Some 15-year-olds are a joy to be around
WDAD is fifteen this year. We’ve stayed compact and independent – ‘boutique’ as they say these days – and this is what gives you better service and results. Unlike most 15-year-olds, we think deeply. Like most 15-year-olds, we’re forthright - but without the drama. Happy birthday to us. Want a bit of cake?
View from the Top
The market might be tightening its belt but we’re getting more involved in branding projects, online work and social networking. It’s an exciting time because nobody’s quite sure what’s round the corner, or when the next volcano’s going to blow.
Still doing great work with great people
WDAD’s been in business fifteen years! We’ve fiddled with our name once (some still call us Ward Diamond), had one office move (before my time), and kept a few clients and staff who’ve been with us from the start (thank you).
Some things have changed a lot though, especially in the digital world. We’re now doing lots of Web 2.0 and social networking work - the following suggests that everything’s heading that way.
http://takemetoyourleader.com/2010/04/01/social-media-2012-presentation/
However, while our management team and awards cabinet have expanded, some things remain as they were when our doors first opened. We still do great work for great clients – the campaigns we’ve done recently for Gift and the Audit Commission have just been short-listed in this year’s CIPD awards - and we’re still obsessed with finding ever more effective ways to help you recruit and retain the best.
I hope you enjoy this new-look newsletter, and thank you for your ongoing support. I’m only an email away if you need to contact me.
Kind regards,
Mike Heal, Managing Director
Market News
We’ve got our ear to the ground. Apart from distant rumblings in Iceland, we hear that the market’s doing a lot more than people may think. More/Less
Toughing it out
"It’s been tough" has become an all-too-familiar opening to my market comments these days.
Sadly, this one’s no different and there’s no denying that the advertising market remains depressed. Obviously we’ve been affected, with traditional billings down over 20% YOY. Like everyone, we hold our breath for what may/may not happen following this election.
As a business, however, we’re diversifying confidently and working on some great web build, brand development and social networking projects.
We’ve also taken the strategic decision to work more closely with a range of specialist partners who provide market-leading solutions in the fields of technology and diversity. In fact we’ve just won our first graduate assessment centre design and delivery for one of those partners - a really exciting development. In all these cases we feel that there’s a perfect fit, which means we can offer clients and new business prospects more holistic end-to-end solutions. Finally, we continue to stay debt-free - a Godsend in this particular market. It's tough out there, but then so are we.
Client News
Bet this is the bit you’re most interested in. If you’ve been doing some adventurous creative work, it’s probably had a mention here. More/Less
Love fundraising, hate apathy
We’ve created some striking new brand work for Gift 
, the ethical street fundraisers. It captures their spirit perfectly. We’re confident it’ll get them the right people, and it’s just been short-listed in this year’s CIPD Recruitment Marketing Awards.
New Audit Commission jobsite
The new site we’ve created for the protectors of the public purse has been short-listed in this year’s CIPD Recruitment Marketing Awards. Have a peek at what’s creatively possible in the wonderful world of public sector finance.
Tragus gets social networking
Tragus, the name behind Café Rouge, Strada and Bella Italia, is big on most things. Now it’s getting big on social networking, thanks to a deal we’ve struck to manage its messaging and content in a digital universe where employer brands can rise and fall in a Twitter.. More/Less
Anything but blog standard
One ‘rule’ we emphasise to our clients: put your website at the heart of your attraction strategy. In our last newsletter we told you about the new Tragus website, www.traguscareers.co.uk.
Well, having helped the good folk at Tragus create content they’re proud of, we’re now helping make sure as many people as possible see it.
This means leveraging the power of social networking - using the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc to create engaging ongoing relationships between the organisation and its internal and external audiences.
Helping Tragus take its first steps into this important new arena, we’ve set up all their accounts and links for them and agreed to write witty and informative blogs and micro-blogs based on content they’ve supplied. We’ll then be running training sessions so that Tragus can take over the process later.
Initiatives like this are becoming increasingly necessary for clients who need a competitive edge in relationship marketing. Engaging with potential recruits prior to the recruitment process is a brilliant way to promote key employer brand values and experiences. Building cost-effective two-way communication channels with the internet generation - which these days is pretty much all of us – matters more than ever.
Email mikej@wdad.co.uk and he can guide you gently into the world of social networking.
Age UK is born
We’re excited to have started working with Age UK. They’ve just launched their new brand, with TV ads starring Ian McKellan, Brian Cox and Eleanor Bron, and we’re rolling out the recruitment side of things across the country. More/Less
A new brand, full of life
Launched in April, Age UK was born out of Help the Aged and Age Concern, making it one of the UK’s biggest charities. Representing over 5 million people, Age UK has a serious remit to campaign, fundraise and conduct research of behalf of everyone in later life.
You may have seen Ian McKellan, Brian Cox and Eleanor Bron waxing lyrical about this, especially if you’re an Emmerdale fan, and the colourful new brand is being emblazoned across 500 shop fronts.
We’re delighted to be working with what promises to become one of the UK’s most influential charities. The new brand gives us plenty of scope for key branding, communications and tactical recruitment work in getting Age UK’s core messages out there and responded to.
