Although we’re very pleased with the many award-winning ideas we’ve developed, we’re even more proud of our record of delivering well-conceived strategies and creative programs that not only ‘wow’ our clients, but deliver exceptional, measurable results.
Stratus Technologies – College Recruiting
With the competition for high tech talent reaching unmanageable levels, Stratus, the leader in fault tolerant computer technology, with facilities in Massachusetts, California and Arizona was losing ground to the dot-com companies and having difficulty recruiting college graduates. As a result of meetings and focus groups with recent college grads, ASRI determined that Stratus could offer one thing that would be intrinsically appealing to their audience: an appreciation of who they are.
We assessed the options, and because the culture at Stratus strongly encourages unique contributions from unique individuals to drive their technology, we developed a campaign that would speak directly to those people with the drive to make it happen. The ‘Individuality’ campaign helped Stratus step up their initiatives by recruiting the best, brightest and most determined. It also earned ASRI an EMA award for Best of Category in College/Trade advertising.
Southcoast Hospitals Group – Targeted Candidate Attraction/ROI Improvement Strategy
Early in our relationship with Southcoast Hospitals Group, we conducted an intensive focus group and analysis on the recruitment and retention process at their organization. This involved consulting with HR and facilitating focus groups with several different levels of the organizational structure, not to mention gathering direct feedback from RNs who worked at each of their three locations. From the data we collected, we were able to make several high level recommendations on specific processes, one of which was a rather unique way to organize a mass hiring event. In the winter of 2004, Southcoast opted to put our plan into action. Central to the plan was offering convenience for the RNs they wanted to hire: our analysis determined that RNs preferred to pursue career opportunities with Southcoast when their schedules afforded the most convenience. So we developed the concept of an extended hiring period with regular opportunities to meet directly with Hiring Managers. Now that the format for the program was solidified, we needed a memorable and unique way to communicate the concept.
The name of the program we created was “Walk-In Wednesdays” and it would be an 8-week extended hiring event during the months of February and March. Part of the solution to communicate the program was an oversized direct mail postcard, but since the program would last approximately 2 months, the concept needed to be memorable enough to hold the attention of candidates. Our unusual, witty illustration to reinforce the ‘Walk In Wednesdays winter hiring event’ concept made the perfect visual to cut through the clutter in the candidates’ mailboxes. Supporting the targeted mailing to RNs were conceptually similar advertisements in local media.
Because of our client’s investment in research and planning, and in large part due to the creativity of our team, the program was an amazing success. The cost of the direct mail piece was $7,465.86 (plus postage), and the direct result of the promotion over 2 months was a phenomenal 19 RN hires at a cost per hire of $1,057, a very low figure compared to local or national norms.
Serono – Internal Change Management Communications Program
Serono, the third largest biotech employer in the world, had a unique communications challenge: to inform a large North American population of employees about the launch of a brand new Applicant Tracking System that would centralize hiring and benefits information, and interaction for internal and external candidates. The product was complex, but our message needed to be kept simple to encourage employees to use it. Our strategic communications team determined the scope of the project and the key elements that needed to be conveyed in the message. Then we transformed the brief into a beautifully executed internal communications piece that was not only eye-catching, but also concise and effective. The campaign helped to ease the transition into the use of the new software program – and had the added benefit of acting as a daily reminder to employees to take advantage of their excellent new resource.
Central Maine Medical Family – Long Term Sustainable Branding
CMMF (3 major locations, approximately 2,500 employees) is an organization of hospitals and specialty service healthcare facilities located in central Maine. CMMF wanted to be branded as an employer of choice in the healthcare industry, which involved redefining the image of what it means to work in Maine. In order to accomplish this task, ASRI developed a campaign to help CMMF compete on local, regional and national levels. The campaign title, “Experience Life @ CMMF,” touted the state-of-the-art technology, rewarding careers and excellent recreational opportunities available to the employees of CMMF. It was created and refined after an extensive research period that consisted of focus groups, questionnaires and critical feedback from managers and employees. ASRI then branded the “Experience Life @ CMMF” campaign across multiple forms of media, including mainstream newspaper advertising, industry trade advertising, development of an HR Web site, a job fair booth display, recruitment video, interactive recruitment brochure on CD-ROM and direct mail initiatives.
In addition, the specialty concepts/campaigns designed for out-of-market, national recruitment were successful in recruiting hundreds of Single Stay Unit RNs to work at CMMF’s new heart and vascular institute. Many of the targeted out-of-market locations were determined from doing detailed demographic research. The resultant target locations and sources of successful RN hires were Albany, NY, Cleveland, OH and Canada (Montreal, Winnipeg and Ottawa). By establishing a consistent theme and message within the marketplace, CMMF has left a lasting and memorable impression on candidates in the healthcare industry, and improved the results of their overall recruitment efforts.
