‘Recruiting the recruiters’ for Parasol by Marketecture

Summary
With 70 per cent of new client referrals coming from recruiters, PAYE umbrella company, Parasol, needed to keep front of mind with agency staff. Marketecture devised a strategic programme of integrated nurturing activity to engage distinct buyer personas within the recruitment agency ranks.

Issues-based content was created to capture senior decision makers by highlighting hidden employment services industry practices that could be jeopardising recruiters’ reputations. As peer-to-peer contact was considered important at this level, an intriguing DM piece directed recipients to a (personalised URL) pURL, where they were addressed by Parasol’s CEO via a highly personalised online experience, including a personalised video message. Meanwhile, frontline recruiters were hit with an online viral game, ‘Commission Mission’ that tapped into their characteristically competitive nature. Parasol distributed oversized foam hands featuring the URL for the game. As well as placing Parasol front of mind, the game achieved the key objective of capturing data from this notoriously transient group.

The results speak for themselves but as a lead nurturing campaign first and foremost, the biggest testament to the campaign’s success is affirmation that the sales team built new one-on-one relationships with recruiters they’d  previously been unable to reach.

About the client company
Parasol is a PAYE ‘umbrella’ company for contractors and freelancers. Parasol acts as an employer to lone workers contracted to a fixed term assignment, usually via a recruitment agency.

  • Set-up in 2000.
  • 100 employees.
  • £300m+ turnover.
  • Average annual growth 280 per cent.
  • Head office in Warrington, with regional sales offices in London and Scotland.
  • Partnerships with 2,500 recruitment agencies.
  • Founding member of the FCSA (Freelancer and Contractor Services Agency).
  • Business awards including Sunday Times Fast Track 100; Best Companies; and Investors in People.
  • www.parasolgroup.co.uk.

Strategy
Although successful in increasing its direct contractor activity, Parasol relies on referrals from  recruitment agencies for 70 per cent of new contractor sign-ups. In 2010 it became apparent that Parasol’s ethical approach was undermined by less scrupulous competitors offering recruiters cash and  incentives in return for introductions.

To position itself as financially secure, compliantly robust, and the ‘safest’ option
for recruiters to recommend to their contractor candidates, Parasol devised a new
sales proposition around the theme of ‘protection’.

Overarching brief
A DM campaign to specialist IT and accountancy and finance recruitment agencies:

  • Raise awareness about the role of umbrella companies.
  • Begin higher level sales conversations (MD/FD C-level).
  • Increase Parasol referrals from recruitment agencies.

Objectives of the campaign
Commercial objective
Increase referrals from agencies through a new strategic engagement programme.
Marketing objectives:

  • Generate five qualified opportunities from an addressable market of 200.
  • Raise C-level awareness of ‘reputational risks’ in using less accredited companies.
  • Implicitly position Parasol as ‘least risk’ option.
  • Engage the recruitment sector with a new strategic and creative proposition.
  • Prove that marketing investment in integrated lead generation activity can dramatically improve sales efficiency.

The target audience
Marketecture identified two distinct buyer personas:
‘Corporate Big Beasts’ – C-level decision makers within the top 200 UK recruitment agencies.
Frontline recruiters – dealing directly with contractors.
Parasol identified:

  • 70 per cent of contacts male.
  • Majority of higher level contacts aged 35-.

Messaging strategy
Overarching messaging proposition: ‘Don’t let your reputation come under attack’.

Media or channels used
The messaging and strategic proposition translated to the creative theme of ‘Protection from the line of fire’.
Corporate Big Beasts – DM, pURL technology, video
Three DM campaigns were executed, concerning issues that Parasol sought to bring
to the industry fore:

Theme 1: Accreditation
Substantiation: Communicate the benefits of FCSA membership. Call into question the merits of less stringent accreditations /credentials of unaccredited providers.
Creative execution: Secret Service
1) DM: A ‘confidential’ file mailed via courier, driving prospects to a pURL.
2) Personalised landing page/video: Tier 1 prospects addressed personally by Parasol CEO Rob Crossland: www.LionelRichie.GetsProtected.co.uk
3) Trade advertising: Copy surrounding risks recruiters could face by working with inadequately accredited providers.

Theme 2: Transparency
Substantiation: Raise questions about practices employed by some service providers.
Creative execution: ‘Del Boy’
1) DM: Continuing the ‘Secret Service’ theme, a postcard featuring red reveal text sent with a ‘spy glass’.
2) Personalised landing page: pURL landing page re-skinned to reflect ‘transparency’ message with new video of Rob Crossland. Test data was incorporated at a lower decision-maker level and an offer included: a workshop session on AWR, white paper, PSL checklist and risk audit.
3) Trade advertising: Lance featuring as a ‘Del Boy’ style character with copy revealing some of the less ‘legit’ practices undertaken across the umbrella industry.

Theme 3: Forthcoming impact of AWR
Substantiation: Parasol’s thought leadership stance can be seen on its blog: www.understandingawr.co.uk, ongoing PR and YouTube channel.
Creative execution: The circus surrounding AWR.
1) DM: Personalised circus poster directing recipients to the pURL.
2) pURL: Video interview between Rob Crossland and colleague Anita Whittle
discussing AWR.
3) Trade advertising: A ‘big top’ theme showing Lance juggling with fire, illustrating the difficulties surrounding the forthcoming AWR legislation.

Frontline Recruiter campaign – Online game www.commissionmission.co.uk was promoted via foam hands, delivered by Parasol sales representatives.  The game referred to time-consuming tasks which typically impact on an agent’s day, using colloquial language and recognisable industry terms.  Inter-agency competitions and seasonal themes were introduced, ensuring longevity.

Timescale of the campaign
27 October 2010 – April 2011
Theme 1 – November 2010
Theme 2 and viral game – January 2011
Theme 3 – April 2011

Client testimonial
“Marketecture’s strategic insight turned a straightforward DM brief into a fully integrated campaign.

“The messaging proposition they devised set the scene for the entire campaign, backed by a solid understanding of the subtleties in trying to engage C-level decision makers and front-line recruiter staff. The thought leadership stance was spot-on for our senior contacts, highlighting the inadequacies of alternate providers, without any overt knocking of the competition. Similarly, the online game was an inspiring tactic for gaining traction with our frontline recruiters – especially enabling us to qualify data, which is hard to come by in such a fast-moving environment.

“When the meeting requests started coming in we had to remind overselves that this was principally engineered as a lead nurturing campaign. Sales were delighted with the response reporting that the initiatives were opening doors to new recruiter relationships that had previously proved difficult to crack. “This campaign is worthy of an award because of the ingenuity shown in executing distinct activity strands for different buyer personas and hinging them all together with a messaging proposition and strategy which set us apart from other employment service providers.” Sarah Jones, marketing manager, The Parasol Group
 

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