How TBWA Helped Headhunt Events Crew Like They’re Blue-Chip Executives

 

What if you received a mysterious card that said ‘You’ve been Headhunted’ and led you to a series of challenges to land your dream job? That’s the idea behind the latest campaign from TBWA\London for Connection Crew, a social enterprise that provides event crewing services and employs people who have experienced, or been at risk of, homelessness. 

In this interview, LBB’s Alex Reeves talks to the people behind this innovative and playful recruitment strategy that uses QR codes, OOH posters and negative instructions to attract and test potential candidates – Andy Jex, CCO at TBWA\London and Charlotte Scotland, senior communications manager at Connection Crew. We also take a closer look at the stunning design of the cards, which feature six different themes to represent the six teams at Connection Crew. Find out how this campaign not only helps Connection Crew find the best talent, but also raises awareness of their social mission and values.

 

Andy> Connection Crew is a crewing company as well as a social enterprise on a mission to place people who face barriers to work into jobs in the crewing industry. That’s setting up events and festivals amongst other things – they’ve worked at the BAFTA awards, the Coronation, Creamfields and Glastonbury. After some recent growth, they came to TBWA asking for a recruitment campaign to find new workers from all walks of life. After some strategic back-and-forth, we decided that 100 new recruits was the aim.

 

Andy> The task was a simple one, how do we reach enough people to drive 1,000 applications, to recruit 100 new Connection Crew.

 

Andy> When we looked into the UK’s minimum-wage workforce, we found it holds a pretty staggering 1.6 million workers. There’s few opportunities to progress. You get stuck, and it’s tough to get a break.

We decided to speak to people who felt undervalued and unappreciated who work for minimum wage. We also knew we had a solution, not only in the fact that Connection Crew pays the London Living Wage, it comes with opportunities for progression and potential to work at concerts and in creative industries that usually you would pay to be involved in. A win, win.

 

Therefore all that was needed was to find an idea that stitched together a mechanic to find people who were great at what they do and reward them with one of the best jobs in the world. The idea to headhunt them, as if they were blue-chip talent, came from there.

 

Andy> Being a social enterprise, we had to try and find an idea that allowed for the reach we needed but didn't rely on expensive production budgets and media buying budgets. This is where we took advantage of one of our team discussions when Connection Crew mentioned that when their crew, by word of mouth, found particular talent, they had been some of the most successful recruits.  The crew implicitly know what’s best required for the job, and are the best at being able to spot the real skills that lend themself to crewing – initiative, tenacity, hard working early risers and night owls.

 

We decided to have the current members of Connection Crew hand out business cards to bar staff, waiting staff, retail workers, delivery riders and more who’ve impressed them. The cards would say our idea – ‘You’ve been headhunted.’ Each would carry a QR code, leading the would-be crew member to an application page for the job.

 

We knew cut-through would be important when it came to a barista, say, remembering to retrieve the card from their pocket at the end of their shift, and checking out the application. For this, we wanted to subvert the design ruts of the recruitment sector – who hand out some pretty sterile, cold, lifeless cards. So our designer, Luke, created a range of original designs to stick in our minds.

He collided two inspirations – heavy metal, with the bubble gummy world of teddy bears and love hearts. And I can safely say, no one’s mistaking those for a dull headhunter’s card.

 

Charlotte> Having the cards in your hand adds a lot to the excitement of the campaign. There’s an understandable element of apprehension that comes – who to give them to and when, at first – but we’re hearing that giving out the cards and seeing peoples’ reactions really spurs the team on. I’ve given out a few myself – it’s something that can make you nervous at first, but you quickly become excited about. The more people became involved and talked about it, the more they saw the OOH out and about, the more keen the team was.

Shakira, Connection Crew employee> I've given a few cards to people I work with as well as some people who have asked me what I do. Most people I know personally are employed but it's still useful to know of Connection Crew since it can be a part time job.

Mike, headhunted by Connection Crew> I have a background of stage building and had previously worked with another company many years ago. I work in the creative job field, so I'm always meeting people from all areas. I heard about Connection Crew before but I didn't really look into it before I was given a headhunted card. It certainly got my attention and I found it funny after being told more about it. I scanned the QR code and read the website. What stood out to me is how flexible I know this line of work to be, so I know I have the option to apply and work around my schedule.

Charlotte> We think it’s gone very well so far. There are always some teething issues when organising a large number of people to get involved in something so hands-on, but we’ve all worked together. It’s really promoted a lot of teamwork and conversation, and fed on the culture we have here at Connection Crew. There’s a lot of pride in the campaign, which is something that we wanted to foster. TBWA\London understood this from the start, and we’re really happy to see it come together now.