SAVE FOR AWARDS. THE UNDERCOVER RECRUITMENT AD

TitleSAVE FOR AWARDS. THE UNDERCOVER RECRUITMENT AD
BrandINNOCEAN BERLIN
Product/ServiceRECRUITMENT
Category B10. Use of Technology
Entrant INNOCEAN WORLDWIDE EUROPE Berlin, GERMANY
Idea Creation INNOCEAN WORLDWIDE EUROPE Berlin, GERMANY
PR INNOCEAN WORLDWIDE EUROPE Berlin, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Gabriel Mattar INNOCEAN Worldwide Europe GmbH European CCO
Ricardo Wolff INNOCEAN Worldwide Europe GmbH ECD
José Gomes INNOCEAN Worldwide Europe GmbH Senior Art Director
Pedro Lourenco INNOCEAN Worldwide Europe GmbH Senior Copywriter
Goncalo Martinho INNOCEAN Worldwide Europe GmbH Art Director
Antonio Neto INNOCEAN Worldwide Europe GmbH Copywriter
José Gomes INNOCEAN Worldwide Europe GmbH Senior Art Director
Carlos Suárez Freelancer Motion Designer
Leticia Rial Ungaro INNOCEAN Worldwide Europe GmbH Senior Corporate Strategy & Planning Manager
Jeesoo Kim INNOCEAN Worldwide Europe GmbH Trainee Corporate Strategy

Why is this work relevant for Media?

Save for Awards is a recruitment ad disguised as a tool that takes your original print ads and presentation boards and automatically converts them into the specs required by all major award shows, in seconds. We transformed the world’s most popular software for creatives (Photoshop) into a new media, in order to reach the ambitious talent who uses it on a daily basis. We turned to an often overlooked tool inside Photoshop (automation scripts) to create a piece of software that would not only help award-hungry creatives, but also function as an undercover recruitment ad.

Background

In 2019, Innocean was just launching its Berlin office. But as a fairly unknown agency and with very little work to show under our name, we were having a hard time recruiting top creative talent.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

We created a Photoshop plug-in to help ambitious creatives - the kind we wanted to hire - prepare their award show entries. A script that automatically resizes and converts the original print ads or presentation boards into all the files one needs to enter to every award show out there, in seconds. But here’s the catch. This plug-in was also a trojan horse designed to talk to award-hungry creatives directly under their bosses' noses and ask them to join Innocean Berlin.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

A small and new agency like Innocean stands no chance against the big names out there when it comes to attracting top talent. So we had to be smart and sneaky, and approach our target, in an innovative way. We turned Photoshop into media, and created a tool that would make every award-hungry creative’s life a whole lot easier. Once we had their undivided attention, we delivered our recruitment message - inside Photoshop, right when they were preparing to submit their work to award shows. To promote this plug-in we also took an unusual approach and ran tailor-made ads exclusively where creatives spend most of their time: on advertising websites like Ads of The World, Best Ads on TV, Lürzer’s Archive, etc.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The plug-in was - and still is - available for free at www.saveforawards.com . It includes specs for all major award shows, and trade websites/publications like Luerzer’s Archive, Best Ads on TV, Ads of The World, etc. The campaign promoting the plug-in ran on Innocean’s social media channels. Tailor-made ads were created specifically for Adeevee, Ads of The World, Luerzer’s Archive and Best Ads on TV and entered as creative work, not ads.

List the results (30% of vote)

The Save For Awards plug-in got wide coverage in trade media from around the world. Global CCOs from other agencies shared our plug-in with their entire network, not realizing that they were actually helping us poach their talent (sorry, not sorry). Due to popular demand, we created a version 2.0 that included even more festivals and also media like Luerzer’s Archive, Adeevee, Ads of The World, Communication Arts, etc. To date, the plug-in has been downloaded more than 1700 times, in 47 countries. Thanks to this plug-in, 3 new teams left big agencies like Africa, DDB, Jung von Matt and VML/Y&R and started at Innocean Berlin in July 2019. Not bad for an underdog agency.