This clever and moving video arrived on my facebook wall a few days ago. It is worth taking a moment to watch it.
And then this morning a dear friend from South Africa pinged me that he was seeking sponsorship, raising money for the Wildlands Conservation Trust. David got me into cycling many years ago, introducing me to the joys of the high end bike shop, and the Berkshire and Surrey countryside. After years of hanging on his back wheel, the least I could do was sponsor him while he rides his mountain bike around Giant’s Castle.
If you would like to help, head over to David’s website for details. He is only riding 75kms, but it is for a good cause!-)
While taking a break from a flurry of inquiry calls about ERP upgrades vs SaaS replacements, I ambled over to facebook with Nespresso in hand. A few years ago I met Dave Duarte, who introduced me to the Ogilvy Digital Academy in South Africa. There is a lot of innovative stuff going on in the land of my youth, so I follow the SA scene on Facebook and on Twitter. South Africa has had a lot of innovative advertising over the years, and I’m pleased to see this has well and truly moved over into the social side of things. Today’s offering really hit home powerfully.
1. Innovative idea and great execution. Genius. Braille on the burger bun.
2. Wimpy get the fact that People with Disabilities spend money just like other demographics. Designing solutions and marketing for that segment makes business sense. Part of this is about equal rights and access, but it isn’t charity. Humour works.
3. The power of the referral. See the stats at the end of the presentation.
As part of my academic research, I’m looking at how enterprise software companies approach accessibility. Wimpy puts them all to shame. Well done Wimpy.
This is one of the better examples of linking corporate and employee branding for recruitment I have seen.
Low cost
Innovative
Targeted
Measured (note the stats at the end).
It cleverly reinforces the corporate and the employee brand. I wrote a note several years ago now (client link here) where I stressed the need for organizations to get marketing and HR to work more closely together on recruitment branding. This is probably the best example I have seen of a company doing that. Ping me others that you have seen, please.
A clever play like this does put pressure on the rest of the recruitment process. Make sure you have good, solid administrative processes in place to process the applications effectively.
My colleague, Michael Maoz, has been critical of those that try to do Social CRM without getting the rest of their CRM in order. The same goes for recruitment. If you target your customer channel for recruiting, make sure you give them prompt, polite and top notch service, especially if you don’t end up hiring them. Applying for a job is a big step for most people, so treat that step with respect. If you mess someone around in the recruitment process, the chances of you keeping them as a customer are next to zero.
Continuing this theme, a Belgian cartoonist, Canary Pete has a lovely take on the next stage of the IKEA hiring process.
Vendorprisey 