EMBRACING THE WORLD OF EMPLOYER BRAND
#114

3 Employee Content Posts that Went Viral

Okay. We conducted a poll a while back asking about your top employer branding struggle.

And you told us: creating great content.

And it’s no surprise, really. For a long time, EB content has seriously lagged, lacking the creativity and pizzazz of its consumer marketing cousin. But now that employers are finally waking up to the power of employee-centric posts for attracting great people, well, sh*t’s getting better.

That said, let’s reverse engineer three recent employee videos that went viral.

Armed with the building blocks (and why they work), you can repurpose content and blow some minds.

1. NASA

Angle: A summer intern takes “the clean girl aesthetic to its extreme” to show off how she prepares to enter NASA’s largest clean room at the Goddard Space Flight Centre.

Engagement: Nearly 20k likes on Instagram

Why it works: Intern Laine Havens acts as an employee influencer to educate talent in an original and humorous way. We’re seeing an uptick in videos like these because they’re more relatable to talent than standard corporate content.

Watch the video

2. Asda

Angle: An employee uses a customer’s shopping-related question as an excuse to bust a move.

Engagement: 300k+ likes on TikTok

Why it works: Asda’s fun-loving culture comes through in a unique, memorable and not-shoved-down-your-throat kind of way. The fact the video’s on the employee’s own account makes it more trustworthy for viewers.

Watch the video

3. PwC Luxembourg

Angle: Two employees explore what it means to have a best friend at work through performing different tasks.

Engagement: 300k+ likes on TikTok

Why it works: Most people know what it feels like to have a best friend at work. By choosing a relatable topic, PwC gives its video wide-spread appeal and challenges perceptions that working in an accounting firm might be sterile or boring.

Watch the video

What these videos have in common:

• Humour

• Originality

• Playing off trends

The end goal

What these elements boil down to are personality and likability. And by understanding your audience, you can build the former and influence the latter.

Whether you’re a retailer, an accounting firm, or the most prolific space agency in the world — if you can find a way to make your personality *pop* like a grape in the microwave, you’ll turn heads.

Quick tips to get your content seen

1. Get creative. Don’t stick to traditional formats. Let your imagination run wild and don’t critique your ideas until they’re out on the table.

2. Be encouraging. Incentivise employees that show natural interest in “influencing” or making content.

3. Be experimental. Getting engagement isn’t about creating the perfect video off the bat, it’s about trial and error. Have fun with it!

4. Keep up. That means knowing your audience, what appeals to them and what your competitors are doing.

Ph.Creative and Merlin Entertainments were on a mission.

The company responsible for some of the UK's best loved attractions like Legoland, Alton Towers, Madame Tussauds and more, wanted to drive up its eNPS score. The twist? We had to develop values, create the identity and launch — in just 63 days.

Challenge accepted.

Join our Head of Strategy Julie Randall and our CXO Dave Hazlehurst for a webinar as thrilling as Rita: Queen of Speed (well, almost), where they'll give a mix of practical advice, inspiration and a ‘how to’ guide for creating world-class internal experience.

Learn the “launch, land, live” approach that helped this project win hearts, and the strategy secrets used at every stage.

⏰ 22nd October, 17.30 - 18.30 BST

(Available on-demand for other time zones.)

Product Team 🤜🤛Employer Brand Team 

Looking for an easy way to strengthen your employer brand while building internal equity?

Reach out to your organisation’s product team for their 1-year product roadmap. Integrate their roadmap milestones into your EB content calendar and capitalise on key product launches by celebrating the teams bringing them to life. 

Internally, your employees will bask in the warmth of the spotlight, driving engagement, belonging and retention. 

Externally, your product marketing leaders will love the added publicity and emotional dimension the stories bring to their marketing blitz. 

An easy win-win that lifts everyone up! 

Want to talk about how we can improve your employer brand?

Since we’ve been talking a lot about employee content this issue, we’d like to humbly throw our hat in the ring.

If you think “a day in the life” content is played out and doesn’t get attention, think again, because this summer marketing intern’s clip caused a huge spike in applications for Church & Dwight’s early careers programs.

According to our recruitment marketing specialists, here are the three key reasons it worked.

1. We knew our audience - Targeting younger talent, we knew that a trendy TikTok style video with audio, music and copy overlay would go down well.

2. It was aspirational - While there were multiple “a day in the life” videos for Church and Dwight, we think this landed best because this intern works in New York City for the popular sub-brand Hero Cosmetics. Who wouldn’t want to work for a cool brand in a cool city?

3. It was trustworthy - Since it was UGC, the post felt more credible. In fact, 85% of people find user generated content more influential than brand photos or videos.
   

ICYMI

Hug 113 - How to Write Magic Employer Brand Messaging

EVENTS TO EMBRACE

ERE Recruiting Conference
12–14 November, Anaheim

Future of Work Europe
13-14 November, London

RallyFwd “Elevate your Talent Strategy” Virtual Conference
11 December, Online