September 21, 2023
In our previous EBdialogue session: “Events – How to use them successfully in Employer Branding”, on the 14th of September, we challenged ways in which companies can activate during events, what are the best practices, and what are the most uniques ones, with animated examples. EBdialogue brings the HR professionals and enthusiasts the opportunity to learn and connect through various topics related to employer branding. The community is part of a wider initiative powered by Catalyst Solutions and Hipo.ro, the Employer Branding Learning Hub.
Together with Dragos Gheban, Managing Partner at Catalyst Solutions, Madalina Boicu, Employer Branding Project Manager at Catalyst Solutions, and our special guest, Andreea Zanfir, Culture Engagement and Talent Acquisition Manager at Vodafone Romania, we tackled the reasons why some activations might work better for each company.
Some of the main points we addressed during the session:
- stages of the marketing funnel you can reach through event activations
- the design behind a memorable employer branding event
- attributes associated with your employer brand deciding the type of activation needed
- activations pre-event, during event and post-event
- events optimization for conversion
- 20+ activation ideas
- IT candidates’ behaviour on the labour market in 2023 study – data on events participation
- upcoming Catalyst Solutions events
Choose a topic and an event that fit your EVP!
It is essential before starting to plan out your event activations to have a full image of your employer value proposition, so consider what kind of attributes you would like candidates to associate with your brand. During the session, some of the ones that popped up were: flexibility, growth, innovation, impact, learning opportunities, adaptability, transparency, human-centric, authenticity, and the list continues.
By far, flexibility and growth are the most popular attributes among companies, therefore you can expect fierce competition.
To build strong associations with your brand, go beyond event standard packages and bring out the full colours of your company by:
- showing your commitment to diversity, inclusion and employer well-being,
- showcasing successful stories of employees who have advanced their career within your company, and testimonials from them
- projects and initiatives that demonstrate your technical prowess,
- efforts to give back to the community
- collaborative environment
Different activations for different times
Pre-event activations:
For pre-event activations you should activate, first of all, your social media presence through both paid and organic posts, while announcing participation details, speakers and activations, topics of discussion, as well as offering invitations to a targeted audience, doing a press release or creating an animated movie that can for sure boost your event on larger scale.
During event activations:
Since everything you’ve thoroughly prepared comes to life at this point of the event-cycle, there is a lot you can showcase on the day of the event: from the live coverage on social media of the team, booths, activations, content, talks details to special activations like live interviews, side events, content & location branding, activations for lead gen, brand attribute association, and activations with a social media trigger, you are all covered on all social media channels you have, in all possible formats.
Post-event activations:
The rush of the event, the adrenaline now gone, there is space for reflection over the results and gratitude for everyone involved during the event. A summary post of the event, with thank you’s, best takeaways in the form of a blog post, after movie, invitations to follow-up events, follow up with attendees and feedback collecting are essential ideas to consider.
The challenges of booth activation
What is challenging about booth activations? Andreea Zanfir from Vodafone Romania shows a perspective related to better messaging when activating in booths.
You have a booth, you have set a goal of attracting talent, promoting your company culture or building brand awareness. Once your booth is also visually appealing and aligned with your employer brand, includes interactive elements to engage attendees, informational materials, contests, prizes, it’s time to think about the most essential part of all – company representatives.
The people representing your booth make the conversion of leads and future applicants possible. Candidates need personalized engagement and assistance with their questions and curiosities about your brand. Having representatives for the positions you are advertising to share from their personal experiences as a testimonial is more persuasive than you might think at first.
And keep in mind that everything can’t always go according to the initial plans. Murphy’s Law applies here: facing the unexpected requires areas for experimenting and testing different strategies.
IT candidates’ behaviour on the labour market in 2023 study – What event activations mean to them
Making an impact through unique activations might just be what you need to attract the right candidates for you and a way to ensure that the events in which you plan to activate align with your company culture and values. Changing strategies, improving different features that assemble your activation, and the courage to test things out is essential, but the consistency in messaging and creating an authentic representation of your company should remain the same and help you boost your employer brand in time.
We take this privilege to invite you to join us every other month for our EBdialogue sessions to learn and connect with professionals just like you!
Find out more about EBcon, EBdialogue and our Keynote Library and inspire yourself from the journeys of employer branding successful stories and insights we’ve prepared.
Gain access to valuable insights as well as quality interactions with employer branding professionals on November 16th, at our next employer branding meet-up – EBdialogue!
Next time, we are about to challenge your perspective on the all-year channels that companies use to generate the biggest exposure, the largest number of engaged candidates and, ultimately, the largest number of applicants:
- social media channels
- career websites and blogs
- job boards and career platforms
For additional information about our projects and services, drop us a line at angajatori@catalyst.ro
