Monster, the world's No. 1 jobs site, will not advertise on the Super Bowl broadcast this year.
Confident of its brand's strength, the Maynard, MA, company instead is using radio, television and online marketing to generate response for its January Jobs campaign. The goal is to help Americans find employment in their communities.
“Clearly, we've participated in the Super Bowl broadcasts in the past [but] we're in the second decade of our brand and we have very high levels of awareness,” said John Kelley, senior vice president of marketing at Monster. “Our focus really is on leveraging our brand and [enhancing] our presence in local markets and other countries.
“New Year's [is] always a busy time when a lot of people make resolutions, so we really wanted to leverage that time of year and the enthusiasm of seekers and employers, particularly as we've been looking at the job market.”
The January Jobs campaign runs through the month on Monster.com and 180 radio stations in 41 local markets nationwide. A 30-second TV spot supports. Employers who are new Monster customers may post one free U.S.-based job listing at http://freeposting.monster.com.
Monster agency Deutsch Inc., New York, handles the advertising.
The effort ends Feb. 1 with Ultimate Career Day. On this day and through Feb. 7, Monster will make those free jobs searchable to all who visit the site.
To generate traffic, job seekers will be offered a free month of music on the Rhapsody service and a free music download. Also, job seekers are entered in a drawing to win a $50,000 cash prize when they upload or edit a new or existing resume this month.
A partnership with Infinity Broadcasting is critical to the campaign. Infinity's stations offer Monster the reach it desires in local markets. Besides the regular promotion, Monster will air founder Jeff Taylor's one-minute Monster Career Moments spots each half-hour Feb. 1.
The spots are inspiring clips from Taylor's interviews with famous business people, athletes and celebrities. They will include Monster's career tips and listener success stories. The spots will be available on the local radio stations' Web sites Feb. 1-7.
Another part of the deal with Infinity stations involves using commercial time to feature local companies with hiring needs. In addition, the spots will promote career-building tools found on Monster and offer tips on resume writing and interviewing.
Monster also struck a deal with Internet Broadcasting Systems, a leading online local TV network. Internet Broadcasting reaches the top 10 U.S. markets and 22 of the leading 25, combining all TV stations owned by NBC, Hearst, Cox, Washington Post Co. and McGraw-Hill Cos., among others.
Monster will power the career-content pages for the education, technology, business and family sections of Internet Broadcasting's Web sites. The deal requires each Internet Broadcasting site to be customized and targeted to the local job seeker. Relevant employment listings, career-enhancement tools and advice from Monster experts on resume writing and interview skills will be featured.
Internet Broadcasting began promoting the career pages via local TV spots this month. The co-branded spots include Monster messaging showing Monster's benefits in each local market. Online ads on Internet Broadcasting's career-content pages will support.
These efforts aim to attract those employed and the nearly 8 million Americans out of work, as estimated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“I think the challenge that we're addressing is to continue to strengthen our national brand, but also increase our relevance in local markets,” Kelley said. “As we move forward, how do we capitalize on our market leadership position and do it in a way for everyday relevance for job seekers and employers?”
