hope to cultivate, which key performance indicators they hope to achieve and the level of customer satisfaction or sales increase which is expected.

It's also key to set a realistic timeframe against specific targets along the way for your internal branding to filter through and take lasting effect for all employees. 

7. Incentivise and reward performance.

As I work in the business of performance improvement, you would hardly expect me to say anything else!

However I do see the amazing results that strategic incentive programmes can make to a company performance. This applies both to internal motivation, dealer or channel incentives and customer or consumer promotions.

The most effective solutions create push and pull through the products route to market. And don't assume this is all expensive, small tactical initiatives can make a huge impact.

Even something as low cost as £1 per employee can start to make an impact on how people think, a 99p Easter Egg on everyone's desk would be a great start and very low cost for any company.

8. Using events to create internal brand loyalty.

Working in the business of events, we at P&MM are often asked how much an event will cost so that the client can decide if they can afford it. 

Maybe the question should be: "What's the cost of brand reinforcement loyalty, motivation, initiative, enterprise and hard work?" Because that's what good events create.  Think of the buzz in the office the week after the office Christmas party or the atmosphere at the company conference.

Now imagine if it was like that every week.  Events don't have to be expensive, just well planned and thought out. If companies are bold enough to want to change the way their employees feel then what better way than to get them engaged in a programme of monthly staff events.

Bowling, cinema, theatre, football, theme parks, there's a lot that can be done with a little money and a bit of effort. The upside however could be that staff will feel that "this brand cares about me." 

9.  Achieve brand consistency

Customers need to see consistency of brands from marketing to sales to operations to delivery to finance – a complete experience.

This requires communication understanding and engagement. Understanding why things are important and what they mean to the business and the customer.

10. Make it sustainable.

Getting staff to live your brand is more than a one off campaign.  Align key people and processes to sustain the brand values and culture of the company.  An ongoing internal branding programme should be a key part of recruitment, learning development, staff training and ongoing communications. 

ITV - 2007 rubbish & the future's looking pants too (IMHO). And what's with such lazy journalism?

I'm sure that anyone who's touched any kind of news channel over the past 24hours will be well aware that ITV announced their profits had fallen in 2007 by a whopping great 35%.  I can't say that I was particularly all that interested - but I found myself unable to muster the effort to lift myself from the sofa at that particular time and thus consumed about 80% of the 10pm news (think it was ITV - but that's irrelevant).

I was amused by Bushes’ hypocrisy and dismayed at watching the IOC playing politics and calling black - white (or indeed smog – mist), but what really got my gander (yes – even at gone 10pm on a school night it can be "got") was the reporting of the ITV profits slump.

What's the easy go to in journalism these days - what do you want to blame everything on? Move over Al Qaeda & the war on terror, hold on a sec rising fuel crisis & global warming, we’ve got another one this month on which to hang our bad news fixation, the credit crunch.  Yup – ITV are losing millions because of Le Crunch. Case closed, move along here, nothing more to see thank you very much.

That’s right - not a single mention / acknowledgment / aside about the migration of ad spend online. Nothing about the changing face of entertainment delivery and media consumption that's causing marketing budgets to be reconsidered - re-evaluating what the true value is of a stuck on the sofa mid Coronation Street eye ball on your expensively produced "all on transmit" TV advert against different audiences where you could can get immediate engagement as well as generating information that will allow you to in near (or indeed actual) real time re-target and / or evolve your messaging to deliver maximum ROI!

I even looked into what was being reported on this on the BBC today - and all Mr Grade is being reported saying is:

"Viewers that had deserted us are coming back," Mr Grade told the BBC. "With a much improved performance onscreen, we have countered the myth that ITV is a business managing decline."

"In my first year back at ITV, we put together a growth strategy for the business and strengthened the senior team," Mr Grade said. "The first priority for ITV was to stem the decline. We did more than that, delivering an increase in viewing to the ITV family for the first time in over a decade."

