As 2021 was winding down, our small, but mighty San Francisco-based ad agency got a call from a startup company called Hirect. They were already the number two hiring app in India. Annie Zhang, the co-founder, and her partner founded the app in her dorm room in 2018 and now have over a million-and-a-half registered users. 

We hadn’t heard of them because they hadn’t launched in America yet. Hence the call. Given our experience and Bay Area location, our ad agency gets a fair number of calls from startups. But this one was different. First off, it was Annie calling directly, not a marketing associate or assistant. This is her company, she’ll make the calls.

Second, she and the company were about to launch what’s believed to be the largest outdoor ad campaign in San Francisco history; over 500 pieces of creative throughout the city and around the Bay Area. And they needed an ad campaign. Fast. (Just to be clear, we don’t usually track out-of-home campaign spending dollar amounts, but Out of Home Today does. So we’re passing it on.)

Oh, did I mention this all happened the week before Thanksgiving and we were about to close up shop and leave town? Ya, that. But after we got off the call, we were impressed and intrigued. The product is a chat-based hiring app that lets founders connect directly with job candidates and vice versa. No portals or middle people or recruiters or “Let’s set up a Zoom call to start you on a long interview road to hell.”

Just text with talent and hire them. Or text with founders and get hired. People get responses in seconds, not days, and hires happen in days not weeks.

The buy was starting in ten days and would launch fully in January. So they needed finished ideas in less than two weeks with copious amounts of turkey to be eaten in between. That’s an insane timeline. But if they were up to the challenge, so were we. 

We hung up, put a scope of work together, and sent it over around 5 pm. Just before midnight, we got back a signed copy and we were off. Twelve hours from meeting to scoping to signing. (I loved these people already.)

We quickly set out to learn everything we could about the company, the sector, the problem, and the target.  All this was occurring on planes, trains, and automobiles en route to our holiday gatherings. Did it put a bit of a crimp in our vacation plans?  For sure. But, on the bright side, working over the holidays gets you out of awkward family dinners and when your loved ones start talking politics it’s an excuse to duck out.

A few days into vacation we presented roughly ten campaign directions with 8-10 executions in each. Certainly, that’s overkill for a few launch boards, but we were gonna need a lot of executions to fill out the media plan. It was done by Kasper Koczab at Hirect’s financial partner, Brex, via their Billboard Rewards program. The plan was excellent. Well thought out with dramatic executions paired with consistency all over the city.

When we presented, Annie was on every call. Collaboration was easy and honest. They wanted to make a splash and be true to the brand they were building. Before we’d eaten any turkey or watched a lick of football, everyone had marching orders and directions were set. 

The first few boards hit the streets of San Francisco before I even made it back in town. And the rest was tied up and locked a few weeks later. Hundreds of executions went up across the city talking to startup founders, hopeful workers, and anyone else who had their eyes open.

Often times it takes months, and yes, sometimes even years for clients to commit to an idea and execute it. Hirect, true it its mission, knows how to get things done fast. So far, all measurements point to a hugely successful U.S. launch for the company. Congrats to a great client on a great campaign. See more of the campaign HERE.

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