Portfolio

The Talent Gap is alive and well in most developed economies. Though there are many people looking for work, companies are having difficulty finding individuals who have the right skills and experience for their open jobs.  Monster studied this phenomena and developed core strategies to find and retain the “keepers” in organizations. The result was a book, published by McGraw-Hill, called Finding Keepers.

My role was to garner publicity as well as brand awareness for Monster. In a joint marketing agreement, traditional public relations efforts, such as a book tour by the authors, were handled by McGraw-Hill. At Monster, we did what we do best—used the online space to showcase the book’s pragmatic discussions and leverage our 700+ sales organization to reach business leaders who would best benefit from the book’s tactics.  I developed the marketing plan and led all marketing efforts including:

• Interviewed the book’s authors: Monster Executive Vice President of Global Sales & Customer Development Steve Pogorzelski, Monster Senior Vice President of Global Monster Insights Jesse Harriott, and General Manager/Editor of Monster Careers Doug Hardy, provided excellent information on the book’s insights and takeaways. We taped Steve and used these video clips often in training and in online promotions. Clips were also used by McGraw-Hill and sites like Amazon to promote book sales.
• Developed a micro site: I developed the strategy and wrote all text for a micro site that housed information about the book as well as interview clips and a call to action to buy. Our search engine optimization (SEO) team helped tag the site to bring it up early in search results.
• Trained our Sales teams:  I hosted an internal web training seminar on the book’s contents and provided Sales teams presentation materials and talking points to showcase the key ideas in the text. Sales used these materials and messaging to promote Monster’s understanding of the recruitment space and future trends in retaining talent. The book was an excellent “door opener” for Sales team members looking to score appointments with prospects.
• Hosted a 2-part online webinar series for customers: Hundreds of hiring managers and HR executives attended our two-part webinar series on the talent gap. We provided tactics for finding keepers in their organizations, and gave tips for retaining top talent.
• Developed an end-of-year “thank you” promotion: For the holiday season, we sent copies of Finding Keepers along with a “We appreciate your business” note to hundreds of key customer contacts. These notes were personalized (Dear first name) and included a computerized signature for the appropriate account manager. Sales team members leveraged this promotion to strengthen their customer relationships, have consultative conversations with key contacts and up sell accounts.
• Created a short video on the book and its key messages: We used this video on our micro site as well as in customer meetings and in-person events.  It was a fantastic conversation starter and helped position Monster as a leader in our space.
• Worked with Monster and McGraw-Hill public relations teams: Our executive authors held countless media interviews promoting Monster and providing strong guidance to help businesses understand talent needs.
• Worked with Monster teams to develop an email campaign: We took a thought leadership approach and promoted the book to the hundreds of thousands of Monster customers, using insights and tactics to reflect best practices and calls to action.
• Incorporated book themes into marketing materials:  We revised Monster’s marketing brochures and other materials to include key themes presented in the book.

The result was a phenomenal awareness campaign, squarely positioning Monster as a leader in the recruitment space.  Oh, and we sold a lot of books as well.