Eat Sleep Drink Whitbread
Whitbread’s new ‘Eat Sleep Drink’ corporate brand is no surprise to us – we’ve been running the same line as a recruitment brand across their management roles for a while now as it sums up their passion and work ethic perfectly. See how it works on the light bulb ad that recently targeted a heavyweight in sustainability. More/Less
An all-consuming passion for excellence
Eat Sleep Drink Whitbread is all about passion. We expressed this in an ad to recruit a Corporate Responsibility Director for the Group. This particular director needs to bring huge amounts of passion to the role, since converting the mindsets of thousands of staff and millions of customers is a great challenge as well as an opportunity.
Much of the sustainability message was around energy saving, so we combined an image of an energy saving light bulb with a snappy headline that reflected the sheer depth and breadth of influence that this director is expected to have.
WDAD gets legal
Get building brand awareness now. As soon as the market picks up, consultancies with the highest recall will be first port of call. This is why Deacon Search, the legal recruitment boutique, came to us. We’re using in-the-know cartoons to get them noticed.
Read our PDF Case Study
What’s ‘you’re hired’ in Norwegian?
We know how to create an account and place an ad, in Norwegian, on Norway’s leading jobsite. All in a day’s work as we say in Farringdon, or "All i en dags arbeidet" as they might say in the fjords. More/Less
Du er ansatt! (You’re hired!)
Origin HR recently asked us to place a pan-European campaign to recruit computer sales professionals on behalf of Computer Associates, one of its clients. It appeared on 25 job boards across 13 countries and in five languages and involved a hugely complex blend of online postings, banners, buttons and other online visibility options. You should have seen the media schedule!
Throughout the campaign we were receiving and checking web links supplied by each of the media. This even had us handling enquiries in French at le weekend. Fortunately Mike Heal’s partner, Sarah, is fluent and was, of course, absolutely delighted to help out! We updated schedules on a regular basis and supplied them to both Origin HR and CA as inventory went live.
The web stats we supplied at the end of the campaign showed how each media had performed in driving traffic to the CA website. Interviews are now all arranged and we’re eagerly waiting to find out the number of hires, not just in Norway but right across Europe.
Services News
Find out what we’re adding to our services to meet the demands of this brave new digital world. We’re here to guide you through the minefield. More/Less
New Diversity guru
We’ve teamed up with Dr Waqar Azmi OBE, the UK Government’s former Chief Diversity Adviser at the Cabinet Office, to bring you an offering that could well be the best in the industry.
Why Diversity matters
Recent corporate social responsibility and legislative requirements such as the new Equalities Bill mean that diversity is now a key priority.
Diversity recognises the strengths and potential of each individual. It broadens working culture so that a variety of thinking styles and life patterns can be accommodated for the benefit of the individual and the organisation.
Pursuing diversity goals opens up new markets and new ideas, attracts new people and creates new networks. This leads to increased productivity, sales and profits. It also improves services to communities and customers, improves relations with the wider public, adds value and improves the image of your organisation.
Dr Waqar Azmi OBE is Chairman & Managing Partner of Waterhouse Consulting Group, and together we can now deliver services that include:
Management Consulting
- Research
- Diversity needs analysis & strategy
- Communities & cohesion
- Learning & development
- Improvement, management & change
Talent Management
- Executive search & interim management
- Leadership & development
Communications
- Targeted advertising campaigns
- National database of minority ethnic and voluntary organisations
- Diversity web design & development
- Events & conferences
To ensure that your organisation is delivering in the diversity arena, email mike@wdad.co.uk
The office twits
WDADsplat, WDADsoto, WDADphilipc. Up to the minute on social networking, you can now follow us on Twitter. More/Less
Aren’t we beautiful? Just click a pic to go direct to our tweets, or click our logo to go to our website’s new social networking page.
New selection and assessment services
We’ve teamed up with Ashbourne Assessment Systems to bring you a valuable new service and add another string to our bow. More/Less
Ashbourne: a new partnership for WDAD
Our portfolio of recruitment and design services might be extensive, but there are some specialist products we don’t claim to provide in-house. One is Selection and Assessment. We’re therefore delighted to announce that we have a new partner provider in this area: Ashbourne Assessment Systems.
Ashbourne provides specialist assessment services and products to a range of clients and is an accredited supplier to central government via the ‘Buying Solutions’ framework agreements. It is recognised as a leading specialist supplier of selection and development programmes for managers, senior leaders and executives, and draws on the expertise of Occupational Psychologists and over 150 Associate Consultants.
Our partnership with Ashbourne potentially offers central government clients access to a range of services, including recruitment advertising solutions, outside the alternative COI framework.
We’re already in the process of delivering our first partner project – an Assessment Centre for the National Skills Agency 2010/11 graduate entry. This follows a referral from an existing client, SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence). We’ll let you know how it’s all going in our next newsletter.
Guardian Jobs: to infinity and beyond!
