A recruitment campaign run in the web-based virtual universe of Second Life has already attracted nearly 500 hits to the career site of international directories company Yell.

From the outset both Yell and its recruitment agency TMP Worldwide were keen to point out that it was as much a brand-building exercise as a recruitment campaign and it has already proved itself as the former.

"It's taken on a life of its own," said Dave Runacres, national account director at TMP Worldwide, whose US office has built its own island in Second Life where it will host recruitment fairs. "We knew it wasn't going to be an expansive recruitment channel but wanted to see what the reaction would be. It has attracted interest from all around the world."

As part of the campaign, a team of avatars wearing distinctive yellow t-shirts promoting the career site at www.yellcareers.com, teleport themselves to busy thoroughfares in the digital world at key times of day to chat to other avatars about careers at the company, whose brands include Yellow Pages and Yell.com. They also direct Second Life residents to strategically placed Yell phone boxes where they can click on a link to the site.

For the uninitiated, Second Life gives real people the chance to reinvent themselves in a virtual world. It is owned by its residents, who at the last count totalled more than six million. It has its own currency (Linden dollars) and residents can buy land or even their own island.

Businesses are increasingly looking at how they can exploit it for use in the real world and multinational brands such as Dell and Nike have established a presence there.

Isabelle Hung, head of national resourcing at Yell in the UK, said she has been amazed at the publicity the campaign has generated. "It is another way of keeping Yell in people's minds and communicating what we do," she told Recruiter, adding that Second Life users, who tend to be creative and innovative, are a good fit for the Yell brand. "And it's also fun," she added.

TMP and Yell are currently in discussion over how next to best make use of Second Life and other emerging media technologies.

In the meantime, TMP Worldwide's US office will be staging the first of its recruitment fairs on the TMP island on 16 May. T-Mobile and IBM are among the companies who will be taking part. The event is invitation only, with the invited Second Life residents issued with the island's co-ordinates.

www.secondlife.com
www.tmpw.co.uk
www.yellcareers.com