The Future of Work Predictor
Issue 22 | March 2012
Agency
Proximity BBDO
Creative Team
Creative Director: Chris Goossens; Art Director: Klaartje Galle; Copywriter: Thomas Renders
Date
From 20th December 2011
Background
SD Worx is the leading provider of Human Resources services in Belgium. This New Year, they wanted to send greetings to their employees and clients but in the war against paper waste, they wanted to send their wishes online. And they wanted to have more impact than the average seasonal email.
Idea
SD Worx is a trend-setter in Human Resources management, always thinking about the future of work.
Will people work more from their home offices? Will they find more time to spend with their children?
The idea was the Future of Work Predictor. This was an application which gave people a sneak preview into their professional futures by showing them their prospective LinkedIn profile. It also give them the chance to express their New Year’s resolutions, seal those resolutions and ask to be reminded of them in a year’s time! The future of Work Predictor was the first ever application to take over someone’s LinkedIn profile.
Results
SD Worx sent this application to just 300 people but within the first two weeks alone, 5600 unique users in 42 countries visited the website, covering the whole target group as well. By sharing on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter, the application is still running at http://www.futureofworkpredictor.com
Our Thoughts
There are bits on the website that really did make me laugh. I loved seeing that Angela Merkel has recently viewed my profile. She is listed as ‘Owner, East Germany’. Vladimir Putin runs a restaurant called Gazprom. And I no longer live in the UK, I am a surf instructor in Bora Bora. I wish!
This isn’t the biggest idea in Issue 22 by any means but it is an example of someone trying to do the same-old differently. Most Christmas emails are bereft of any intelligence whatsoever. By contrast, this gives you 90 seconds of fun at the end of which you will think warm thoughts towards SD Worx, which is supposed to be the whole object of the exercise. Why bother to send any sort of card if all you do is make it plain to everyone it is a chore?