Teens and many young adults believe they are immune to the dangers of driving without wearing seat belts. There were several elements in this campaign to convince them otherwise, but this television spot, in particular, was very effective in changing teens’ perceptions.

The old rules of posting résumés on CareerBuilder, emailing former colleagues and browsing company websites for openings are still important — even essential.  But there are new rules to add to the job hunt. These days, if you’re serious about being hired, you’ll need to put your computer and PDA to work. That means getting your word out on social sites like Facebook, sending instant job-search updates via messaging feeds like Twitter, and meeting new people who might be able to provide introductions and recommendations through organizations such as LinkedIn.

It pays to network.

For all our technology, the best way to land a job is still through referral. MediaCross’s recruitment marketing statistics indicate that around 25% of new hires come from referrals. Job boards, by comparison, provide about 10% of new hires; the rest come from field recruitment outreach, recruitment websites, and other tactics. The difference today is that a lot more of those jobs start with connections made through online networks. A recent report by market researcher Nielsen found that people now spend more time using social networking sites than they do personal e-mail.

Classic strategies still apply.

Persistence, self-branding, professional presentation — the things a career coach would have steered you toward two decades ago — are still necessary. Social networks alone won’t get you a new gig. But as Emily Hartman’s job search makes clear, they can go a long way to help. Here’s how she’s doing it:

Have a strategy. Then execute.

With a mortgage, a dog and a wedding on the horizon, Hartman knows she has to get a new job quickly. She found herself unemployed at 2 in the afternoon; by 6 that evening she was networking with industry fellows at an annual party. The next day, she started calling relatives and friends and using social media. ”I’d been using Facebook to keep up with friends, but very rarely using Twitter and LinkedIn,” says Hartman. “I knew my fiancee was big into the Twitter scene. He immediately began blasting information out to contacts he had, then sending responses back my way.”

She worked with him further to design and print new business cards. As mobility was a strong concern for Hartman, she incorporated a QR code (the black and white bar-code-like graphic at left) to quickly pass along her VCard information to the mobile device of any user equipped to read the code. This not only allowed her to distribute her contact information more efficiently, the QR code also gave her a really nice talking point throughout the night.

Over the weekend, Hartman updated all of her online profiles. She uploaded a fresh résumé to LinkedIn, the professionals’ networking site, and sent out a message to all 200 of her Facebook and LinkedIn friends, letting them know she was looking for work.

One of them, a former colleague who now owns her own company, called Hartman within the hour, scheduled a lunch for the following Monday and told her about two promising leads. “Here I was 48 hours into being unemployed and I already had some interesting opportunities,” she recalls. “I was like, Wow, this is going to be impressive.”

Keep everyone in the loop.

Over the course of the next few days, Hartman kept a list of the new job opportunities she was working.  About 6 made it to the point of having a conversation with the person with hiring authority.

As she expects things to change each day, she is devoted to sending out updates via Twitter and Facebook to let her friends and contacts know who has been helpful. “I’m sending virtual thank-you letters for referrals. And we’re still trying new ideas. My fiancee has even offered a $100 referral bonus to anyone who can place me!” says Hartman.

Don’t count anyone out.

The job leads have come from unexpected directions. She has a unique opportunity to make a change in her career path, and has a lot of decisions ahead of her. Having an abundance of options is more than any job seeker can hope for in today’s economy, and she’s grateful for them. “It’s still all about connections,” says Hartman. “What’s different now is how you make them.”

The night was filled with industry folks chatting, networking opportunities for students, good food & drink from Hwy 61 Roadhouse, and the smell of freshly-carved pumpkin. Although there was some initial confusion on the part of an inebriated master of ceremonies, MediaCross was awarded first place in the carving contest with our submission of “Fester the Creative Director (Spitting Out Ideas).”

Champion pumpkin sculptor, Bobby Duebelbeis graciously accepted the award, “As an agency, we are all very pleased to accept this most prestigious award.”

Photos from the 2009 Q4 AdClub Event

Military Sealift Command (MSC) is the supply arm of the U.S. Navy, operating 40+ supply ships crewed by civilian mariners. MediaCross provides full recruitment services for MSC, including the annual recruitment strategy, all advertising, career fair planning and hosting, outreach activities to schools, recruitment web site administration and more. Since 2002, MediaCross has helped MSC meet and exceed its recruitment levels each year.

It is said that “creativity is the last legal means you have to gain an unfair advantage over your competition.” It is also estimated that the average consumer sees 10,000 advertising messages each day. Since your organization will often vie for the same talent as your competitors, your message not only needs to be appealing, it needs to have stopping power – some creative element that causes your ideal prospect to stop, consider your message, remember it and act upon it. MediaCross has an award-winning staff of “stopping power” creative professionals. We develop creative and strategic recruitment advertising in all mediums, including print, radio, television, outdoor, direct mail, e-mail, point-of-sale and others. Each ad is given a unique identifier, enabling MediaCross to determine how many responses are generated for each ad, which helps us determine its effectiveness.

