Video could fuel online recruitment ad spending

gross from online job ads are expected to rise 24 percentage to more than $11 one million million by 2012, and a good chunk of that could come from video ad. A new study suggests use of online video on sites such as Monster, HotJobs and CareerBuilder, as well as local media sites, already is becoming popular with recruiters.

In add-on to enlisting ad predictions, the 2008 Online Recruitment ad report from Borrell Associates shows total ad disbursement for online video, at about $522 million last year, will hit $10 one million million four years from now. The local media research firm also forecasts that by 2012 online local video will reach more than $5 one million million, over a third of all local online ad disbursement.

The company believes a lot of video ad growing is approach from major local advertizer categories, including recruitment. "What's driving the addition in online video is chiefly what's going on in automotive, real estate, recruitment, and health care," said Borrell Associates SVP Peter Conti. "The local online ad spend is so big in these categories that they have a directly influence on this figure."

Borrell and others following the emerging sector wouldn't provide actual current disbursement or predict rates of growing for online video enlisting ads.

"Video is a tiny splinter of enlisting advertising, but it's growth incredibly fast," said Peter Zollman, founding principal of Classified Intelligence, who predicts big addition over the next two to three years in online video job ads. Money for Web video budgets will most probably come from print, said Zollman. As is the case for all classic classifieds ad categories, he continued, for online job ads, "Video is going to be up and print is going to be down."

The CareerTV Web site characteristic videos touting the civilization at companies like shaper Mark and Ford Motor Company, and offering a assortment of video hosting and production packages. An introductory six-month deal provides hosting and distribution, 4,000 video views, and a custom profile page for $4,000. A more robust offering including video production is $16,000. Still, at this point, the site feels a lot more like a storage center for random corporate videos than one dedicated to promoting specific gigs.

Recognizing the video future, newspaper publishers are starting to offer video products to employers. The South Bend Tribune's sbtjobmatch.com shows brief video ads promoting local jobs. "Press Ganey and Associates is looking to hire a product manager for our physician and employee business unit," declares a voiceover on a video clip using stock footage of a businesswoman talking on the phone. An ad for several positions including breakfast host at South Bend's Hampton Inn and Suites employs archived company footage and directs applicants to see details on employment possibilities "in our ad in the Tribune."

Those ads are hosted by Digital Media Classifieds, a firm providing similar services to paper publishers including Advance.net, Belo, Cox, Tribune, and Gannett. A variety of newer vendors also offer online job video ad production and hosting.

In a recruitment ad study published this year, Classified Intelligence reported a regional newspaper group collected $40,000 each week from recruitment video offerings. Production and hosting of a 30-second video on a newspaper site typically runs around $100 to $150, according to Zollman. Use of canned footage and photos keeps costs down, he added.

High-caliber recruitment videos may be a ways off, but Borrell's Conti believes the future crop of job seekers is ready for this development. "We're going to see this become really important, particularly as the baby boomers exit the workplace," said Conti. "The younger generation is really interested in things like the values in the workplace, and that's what the companies are really starting to focus on in these videos."

Videos also have fewer restrictions than tiny textual print ads. Continued Conti, "This is a way a recruiter can really laser in with their intended job seeker by highlighting the workplace, which was so hard to convey in the past when you had to get it across in five lines."