reed.co.uk Invites Public to Vote for First-Time Directors’ TV Ads

LONDON, December 12, 2011 -

A major multi-channel advertising campaign is being launched by the UK’s leading jobs site, reed.co.uk. The campaign, called ‘Who’s hired? You decide’ will see the public vote for the TV commercial they want aired.

Six TV ads have been shortlisted after reed.co.uk invited 20 up-and-coming film directors to create a 30 second commercial, based on the company’s established ‘Love Mondays’ campaign message.

Voting will take place online and will be supported by a heavyweight digital push, including pre-roll video, social targeting and promotion across film and entertainment destinations.  An extensive social media presence will encourage visitors to get behind their favourite ads and engage with the filmmakers on Facebook and Twitter. Online activity will launch on December 12 and run in to early January.

reed.co.uk has enlisted the services of digital agency STEEL to create the online assets and manage social media. These include a Facebook ad campaign and incorporating a Facebook tab on reed.co.uk’s ‘Love Mondays’ Facebook page to drive people to vote on reed.co.uk. Online video is also playing a key part in the campaign with STEEL creating pre-roll and flash video ads, as well as a video trailer being pushed out via their viral network to support the voting.

The ad that receives the most public support will run on prime time national, terrestrial and satellite television from January.

The winning filmmaker will also receive a £10,000 cash prize and have the opportunity to work on future reed.co.uk projects with celebrated commercials and film director, Paul Weiland, whose team was behind the original ‘Love Mondays’ radio and outdoor campaign.

Martin Warnes, Managing Director of reed.co.uk, comments:

“As the UK’s busiest job site, reed.co.uk is all about giving people opportunities, so we wanted this to be a core part of our latest ad campaign.

We’ve been increasingly involved in supporting and promoting Short Film during the last couple of years with our own annual competition, so it seemed logical to turn to some of the hugely talented individuals who’ve taken part to create us a new TV ad.

Giving one filmmaker the opportunity to have their ad shown on national TV with the backing of a public vote could be a career changing moment.”

Nick Bennett, Creative Director of STEEL, adds:

“This is a great example of a cross-media campaign, where social media plays a key part in determining demand before supply. Not only do the public decide the winning TV ad but they get to connect and engage with the directors through social media. It’s not just advertising. It’s social entertainment.”

As well as STEEL, reed.co.uk has enlisted the services of Golley Slater for digital planning. Contagious Content is working with TCS Media/Media Odyssey to create and plan TV and other offline support.

All six ads can be viewed on www.reed.co.uk/youdecide. Please note: for any online reporting:  ads under embargo on this link (the ads will be live on reed.co.uk from Monday 12th December).

Voting begins on Monday 12th December.

Notes:

About reed.co.uk:

reed.co.uk is the UK’s leading online recruitment service, featuring over 110,000 jobs in London, Birmingham and across the UK from more than 8,000 recruiters across 42 industry sectors.

reed.co.uk is the UK’s most visited job site and was named by Experian Hitwise as the Number 1 website for Employment & Training sites throughout 2010 and between January and June 2011.

About Paul Weiland

With over 1000 commercials, numerous feature films and countless episodes of Mr Bean, multi award-winning Paul Weiland is one of Britain’s most prolific film directors.

For press enquiries, please contact Lynn Cahillane or Mark Rhodes on +44(0)20-7067-4582, Email: news@reedonline.co.uk

Dragon Court, 28 Macklin Street, London, WC2B 5LX