Don’t get me wrong – I’m certainly not an “end of the world is nigh” kinda guy. I’ve said many times that I feel that the established media and the medium through which they have traditionally delivered their messages will co-exist with new and emerging mediums as advertising platforms for a hell of a long time yet, but that doesn’t mean that the impact of the change won’t be significant and the pace relentless. And for many of those established broadcasters and publishers who have enjoyed decades of massive profits generally based on monopolizing the routes to consumers through mountainous cost barriers to entry then, and I thought they knew this already (although apparently not in all quarters), then ready yourself for a steady leaching of your profits whilst you cling desperately to your old business models and miss the point in that which you snap up in an overpriced manner (see: FriendsReunited). 

In ITVs investors statement they do at least mention their online efforts (although not in the most promising of lights) – the overall message does indeed seem to be that they see their future profitability coming from audience growth / share.

So my beef with this was / is summarised into two distinct elements:

1. I know the Credit Crunch is causing all sorts of issues and isn’t nice news at all – but don’t we deserve to have our journalists doing more than just taking press releases at face value? Is it just me that thinks that’s sloppy?

2. I have to say (certainly not the first nor the last) surely ITV are barking up the wrong tree - the tree where getting a message in front of a possible customer could be charged in tens of £s as opposed to the real value ultimately likely to end up being realized as more like a couple of quid.

Good job the ITV Management Team have a ropey economy to blame their failure on (for the moment). More Lobotomy TV anyone?

:-]

Time to pull up those fashionable calf length socks River Island

If you’ve got nothing good to say then don’t say anything at all.

Sound advice I have no doubt - but advice that I seem utterly incapable of following, and advice that if followed would, to be honest and IMHO, make for pretty dull blogs (certainly not why we set this little distraction up anyway).

So - lets get straight to the point then: River Island + In Retail = oh dear + oh dear + oh dear.

I happened to be in my local metropolis (well, Colchester) the other day when I found myself playing sheep dog for 2 small people outside a River Island shop. There being no such thing as a day off for a committed individual such as I (especially now I’m self employed and all) I was taken by a small recruitment advert tucked away in the corner of the window.

It caught my eye - which I guess is a good start - but I was very much left wondering whether it was for the right reason or not? To be honest I was mainly struck by how it directed me to www.inretail.com to apply - which got me immediately thinking (apart from “where’s little person 2 think he’s heading?!”) “why on earth would they want to send me to a site where I’d also surely be served up every other local vacancy to compete against?”. Is the River Island employer brand that super sexy or, and I think we’d all concur more likely, have they opted for a recruitment process that’s all lo-cost and subsequently massively inefficient in their talent attraction pursuits?

So a little while later I had to go and have a nose. I mean perhaps the InRetail package was so compelling and well pulled together that I’d be eating my hat. Perhaps.

The best thing I can say is that there was indeed a River Island logo on the home page -  so perhaps I should indeed follow the advice I started with and quite whilst I’m ahead.

No chance.

I followed the link. Here are some of the issues I took with what followed:

• Warning - Pop up blocked - but I feel generous so allow it, go back and then click on the link again. The pop up seemingly gives me a list of their current vacancies - odd - no sign of Colchester though??!! “Click here to apply today” it beckons. Then a BIG warning. Scary. Along the lines of “use the back button and my application dies!” ummm - not very friendly.  But we pretend we’re cool with this and we’re into the application form. Shame that it hasn’t resized my pop up window and I can only see the top right 2/3rds (being generous). First question and I can’t see the  “next button” without horizontal scrolling. Ewwww.

• OK - so I closed the popped up window and thought I’d go through what other routes there may be. Hmmm. Single page of corporate info - hardly what you’d call particularly compelling. And as it’s within the InRetail site the main buttons I’m seeing would actually see me registering with or using the facilities on the site across all the InRetail clients. But I can download an application form - so I do. But it’s just for Sales Advisors - hope you read that in the small print body text above before clicking on the large text “click here to download an application form” statement. That could be confusing - for someone as daft / impatient as me anyway.

• I continue on my quest - at the bottom of the page (but not the very bottom -  that’s InRetail buttons again) there are some links to search specific vacancies. Sales Manager Vacancies. Excellent. Ah - not quite so. 47 Sales Manager vacancies returned and no sub search mechanic to help (just a three page list). But then after a trawl there she blows. Would happen to be that I pick Sales Manager vacancy 46 of 47 - I guess sometimes dem just de breaks.

