The lines have been drawn and the battle has begun. This year's Christmas adverts are being aired across social media, online blogs, streaming websites and those television primetime slots that companies have been endlessly bidding on for months; all to grab the UK population's attention and market their brand as being the one you want to choose this season.
Christmas advertising has the same objective when employers are looking for candidates to outshine the competition and attract the person that everyone else is vying for. Unlike large retailers with grandiose marketing budgets, organisations typically have a limited spend and a small time frame in which to catch their target candidate's eye. What can you take away from this year's top Christmas adverts when looking to write your own?
Get to the point on multiple touch points
We wait in anticipation for the unofficial opening of the season's festivities through the familiar faces of retail's merry offerings to hit one of the many screens we have at our fingertips. If the advert takes too long to conjure up festive excitement or doesn't even acknowledge Christmas and all that it has to offer then viewers are not only disappointed but they turn off quickly, onto a competitor's advert to see if what they have to offer fulfils their expectations and is obvious in its proposition. This is no different to a job advert.
Be precise, to the point and clear about what the role is, the experience required for it, the responsibilities, the career progression and benefits to boot. Candidates dont want to have to cipher through reams of text before getting to the information they require, nor do they want the advert to consist of nothing that they feel is relevant to them. In this day and age everyone's time is precious and life needs to be as easy and seamless as possible which is why an increasing number of applicants are now made through mobiles.
Make sure that your job advert renders to every device that can be accessed - too much text, broken layouts and irrelevant content to the role and you'll lose interest and applications.
Nothing wrong with being a little emotional
Think about previous year's Christmas adverts, what are the ones that stood out and stuck in your mind? No doubt they will be the ones that made you feel something. Whether it be humour, happiness, nostalgia or even sadness, they were successful in attaching themselves to you, provoking a thought and seamlessly making a connection with you unconsciously.
The goal of a job advert is to encourage candidates to apply for the role you have available over the same positions your competitors have on offer too. Through showcasing your brand's character and tapping into what makes a candidate want to press 'apply now' and send their CV, your organisation can become unconsciously attached to an applicant.
Get them excited about the role and the company by discussing the working culture, office environment, the team they'll be working with - is it an open plan office where everyone gets along and there are no cliques? Do people eat lunch together? Is there collaborative thinking? Midweek quiz night and quarterly company celebrations?
At Christmas retailers need customers to buy into them as a brand and build a relationship in order to buy their products. It's no different when it comes to hiring the people you want in a candidate short market.
Don't be the one that people forgot
Your advert is finally live. It's been triple spell and grammar checked, rendering reviewed and with the necessary information about the role and buzzwords in place but the applications are not rolling in and you're perplexed as to what went wrong. You did everything right, problem is, so did your competitors.
Why does everyone always look forward to the John Lewis advert? The answer is because it's always different; it's innovative, quirky and even controversial as the UK public become divided in opinion over whether it's the advert of the season or the worst advert to be made. Now, as an organisation looking to attract candidates you definitely don't want people's opinions to be the latter when it comes to your job ad. It could be your only chance to make an impression and you want it to be a lasting one.
Be bold and stand out from your competitors for the right reasons. If you're looking for inspiration Social Talent scoured the internet to find the most creative job ads that certainly won't be forgotten in a hurry.
Jobs are for life, but could also be just for Christmas
These budget breaking advertisements happen once a year, but recruitment is an ongoing venture. At Brook Street we provide solutions for both your temporary and permanent requirements that can be scaled to compliment the volume of your hire, whether it be en masse or single recruitment, seasonal demands and support for business growth.
Whatever your demand our branches are on hand with in-depth knowledge of your region's job market and exclusive access to the top candidates from your local market that possess the talent, experience and character you're looking for, when you're looking for them.
