Employer branding

Health care case study

Counties Manukau District Health Board (CMDHB) in Auckland, New Zealand opened a new state‐of‐the‐art block called the Edmund Hillary Block which consisted of a new medical ward, two surgical wards and a general surgical ward.

The challenge

Counties Manukau DHB needed a fresh way to attract registered nurses and allied health professionals to fill positions in this new block and sought employer branding advice from leading employment marketing consultants.

A campaign was devised that focused on encouraging nurses and other health professionals to remember the feelings of reward and satisfaction they had when they first started their career. The creative message was strongly supported by the fact that the new building was named the Edmund Hillary Block, linking New Zealand’s most legendary hero, who saw himself as just an everyday bloke ,to the pioneering work achieved at CMDHB.

The creative concept used super heroes as a move away from traditional nursing advertising, which cut through the clutter and inspired candidates to look at CMDHB as a place to re‐kindle their passion for health care.

The campaign

Targeting health care professionals in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, a careers website was created to educate candidates on the state‐of‐the‐art facilities, about New Zealand, Auckland and the Counties Manukau area, as well as professional bodies.

The microsite showcased the new building and included descriptions of the positions available, testimonials from current employees in different areas of the hospital and most importantly, it gave a good a feel for the Counties Manukau DHB working environment.

The media campaign included advertisements that directed candidates to the website for further information and search engine marketing (SEM), including Google Adwords, were included in the campaign.

The results

The campaign had remarkable early results and recognition of the brand is still growing. Use of Google Adwords in the campaign has resulted in 44% of website traffic, showing the importance of incorporating SEM in the campaign, to increase the website's presence on the search results pages of search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

For additional information on employer branding services contact our Talent Advisors.