Republic of Singapore Navy "Uniform"

It's not easy to become an officer in the Navy. In fact it's near impossible. Reason being, a naval officer will one day command a highly sophisticated, multi-million dollar frigate with state-of-the-art sensor and weapon systems. So every year, though thousands apply for this coveted position, only a handful demonstrating the right combination of mental aptitude, strategic thinking and physical fitness get selected. Their challenge Naval Officer's jacket, complete with medals and decorations. An awe-inspiring uniform that is revered and respected. The life-size uniform could be held up, immediately allowing the recipient to see how he would look in it. A business reply card was placed in the breast pocket. 6.000 direct mailers were mailed to graduating "A" level students in December 2008. 4,7% of them responded, considered a higher than average response rate compared to previous direct mailers sent out.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore.

DraftFCB Kobza "Bank Transfer Job-Ad"

The advertising agency was looking for an accountant who is more attentive than the others. Their target group: Accountants of other agencies in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Furthermore the agency wanted to advertise in a new and innovative way in order to boost the agency’s brand appeal. The relevance lies in the simplicity and sharpness of the promotion: The credit transfer reaches exactly their actual target group of accountants, which means they have almost no waste coverage. As the budget was quite small, they came up with an idea that is rather inexpensive and very easy to use. They used the posting line of a credit transfer as advertising space: They simply transferred 1 Euro via online banking to other agencies, using the posting line for the job ad and so inviting applications for the job of an accountant. The promotion was a great success: We have hired a new accountant. Based on their highly targeted approach, they drove a 60% response rate and numerous high caliber applications. Bronze Cannes Lions Direct Winner.

Agency: DraftFCB Kobza Vienna, Austria.

2009 "DTP Job Vacancy"

To get the most talented DTPer (studio designer) in a highly competitive market where it’s hard to stand out among all the job vacancy ads in this sector. To execute the idea for the same price as a normal ad, but then with a lot of free publicity. This creative execution was relevant because DTPers were waiting for the authentic ADOBE CS4 software which was about to be launched. DTPers are working with this software, and therefore this Trojan horse attracted their attention immediately. The design had to look as real as possible. The Box had to look real, but at a second glance it would make you smile. Also the special made programme had to make the DTPer smile. Infiltrate in companies by delivering a box to the desk of targeted DTPers. The box looked like the new ADOBE CS4 software, but it was a Trojan horse called ABODE CS4, meaning Ad for most Brilliant and Outstanding DTPer Ever. A special courier delivered the packages. Each package contained a DVD and guidebook. The DVD describes the Marketing Agency 2008 and the current vacancy. It includes a software programme they designed so that people could create their own personal letter of application. With one click they could send this letter to 2008. They also designed a special website www.abodecs4.com. The response of this campaign was overwhelming. They delivered 70 boxes, but received over a 100 applications. The news of their action was spreading everywhere, from their own website www.abodecs4.com to blogs, advertising magazines, computer magazines and even job magazines. They did 20 job interviews and finally they got the guy who was perfect for the job. The box became a product that every DTPer wanted to have. The costs were less than a 1/2 traditional ad in a trade paper (5000 Euro). They got their DTPer and a lot of free publicity for the new company. Bronze Cannes Lions Direct Winner"

Agency: 2009 Amsterdam, The netherlands.

Jewish Council "The Great Schlep"

