Vault.com, a destination for career information, is in the early stages of its first national marketing campaign. It is targeting New York City but will expand the campaign to other major cities this summer.
The site is geared to consumers between ages 21 and 40 in elite industries such as investment banking, consulting, law and high-tech, using the tagline, “The Truth is in the vault.” Additionally, it is attempting to reach human resources professionals who can provide positions for its job board.
The site hopes to grab consumers’ attention through print ads in roughly 10 magazines, including the Industry Standard, Fortune and Business Week. It is courting human resources professionals through a handful of trade titles.
Additionally, a direct mail drop to 10,000 to 20,000 human resources professionals in New York will go out later this month. Vault.com is mailing to its house list as well as to the Society for Human Resources Management list.
Consumers in New York are being exposed to a fleet of rolling billboards –flatbed trucks with a large billboard hitched to the back — and to subway and pay phone advertisements.
These localized efforts will extend to cities that Vault.com identified as having a concentration of its target audience. They are San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Seattle and Washington.
“What we're trying to do is market ourselves intelligently by not spending a lot of money chasing brand awareness,” said David Hirschler, vice president of marketing at Vault.com, New York. “We're trying to identify the specific media and vehicles that index very highly [for our target audience].”
The site has made a number of banner buys across a variety of major sites, including AltaVista and Yahoo. The response to the banner ads has ranged from 0.2 percent to more than 2 percent. Vault.com also is using e-mail marketing.
“We're testing various properties throughout the year. We're looking to test, to maximize our return on investment,” Hirschler said.
Vault.com labels itself a media company, in addition to being an online career destination. It has a popular series of books called the “Vault Series” that cover topics ranging from the top 50 law firms to how to write a resume.
The site's agency of record is Mad Dogs & Englishmen, New York.
