Guerilla Recruiting – using creativity to stand out in the war for talent

In this day and age, it is the task of all companies to catch the eye of potential applicants and convince them of their merits. But in the war for talent and the jungle of information overload, this is easier said than done.

Today, therefore, creativity is required in order to still attract the attention of candidates and to reach not only the high potentials, but above all the right potentials. In their recruiting marketing, some companies display a degree of creativity that can only be admired. For example, these companies…

Google’s enigma

Google is known for wanting to hire only the best and brightest. But how do they sort out the candidates who just want to work for Google for a change? One way is to pose them a riddle, as the tech giant did with their Out of Home campaign.

Whoever could solve the complex mathematical equation ended up with the domain 7427466391.com and could apply to Google. However, you can see that the campaign is a little older, because today the Internet would have spoiled this method very quickly, because spoilers never stay away for long.

Volkswagen’s secret message

How do I reach the most talented mechanics in the company? VW figured there was only one way to get to them and that was through a love of repair. That’s why they put a hidden message on the underbody of defective vehicles and sent these cars to service centers across Germany to reach experienced mechanics and fitters.

The campaign can be called a great success, because the internal applications are impressive.

Marriott focuses on personality

Marriott shows that chatbots and recruiting belong together. The hotel chain focused on individualized and personal messages in its campaign and used a chatbot in HR marketing that transformed the content of the recruiting campaign into a personal brand message.

Using chatbots, not only experienced employees were able to answer messages, but also the inquiries of potential applicants were dealt with very intensively. The application experience was the focus of the campaign.

What you can take away from all the examples is that it takes a little getting to know people. Today, it is no longer just the company that chooses the candidates; the applicants also choose their future employer. That’s why new approaches are needed, both in analog and digital recruiting.