GOOD
Employer: HarperCollins
Vacancy: Graduate and summer placement schemes
This really should be classified 'good micro-campaign'. This hits the spot of its target audience - everyone who lives in Web 2.0, blogging, web forums, YouTube, Facebook, and so on.
Using 'direct' press ads to send applicants to a microsite, with a Facebook profile in the mix, pulls them into the world of possibilities at HarperCollins. The design style and copy tone fits perfectly with the offer. It knows its market - young grads (though by law they can't say it). It speaks their language - ROFL (Rolling on the floor laughing), BRB (Be right back), WTF (What the f***). It also challenges them with a deselecting questionnaire to test their creativity and interests. It's a supreme example of an employer (and agency) understanding its market and, more importantly, knowing how to communicate with it without coming over all corporate 'sheep in cool wolf's clothing'.
BAD
Employer: Kettle Foods
Vacancy: Business account managers
Here we are back in the 'Old Skool' of recruitment advertising. After our excursion into the brave new world of HarperCollins, Kettle Foods bring us back to earth with a... bag of their chips. It's poorly art directed, with a packshot taken on the art director's 1999 mobile phone, together with some uncrafted retouching and cliched copywriting.
The 'packshot as advert' has been around since... well, I did it in The Grocer at least 15 years ago. It's tried and trusted and while it can still be done in a fresh, interesting and fun way, this effort is not one of them. These days when digital technology means you can see your photo (and manipulate it) in seconds, there is no excuse. If you are skilled and care enough, you could make this idea sing in a couple of hours. Which I suspect is the time this ad was created in - though if I'm wrong then it is even worse than I thought.
Mark Rice is co-founder and creative partner of the communications agency andsome; email mark.rice@haymarket.com.