Their assignment was to help Barack Obama win the Presidency of the United States by targeting voters in any key battleground state. Florida was such a key battleground state, and in 08’, it was up for grabs. An important voting group in Florida is its elderly Jews, but they were skeptical about Obama due to misinformation. So, in order to get elderly Jews to vote for Obama, they targeted the one group they’d listen to: Their grandchildren, and encouraged them to visit their grandparents in Florida to educate them about Obama. This intergenerational conversation was the key to their campaign: The Great Schlep. There are 400,000 elderly Jewish Voters in Florida, and like most elderly voters, the vast majority of them vote. This makes them a powerful voting block in Florida, and if Obama were to win a large percentage of them (despite their initial reservations) he’d win the election. In addition, since the majority of young Jews, like most young people in general, were Obama supporters, targeting them directly figured to be most effective. And besides, what Jewish grandparent wouldn’t want a visit form their beloved grandchild? They launched the campaign with a website aimed at inspiring, educating and connecting young Jewish people about the Great Schlep. The website consisted of Obama information/videos for viewing and sharing, a Great Schlep Facebook community component, talking points for engaging Jewish grandparents about Obama, and an online store with Schlep merchandise. In order to drive traffic to the website, they created a viral video about the Great Schlep. This video was seeded on a few video-sharing website sites, such as YouTube, and on the Great Schlep homepage. Their goal was to drive enough traffic to the website/Facebook group so as to create a movement with real political impact. Within a few weeks, The Great Schlep Facebook group had 25,000 members, and the Great Schlep talking points had been downloaded 1.2 million times. The Great Schlep was featured in every major American newspaper and on all major television stations. Networks such as CNN and ABC followed “Schleppers” to Florida from all over the country. The Great Schlep video featuring Sarah Silverman was hosted on thousands of blogs gaining more than 4 million views. The Great Schlep campaign received 342 million media impressions. On Election Day, Obama received the highest percentage of Florida’s Jewish voters in 30 years, and won Florida by 3 points. (Source: Optimedia) Gold Cannes Lions Direct Winner.

Agency: Groga5 New York, USA.

timesjobs.com "CV"

www.timejobs.com, one of the most dependable jobs portals in India, provides free job assistance to the aspiring candidates. It also offers "Magic Resume", a paid proffesional resume building service specially designed for freshers and less experienced people. Ironically, there is a huge registered user base with its free job-assistance service, but very few opt for the paid resume building service. Their task was to popularize the service among the registered user base as well as new user conversions by stressing the importance of building a perfect resume. In this downturn, a better resume is crucial as jobs are few and far between. On the basis of this core thought they decided to use the most common element of a recruitment process - A Curriculum Vitae, as a communication device and flat mailing as the communication strategy. CV of unequivocally talented international achievers from diverse fields (APJ Abdul Kalam, Barrack Obama, Stephen Hawking, Dr Manmohan Singh, Oprah Winfrey and Indra Nooyi) were mailed by post to TG with the message at the end of each CV - "Until your CV looks like this, use timejobs.com-Magic Resume". More than 90% of the existing user base targeted, registered for the service along with more than 75% new user conversions. The "Magic Resume" info space on the portal got around 1,15000 hits in a month's period. But equally important was the word of mouth publicity that the service got from sending these CV's as it was shared by the recipients with their friends, they were pinned to office boards and did the rounds in corporate circles across India.

Agency: Mudra Communications Mumbai, India.

The Mellor Partnership "Titles"

Upgrade your job, not your job title.

Agency: Leagas Delaney London, United Kingdom.

goodpeopleindia.com "Jobs Available"

To establisch goodpeopleindia.com as a leading job consulting company in the minds of employers and employees. The majority of the target audience comes to corporate hubs like Gurgaeon to work everyday. Huge buildings sport logos of the various companies they house. The idea was to make these buildings, modern landmarks of India, their medium. And be part of their core audience's work life and space. A sign with the message "Jobs Here" was attached to the window cleaning trolleys of these glass buildings. Every time the trolleys go up and down, they demonstrate Goodpeople's capability to find jobs across all levels - the top floor corner office to the ground floor welcome desk.

Agency: Euro RSCG Delhi, India.

