CASE STUDY: GroupM China targets young talent in online reality show

Background

In the highly competitive recruitment market in China, where talent is at a premium and many young people look forward to a career with famous brands like Apple and Google, GroupM felt it was often being overlooked despite being a leading global media investment management company.

Aim

The campaign set out to attract the best media talent under 30 by building a positive perception of the media industry to attract newcomers with the right skills. 

To increase awareness of the great resources, collaborative culture, healthy working environment and visionary leadership within the media industry, GroupM opened up their offices to video cameras for a firsthand look at the tone and opportunities inside the agency.   

Execution

GroupM launched 'GroupM young power' on Youku.com, a 10-webisode series featuring 10 interns tackling real-life briefs to compete for a permanent job within the agency. The hopefuls also stood the chance to win a one-month training placement at one of GroupM's worldwide operations.

Each episode saw the teams work with their mentors as they took on the challenge at hand, including developing original, non-traditional media campaign ideas for Nike, coming up with a ‘big idea’ for GlaxoSmithKline’s Nose Strips, carrying out day-to-day activities like competitive spend data running, and even working on ideas for Friday happy hour office parties. 

The inititive was supported by activities on digital channels like Tencent, Sohu, Tudou and MSN to reach out to that right types of potential newcomers; marketing events targeting potential undergraduates at several leading universities; and taxi advertisments in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen targeting office workers.

 

 

Results

• GroupM's webisodes attracted more than 1 million online views (against expectations of 200,000).
• More than 15,000 candidates submitted their details through the site.
• 75 per cent of viewers requested career information and two-thirds said they would consider working at GroupM.