Title: Personality or skill: a qualitative study of humorous recruitment advertising campaign on social media

Authors: Eeva-Liisa Oikarinen; Jaakko Sinisalo

Addresses: Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, PO Box 4600, FIN-90014 Oulu, Finland ' Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Teuvo Pakkalan katu 19, 90130 Oulu, Finland

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to understand the challenges and opportunities of using humour in a recruitment advertising campaign. In this study, we approach through a case study the social media recruiting campaign of a high-profile company operating in the architecture industry. The campaign used humour as a device when seeking the right person. The main empirical data were collected through a qualitative open-ended questionnaire targeted at 28 potential job seekers at the architect firm to understand how the humorous recruitment campaign and recruitment ads were perceived by potential job seekers. In addition, an interview with the office manager regarding the goals of the recruitment advertising campaign was conducted, and statistics provided by Facebook and Google Analytics were interpreted. This study provides managers a new understanding of and suggestions regarding the challenges and opportunities of using humour as a marketing device in recruitment advertising campaigns.

Keywords: humour; recruitment advertising; recruitment ads; recruitment campaigns; social media; Facebook; architecture industry; person-organisation fit; job seekers; case study; humorous adverts; Google Analytics; advertising campaigns.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2017.082990

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2017 Vol.11 No.1, pp.22 - 43

Received: 05 Jul 2016
Accepted: 23 Sep 2016

Published online: 17 Mar 2017 *

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