AGENCY BEATS

TitleAGENCY BEATS
Brand20SOMETHING (SELF-PROMOTION)
Product/Service20SOMETHING
Category G05. Breakthrough on a Budget
Entrant SERVICEPLAN Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation SERVICEPLAN Brussels, BELGIUM
Media Placement SERVICEPLAN Brussels, BELGIUM
PR SERVICEPLAN Brussels, BELGIUM
Production SERVICEPLAN Brussels, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Dimitrios Lemonias Serviceplan Strategic Planner and English Copywriter
Quentin Watelet Serviceplan Creative Director
Louis Roba Serviceplan Art Director
Jordan Rubens Serviceplan Motion Designer

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

This work is relevant for this category given its response-driven objective. There was a straightforward correlation between the recruitment campaign and the desired outcome of having interns and fresh graduates applying at our agency.

Background

When it comes to recruiting graduates fresh out of school, we have been using the same outdated means for decades. The truth is we try to meet the future by constantly doing what we did in the past. And while the world has evolved, job ads haven’t. As a result, only 17% of Belgian job-seeking Millennials and Gen Xers actually find a job though typical job ads, simply because they don’t consult these anymore or they fall completely under their radar as these are boring and conventional. To stay up to date with the youngest generations, our agency is always on the lookout for fresh young talent. So in order to circumvent the barriers outlined above, we decided to come up with an unconventional recruitment campaign to hire interns and fresh graduates to join the ranks of our Millenial and Generation Z marketing department.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

The creative idea consisted of creating a recruitment campaign in the form of a rap song giving an inside look to our target audience of what the agency life is all about. The song was written, composed, performed, produced and recorded completely by three of our Millennial colleagues. The fact that all three of them were fans of hip hop gave an edge to the campaign in the sense that it made the song authentic to the eyes of an audience that can easily see through the ploy of an agency wanting to jump on the hip hop bandwagon just because of its bankability. The song was written in English and French to reach a pan-European audience rather than limiting ourselves solely to Belgium.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

As mentioned earlier the audience we wanted to target for recruitment rarely goes to employment fairs, and typical job ads fly under their radar. Having this in mind, think that for the first time in history, hip-hop has surpassed rock in the rankings of the most-listened-to music genre, according to a recent study by Nielsen Music. Precisely, this musical genre which draws its roots from urban culture ranks first in terms of "total consumption" amongst other genres. This includes album sales and streaming numbers. If you are still skeptical, take a look at the 10 most listened albums of 2017. Seven of those are part of this popular movement. Taking the above into account it only made sense for us our latest recruitment campaign to use the codes and lingo these youngsters understand all too well. We are talking about none other than the language of rap.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The execution consisted of creating a song and its associated music video completely in-house. The music video was then amplified on Facebook and Instagram with a call-to-action that led users directly to our website to fill their application form. Users could then find the song on all streaming platforms. The Facebook campaign had two phases. The first one, was an awareness phase with an objective of video views. Dutch speakers of Belgium were targeted with the English verse of the song, while French speakers saw the French verses. The second phase was one of consideration with an objective of traffic, thus encouraging clicks with an "apply now" call-to-action. We target people between the ages of 20 to 25, French and Dutch speaking, with interests in Communication Schools, Communication Agencies, and fields of study including marketing, digital media, and graphic design.

List the results (30% of vote)

With a total budget of €1007. we had 486K impressions and managed to reach 151K users. These numbers led to 429 young graduates and students applying to our agency. The inherent shareable nature of this campaign made it reach countries that were outside of our scope. This way our team of 20Something's now includes people from all over Belgium, France, Morocco, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Switzerland. Finally, the song was picked up organically by two major radio stations in Belgium (NRJ and BEL-RTL) given its novelty. All of the above made this the most successful recruiting campaign in our agency.