Swedish Armed Forces "Have what it takes"

To attract 1 200 of the 57 000 previous conscripts, aged 20-26, to apply for officer’s training. The idea was based on the qualities needed to become an officer – creative problem solving under pressure. The idea was based on the qualities needed to become an officer – creative problem solving under pressure. Just because one task is done, doesn’t mean you get a pat on the shoulder. The next task is waiting around the corner, and it’s mostly a matter of seconds before a decision has to be made. The target was set high. A respons rate of 18% (10.000 phone calls) and 1.200 applications. But the campagne got amazing results. With a respons rate of 46% (30% unique ) and more than 26.000 phone calls, Swedish armed forces got over 2.000 applications. The campaign travelled into hundreds of blogs and press. And most important: In one month there were more applications than the whole previous year.

Agency: DDB Stockholm, Sweden.

Serviceplan "Dedication CD's"

Find creatives for the advertising agency Serviceplan Hamburg who would give everything for an idea. The poster showed, just how passionate and sacrificial Serviceplan is about creative work. They really give everything! And so made the point that we don’t want any employees who just work for money. But for fame and glory. For idealistic reasons. For the creative work itself. They made a poster, where their own creatives gave everything: Their art director's complete music collection? including 1,184 original music CDs? was really installed on the poster. The poster was installed at design academies. And there was a dispenser with response elements and the solution: 'Serviceplan is looking for creatives who give everything for an idea.' A job application increase of over 300%. And extremely positive creative feedback.

Agency: Serviceplan Hamburg, Germany.

Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R "Miserable Children"

Good employees are hard to find. Good copywriters are even harder. They wanted to reach as many young potential copywriters as possible However, they wanted to make sure, those who answer the call are also ready to work hard and long hours. They sent the video to every advertising and copywriting school in the country, and uploaded it in every ad forum and ad blogs. This helped us reach nearly 95% of the relevant professional population, Israel's advertising community. They decided to create a viral video that would generate a mouth-to-ear response. With the help of the children of their Executive Creative Director (these are his real children), they showed a humoristic perspective of their lives look like while dad is at the office. With it they delivered an emotional message: Help these miserable children - send me your CV's. A stunning effect: In just 3 days, more than 200 young copywriters sent their CV's. The best one of them is currently working at the agency. The Children were saved…

Agency: Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Tel Aviv, Israel.

BBDO "World's first napkin book"

In German Advertising there is a lack of talented young copywriters. BBDO took up the challenge and started to recruit literature students as junior copywriters. The objective was to get job applications from an exciting, new source of talent. On the one hand the creative execution should come across as a spontaneous drawing on a napkin, done by somebody bored while he or she was having lunch at the cafeteria. While on the other hand, the self-drawn illustrations, with the handwritten typopgraphy, should show how much effort was put in producing this special medium for recruiting new Junior Copywriters at BBDO. In order to reach the literature students, they decided to scribble their message on a napkin. “The world’s first napkin book” was created. The students picked it up in the campus cafeteria along with their lunch. The napkin book celebrates love of the written word and how one can make it their profession. BBDO Düsseldorf received over a hundred job applications from interested, young literature students. This was 15 times greater than the previous months’ total applications. The agency was introduced to fresh talent who, without this promotion, never would have considered working in advertising.

Agency: BBDO Düsseldorf, Germany.

Allan Gray Graduate Recruitment "Tie"

Get Ready. We’re Recruiting. Every year Allan Gray hosts a graduate recruitment campaign on campuses around South Africa. They handed out flyers which doubled as ties that students could wear. All the relevant information regarding the recruitment drive was printed on the reverse of the tie.

Advertising Agency: King James Cape Town, South Africa.

Monster.com "Foosball"

In a pub, one of the figures in a foosball table is replaced by a ballet dancer figurine, and she is never able to kick a ball. When people play, they can experience the problems of a job mismatch and be reminded to look for the right job using the best plattform - Monster.com.

Agency: JWT, Hong Kong.

