How does a creative brand campaign support ambitious recruitment goals?

Trade unions often suffer from prejudice because of strikes and demonstrations. However, to emphasise what a positive and constructive union really has to offer, the Belgian liberal trade union ACLVB asked iO to highlight all its services. In a later phase, this positive approach to communication was also used to recruit (new) members, delegates and votes.
ACLVB header happy woman

Client

ACLVB

Challenge

Strengthen the trade union’s image and recruiting for the upcoming social elections

Solution

Creative and multifaceted communication campaigns

Image and recruitment challenges

Many people have a negative view on trade unions because of actions such as strikes and demonstrations. A shame really, as the unions have so much to offer.

To debunk all prejudices and put the spotlight on all good things trade unions can do, the Belgian liberal trade union ACLVB asked iO for help. So what did we do? We worked out a positive and constructive approach to highlight the ACLVB’s services and show how the liberal union back its people when they need it most.

But that wasn’t all the ACLVB requested. The liberal trade union also asked us to create a campaign to recruit as many new suitable candidates as possible for the upcoming social elections.

Creative and multifaceted communication campaigns

A trade union that works with you

To boost the ACLVB’s image, we created a multimedia and multifaceted communication campaign.

The goal of the campaign was to promote the ACLVB as a partner in work and life, as the professional and private sphere are strongly intertwined in many people’s lives.

We created a baseline ‘the ACLVB works with you’ to put the spotlight on all of the ACLVB’s services and emphasise that the liberal trade union’s support transcends the workspace.

We built a bridge between the professional and private spheres using topics such as:

  • (co-)parenting, custody,...

  • Family and mobility

  • Supplementary pension

  • Renting/letting a residence

  • Inheritance law

  • Career counselling

  • Bonuses

After promoting the ACLVB’s services, we also took to Belgian streets to conduct interviews with the target audience. On top of that, we organised an online quiz about the ACLVB with the grand prize of a luxury retreat at sea) .

The goal of the interview and quiz was to gather more information about the target audience’s knowledge about the ACLVB and its services. With this information, we were able to put the emphasis on the right topics and find out more about factors we didn’t take into account straight away.

A positively different trade union

To improve the ACLVB’s recruitment numbers, iO put together another creative and multifaceted communication campaign.

Using the liberal trade unions’ values and positioning of being 'positively different', we first determined an appropriate strategy. We then translated this strategy into the inviting and encouraging concept "Come on!".

Using the positive energy from the concept, we encouraged people to become union representatives and engage themselves in an impactful role to promote all the ACLVB has to offer.

This way, “Come on!” became the basis for both strengthening the ACLVB’s image and the recruitment campaign for candidates. Additionally, we also used the concept to communicate during two important phases of the project.

  • Phase 1: what differentiates the ACLVB from other trade unions?

  • Phase 2: what profile fits the ideal ACLVB representative ?

To get the right message to the right people at the right moment, iO created a fitting allround campaign with both online and offline elements. The goal of this campaign was to check if there was a match between the ACLVB and potential candidates, before said candidates would make a decision on representing the union. Organisations and regions where the ACLVB’s representation was fairly low, were targeted using (smaller) social media campaigns.

Successful campaigns

The image campaign positively impacted the target audience’s view on the ACLVB and its services, both on an emotional and informational level. We saw a huge increase in the number of website visitors and the people that participated in the online quiz. This positive impact was a result of the way we communicated and the manner in which we presented the ACLVB’s services.

The recruitment campaign's intended goal of increasing the number of candidates by 10% compared to the previous social elections, was easily achieved with the Facebook Campaigns alone. Moreover, the number of website visitors, information requests and positive perception of the union also got a nice boost.

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