Monster.com: Lure of luck

Created by Dentsu Marcom, the TVC is about candidates who try to carry every possible symbol of luck with them to enhance their chances of getting a better job but a Monster.com candidate walks away with the prime offer.

Do you usually carry a lucky charm with you on an important occasion such as a job interview? Many people do, says job portal Monster.com. According to a recent study conducted by Monster India, luck plays a crucial role in almost every sphere of our lives, especially in matters related to job search and career progress.

Based on this consumer insight, Monster.com has launched its new ad campaign featuring two men who, while waiting to be interviewed, show off their lucky charms, each one trying to outdo the other.

The TVC concludes with the interviewer walking out with the third selected candidate. The other two men stare at him, wondering what he did to get luck on his side. The selected candidate stops to pull out his smartphone, which has Monster application for jobseekers, and comments that with Monster, luck is on his side. The TVC is conceptualised by Dentsu Marcom. The objective of the campaign is to launch Monster.com's new positioning, 'Find Better'.

Commenting on the new campaign that emerged out of the consumer insight, Sanjay Modi, managing director, Monster.com tells afaqs! that research reveals that people still believe luck plays an important part in getting a job. "People wear lucky shirts and charms. Hence, we wanted to play on people who play on the charm of luck," he adds.

Apparently, the research was conducted with a sample set of 4,000 people, out of which 33 per cent said that luck plays an important role when it comes to getting a job and 40 per cent of the sample set got a job where the mobile phone was an important factor. Hence, the ad concludes with the selected candidate flashing the mobile phone as a medium to get lucky.

Other key findings of the survey conducted by Monster India were that 80 per cent of Indians believe that getting a new job is not just dependent on one's capabilities and experience; luck plays an important role. About 69 per cent people in India believed that 'luck' plays an important role in job search as well.

Also, with social media and professional networking playing a pivotal role in all spheres of our lives, there has been a shift in the way both jobseekers and employers are consuming services. From the web to mobile to social, Monster helps companies find people through its most advanced technology, he says. "In a country like India, jobs have moved from print to online. Also, mobile phones give those in a need for a job an anytime, anywhere kind of an access," Modi adds.

The TVC exaggerates the acts of superstition in a humorous manner, to show the extent that people go to, to get luck on their side.

"We have made a conscious effort to blend humour in the television campaign as we operate in a serious category. It is our attempt to bring a smile on the face of the viewers," adds Modi.

Speaking about the campaign, Soumitra Karnik, national creative director, Dentsu India says, "In India, a large number of people believe in luck and lucky charms, especially when it comes to finding the right job. This is the insight we used in our communication. The idea is to reinforce Monster's strengths as a result of the new initiative launched by the company to connect savvy jobseekers who want 24X7 access to employers anytime and anywhere."

Abhijit Chaudhuri (Dadu) has directed the ad film and QED Films is the production house.

Against the backdrop of its new 'Find Better' brand positioning, Monster India has also launched Monster TV, a career channel on YouTube that combines the power of video with Monsterindia.com's expertise to deliver quality content to job seekers at a high scale.

Knowing that there is a growing need for coaching and preparations, the channel has been designed to offer the jobseeker videos that range from job/interview tips, industry buzz and hiring trends to relevant seeker services.

"We are embracing an extensive digital campaign," states Modi. Also, along with TV, the company is using radio and BTL (below-the-line) activities as a part of the media mix.

Stuck in a wrong job?

The earlier Monster.com TVC showed various people caught in the wrong profession, where a monster acted almost like a saviour, placing people in the right job. The whole idea was to use the monster not just as a logo, but as a friendly monster which helps people find the right job. The ad film with a cricketer struck in a Dhobi Ghat job was directed by Abhijit Chaudhuri.

Speaking about the shift from the earlier positioning, Narayan Devanathan, national planning head, Dentsu Marcom, says, "The shift from a robust and highly successful positioning was because of the cultural shifts visible everywhere - the anytime, anything, anywhere seeker. So it's not so much a shift as an evolution of the brand to the next plane. Having put together the holistic new avatar -- from what you see to what you get from the new Monster campaign."

Also narrating a personal experience, Devanathan says, "One of my earliest bosses once asked me while interviewing me for a position, 'I can gauge your aptitude, attitude and skills. But tell me something. Are you lucky?'"

I didn't understand her question at the time, but as we were reflecting over Monster's new positioning and figuring out a way to translate it into an engaging world, we realised that this was a really powerful insight. Coupled with a survey that was conducted prior to the campaign, what emerged was that people do all they can to build their resumes and skills, but ultimately believe in luck to tip the scales in their favour. We wanted to leverage this insight to showcase Monster as a 'luck manufacturer' of sorts, thereby acknowledging luck's importance without dismissing it as mere superstition or irrational behaviour."

While it is primarily targeted at job seekers in India, the nature of the product implies that it's squarely meant for people who can access it via the web -- on mobiles, tablets and computers. To that extent, it tries to draw in people who may thus far only be restricted to paper resumes.

Secondly, it also targets employers by building up a more robust database of job seekers to choose from. The age group for the target audience is 19-45 years.

Feeling lucky?

Jitender Dabas, executive vice-president, planning, McCann Erickson is of the opinion that the proposition 'You don't need luck to find a great job but you need Monster.com' is a tenable one for someone promising you a better job.

He thinks that Monster.com over-promises in its storytelling. "A good job search site I would assume will only take you as far as getting the right interview, but to show that in job interview candidates who come via Monster.com score over others is a bit of a stretch," he feels.

Dabas states that the creative exaggeration of carrying your luck with you through the disruptive visual of the mother coming out of the bag to wish her son is what will get this commercial the eyeballs and the recall. "But, it doesn't really tell me why Monster.com is better than Naukri or Timesjobs. However, a high spontaneous recall will generally result in increased traffic to the site," he reasons.

According to Dabas, more online brands seem to be hinging on creative disruptions to catch the attention and here is one more. "But I surely couldn't connect the brand proposition of 'Find Better' to the story being told."

Ram Jayaraman, group creative director and creative head, Grey South feels that the casting is right (in a classical way) and the ad has been well executed. "The director has also managed to bring out the humour in the plot. But here's the bad news. I think the ad suffers from a fatal flaw - job sites like Monster.com only help candidates find vacancies and here we're seeing that even without going to the site, you can get called for the same interview. The good luck is in getting that interview call, right? And so, if you get called for a good interview even without going through Monster.com, what is the sense? Where is the benefit-unless the site is taking credit for the employee's capability."

Jayaraman also thinks that the ad makes some sort of twisted sense if you're talking to prospective employers - that Monster.com candidates are better candidates. "But, the TVC looks like it's talking to job seekers, not job givers - and so I'm left a little confused. And saying, "What the luck?"