Bristol-based marketing and creative recruiter Ad Lib is running a competition to design a viral internet advertising campaign to promote the agency and attract candidates.

Frank Hutton, managing director of Ad Lib, told Recruiter that the viral campaign is targeted at attracting digital marketing designers/developers and reinforcing their impression of Ad Lib or connecting with them for the first time. The competition is to design a campaign to market the recruiter to both clients and professionals in its chosen sectors.

Designers and developers known to the firm will be emailed through its Spark-Online Freelancer database and leaflets have been sent out to regionally-based universities and colleges, across the Bristol and Bath area. There has also been adverts in the local press.

“In the current climate, the days of expecting high response levels from advertising are long gone and competition for good candidates is extremely tough, says Hutton. 

“It’s more important than ever to find creative and unique ways of reaching new people. We always like to do things slightly differently, and holding a viral marketing competition is a fun, fresh way of encouraging and supporting new talent, whilst strengthening the Ad Lib brand. This is not only a cost-effective double hit (fairly low promotional costs plus prizes) but there is definite PR value in the competition itself and also in promoting the results.”

“We’re entirely open to looking at a variety of different approaches, whether it’s a Flash game, a clever email campaign or video content.  Fundamentally, we want the campaign to reach as wide an audience as possible, so this is what we’ll be judging the entries on – and it’s often the simplest ideas that have the most viral potential,” he adds

The competition winner will pick up £500 and there will be two runners up prizes of £100. The entire campaign cost Ad Lib £1,000.

The competition closes on 31 January, with the winner being announced and the campaign launched by the end of February.

Lindsay Randall, marketing manager at Ad Lib, came up with the competition idea.