2014 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

With out portfolio of clients ever-growing, we set out to expand our creative department. However, finding great talent in the region is constant challenge. Online postings were not attracting the right people and headhunters charged exuberant fees.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We decided to do our homework and go after the people we really wanted to join our team. So, 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 number in the contact list of the phone, our ECD's number. It was then cleverly disguised inside the pages of our beautifully designed faux industry self-help books and sent to prospective hires. The Poaching Phone was sent to 4 potential candidates from competing agencies, which we shortlisted.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Within a week of the Poaching Phone being delivered, our ECD received 3 phone calls. Within a little over a month, our campaign had helped us find 4 new team mates: 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 6000 ($1,639) Total cost of the Mobile Phones: AED 0! (thanks to our lovely Sony client for donating to us. Total savings: 98% of our projected recruitment cost.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Each book was personalised to our prospective hires in a truly memorable way and highlighted how they could advance their careers with us. We transformed each book into a potential job interview and disguised them to look like industry self-help books so that they would go relatively unnoticed when delivered to prospective hires. To ensure they picked up the phone and called us, we instantly placed a phone in their hand, giving them direct access to our ECD at any time of the day. The Poaching Phone also helped eliminate the expensive cost of using recruiters, which kept management happy.