NON-TRADITIONAL - A Warning for Cinema Recruitment Advertising

I saw Batman: The Dark Knight opening night and as the pre-movie ads were rolling, a beautiful spot for an offshore oil company came up. I’m going to give a run down of the spot.

The shots were absolutely beautiful and they did a great job displaying the diversity of the work force. It was catchy and up beat and very much like a music video. They developed a very strong feeling of what it was like to work for the company and it was obvious that quite a bit of money was spent on the production of this spot. They had wonderful shots from the water looking up at the rig and shots taken from all around the platform. Rich navy and sky blue colors really enriched the shots and the sharp camera work was perfect. As the quick moving shots continue and the music builds in the background, it comes to a final peak and they display the company logo, contact information and website… for about a half a second before the next commercial started.

My eyes had enough time to read “Experience a career wi-“. No where, throughout the entire initial video and music collage, was the company name ever displayed and because of improper timing that was a commercial budget wasted.

Cinema recruitment commercials offer a chance to show passive and active candidates a great video and photo montage of your working environment and to get candidates energized and pumped about wanting to work for your company. You have them held at attention, just make sure you message reaches them.

Suggestions?

• Don't make candidates wait to find out who you are. Display the website along the bottom of the video for the majority or entirety of the commercial. Give candidates’ eyes something to shift between that directly connects to your company. Awesome footage, wigetjobs.com, awesome footage, wigetjobs.com. Suspense is great but if they only see you name for a few seconds, the chances that they will remember you after a 2 hour movie are slim.
  

• Account for human and technological error. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The very beginning of your video and your tail end of the video are at risk for being chopped to meet time requirements. Your final splash page may have all the information you could possibly need but if that gets cut short and you make no mention of the information elsewhere, your entire spot has become worthless.

Cinema recruitment advertising gives you a chance to display interesting and energized work environment details to an active and passive audience. Even if they aren’t looking for a job you have a chance to brand your company.