So you have all heard of careerbuilder, you know, the monkeys & whatnot.

What is interesting is that several years ago you may NOT have heard of careerbuilder. About three years ago careerbuilder hired chicago-based Crammer-Krasselt, who basically took careerbuilder from third/forth place in the placements industry to number 1 in quite a few different ways of measurement. (#1 in visits, #1 in share, #1 in listings, revenue up from $100 million to $700 million)

Many levels of strategy were involved with this success. Certainly we have all seen and enjoyed the monkeys, but the core message those simians were trying to get across was DIFFERENT from the messages of monster and the other placement giants. Careerbuilder was targeting people who were dissatisfied with their current job, not just people who were looking for a new one. This is clearly a much larger market that has the benefit of also targeting the traditional job-seekers. It has worked out fabulously for Careerbuilder, and their brand has benefited enormously.

So amidst all this apparent success, Cramer-Krasselt was recently dealt a somewhat humiliating slap in the face. Their superbowl ads for Careerbuilder did not make the top 10 in the USA today poll following the superbowl. Now I don't know how much stock to place in the USA today poll, but it sounds like useless poll too me. But Careerbuilder took it seriously. Careerbuilder responded to it by saying they needed to do a total creative review. Now my opinion is that clients can and should ask for creative reviews whenever it suits them. But there is also something called strategy and tact, and it could be that Careerbuilder failed to employ those attributes when it accosted C-K about not making the top 10 in a, well, silly poll.

Whether appropriately or inappropriately, the CEO Peter Krivkovich QUIT the Careerbuilder account when he found out about the creative review. And then he sent out a very pointed and at times scathing internal memo which was subsequently leaked to the Chicago Tribune and lo and behold, here we are.

The full memo is well worth reading and digesting but here is a tidbit first:

"To our amazement, to our total astonishment, all that astounding business success was less important than one poll. They wanted us to make them famous; we did that in spades (brand awareness up by 64% - even Millward Brown, the venerable research firm said their brand building model couldn't explain such incredible growth.) But the TV ads did not make the top 10 in the USA Today poll – a poll that everyone knows doesn't mirror results (see the continuing Bud sales decline for one!) - they just told us they will do a creative review.

Wait a minute we said, what about the incredible growth that is going on, the shares, the revenue, the awareness, the two best internet sites ever, the massive buzz, etc, etc.

What about all of that? That's huge.

"Yes," they responded, "but you (C-K) didn't get the top ten in the USA Today poll." Hold on… we crushed every possible business metrics/barometer for success. Out of all the metrics and polls, it's all about this one? You have to be (explative) kidding, right!? "No, that's it. It's because of the poll." That was about the extent of the conversation."

The full text is below.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-070223careermemo,1,2814628.story?coll=chi-news-hed

And here is the agency site.

http://www.c-k.com/ck_site.html

Labels: advertising, advertising agencies, placement