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Video 2.0 for Recruitment

Features information about video in human capital space; news, trends, technologies, case studies, and strategies. Everything is open for discussion; online video, iTV, vlogging, Video-on-demand, mobile video, video-resumes, TV advertising, and other emerging media strategies for reaching candidates and for employment branding.

$33M for a Recruitment Video Game and $700M in Recruitment Advertising follow this blog post

posted by on Dec. 16, 2009

I recently read John Zappe's feature on the $33M for an Army recruitment video game. GameSpot reported that $33M was spent over 10 years (year-by-year budget summary is below in Chart 1). 

Taking a deeper dive into the story, I learned that the military combined spent about $700 million on recruitment advertising during the President Bush years. $33M amounts to 4.7% of the $700M, doesn't see so bad now.  But the real question become's what was the ROI on the $33M of our taxpayer dollars?  It's great that GameSpot was about to get the expenditure info through the Freedom of Information Act request, but when will the RIO start to be reported?

 

 

Video games are being use by organizations as another tool to generate candidate engagement.  In addition, recruitment video games can test candidate's skills, critical thinking and technical skills.

 

Mitre Corp. uses video games as a recruitment strategy, so does Google. For many organizations the budget for a video game is prohibitive, but using some of those "test" budget  dollars could be a great way to explore recruitment video games as a way to attract candidates.  There are many "video game designers" in college or that have recently graduated, consider a video game internship project for one these students. 

Other tools in your tool box  (like video, blogging, job boards, SEO, SEM, etc) require a better understanding a company's recruitment goals and branding.  However, a video game just needs to be remotely related to your business, so give a young video game developer the opportunity to be creative.

 

Chart1: America's Army year-by-year budget summary

2000--$3,500,000

2001--$5,600,000

2002--$1,862,985

2003--$2,600,000

2004--$3,866,482

2005--$1,288,552

2006--$4,050,748

2007--$2,788,137

2008--$3,887,450

2009--$3,395,702

@ErnsTweets 

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  • 1 point 2 months ago

     

    It is easy to assume that the entire $33m was spent on the making and playing of the  "Game".  However, what this audience is not taking into account is the leveraging of the technology to be utilized in other areas, in particular, training programs for the soldiers.  There is a "Public Application" or game and there are other uses that are not public.  Similar to using flight simulators, the game can be adapted for use by the Army to train the soldiers in specific scenarios and different conditions without actually placing them "on location"

  • 1 point 2 months ago

    The Army has to spend millions annually recruiting because a) asking people to put their lives on the line is a tough sell; b) they need hundreds of thousands of new recruits to backfill for those mustering out or injured or killed; c) they also have to sell influencers such as parents, who often try to prevent their youngsters from enlisting. Games needn't cost hundreds of thousands or millions. They can be re-skinned versions of other games or simpler puzzles (try http://kpmg.hodes.co.uk/games/cascade/start.html) that cost far less. What the Army game does well is familiarize potential recruits with all of the roles for a soldier besides infantry so people can see the opportunities available. That's the real question one needs to ask: will a game (or puzzle or quiz or ???) help achieve my goal? If so, it is worth the investment.

  • 1 point 2 months ago

    I've been talking to recruiters and vendors lately about calculating ROI on social media investments. And the response is along the lines of "We're experimenting." How would you go about figuring the ROI for a video game?

    This is not a rhetorical question. I'm working on an in-depth article on calculating source of hire ROI for such "soft" branding and recruitment efforts as Facebook and Twitter presence; LinkedIn groups, and the like.

    What thoughts do you have on how you would figure the ROI on a video such as the Army's?

    If you like, you can contact me directly at John@ERE.net

  • 1 point 2 months ago

    John, in what ways would this be different than calculating ROI for other types of recruiting?

  • 1 point 2 months ago

     

    Bryan, I emailed John some thoughts separately, here's the short version. I think a good place to start is by looking at how companies determine ROI for video games for consumer branding.

    In recruitment space- I use to do some consulting at Oddcast (the creators of the Careerbuilder Monk-e-mail and Age-o-matic yourself avatar game, one could even say those apps are "video games").  An important metric with video games and these avatar like games is "engagement" that is, how long did the user interact with the avatar/game.  The more they "played," the better.  After that, you start to look at other stats, pass along (i.e. sharing, which means someone likes the experience, adds credibility, and elevates your brand), uniques, etc...

    I have a case study related to video (not video game, just video, but some similarities) that examines ROI, if interested, send me an email to efeiteira at careercorner dot tv

  • 1 point 2 months ago

    I for one beleive the ROI is clear; for that money we recieved the best educated most highly trained soldiers in our nations history. And I might also add the finest and bravest group of young men and women in our nation. 

    Could it have been done cheaper?  Of course, it's a government run program, but with all the crazy stuff the government spends our money on this seems like a good deal. 

  • 1 point 2 months ago

    As the goal of working social media into a recruiting plan, it seems to me this is a logical expendenture in engaging a age focused candidate environment.  When you look at what is at stake and how large the decision is, the dollar figure makes sense.