Oh My on producing The Little Book of Big Triumphs with Indeed UK

Our brief was to create an emotionally-engaging content campaign that would:

• Increase consideration and propensity to use Indeed

• Generate positive social conversations

• Drive warmth toward the brand

The strategy

Research identified a core challenge for Indeed: awareness was high, but the brand was viewed as unwelcoming, functional and lacking relevance among the core demographic. We needed to create an emotional connection with the audience, elevating Indeed beyond the transactional and into empathy.

Research also told us that those in our target 18-34 audience were most likely to be furloughed, unemployed and looking for work as a result of the pandemic. Focus groups revealed a cohort of young adults lacking confidence and positivity, left feeling anxious and uninspired.

Our strategy was to tap into the emotional journey of finding work, shining a spotlight on real-life stories of job triumph, to inspire other young job seekers. Our approach would position Indeed as a brand that understands its audiences on an emotional level as well as their career needs. Content marketing would be the ideal way to connect with this online-living audience. And, in an application form and CV-heavy world where written words are so important, what better way to reach them than through powerful, inspiring poetic written and video content?

We knew that, if we could use content to make our audience feel something, we would change their perceptions and behavior toward this functional professional services brand.

The campaign

Working with Young People’s Poet Laureate for London, Cecilia Knapp, we found 10 newly-hired Indeed candidates to share their stories of job triumph. Cecilia helped them put pen to paper for the first time, drawing out emotive stories of how they overcame adversity, rejection and despair on their job-hunting journey.

Then we turned their stories into an emotive content campaign:

• We created an ad-style campaign film based on the candidates’ job-hunting backstories, featuring a bespoke poem written and voiced by Cecilia Knapp. The content was then seeded across Indeed’s paid and organic social channels via a rigorously researched distribution model.

• Internal communications content also plays an important part in shifting brand perception, so we produced a film that told the story behind the campaign and its aims, using video recordings of Cecilia mentoring the candidates and showcasing how important these sessions had been to all involved.

• The poems were also published in an e-book, The Little Book of Big Triumphs, available to download via a dedicated landing page on the Indeed website alongside helpful job search tips.

An integrated PR and social campaign featured our content, real-life media stories and high-profile TikTok influencers sharing the emotional rollercoaster of finding work and tales of triumph.

The results

Young people, hit hard by an unrelenting pandemic and economic fallout, don’t want to hear more didactic content about ‘how to ace an interview’ from just another job site. Oh My’s multi-layered content campaign stayed well clear of that approach and ensured that Indeed connected with this audience on an emotional level to be seen as more relevant and engaging, and smashed KPIs out the park:

• 10,000+ positive engagements on Indeed’s channels

• 33% said the campaign made them feel inspired

• 42% said the campaign made them feel positive

• 66% believe that Indeed is empathetic toward job seekers’ challenges (46% pre-campaign)

• 67% of 18–34-year-olds are more likely to use Indeed compared with 47% pre-campaign

This project was a winner at The Drum Awards for Content 2021. Click here to find out which of The Drum Awards are currently open for entry.