Recruiting campaigns: These 6 creative examples went viral!

Recruiting Kampagne: 6 Beispiele für kreative Aktionen

Recruiting campaigns are designed to attract the attention and enthusiasm of candidates. We have put together 6 examples of successful and creative recruitment campaigns for inspiration.

Recruiting campaigns are designed to attract attention and enthusiasm from candidates. But all too often they fizzle out and are not particularly effective. To ensure that your next campaign is not a flop, we have put together 6 examples of successful and creative recruiting campaigns for inspiration.

What is a recruiting campaign?

Definition: Was ist eine Recruiting Kampagne?
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By definition, a recruiting campaign is an action in which several participants work together over a certain period of time to attract new talent. The company is put in the spotlight as an attractive employer and the attention of potential candidates is aroused through original (marketing) measures.

Recruiting campaigns are therefore an interplay of personnel marketing and Employer
Branding
Open positions can be advertised directly, but more abstract and unusual campaigns are often used to increase the company's awareness and reputation.

To set up such campaigns, recruiters have to adopt the mindset of marketers. Typical marketing tools are used, from storytelling to social media.

The best recruiting campaigns – our top 6

The following 6 campaigns were particularly innovative and some of them went viral. The target group felt they were being addressed by these recruiting campaigns. Learn from these best practices:

1 Deutsche Bahn: What is important to me?


Deutsche Bahn (DB) is known for smart personnel marketing. The campaign "What is important to you?" is also well thought-out recruiting: the focus is not on the company itself, but on the different expectations of (potential) employees of DB as an employer. Specialists, students, career changers, academics and trainees are all equally addressed with this recruiting campaign.

With an elaborately produced video clip and a Websitewhere candidates can choose what is important to them. Whether flexible working hours, job security, money or climate protection - DB provides suitable job offers for all preferences.

2. Edeka relies on social media recruiting campaign on TikTok

@edeka Easy win for team EDEKA 💪 @Chana #edeka ♬ Original sound – EDEKA


Grocery retailer Edeka apparently wants to reach Generation Z – and what better way to do that than via TikTok? The popular social media channel has the potential to provide an insight into the daily working environment in a company with authentic and original videos.

In its campaign, Edeka combines influencer collaborations with TikTok challenges. For example, in a clip in which influencer Chana duels with a trainee at the checkout. Who can scan the goods faster? The video garnered over 70,000 likes, and Chana also posted stories and short clips about the recruiting campaign on her own channel (with 1.4 million followers), thereby boosting Edeka's reach.

3. The Federal Chemical Employers Association lets candidates swipe with the training finder


The Federal Employers' Association for the Chemical Industry has developed matching tools that candidates can use to discover jobs in the chemical industry that suit them. They use the popular swipe principle that has become famous through apps such as Tinder and others. Training Finder 23 simple questions can be answered in the negative or positive way – after which the user is suggested suitable apprenticeships.

Also innovative: With the Training quiz for the smartphone, the user is catapulted into a 360-degree view of a factory hall and answers corresponding questions.

4. GB Gartenbau with “7 vs. Wild” satire


At the end of the second season of the reality show "7 vs. Wild", the GB Gartenbau company published a recruiting video on YouTube that is also a satire on the series. It generated over 300,000 views. The original and high-quality video shows 7 GB Gartenbau employees "fighting" for the viewer's application in the "wild". It was very well received by the target group, as can be seen from the predominantly positive comments and numerous likes.

The campaign is well thought-out personnel marketing: It is highly likely that horticultural workers also know or like the show format “7 vs. Wild”. On the video advertised in the clip Career Page There are more videos waiting for the candidates in which employees give authentic insights into their work.

5. Bosch launches recruiting campaign #LikeABosch for young IT professionals


Bosch has also made its corporate motto “Like a Bosch” into a recruiting slogan with the hashtag of the same name. This was intended to recruit young software talents via social media. Career Page has been pimped up accordingly and provides authentic insights into the working world at Bosch – including stories from employees who address diversity, environmental protection and other burning issues for Gen Z.