• Click on Apply online - you get that InRetail “back button” warning again and into the application form. Would like to tell you about how that went - but I chickened out. All I can tell you is that there’s no apparent save and return function and I nor anyone else who hasn’t completed this particular application form would be able to tell you how long you might have to sit there for - you see, no indication of how many pages or what’s required either. Seen worse - but not great by any stretch of the imagination.

• Oh - and any time you click to go and find out some company info - well don’t bother - it’s back to that single page and the annoying pop up about what are clearly their top 10 recruitment blackspots. EVERY time. Lucky for Colchester that it’s not a blackspot I guess - just not for people looking to apply for the Colchester job.

So I thought I’d take a different tack and go look through the search facility on the InRetail homepage. So I selected “Deputy / Sales Manager” and entered “Colchester” as a location.

• The site “helpfully” tells me that it’s refining my search to roles within 20miles of Colchester - great. I still get 71 results (didn’t realise this part of Essex to be such a hot bed of retail recruitment activity). Unfortunately Colchester is actually (as I now know) 45miles from Lakeside, 44miles from Harlow & Romford and 33miles from Stansted - not "within 20 miles". So that didn’t really help me get to see the River Island vacancy within 71 mixed other vacancies. And a bit of bad luck this (it’s been up there a while and not refreshed for at least 7days), but there I found the role at the bottom of the list (71 of 71 - page 4).

OK - so what’s the point (for those who have scrolled through the above with the hope there is some conclusion to this rambling).

The point is that I am amazed at what hoops any recruiter will put in the way of an application / candidate - intentional or otherwise. In a market that consistently screams “shortage of talent” why on earth would you in the first place send them via all your competitor jobs and then give them a pretty poor experience even if they do hang on in there for the journey?

Good people could still fall in your lap - but don’t you think that in general those good people generally stand out to other recruiters in your area too? Personally 2 clicks later and I’m done applying to a job with PC World that has the potential of paying me up to £10k more than the River Island ceiling rate.

If this is about recruitment budgets then please wake up and see your approach smacks of massive false economy on just about every level. And it's not that you have to invest all that much in what would quickly prove to be significant strides to smarten up your process. To put it simply - you need Prince’s /Princesses, you’re process is fit only to generate a disproportionate level of frogs. So pucker up, you’ve got a lot of sloppy kissing ahead.

And BTW - get a map InRetail!!

Calling all Second Life Avatars (current or lapsed)

...and yes you 7ft tall, squirrel headed amazonian beauty - that means you Dave!

I’m currently talking with a Second Life developer about ways to use what is such a rich experiential environment in establishing more beneficial and engaging recruitment and assessment environments than the quick on the uptake, headline grabbing but generally pretty flat executions our industry has produced to date.

Well this lady, and yes she really is a proper real world lady too, is running some research about how people find their initial orientation - the experience you have on first entering the site that shows you the basics of what you can do and how to do it. In her words:

Second Life is a wonderful environment but it is complex and it is always a difficult call how much you try and tell someone and at which point. I suspect that quite a few people drop out of the Second Life experience because they don’t quite understand how to use it. I’d like to think that we could develop an induction programme that gives people a good start (without giving them a headache) and then encourages them to stay and take part in SL.

So if you have ever dabbled - or indeed are still dabbling - in Second Life then would you be so kind as to spend a few moments and complete this questionnaire.

The survey will run for a while - but if she gets anything back that might be of interest then I’ll be sure to pass it on.

thank you...Guess Whybrow

Some desk based nostalgia and reflection

I’m currently doing a bit of office life laundry. Clearing out a desk after 6years, even with two office moves and an additional desk move or two along the way, throws up some interesting items.

Thought I’d share some things I’ve learnt, thoughts I’ve had and questions that have been raised by this whole episode:

1. As my own boss will I ever again need an “emergency tie”? Sure I’ll attend meetings where it may be advisable to ensure first impressions are smart and possibly even formal - but I’m not so sure that I need a tie to make a good account of myself, especially at a meeting called last minute at the behest of a client (potential or existing).
   
