E.ON, one of the UK’s leading integrated power and gas companies, has turned to mobile recruitment marketing to improve diversity of its apprenticeship schemes. TMP Worldwide, the recruitment communications consultancy, devised the Winter campaign in partnership with E.ON in the UK.
E.ON apprenticeships offer training for jobs such as electrical and mechanical fitters, overhead linespeople and cable jointers.
This highly popular scheme attracts mostly male applicants, however E.ON was keen to promote its schemes to wider social groups that reflect the community in which it operates, especially a female demographic.
To meet this specific need TMP Worldwide approached mobile network Blyk. This network was chosen as you can pinpoint recipients, such as women. Blyk’s network offers free texts and minutes to 16-24 year olds and in exchange users receive appropriate advertising based on collected lifestyle information.
On December 23rd E.ON sent a targeted Christmas message to young women through Blyk – “Turn on more than fairy lights this winter. And earn good money while you’re at it. Interested? Yes or No.”
Aiming to intrigue the audience, the targeted participants who answered “Yes” received an animated picture based message (MMS) encouraging them to join an E.ON Apprenticeship.
Further information was available by scrolling down with an option to visit E.ON’s Apprentice website. A follow up HTML email was sent as a reminder once the application period started.
Alan Davies, Employer Brand and Attraction Specialist at E.ON, comments: “This campaign has got 2009 off to a great start and demonstrates how we are looking to use technology to target a specific demographic as part of a wider campaign. TMP’s campaign has already attracted interest from an under represented group in this area while keeping response costs to a minimum.”
Marco Bertozzi, Director of Media and Digital at TMP Worldwide, says: “When undertaking the campaign to promote E.ON’s apprenticeship schemes we needed to continue to attract traditional audiences, as well as highlighting roles to a very specific demographic – in this case women.
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“Utilising mobile marketing, and also being aware of new channels such as Blyk, allows us to segment the audience into very specific categories without incurring high costs. This is the future of digital recruitment marketing.”
The campaign has achieved a 23% positive response – a great start for the campaign when applications opened on the 14th January.