Helen Bird from Guardian Jobs waxes lyrical about online possibilities, and harks back to the year WDAD started out. More/Less
The year we met Buzz Lightyear
We’ve seen extraordinary changes in recruitment advertising and marketing since Sam and Ray set up WDAD (then Ward Diamond) in 1995.
Back then we were pretty much pre-internet. Toy Story was everywhere, Robbie was leaving Take That and the Guardian was launching Recruitnet, our first online jobs offering.
Fifteen years on, Guardian Jobs is a huge digital business with a large network of niche sites that offer multiple channels and formats to reach scarce and hard-to-attract candidates.
Now we can target people through our Green Ad Network or our Diversity Network. Behavioural targeting means we can reach passive job seekers too. ‘Jobs by Twitter’ tweets links for jobs, services and careers advice, and users can follow our 21 sector-specific Twitter accounts. Guardianjobs.mobi lets candidates access job listings from their mobile.
Our careers site offers:
- Live Q&As with expert panelists ‘talking’ about their careers and advising jobs seekers
- Careers Talk, a weekly podcast where we interview key sector players and promote evacancies from our job listings
- Forums where job seekers do peer-to-peer networking and find mentors. Recruiters can also quiz prospects - and vice versa - prior to application
- A blog where industry experts provide up-to-date sector news and candidates comment directly
Yes, fifteen years is a long time in this industry. Congratulations to all at WDAD on their continuing success. Times change and great businesses change with them. Keep it up WDAD, to infinity and beyond!
All the best,
Helen
Team News
Get the inside story on the WDAD team. Who’s old? Who’s new? What’s hot? What’s not? More/Less
14 years with WDAD
Caireen, our trusty Head of Production, knows more about this agency than just about anyone else. Here she reveals a smidgen of her encyclopaedic knowledge. Scandals abound! More/Less
Chapter One: the early years (‘96-‘97)
The blame all falls on my big sister. In an attempt to get me out of her flat she pointed out on advert for "Office Junior in Advertising Agency" in Midweek magazine (remember, the bad freebie one that came out along with Ms London and 9-5). A phone call, from one Samantha Ward came a week later, included the conversation where she told me I was too over-educated for the role. But I won the day, with the argument that I could be as stupid as she wanted for the right money.
An interview at Ward Payne Communications followed - in a little office in Farringdon - where the hell is Farringdon?! Then it seemed like the hellish end of the city, no good for shopping and building sites everywhere (not much has changed, except the names of the bars, but at least I now know that Farringdon is the easiest place to get to from anywhere else in London!). The interview consisted of...
To follow the rest of the story, become Friends with WDAD Communications on Facebook or follow Caireen on Twitter at WDADgleek
Ideas man joins
Philip Clarke, our new Head of Creative, knows how to get you results. He can also win you awards, perhaps even global ones like the World Gold Medal he secured for the Met Police in New York. Heavyweight, but less so now that his diet’s changed. More/Less
Good ideas come with trust
September ‘87. Back in London after six years teaching in Portugal. I see an ad in the Guardian. It says ‘Copywriter Wanted’ and that if I’ve got talent they’ll spot it. So I write back, fizzing with talent, and get rejected along with 1,500 other hopefuls. But I badger them daily until they give me work experience. Two weeks later they offer me a job!
I’ve worked for a lot of agencies since then, recruitment and not, full-time and freelance. Doing ideas is easy. The tough bit is getting clients to buy the best one and run with it. It’s about trust. That’s why I like to get close to clients and take them on an informed journey. Account handlers do a brilliant job, but sometimes stuff can get lost in translation.
As Creative Head, I make sure the work reflects a client’s culture and says the things that sway the target. Results come out of that, as do awards. Yet I’ve seen work win awards that’s never recruited anyone! I think that’s wrong, when creativity’s rewarded for disappearing up its own sense of importance. There’s a shorter way of saying that.
Yummy mummy returns
We’re happy to have Sarah Brett, our very experienced account director, back from maternity leave. She’s perfected motherhood (yeah right) and re-ignited her passion for doing biggy wiggy campaigns for cuddly wuddly clients. Doesn’t her daughter have beautiful eyes? More/Less
Strange News
As we may have mentioned, WDAD’s fifteen years old this year. To celebrate, here’s a little birthday game you can play. Winner gets a bottle of bubbly. More/Less
Fifteen guesses
How well do you know us? Clues to the first twelve are in the teenage snaps at the top of this newsletter, the last three are easy peasy. The first person who gets them all right wins a bottle of champers. Quick, email your answers to mike@wdad.co.uk asap
Guess which of us...
- ...is pregnant
- ...does the best Brummie accent
- ...is dyed-in-the-wool Chelsea
- ...wanted to be Hendrix (before he became a web geek)
- ...has funeral director parents
- ...was once a champion swimmer
- ...flew Concorde to New York
- ...refuses to hang up his rugger boots
- ...was a child model
- ...is fanatical about felines
- ...has climbed the highest mountain in North Africa
- ...has lost the most hair
And three general knowledge ones. Guess...
- ...who was Prime Minister in 1995
- ...the year Toy Story hit the big screen over here
- ...what WDAD was called before it became WDAD - the answer’s in one of our articles