2. Shared wisdom is that vitamin pills don’t really go bad / off - watch this space for updates as to whether some labelled best before 01-07 have any noticeable side effects.
   
3. Secret Santa is a lovely idea - but if it gets to February and the thing is still in your desk then don’t worry about hurting that persons feeling and bin the flippin thing! If you haven’t done it by the following December then be environmentally conscious and recycle it for someone new to your particular Secret Santa network and donate your fiver to charity.
   
4. Unlike vitamin pills my recommendation is to pay attention to best before dates on chewing gum. (just trust me on that!)
   
5. I must set about creating a knowledge based wiki for my business before it’s too late and a real effort to do so - so much good stuff has literally been gathering dust on or around my desk or fading as a clipping on the wall next to me. As we work in a knowledge based economy then assimilating what we know and making time to revisit it & keeping it fresh (whilst continuing to learn new and different things of course) has to be pretty damned important, but easily overlooked.
   
6. I’ve been reminded why my first Digital Hire at ThirtyThree got the job. Printed proof reading / attention to detail tests are still a very valid means of assessing junior recruits - well done Mario.
   
7. Where the hell did that time go? Just looking at the photos tell their own tale of the passing years and it’s alarming how this has all been in just a blink of an eye - but nice to be reminded of the memories and a good opportunity to remind myself to ensure making new ones is an absolute priority.

But as a bit of fun - and with the relatively fresh news that one of the industry's nicest and longest standing media guys, I refer of course to Justin Wakeham, has moved on to see if he can teach those yanks a trick or two at CareerBuilder - I thought I’d put a challenge out there. Who’s got the Justin full set of business cards? I’ve got:

• GoJobsite (ahhh - the heady days when life was simple and Havant & Tiptree were the centre of the online recruitment industry)
• Monster
• RetailChoice & CWjobs.co.uk - combined
• Workthing.com - 2 styles of card

Now I know I’m missing one or two (not least the solus CWjobs card - gutted about that), but anyone out there got the full set? I dunno - maybe Justin’s mum is a reader of the blog? Maybe there’s someone else with a collector’s eye / even worse admin than mine.

Or perhaps you have someone else you seem to have tracked (come on - someone’s gotta have a Lister deck that can beat my two?) - or indeed a brand that you’ve seen evolve (I have 3 different styles of Broadbean card - go figure). Go on - give your rolladeck a spin, let the dust settle and take a moment to see which plastic sheath is bulging at the seams ready to burst forth with industry heritage. You know you want to!

The end of the annual CIPD conference? Change just isn't for some people.

At the not so long ago CIPD Guardian recruitment awards I was half involved in a conversation with a bit of a dyed in the wool old styleee agency type and picked up that, well what I thought was being said anyway, the CIPD annual conference was being canned after this year.

I wondered why and what implications for the Recruitment Industry this might have. I’ve only gone twice myself and whilst the social side for agencies is seemingly the reson d’etre, I would have anticipated the days of presentations and networking would surely hold some value for the rank and file (even if the days of the big decision makers attending is probably long passed). Personally I’ve, in recent years, quite enjoyed the Jobsite et al. LondonGate event that has popped up as a bit of an alternative bash for London bound digital types, but I still thought this was quite a big change in the HR & Rec Ad industry calendar.  But I was indeed mistaken by how I read the conversation - it’s Harrogate that’s being canned as the venue in favour of Manchester.

Old news now for many of you reading this I’m sure, but it struck me as a clear illustration as to just how uncomfortable change makes so many people feel, demonstrated in the way that they could talk about “the end of Harrogate” as if the whole thing was coming to an end. Perhaps I just haven’t been enough to get so enamored with the event or venue? Maybe I’m just too un-sentimental? Perhaps sentimentality and / or fear of change is so ingrained in Recruitment and HR land that that’s why digital media in our sector is still not embraced as emphatically and widely as it should be?

But at the same time there’s almost certainly a counter lesson - whilst Digital Natives come on stream in the employment world and more and more Digital Immigrants become assimilated - there’s still a massively significant population who want, and will continue to want, their world to be forever Harrogate once a year. And whilst the march of time and technological progress will reduce their numbers, they’re still target candidates for many an employer. The counter lesson then: Don't forget the mix, that's all.

