GOOD
Employer Save the Children
Vacancy Writer/editor
'Doesn't look like a good ad to me?' I can hear you saying, but bear with me. You see this does represent how UK recruitment ad agencies genuinely try to do their best for their clients. It has an idea in the headline, the copy is clear and concise, it is relatively well put together and it has a challenging strapline - We Save the Children. Will you?
It shows some care and attention, as all borderstyle ads should. This type of work should be the norm. After all, the client is paying good money to advertise at this size, and in colour too.There are times when the best client in the world can't afford the biggest ad in the press, but that doesn't mean that standards have to drop in relation to the lack of column inches you have to play with.
BAD
Employer IBM
Vacancy Technology strategist
Yes, that really is a Help Wanted (as they call recruitment in The New York Times) ad for IBM. And you thought your budgets were tight. In total that ad cost under $500 - a bargain. In the US, they obviously don't believe in 'employer' branding their work - they're more interested in 'bang for their buck'.
IBM wasn't the only large, multi-million dollar business advertising this way. I was going to review the ad above this one but Yahoo! had included its logo so it stood out head and shoulders above it. Even with eight vacancies in almost the same size space, the big difference was that you could actually manage to read theirs.
So if your ad agency complains when you say you have only a small budget, show them this ad and they will soon be speechless. Now you see why the Save the Children ad is so good. It makes you proud to be in UK HR and recruitment, doesn't it?
- Mark Rice is co-founder and creative partner of the communications agencyandsome; email mark.rice@haymarket.com.