Monster.com "Ballet Soldier"

To remind people of the problem of being stuck in the wrong job and to reinforce Monster.com as the best platform for finding the right job. In a pack of tiny toy soldiers, a ballet dancer is found taking up the role as a soldier. The ballet dancer is completely out of the place. This reminds everyone not to get stuck in the wrong job and that Monster.com is the best platform for finding the right job. After DM distribution, new IP visits increased by 40% and new registrations increased by 30%.

Agency: JWT, Hong Kong.

The British Council "Meet your hero"

To Increase the awareness and also the number and quality of submissions for The British Council of Australia's "Realise Your Dream" scholarship programme. This is an annual competition that rewards six artistic young Australians with a trip to the UK and a mentorship with the creative guru of their choice. They produced an integrated campaign based around the thought, 'Determined to meet your hero?' For young Australians simply getting to meet, let alone work with one of Britain's creative leaders (like Stella McCartney or Damien Hirst) is potentially a life changing opportunity and a prize their target would do anything to win. They dramatised this passion by showing the extreme, possibly psychotic lengths some people will go to, to meet their hero. And, in turn, highlight how you do much better entering the British Council's Realise Your Dream programme. In 2007 The British Council campaign reached over 2,000 000 people across Australia. They received more submissions than ever. Over 20,204 unique visitors to the website became 875 officially registered entrants (up 12% on 2006). Perhaps more importantly, this year's entries were of a far higher quality than previous years. The 6 lucky winners ranging from a rap artist to an indigenous art curator are already living and working in Britain. 2x Bronze Direct Lions Winner.

Agency: M&C Saatchi Sydney, Australia.

SAIT Polytechnic "Recruitment dollars"

Apparently, you have a knack for finding money. Interested in a career in fundraising? Let’s chat.

Agency: WAX Calgary, Canada.

Manpower "Glassworker wanted"

Manpower, a "360 solution provider" in human resources management, has sometimes been victim of objections and vandalic actions. The creative idea is to communicate how Manpower is able to turn problems into actual job opportunities. The ambient media activity conceived to convey this concept is based on two simple materials: a transparent sticker that simulates a crack in the window, and a sign saying "Glassworker wanted". This two materials will be stuck on the windows of all Manpower branch offices.

Agency: Grey Milan, Italy.

IBM "The number two inventor seeks out the best new talent"

IBM became world champion patent holder for the thirteenth time in a row. No other company is more innovative. To keep it this way, IBM is only lokking for the best new recruits. At the Cologne "Consulting Days", the top recruitment fair in the sector, the patent documents were placed precisely where they could also be experienced, e.g. the "gravity" patent in the conference hotel's lift. The graduates were left in no doubt: when it comes to innovation, IBM is the place to be. Only nature has more patents than IBM. Her inventions are presented on fictitious patent documents - with the information that IBM is just behind at number two. The results of the campaign: the recruitment appointments for the whole weekend were all taken up within the first few hours of the career fair.

Agency: Ogilvy Frankfurt, Germany.

Vedior "I am moving into your office"

Vedior wanted to promote their in-house service to the HR Manager who needs a lot of temporary workers. Vedior takes over all his work: finding temporary workers, doing the planning and all administration. When opting for this in-house formula, the dedicated Vedior specialist gets his own office in the company, close to the HR Manager. That's why Vedior sent a movers box to the HR Manager. The box contained personal belongings of the Vedior employee, coming straight from his office desk. The letter said: "I can not wait to move into your company" 11 out of 31 contacted companies made an appointment. A responce of 35%.

Agency: I DO Brussels, Belgium.

Serviceplan "How to make poster without a computer"

To illustrate just how urgently Serviceplan Hamburg required a graphic designer with IT skils, they developed 4 different poster that had one thing in common: they were all created without the aid of computers. Whether built from 5,268 lego bricks or 6,138 drawing-pins, sawn from wood or woven by hand - each individual poster was handmade, once-off piece. The posters then displayed on noticeboards in the design colleges. Increase in job applications of nearly 600%

Agency: Serviceplan Hamburg, Germany.