The “Experience Life @ CMMF” campaign is still being used as the overall branding image for Central Maine and is going on its third year. Since the inception of the campaign, we’ve successfully incorporated local messages, specialty ideas as well as limited time recruitment promotions. The brand has not only greatly improved CMMF’s hiring success, but it has also afforded them the flexibility and creativity to be responsive to trends and internal transitions, thus accomplishing exactly what a Total Customer Satisfaction effort is designed to do.
Boston Financial Data Systems – Strategy and Implementation of Large Scale Recruiting Event
Boston Financial put us to a formidable test the very day they awarded us their account: an interim campaign to promote their Open House event which had to be held within two short weeks.
The concept had to work in a newspaper ad, a mobile media billboard, a sixty second radio spot and an HR Web site, which we specially branded for the event. The client also asked us to devise a means for organizing the candidate interviewing process on the day of the event.
With only 5 days to create a concept, get it approved, print it and deliver it, our solution was to address one of the most commonly cited career complaints - a frustrating commute. Boston Financial offered a "reverse commute" so we created an aggressive headline and paired it with an incredibly strong visual depicting the anxiety every commuter can relate to. The combination created a very solid visual that translated well to all media.
Once the creative was sent to all the vendors, we set upon the task of coordinating the actual Open House. We assigned a color to each department and designed various colored polo shirts to be worn by the hiring managers. A 12ft. by 18ft. poster headlining "The Color of Opportunity" instructed the three hundred plus attendees with which manager they should interview. Boston Financial committed a significant amount of energy and hard cash to this campaign, and their investment paid off with more than 20 extended offers.
Habit Management – Branding and Recruitment Program Development
How do you create a message that breaks through the barriers of the stereotypes of addiction treatment? That was the challenge that lay before us when we spoke with the VP of HR at Habit Management. One of the region’s largest and most successful addiction treatment organizations, Habit Management faced that same issue in their daily interactions with public officials, residents in the community and, most problematic, the nurses and health professionals who they wanted to hire.
The first step in understanding the brand dilemma was to experience it ourselves. After an onsite briefing and tour of one of the treatment facilities, our knowledge of their core business was so strong that we were literally writing down concept ideas on paper before we left their conference room. One of the key things we learned was that all of the ‘addicts’ who participate in their program do it of their own free will because they have a desire to remain a part of regular society. They are usually typical, functioning members of society, young, old, professional and blue collar. They could be your neighbor, best friend, or a relative, and you wouldn’t know it. So the perceived ‘danger’ of working with addicts in Habit Management’s setting was nothing more than a stereotypic reaction.
The campaigns we developed were intriguing, direct and hard hitting. They attacked the existing perceptions of the working environment and extolled some of the very attractive benefits of working there (for example, a 9-5 schedule for Nurses). The client was so thrilled with the concepts that they made our tagline “Helping Everyday People, Every Day” their organizational tagline and incorporated our brand into the corporate Web site, as well as on all recruitment materials.
Our client’s exact words were: “We worked with a lot of other advertising agencies before meeting with you guys [ASRI], and we felt that the team at ASRI really listened to what we said and experienced what it’s like here – and you were able to translate that into compelling concepts that were right on target. You hit the bull’s eye.”
We’re happy to hear the branding effort has been immensely successful in improving the organization’s image and their recruiting efforts.
North Shore Medical Center – Large Scale Targeted Recruitment Program
The largest healthcare system located north of Boston, NSMC (6 facilities and approximately 7,500 employees) was expanding their facilities and wanted to implement a large scale, time-sensitive program to hire 50 Registered Nurses in 100 days. Since the directive from NSMC was that this program needed to be promoted internally and externally, the success of the program was in full view of the public and NSMC’s staff, which meant that failure to meet the 50/100 mark was quite literally not an option. Complicating the situation was the fact that NSMC raised the bar on their standards by considering only Registered Nurses (not LPNs) as qualified candidates for the initiative.
Given the unique conditions of the program, the first critical step was to develop a concept that communicated, in order of relevance: a) a sense of urgency; b) a message about how personally satisfying a career at NSMC would be; and c) who would be qualified for this particular opportunity. The resulting concept accomplished these goals perfectly, and had the additional quality of presenting an image to Nurses that they could easily identify with. For all print advertising a “day ticker” was incorporated into the ads, to count down the days that the promotion was in effect.