The measure was successful: the conversion rate rose by 33% and the number of applications received by 69%. This campaign even earned Bosch the award for the best recruiting campaign of 2022 at the HR Excellence Awards.

6. QuinScape CEO donates money for every like


Sure, you can post a post as an ad on LinkedIn, thereby generating a high reach and LinkedIn paying for it. But you can also publish a post, achieve a high reach and donate to a good cause. That is what Gero Presser, CEO of QuinScape GmbH, did and thus created an original Social Media Recruiting Campaign started on his LinkedIn profile. In order to get a lot of reach for his LinkedIn post with a link to QuinScape's career page, he announced in the post that he would donate one euro to the organization Kinderlachen eV for every like.

5,350 likes were generated and Gero Presser donated 6,000 euros to the association. Wollmilchsau has comparedhow much they would have had to spend on paid advertising on LinkedIn to achieve this result and concluded that the cost would probably be similar or only slightly higher. And since the money went to a good cause, it probably also helped the company's image.

Implementing a recruiting campaign – this is how it works

In order to start a successful recruiting campaign, the first step should be to Define target group. Who should be reached with the campaign? Demographic characteristics such as age, region, etc. as well as wishes for the employer, online behavior (channels, etc.) and the requirements for the candidates (qualifications, skills, etc.) must be determined.

Team bei der Umsetzung einer Recruitment Kampagne
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Furthermore, it is important to To analyze competitorsHow do they search for candidates and what makes them successful?

But you should not only look at the others, but also investigate in your own company, what actions have been taken in the past. What went well, what didn't? What conclusions can be drawn from this?

In addition, Framework and resources for the campaign be clarified. How much budget is planned? Is the internal team sufficient for implementation or does it need external support?

Target group definition, competitive analysis and current situation in the company are the basis from which the message, suitable channels and appropriate measures for the campaign can be derived. Now you can start to develop concrete ideas for slogans, hashtags, visual appearance, formats, etc. and put them into practice with the appropriate professionals.

What is meant by “appropriate professionals”? Depending on which channel the recruiting campaign is to run on, there are different requirements to consider.

Example: Place advertisements. Google Ads are, for example, much more complex than placing social media ads. Social media channels also differ - for TikToks you have to produce videos, while on Facebook "just" pictures may be enough. But of course they also need to be professionally designed.

Different types of recruitment actions

The examples listed above show that there are different types of recruiting campaigns. Whether quizzes, challenges, influencer marketing, insight stories or satirical videos: nowadays there are many ways to set up a recruiting campaign with pep.

The effort and costs for the campaign vary considerably. A mixture of classic and individual, innovative recruiting and marketing elements is also possible and is the secret recipe for many successful campaigns. It is important to find out which type of campaign is suitable for the defined target group and ultimately best suits your own company brand. Because authenticity is of great importance in such campaigns.

Benefits of recruiting campaigns

There are many good reasons why you should start a recruiting campaign:

  1. Increase awareness: Small and medium-sized companies in particular can increase their visibility as companies and thus also as employers.
    Recruiting Kampagnen Vorteile
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  2. Targeting: Performance Recruiting Measures on the web offer the possibility of targeting specific groups – wastage can be kept significantly lower than with offline job advertisements and the campaign can be continuously optimized.
  3. Reach passive candidates: People who are not actively looking for a job can be addressed through a creative campaign - if the offer is better than the current job and this can be communicated, a job change could occur.
  4. Employer
    Branding
    : The opportunity to draw attention to yourself through emotional videos and images as well as through individual addresses and messages directly influences the employer brand.
  5. Cover touchpoints: Campaigns can be set up on different channels (even simultaneously!) and thus reach interested parties at different touchpoints along the candidate journey.

Looking for support?

We would be happy to help you and your company plan and implement your individual recruiting campaign. Together we will find out who your target group is and how we can best reach them. Our experts have many years of experience in the conception, implementation and management of campaigns.

If you have any questions or are interested in working with us, please contact us at any time.

>>> Contact us

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