Ad Review - Desperately seeking concept

In advertising, especially the kind I am used to, a great deal of embellishment is involved. Homogenous brands differentiate by doing unique, strange, loud and celebrity-associated type of advertising because they are not offering anything different from anyone else. Therefore, the advertising pretends that they are. To put it aptly, great advertising has become part of what they are offering.

Recruitment ads are more targeted and low budget, for a reason. At any given time, especially if the position offered is a mid-level to senior position, the candidates probably only number a handful. Recruitment ads seem bland because they only need to communicate the essentials. The target market will literally seek them out.

Anyone looking for a job will go over every bit of information they can find with a fine-toothed comb. Twice. It is likely that the recruiters are aware of this and the quality of these ads, in terms of dollars spent and time invested, reflect this knowledge. These two ads are honestly bland beyond belief, but to the right candidate at the right time, they must shine like the guiding light of heaven.

Then again, what if recruiters invested more on their ads? What if, amongst the dreariness of grey, black and white ads, a full colour ad with a concept summed up of what a job hunter was looking for, not in a hundred words but in a single picture?

My point is quality. What if your ad was the single one with a concept? The single well-thought piece of communication that made the top candidates smile. Imagine those who are secured in their jobs because they produce quality work, flipping through the magazine just to see what's available and being lured from their current company because they like the personality your company is projecting. Why not? That's exactly how advertising works.

It's a good idea to hire a decent freelance team who can interpret the personality of your company and project it along with the essentials to the talent pool you are looking for. This way you wouldn't only get a qualifications match but a personality type match as well. Why settle for the unemployed when you can attract the well-employed?

Both ads communicate passively - here's what we have to offer, give us a call. All the information is there and anyone who matches the descriptions will be delighted to find them. To the rest of us, they are like the channels you can't skip through fast enough on your way to the one showing your program.

One of these ads deserves an award but only for the level of banality it managed to achieve. MSD, your copy is especially trite and the picture doesn't match the career offered. A group sales manager does not frame his pie charts like a film director, of this I am sure.

Tinus Strydom

Senior Copywriter

Bartle Bogle Hegarty