Intelligence is knowing what to say.
Wisdom is knowing how to say it.

OUR HEADLINE SUMS UP the two most important parts of any successful advertising strategy.

First, figure out what it is you want to say (easier said than done, by the way). Next, say it right. By which we mean, say it loud, say it clear, say it nicely and (most important) memorably.

It takes a smart client to know exactly what to say and the smartest clients aren’t ashamed of asking for help in that respect.

But knowing how to say it is a different ballgame altogether. The importance of that little section labelled ‘tone’ on the creative brief being out of all proportion to the amount of space it takes up. Particularly important when that brief was recruitment advertising for Edinburgh Leisure.

Now Edinburgh Leisure’s brand guidelines document boils their ethos down to one word.

Fun.

Their recruitment advertising, however, was anything but. In truth, it made ditchwater exciting.

Here’s one we didn’t prepare earlier.

So we set out to remedy that situation right away by coming up with a suite of ads that were intrusive, controversial, challenging and sometimes downright obnoxious.

Then we got to work tackling some of Edinburgh Leisure’s knottier recruitment problems.

Like finding that rarest of receptionists, the one with the welcoming smile.

Or hiring leisure attendants who weren’t averse to doing the odd spot of cleaning.

(Both of these campaign performed supremely well by screening unsuitable candidates before they even applied and our client credited us not just with a recruitment job well done, but with actually transforming the organization at front of house level.)

Best of all, we achieved all of this with exceptional levels of efficiency.

In our first year, 40 local press ads generated 2,064 responses, over 50 per ad. But quality is more important than quantity. Over 50% of responses converted into applications and 88% of the positions were filled at the first time of asking.

In fact, we recruited 207 staff in total, at a cost of only £497 per post. On an average advertised salary of £17,997 that equates to only 3% of salary.

Since then, our recruitment advertising has become even more efficient, by dint of moving from newspaper a dvertising to almost wholly online. Nowadays, the only offline advertising remaining is A4 posters posted on leisure centre noticeboards, effectively a free resource.

Our client’s delight is boundless. As Karen Scott, Head of Human Resources, at Edinburgh Leisure says;

"Nobody wants to spend valuable resource on recruitment advertising, but much of the guilt is removed when we work with the team at 60 Watt because not only is the process fun, but the work is fun and we approach each job in the almost certain knowledge that we’ll emerge with a satisfactory result and a positive contribution to our brand values."