Finding great creative talent is a constant struggle in the region. The talented ones are usually already employed by competitive agencies so, we needed to find a way to attract them without incurring expensive headhunter fees. We did our homework and went after the talent we really wanted to join our team.
The Brief
With out portfolio of clients ever-growing, we set out to expand our creative department and hire new creative talent.
How the final design was conceived
We created the Poaching Phone - The ultimate recruitment tool that infiltrated Dubai's top Advertising Agencies and attracted their best talent. A mobile phone was programmed with only one contact, our ECD's number. It was then cleverly disguised inside the pages of our beautifully designed faux industry self-help books. Each unique book was personalised to potential candidates in a truly memorable way, highlighting how they could advance their careers with us. We transformed each book into a potential job interview and sent it to 4 prospective hires.
Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market
We had 100% response rate within our first week of delivering the Poaching Phones. Our ECD received 3 phone calls from our shortlisted candidates. In a little over a month, we hired 4 new creatives to our team: A world-class Art Director, An incredibly talented Design Director, and a Young Lions winning team.
Projected cost of traditional recruitment fees: AED 300,000 ($81,967).
Total cost of creating the Poaching Phone Book: AED 6,000 ($1,639)
Total cost of the Mobile Phones: AED 0! (thanks to our Sony client for donating them to us.
Total savings: 98% of our projected recruitment cost.