I was honored to be among 100 other talent branding (employer brand and recruitment marketing) professionals attending this year’s virtual Talent Brand Summit.
#TBSummit is an incredible opportunity to connect with and learn from other passionate leaders from across the globe. I was most inspired by the Creativity on a Budget roundtable, led by Camille Richardson, Head of Global Employment Brand Creative Team at Facebook, where we discussed ideas for inexpensive or even free creative ways to help our community get the best bang for our limited buck.
As a talent branding professional, there have been many times where I can relate to having to rise to the challenge of providing creativity on a restricted budget. On many projects throughout my talent brand career, I have found myself being extremely innovative, but with no allocated funds to bring my campaign or idea to life. However, connecting with and hearing from my colleagues at #TBSummit helped me understand that I was not alone, and that other professionals share similar experiences. By sharing our creative budget challenges, it provided me with relief from a common industry frustration.
The Creativity on a Budget discussion reminded me that as talent brand professionals, we are creative problem solvers. Our career is about finding solutions, whether that means creating a story or finding ways to engage employees, and we should be able to fulfill this need without breaking the bank. This affirmation brought me back to my early career days when I adopted the “starvation” mindset. When approaching new challenges, I did not always have a safety net which forced me to be more innovative when finding solutions.
You’re not in this alone.
There is something special about connecting with other professionals with a common mission. One of the first points Camille shared was “building your squad”, which creates a foundation for creativity.
If you’re challenged with executing creative, start by building a network of content creators across your company, while finding low-cost partners to augment things like video editing or graphic design. Taking the time to build this network sets you up to not drive creativity alone, but rather leverage the power of your squad to execute.
During the session, Camille shared her team’s approach to creating an important, and time-sensitive, campaign around shifting to remote work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because her team had invested the time to build their squad, they were able to rise to this challenge by crowdsourcing ideas and giving a second life to existing corporate marketing content.
Brilliant!
And a good reminder that by keeping a pulse on, and taking a closer look at, existing content you can identify new ways to put it to good use and drive ROI. In short, work smarter, not harder. You don’t need to start from scratch with every piece of content. Giving new life to existing assets is a time-saver and provides the opportunity for collaboration with your squad, and other counterparts.
Key takeaways:
Build your squad.
Crowdsource your ideas.
Respect the brand, but push the envelope.
I joined the Talent Brand Alliance to increase my education and professional connections with the talent brand community. I am incredibly grateful for having had the opportunity to attend #TBSummit. I walked away from the event with a new perspective, best practice strategies, and professional connections that will enhance my career journey.
Javianna J. Nelson has always been fascinated with the interaction and behaviors of people within organizations. That fascination has led her to a BS in Business Management and an MS in Organizational Psychology, where she became an expert in helping people and businesses achieve excellence. Over the course of her career, Javianna has worked in all aspects of human resources, public relations, marketing, and most recently, employer branding. She loves sharing employee stories and experiences and considers herself to be a builder and connector with a passion for learning and creativity.