A whole world of talent

The Immigrant Employment Council of BC’s (IEC-BC) mandate is to help connect employers with immigrant talent. Their website features a rich library of resources and tools to help BC businesses find, hire and retain immigrant talent. In early 2014, the organization was looking for a user-friendly way to get the word out to busy BC business owners and HR managers.

The goal

With the broad goal of reaching employers throughout BC, the campaign had to meet two key objectives: increase awareness of the Resource Library and increase trial or use of the Resource Library.

The challenge

An employer survey confirmed that business owners and HR managers were looking for really easy to use resources. They were asking for fast plug-and-play solutions. Although the online library contains great content, some structural issues demanded high user involvement to get to the goods. With strict time and budget constraints, a site redesign was not possible.

The solution

To capture the big idea, we borrowed on the strength of the popular phrase “Mind the Gap”. With #MindTheGapBC we ported the expression out of the world of subway transit and into the world of labour shortage and skilled immigrant talent.

To create value, the effort focused on a content strategy with the aim of getting the toolkit out of the library and into the hands of the HR Managers. A landing page was born with a simple call to action: sign up for free access to the HR Manager Toolkit. The Toolkit was made up of 5 easy to read and practical Tip Sheets, packed with helpful solutions to everyday challenges. The Tip Sheets were then distributed to registered users over 5 weeks.

Getting the word out

An combination of social media exposure and targeted ads ensured we got the message in front of BC employers. Working with the BC HR Management Association we created specific messages and banners ads to drive traffic to the landing page over a 5 week duration.

Building social equity

Awareness and traffic was amplified through a dedicated channel engagement strategy. Key social media messaging was crafted for owned social channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn). Through careful monitoring, real-time engagement and dedicated influencer reach, the list of industry associations, business associations, trade associations, and community partners that are associated with IEC- BCs owned media channels grew exponentially.

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