Anyway - whilst I was pondering this I also recalled  a Joel Cheesman update about what I guess would be America’s equivalent event - SHRM - and one particular one where he covered off some of the entertainment that could be partaken in. I think, and I could be wrong, but didn’t one year the Guardian or Evening Standard dust off Tony Hadley (and this was well before 80s revival was cool). Well check out the headline SHRM headliners from this year:

CareerBuilder with a live concert from Maroon 5.

SHRM presents Lionel Ritchie.

Maroon 5?! The real Lionel “All night long / Dancing on the ceiling / Hello” Ritchie!! Flippin nora. I guess if the Americans know how to do one thing - its splash some cash (recession or no). Maybe with the digital recruitment element continuing to outstrip all other growth in our sector (and as it will continue to do so) we can look forward to Coldplay at LondonGate 2009? Although one thing I am is a realist and so as this is the UK I accept that it’s more likely to be Coldplace.

Just how important is being web savvy these days?

Possibly web savvy is over stating it - but given that the internet is accepted as an immensely disruptive global phenomena, then can you hope to appreciate the potential of it and the speed of change it's enabling if you don’t know how to even use a computer? And how important is that for top jobs - or indeed, THE (debatable) top job?

Picked this up from one of the people I’m following on Twitter (am I becoming a twitter fan? Maybe) and think it raises some very very interesting questions. When considering who should be the next “most powerful person (as things stand) in the world” – surely that person needs to at least be able to “get” why the world has changed over the past 10years and why, at this pace of change, it will be a very different place by the end of a double, possibly even just a single, Presidential term.

And you can argue, I think very well, that if one of the candidates doesn’t even know where the on button is on a computer (despite having what I’m sure would be a “great team of advisors and consultants” etc etc etc) then how can they truly “get” where the world is going to a decent enough degree so as to make some pretty important state and economy leading decisions. Or would a political camp actually concede that the presidential position has actually evolved into not much more than just a figurehead role?

If nothing else – I love the passion of this woman. As I believe the say state side – “you go girl!”.

But bringing this back to recruitment (always good to try and do that on a recruitment blog I think) – I wonder how long businesses can function without having Digital Natives or fully assimilated Digital Immigrants at their very heart of their business. And I mean the very heart. Be that Agency, Consultancy or Recruitment Department in a Blue Chip – it’s definitely time to get with the programme (and you still can - it isn't some dark art), or else get people in places to lead and direct your business who themselves “get”, or indeed "are" the programme.

So – onto the video (borrowed from here):

Mark Soohoo, the deputy internet director of the John McCain, was defending his boss for not personally understanding how to use a computer. Tracy Russo, Soohoo's counterpart on the John Edwards campaign (where she was deputy director of online communication), took issue with Soohoo, and then the fireworks started. Here's the video:

Read more on Tracy’s thoughts here 

 

You heard it here first (possibly) - CIPD Awards - the twit from the twit

OK - Head hurts. Quite a bit. Great night though. Don't know if anyone tined in for teh live event, but as promised here are the twits as they happened.

Crap start. What part of 4pm today is "hopefully by 5.30" for shoe repairers?!

On course again. Now to find @jamieasleonard - whatever state!

Hooked up. Big group. All very respectable. So far. :-)

A gorgeous evening. Last time @ Billingsgate was similar. Infamous Jimmy Carr that night. Here's hoping.

Jamie's secret is out. Clip on tie with one for later to drape. I just feel old - tie tied 1st time :-(

@jamieasleonard is onto his draped bow tie already.is this a good sign?!

Jackie Orme - she says economic slow down is the time for us and business to step up. Hear hear aka bring it on!

Oh dear -8.15 and already terms like "bring it on" are spilling forth. Gonna be a long night!   

Starter - roasted pepper, some houmus and goats cheese. I'm welsh but goats have never done it for me - not a good starter here :-(   

Tables around - monster; mediacomm1; tmp3; tmp4;mediacomm1 - flippin nora - I'm in an enclave!   

