FCO Services, a Trading Fund of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has employed 2D mobile barcode technology as part of a recruitment drive. Working with TMP Worldwide,the recruitment communications business, FCO Services launched a campaign to recruit security and technology experts using 2D mobile barcodes in November.
This is the first time that a 2D barcode has been used as a targeting tool in a recruitment campaign, says TMP Worldwide Director of Digital and Media, Marco Bertozzi. We know that, for most people, 2D barcodes will mean very little. However, when FCO Services needed to recruit technical security specialists, they understood that their applicant base would recognise this technology, know how to interact with it and be curious about its use in a recruitment drive.
The campaign launched at the end of November and ran until the end of the first week in December. Applicants used their phones to scan the 2D barcode, which launched a mobile Internet recruitment site. This acted as a first-stage filter for the campaign, says Bertozzi, as only those who understood the technology and its application would progress their application.
The technology to power the campaign was provided by TMP Worldwides mobile partner, Velti. The companys Mobile Marketing Platform (MMP) enabled the creation of WAP landing pages and the use of 2D barcodes.
The print campaign initially ran in the technology section of a national newspaper and also in local newspapers. It was supported by a more traditional digital campaign on major job boards to ensure that FCO Services maintained visibility and captured people who might not have the required technology on their phones or access to the press choices.
2D barcodes are a way to encode information, just like conventional barcodes, but they can encode significantly more. The FCO Services 2D barcode contained the information www.fcossecurity.mobi. When the image is photographed or scanned by a device equipped with a 2D barcode reader, the application reads the encoded information and prompts the phones browser to visit the URL.
FCO Services is part of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. It deliver a unique range of security-related services, installing security and communications systems in embassies and high-security sites around the world.