Solution
A highly innovative, multi-channel campaign designed to create ‘buzz’ in the industry as well as attract candidates – the entire strategy being informed by a programmer of bespoke research.
Research
We undertook two phases of research – the first, desk research into the IT recruitment market and
the second, an online attitude survey of Microsoft employees (excellent examples of the type of person Microsoft was looking to recruit more of).
Our desk research outlined the scale of the challenge ahead: demand for IT professionals was up 125% on the previous year. Advertised vacancies had increased for a fourth consecutive quarter – and by more than 20% in the previous three months. New wave Microsoft technologies were the big ‘in demand’ skills, with security the new ‘hot’ area.
Banks and large corporate were feeding the frenzy, while London and its surrounds formed the epicenter of renewed demand. A third of businesses claimed they had trouble filling IT vacancies; most saying it was hurting their bottom line. Salaries were rising slowly, but job title inflation was out of control (“Everyone coming fresh out of university calls themselves an ‘architect’ these days,” one commentator complained). In fact, the industry had restructured following the dot. Bust and many low grade IT jobs had been outsourced abroad, leaving only high value talent behind. Suddenly, nobody was junior anymore.
An investigation of media options soon revealed that a campaign saying “Microsoft is hiring” wouldn’t cut it in this market. The online job boards were heaving with vacancies. Big names like Oracle, LogicaCMG and IBM were running double-page spreads in the trade press (IBM, in fact, did so in the Sunday Times – at around £200,000 for just one ad).
We asked around 470 Microsoft employees how they searched for jobs, how that might have changed with time, what non-traditional media we could exploit and what they thought the compelling messages might be. One of the most interesting findings related to the way in which the web had affected job-hunting. Whereas word-of-mouth related activities had secured jobs for almost half the employees
Questioned, that figure nose-dived when they were searching for a new job.
Today’s candidates evidently had considerably
more confidence in the internet as a career
change tool; however, few checked employer
Re-establishing its place in the recruitment market
sites ‘just in case’ they were looking for staff
and, perhaps surprisingly in this market, press
advertising proved popular.
It seems that IT jobseekers scan the internet
and recruitment press for opportunities before
pursuing them further online. Prior to the
research, we had considered advertising in
lifestyle magazines but, when a very diverse
range of hobbies and interests were revealed
by the survey, this became impractical.
However, the high numbers of people using wifi
services interested us – and the comments
we received on the culture at Microsoft
provided us with a promising platform for a
creative message.
With a budget of £200,000, at the planning
stage we kept roughly a third of it in reserve,
allowing us to take stock mid-way through the campaign – to assess the effectiveness of key
media, identify outstanding roles and commit
additional resources as appropriate.
The remaining £140,000 was committed to a
multiple channel strategy, designed to direct
‘traffic’ to the jobs section of the Microsoft
corporate website. We hit high profile
traditional media, including the Sunday Times,
Computing and Computer Weekly with
relatively small, inexpensive ads with creativity
designed to achieve maximum impact. We also
secured on-going coverage for Microsoft on all
major careers portals, including the newly
relaunched MSN. Email ‘gossip’ newsletters,
such as The Register, performed well in our
survey, so this was utilised along with sites like
ZDNet and Silicon.
Finally, we conducted a range of activities to
raise awareness of Microsoft in the industry,
generate PR and leverage employee referrals.
These included wi-fi landing point ads – the first
time this medium had ever been exploited for
recruitment.
Our creative message throughout focused on
Microsoft UK’s culture – hitherto largely invisible
and, to some extent, merely imagined. We
positioned Microsoft as the place where ideas
rule, with ads featuring doodles and notebook
scribbles – the sort of images that challenged
preconceptions of corporate blandness and
conformity. These are shown on the previous
page. |