Complaint from work employees - not ANY eligible males there. Ask Graeme if this is intentional - difficult question it would seem.   

Beth Rowley backing track for the night. No complaints here.   

Hmm. Hard core twitterring can be bad for your immediate environment - fact. We've only broken the table!   

More breaking industry news. Graeme Wright has never been to the Griffin. That's not an advertising career - it's an existence!   

Steak for main - after table change! - pretty tough, which was a shame. Lewis from Reed vanished. Word is julian clarey is the turn.   

Lewis - he back. Rich choclate mouse for desert. Compact & bijou Maustin - compact & bijou. Nice enough tho.   

Sooooooo. Mark beavan - bristol person locked in the toilet last week. Good networking-.   

And the turn is - - - Shappi Khorsandi. ?? Doing good tho. Tough crowd. - but winning them over.   
"you gonna circumcise your son?" "only if he's really bad" :-D   

And she's done. Short and sweet, but very good. And now - we get . . . . . David Mitchell.   

He's championing the loser - genius! 2/3rds of us tonight will effectively be losers. :-D   

Best general ad - it's claire's Accessories (33). Well that's positive for my last employers :-)   

Best written ad - tmp worldwide - pa to the md.   

Graduate award - qinetiq & aia. One a piece for the awards big names   

Art direction - RBS & TMP (supercar)   

Outdoor award goes to - shell &jwt - can you see through obstacles? I'm thinking I can increasingly   

Digital award - drum roll - Herts Constabulary & Hodes - specials campaign on fish4. Well done media on that particularly   

Literature - paul and 'andsome - More bread mailer. No idea?!   

Best website- ohhhh-- drum roll again - Audit Commission & 33. Well that's nice. Am thinking how different RADS are on evaluating work   

Best campaign - royal opera house & aia.   

Best employer brand - Orange and Wilding Mcardle Wilson   

Best effectiveness - astra zeneca and applied works   

Best diversity - brighton and hove and lawton ware. Nearly there - but quick comment - guess they didn't see the abomination that was the HR campaign for these guys!

And the grand prix is   

Claire's accessories and Bo Selector. Well done 33 and a client who clearly trusted the agency.   

So here's where the Dj kicks in and I check out. Geez it' a tedious undertaking, but as Chrstina plays it's been a interesting experience   

Good night. God bless. Well done 33. Well done CIPD Guardian. And big personal thanks to www.mylonglunch.com

Guardian ADS ad delivery to be switched off

this just came into my email:

After many years of reliable service, the Guardian ADS machines (used for sending us mono ads) are being taken out of commission. The last date we will take ads in this format will be Friday 1 August 2008. Please pass this information on to your production departments.

so why is this statement blog worthy (or at least why did I think it was blog worthy). Well when I started as a mere slip of a thing in Recruitment Advertising @ AIA, ADS was just being brought in - and causing quite a stir as all disruptive technology tends to. Like the bromide machine before it and hot metal press before that, proof that the world revolves and evolves - and much of it for the better.

vive l'evolution.

bye bye ADS - it's good to have you interweb.

The great Twitter - Recruitment Land - CIPD Awards experiment

Or not (if you're confused by the heading - read more here). Seems that with less than 24hours (with just 6 twitter followers of @digitalrecing – and at least 50% I know to be going) I guess we can make a couple of assumptions:

Readers of this blog:

• Are all going to the CIPD awards (?!).
• Aren’t great twitterers.
• Are twitterers but are sulking because they couldn’t get an invite.
• Are twitterers but have a life outside of Rec Ad and are happy to read about the results post event.
• Have better things to do than read a welshman’s increasingly incoherent fat thumbed tweets.
• Leave everything until the last minute and we’ll see a rush of followers signing on in the final hours before it all kicks off.

All very possible, some more so than others – but not one to be influenced by popular opinion (you’d know that if you accessed my iTunes library – or indeed my wardrobe) we’re going to crack on unabated.

As promised – I’ll do my best to keep up with proceedings on the night and then will, as best my faculties will allow, on Friday edit out the truly banal and, if there’s anything left, load onto this blog for general amusement or indeed (probably more likely) mass indifference.

See you there (virtually or in person) or not.

Cheers.