The Ultimate Creative Recruiter that infiltrated Dubai's Top Advertising Agencies and attracted their best talent
The Challenge
We set out to expand our creative department, but hiring talent in the region is a constant struggle. We needed to capture the attention of the region’s best creative talent, without incurring expensive headhunter fees. So, we did our homework and sent out the ultimate creative recruiter.
The Solution
Beautifully designed faux industry self-help books were personalized to potential recruits and demonstrated how they could advance their career with us. Inside each book, an ordinary phone was concealed in die-cut pages and programmed with only one contact – our ECD’s number. We then sent it out to infiltrate Dubai’s top Ad Agencies.
The Results
Within a week, our ECD received the calls he was hoping for, and a month later, our creative department had four new additions: A world-class Art Director, a talented Design Director, and a Young Lions team.
Projected cost of traditional recruitment: AED 300,000 ($81,967).
Cost of Poaching Phone Books: AED 6,000 ($1,639)
Cost of Phones: AED 0 (Thanks to our Sony clients)
Total savings: 98% of our projected recruitment cost.
This idea was one of the most buzzed about ideas and discussion on Adweek during March, gaining much positive feedback from the international advertising community, and went on to win a Bronze at Dubai Lynx as well as a Finalist at New York Festival 2014. It was also featured in Directory Magazine June edition.
Our ECD's personal number was the only contact saved in our phones and then secretly disguised inside die-cut pages of our faux-self help books.
Each book was cutomised to the potential talent we wanted to hire and highlighted how they could advance their career with us.
Each book also highlighted how they could advance their career with us.
3 unique and highly personalised books were created to help us hire: A world-class Art Director, A talented Design Director and a Young Lions team.
