The Campaign

We created a recruitment show online about young media hopefuls looking for their first break in our industry. It was our way of recruiting China’s top marketing talent when there was no awareness of our brand or even the media investment management industry. Our 10 webisodes, called “GroupM Young Power”, were broadcast on Youku.com. In each webisode, we put 10 young interns through their paces with real-life media industry tasks, both big and small. It was a contest to win a permanent media job within GroupM’s China agencies and a one-month training placement at one of our worldwide operations. We made every task and episode a compelling, realistic portrayal of our work, allowing the candidates to give their honest responses to the camera. In this way, we ensured viewers understood not only what the industry is about but gave them an authentic experience of what the candidates were feeling and learning. The industry had never seen anything like it. Word of mouth and viral amplification was phenomenal - awareness of GroupM soared by 913%. More than 27 targeted media covered the story. In just four weeks, we received over 15,000 contacts from high-calibre, young talent, eager to join us.

The Brief

We were looking to attract the best marketers under the age of 30. Our initial research into why talents aspire to work for leading employers revealed some key insights. It showed that candidates were attracted by access to great resources, collaborative cultures, healthy working environments and visionary leadership. But we couldn’t just tell candidates that we can provide these. We had to show them. So we invited cameras into our offices to showcase the industry and explain the many opportunities we offer so talent would consider us alongside world-class employer brands like Google and Apple.

Results

o By getting the industry talking we grew awareness of GroupM by 913%. o More than 27 targeted media partners covered our story, including AdAge, Mediapost, Marketing, MadisonBoom, and Media 360. o Our webisodes attracted over 1 MILLION online viewings (against expectations of 200,000). o Delivered huge ROI of 5 views per RMB (CPV 0.19 RMB), more than 5 times higher than the website committed average reach/cost. o The show generated over 350 MILLION impressions. o Traffic to our website during the campaign increased by over 500%! o Over 15,000 candidates submitted their details through our site. o In post-campaign research, 75% requested career information and two-thirds said they would consider working at GroupM. o We now have the highest awareness among our competitors and successfully delivered perceptions of “creative”, “young”, “attractive”, “passionate” and “professional” as the top 5 characteristics of the campaign.

Execution

We broadcast “GroupM Young Power” on China’s biggest video site Youku.com. Our 10-episode series featured 10 candidates (GroupM interns) competing for a confirmed job offer with GroupM China. One gripping, 10-minute episode was broadcast every day from June 20th with a promotional trailer appearing on June 15th. Episode 1 introduced GroupM, the task, and the recruitment process. The next 9 episodes saw the teams receive the brief, work with their team mentors and prepare for each task. Viewers saw teams compete on tasks at each of our three agencies. They developed original, non-traditional media campaign ideas for Nike, came up with a ‘big idea’ for GlaxoSmithKline’s Nose Strips, and carried out day-to-day activities like competitive spend data running and thinking of the next theme for our Friday Happy Hour office party. Each episode asked viewers to click through to our site to find out about other great opportunities with us.

The Situation

Although GroupM is a leading global media investment management company, not many young Chinese talents knew that. So while they were planning their futures with famous brands like Apple and Google, we were being overlooked. We needed to change this. In China’s highly competitive recruitment market, where talent is at a premium, we knew we could only compete by building our employer brand. So we turned GroupM into a ‘sexy’ and ‘intelligent’ icon through our recruitment competition show. But with awareness of the media investment industry so low, we couldn’t establish our own brand until we had explained our industry.

The Strategy

We had to bring our industry to life in the minds of the younger generation. A content creation strategy allowed us to tell our industry’s story. By showing this young audience the benefits, challenges and passion of the industry, we not only built a strong, positive perception but also an accurate one to attract the right skills. We sold-in stories about the show to trade media. Its readers were most likely to possess the skills we need and understand a little more about our industry. To reach marketing newcomers, we used digital channels such as Tencent, Sohu, Tudou, iQiyi, MSN and Douban. We targeted undergraduates at several leading universities through events and office workers through taxi screens in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.