Flextronics, the world’s leading EMS provider, officially entered the notebook ODM market after establishing R&D centre in Taiwan in 2009. As a latecomer to the Taiwan market, the company needed to quickly build brand awareness and recruit top R&D engineers in order to survive in Taiwan’s competitive market. Through its one-of-a-kind "Looking for the Next Da Vinci" Talent Hunt campaign, Flextronics was able to communicate with its target audience – potential employees - and deliver its key messages via media exposure.

Through a series of preliminary campaign kick-off events, Flextronics raised brand awareness among university students and built a reputation as a company that encourages innovation and promotes work/life balance. The agency designed several creative competitions for Flextronics, including "Design a Futuristic NB" and "Build a Futuristic NB," using recycled materials. The competitions were designed to inspire students’ imagination, encourage innovation and test their problem-solving capabilities.

The agency’s successful campaign generated positive media coverage that portrayed Flextronics as an innovative company with a promising future and an internal culture opposite of its competitors, which often have militaristic "top down"-style of management. Following the campaign, potential employees expressed a desire to work at the company and highly identified with its corporate culture.

Pre-campaign and kick-off:• Conducted survey on "Employment Needs for IT Industry Engineers" with results reflecting the unsatisfying local working environment of Flextronics’ target audience, and which helped the agency develop a strong news angle in later pitches. • Conducted a series of campus recruitment events to raise students’ awareness of Flextronics.

Talent Hunt day: • Students were asked to sketch blueprint for "futuristic NB" and showed impressive creativity on their designs. Flextronics’ corporate culture of "encouraging innovation" was highlighted during this stage. • Students were asked to build the notebook they designed in the previous stage in teams with various recycled materials provided. Teamwork spirit, ability to collaborate ideas, execute project, and sense of environmental protection were observed at this stage. Press conference• Message delivery: Communicate results of talent requirement and underscore the fact that Flextronics relies heavily on Taiwan’s R&D capabilities to strengthen business growth.

• Media coverage: 90% of the target tier-1 media attended and reported the event, generating significant online, print, and 100% exposure on invited TV stations.

• Coverage highlights: - "Flextronics expects to hire more than 1,500 talents in the future who are innovative, take initiative, and are equipped with teamwork spirit." (Commercial Times)- "Opposed to Hon Hai’s military style management, Flextronics offers humane corporate culture and management, which makes the company the first choice for fresh graduates." (Ettoday) • Candidates’ feedback: Candidates responded with positive feedback on the event design, and appreciated how Flextronics value its future employees.

• Approved and recognized by Client: Flextronics hired more candidates than originally expected due to the comprehensive recruitment process. The successful experience initiated in Taiwan inspired the company to launch the same recruitment campaigns in both China and Malaysia at the end of 2010 in an even larger scale.