Key components of the advertising strategy were: radio, print ads in local and major market newspapers, and print ads in trade publications. Whenever possible, advertising directed traffic to an Open House event being held during the month. Due to the location of their facilities on the North Shore of Massachusetts, and the relatively easy highway access to those facilities, billboards were a natural choice. The use of billboards allowed us to target nurses who already commute to work on the North Shore as well as nurses who live on the North Shore and commute into Boston. In addition, transit posters were used to reach nurses on their daily commute via public transportation. Finally, internal posters, flyers and table tents informed employees about a special Employee Referral Promotion that coincided with the 50/100 campaign. All choices in media were based on the research we performed to discover the radius nurses were willing to commute from, in order to work at NSMC.
The campaign was nothing short of a tremendous success. NSMC attained the goal of hiring 50 Registered Nurses with 20 days left to spare. Once the program ended, they had hired 60 Registered Nurses as a direct result of the program, with an average Cost Per Hire of $3,617.75 – which compares very favorably in the Greater Boston market where the cost of hiring a Nurse might easily be more than $8,000. The campaign also succeeded in creating strong and positive brand awareness in the healthcare community for North Shore Medical Center.
Cape Cod Healthcare –
Targeted Candidate Attraction
Cape Cod Healthcare called upon ASRI to help them overcome a difficult branding challenge and generate more local, regional and national hires. After meeting with the Cape Cod recruiting team and taking a thorough assessment of their situation, we determined that they needed a flexible brand that could help them improve their employer image and promote the life/work benefits of being at an advanced healthcare organization on the Cape.
When considering their branding, we took great care to make sure that every campaign idea could incorporate distinct messages and selling points for the three groups they would be marketing to. For local candidates, the message was that there’s no need to leave the Cape because there is a progressive and thriving healthcare organization close to the home they love. For regional candidates, the message was to imagine what it would be like to work on Cape Cod. Finally, for national candidates, the message was: come to the vacation place you love, to live and work year ’round. The team at Cape Cod Healthcare chose not only an initial campaign from our ideas, but also two separate follow-up campaigns that they hope to use over the next few years, if still appropriate. Their current campaign uses stylized photography to remind people exactly what the Cape Cod Life is like.
The results of the branding campaign are still being quantified, but we’ve received great commendations and anecdotal evidence of their improvement in recruiting success. We look forward to kicking off a national communications effort to help staff a brand new bed tower to be constructed soon!
Dyax – Retention/Appreciation Program
With a host of competing biotech organizations moving into the region, Dyax determined it was time to launch an internal program that would keep staff motivated and bolster internal spirits at the company. ASRI initiated a recognition/retention program to reward their employees for their hard work, promote teamwork and keep them focused on the organization’s goals.
Our highly designed concept "Advancing Excellence" used photos of historical individuals who exemplified the company’s values: leadership, discovery, knowledge sharing and accountability. Oversized posters of these individuals were created and displayed: Gandhi, FDR, Madame Curie, Jackie Robinson and Harry Houdini, with supporting text. Employees were encouraged to nominate their peers who exemplified the values of the company, for ‘Excellence in Action’ awards.
Stratus – Internal Employee Communications
Here's what can happen when a company commits the time, energy and money to making their Employee Referral Program a key component of their employee communication strategy. The interactive concept was the ‘Winning Combinations’ campaign, where the referring employee who received the correct key would unlock a brand new Mustang. The program was complete with sound and moving graphics caused quite a reaction and the result was unbridled enthusiasm for the new campaign. This program introduced the concept of the Hot Job - positions for which the company had the greatest need and subsequently, was offering the greatest reward. By providing their people with goals and guidelines, Stratus was able to turn their passive referral program into a proactive recruiting tool. ASRI is proud to be the agency with the creative vision to create this online, Intranet-based recruiting tool.
Here is a sampling of other diverse solutions we have delivered over the years for a wide ranging roster of satisfied clients.
GTECH – Internal Program Identity Development
Stop & Shop – Strategic Long Term Staffing and Diversity Recruiting
LavaStorm – Corporate Sponsorship and Brand Recognition Program
Lucent INS – National Recruitment Program
Titleist – Program Identity Design
Allaire – Alternative Recruitment Communications
L3 (formerly Vivid Technology) – Interactive Design and Implementation
Hallmark Healthcare – Staffing Program Improvement
Giga – Internal Branding for Human Resources
Novell – Interactive Recruitment Program, College
Investors Bank & Trust – Staffing Communications Program Implementation
All great creative ideas have a sound strategy behind them. Check out some of the newest trends in the industry, and ideas of HR thought leaders, on our HR Resources page.
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