Video Could Fuel Online Recruitment Ad Spending
A new report shows revenues from online job ads will rise to more than $11 billion by 2012, and a good chunk of that could come from video offerings.
Revenues from online job ads are expected to rise 24 percent to more than $11 billion by 2012, and a good chunk of that could come from video advertising. A new report suggests use of online video on sites such as Monster, HotJobs and CareerBuilder, as well as local media sites, already is becoming popular with recruiters.
In addition to recruitment ad predictions, the 2008 Online Recruitment Advertising report from Borrell Associates shows total ad spending for online video, at around $522 million last year, will hit $10 billion four years from now. The local media research firm also forecasts that by 2012 online local video will reach more than $5 billion, over a third of all local online ad spending.
The company believes a lot of video ad growth is coming from major local advertiser categories, including recruitment. “What’s driving the increase in online video is mainly what’s going on in automotive, real estate, recruitment, and healthcare,” said Borrell Associates SVP Peter Conti. “The local online ad spend is so big in these categories that they have a direct influence on this number.”
Borrell and others following the emerging sector wouldn’t provide actual current spending or predict rates of growth for online video recruitment ads.
“Video is a tiny sliver of recruitment advertising, but it’s growing incredibly fast,” said Peter Zollman, founding principal of Classified Intelligence, who predicts big increases over the next two to three years in online video job ads. Money for Web video budgets will most likely come from print, said Zollman. As is the case for all classic classifieds ad categories, he continued, for online job ads, “Video is going to be up and print is going to be down.”
The CareerTV Web site features videos touting the cultures at companies like Makers Mark and Ford Motor Company, and offers a variety of video hosting and production packages. An introductory six-month deal provides hosting and distribution, 4,000 video views, and a custom profile page for $4,000. A more robust offering including video production is $16,000. Still, at this point, the site feels a lot more like a storage center for random corporate videos than one dedicated to promoting specific gigs.
Recognizing the video future, newspaper publishers are starting to offer video products to employers. The South Bend Tribune’s sbtjobmatch.com shows brief video ads promoting local jobs. “Press Ganey and Associates is looking to hire a product manager for our physician and employee business unit,” declares a voiceover on a video clip using stock footage of a businesswoman talking on the phone. An ad for several positions including breakfast host at South Bend’s Hampton Inn and Suites employs archived company footage and directs applicants to see details on employment possibilities “in our ad in the Tribune.”
Those ads are hosted by Digital Media Classifieds, a firm providing similar services to paper publishers including Advance.net, Belo, Cox, Tribune, and Gannett. A variety of newer vendors also offer online job video ad production and hosting.
In a recruitment ad study published this year, Classified Intelligence reported a regional newspaper group collected $40,000 each week from recruitment video offerings. Production and hosting of a 30-second video on a newspaper site typically runs around $100 to $150, according to Zollman. Use of canned footage and photos keeps costs down, he added.
High-caliber recruitment videos may be a ways off, but Borrell’s Conti believes the future crop of job seekers is ready for this development. “We’re going to see this become really important, particularly as the baby boomers exit the workplace,” said Conti. “The younger generation is really interested in things like the values in the workplace, and that’s what the companies are really starting to focus on in these videos.”
Videos also have fewer restrictions than tiny textual print ads. Continued Conti, “This is a way a recruiter can really laser in with their intended job seeker by highlighting the workplace, which was so hard to convey in the past when you had to get it across in five lines.”