I’ve distilled some statistics from a ComScore study on banner advertising trends into a YouTube presentation (also shown below). As margins of click-through rates dwindle, it’s important to realize that clicks are not the only way (or even the best way) to measure online advertising success. After all, brand awareness cannot be measured by clicks, and banner ads do raise exposure for a brand in the realm of search. While these factors aren’t supported by direct click metrics, they do make significant contributions to the success of an overall marketing strategy.

Tips for living in a post-click world.

1. Examine the fit. How do you set up overall metrics across the entire mixture of media, and where do banner ads fit in? Just because online is directly measurable doesn’t mean it should be held to a higher standard than vehicles that don’t have this built-in capacity for metrics, such as print advertising or TV.
2. Think about entry points. How do people end up at your website, and how much revenue do they generate? How do the sales of a product on-site compare with consumer exposure to ads? Display advertising reinforces the brand and should never be considered a waste of money, even if people don’t click.
3. Be aware of indirect effects. Brand-awareness studies, purchase-intent lifts and engagement rates should be more of a focus rather than the direct-response measurement of clicks. After all, users may interact with an ad or notice it, never click – and visit later.
4. Track where they go when they click. On-site page view measurement is more important than simple CTRs (click-through rates). When readers click your ad, do they end up where they want to be? Your real measure of success is how much time they’re spending interacting with your content.
5. Get rich media, quick. Banners have evolved to a destination, rather than a simple doorway. Rich-media extends the metric focus past click-through rates and into engagement time. Innovations like embedded video and twitter feeds are increasingly changing customer attitudes to advertisements – offering real value that boosts brand preference.
6. Get creative. Include a strong call to action with a clear, creative message that demands clicks.
7. Be transparent. This may be the most important. A major reason many users don’t click on display ads is because they’re wary of the bait-and-switch — a tactic too many advertisers have adopted. If you make an offer or a promise, make good on it… post-click.

Have you noticed a drop in click-through rates as advertising on the Internet has matured? What have you done to counteract the trend?

Preliminary evidence suggests that many of the stewardship programs created in boom times have lagged in our current economic situation. In the pursuit of elusive profits, corporations have cut direct contributions to non-profits along with volunteer days, sponsorships, marketing programs with community outreach efforts and other forms of corporate giving.  When non-profit support declines, both communities and company reputations suffer.

Now, more than ever, philanthropic donations and community involvement are needed to sustain non-profits. When people lose access to the arts and culture, or to services that are beneficial or necessary, the communities in which they live become less attractive. That makes it harder for companies like yours and mine to recruit and maintain a talented and educated workforce.   

Think about how stewardship builds business relationships. Partnerships with local non-profits and other community organizations can help your company find new business opportunities in all types of economic landscapes and help the community from which you derive your workforce and, potentially, your profit, maintain and grow.

To be effective, you have to listen, respond and retweet. You have to join the discussion. Because if you don’t join the discussion, there can be consequences. Here’s an example:

I read an article – now nearly a month old – in USA Today about a woman in Portland who rode her bike up to a drive-through of a local burger chain, Burgerville, and was denied service. This upset the woman because Portland is a very bike-friendly town. And Burgerville has a reputation for being eco-friendly.

When I first read this, I thought it was a story I had heard before. Of course she was denied service. It’s a drive-through. It’s a safety issue. Should be end of story, right?

But no, not in the era of Twitter.

The bike-riding woman went home (I’m hoping she didn’t Tweet-and-ride, if so that’s a subject for another blog post) and posted a rather emotional comment about the experience, much to the detriment of Burgerville. Seems that word got around quickly.  Very quickly.

The next day, the company apologized.

Very shortly thereafter, Burgerville revised its policies and is starting new bicycle-friendly drive-through lanes in its locations. Bravo. Score one for the power of Social Media. And three points for Burgerville for stepping up and doing the right thing.

Is your company monitoring what is being said about your brand online – and are you ready to respond proportionally and appropriately?

There are consequences for having an inactive or ineffective Social Media strategy. If your company wants to protect its reputation and the value of its brands, employees and business relationships, you need a Social Media plan. Today would be a good day to start working on that plan.

MediaCross President Mark Travers named Bobby Duebelbeis as the company’s Interactive Creative Director.

It’s a newly created position that reflects our growing focus on online, interactive and social media.

Bobby has been with MediaCross for almost two years, and has taken the lead on several high-profile projects within the company, including the design and programming of the very website on which you are reading this announcement.

Watch this space for more exciting developments within the MediaCross creative department.