ERBUD — the first employer branding campaign based on the metaverse phenomenon
In order to build the image of the ERBUD brand (construction company) as an attractive employer for students and graduates of technical studies, we decided to move forward with an innovative campaign idea. For the purposes of the campaign, we have creatively combined the offline world and gaming, thus creating the first Polish employer branding campaign based on the idea of metaverse.
[video in English]
Campaign objectives
The aim of the campaign was to stand out from other construction companies and build the image of the ERBUD brand as an attractive employer for technical graduates. In practice, this meant reaching students and engineers, involving them in communication and obtaining qualitative applications for recruitment.
Challenge
The shortage of personnel is one of the fundamental problems faced by the entire construction sector in Poland.
The market currently lacks more than 150 thousand skilled workers. Despite the intensifying competition among employers, most construction companies still use less innovative ways to recruit future employees. In this context, the main challenge was to break the industry pattern and encourage candidates to take up apprenticeships.
Strategy
The strategy was based on going beyond the standard activities of employer branding campaigns and finding a yet unexploited communication channel within the main target group. We considered the use of gaming contexts as the best means to achieve this, as many students and technical graduates like to play video games. The campaign included more than just the use of standard forms of promotion, aiming at building perception of ERBUD as a modern brand which supports candidates’ gaming passions, i.e. creative branding or cooperation with influencers. We were also looking for solutions that would allow us to build digital brand experience and innovatively connect offline and online worlds.
Implementation
We started the campaign with the support of University Esports EDU, the largest university esports league in Poland.
In the second phase of the campaign, an open contest was launched for students to prepare an idea of an in-game map for the tournament. The task of the participants was to recreate ERBUD’s flagship project — the revitalized Hala Koszyki in Warsaw. The work was judged in terms of similarity to the original, as well as actual playability. The process of building the map was deceptively similar to creating visualizations of real buildings. The winning design was given to a professional mapper who implemented it digitally— since then every player in the world has been able to try out the map for themselves.
At the end we organized the final tournament. The “Walka o Koszyki”, played on the winning map, was organized in… Hala Koszyki in cooperation with Globalworth, the owner and manager of the building. In this way the real world and gameplay intersected on several levels. The whole event was widely communicated and became a social event not only in the gaming sphere.
The various phases of the project were supported by communication, among others i.e. through cooperation with esports influencers, PR activities and media relations as well as the brand’s own channels (e.g. website, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn).
Effects
The communication efforts of the project reached 650 thousand unique individuals, and above all achieved the objective of acquisition of new candidates. As many as 700 applications were received, which means that more than 11 people were competing for one internship in a degressive market. It was a quadruple increase from 2020, when the number of applications was 180.
The first employer branding campaign in Poland, based on the metaverse phenomenon, helped to build the image of the ERBUD brand as an attractive employer for students graduating in technical studies. The actions translated into a high coverage within the target group and stimulated a record number of applications. This proves that it is worth using custom actions in employer branding campaigns, in turn breaking established patterns. The campaign received two main Złote Spinacze awards (Polish PR awards) as well as a silver and bronze award at the IAB MIXX Awards Poland 2021.
The Gameset project team: Anna Rezner, Bartosz Semegin, Krystian Szczepaniak, Michał Kołodziej, Piotr Bombol, Karolina Kałużyńska, Wojciech Grzegorzyca, Piotr Śliwiński, Michał Sutryk and Arkadiusz Kucia
