Volkswagen Group France is looking for 1,000 mechanics and technicians all over France. And today 80% of recruitments in the automotive after-sales sector are made at competitors because the market players need a qualified workforce quickly to meet the ever-increasing demand. This explains the high turn-over in the sector. And to poach these talents from competing garages, classic recruitment tools are always used (online ads, canvassing, specialized websites, recruitment agencies).

Like the Greek warriors and their Trojan horse, Volkswagen Group France has sent vehicles to its competitors all over France with job offers hidden inside, on parts regularly subject to maintenance and on which, Mechanics could find them by making the right diagnosis.

It's a recruiting campaign. The priority objective for our client was to recruit 1,000 new employees quickly, we were not looking to work on brand or perception of the sector, our objective was extremely concrete. This is why we used a very concrete method from ancient Greece and literally hunted directly where the profiles were: among competitors.

First, we created breakdowns on vehicles of the group on which we hidden messages leading to job offers. Then, we sent all our vehicles to our competitors (car centers and independent garages). Finally, to launch the campaign, we informed communities of mechanics on social media that we were releasing vehicles with job offers hidden. To find these offers, mechanics had to be experienced, the hidden job offers required the right diagnosis.

Beyond the few applications we got through the hidden offers, the campaign created an exceptional interest in the subject. The campaign generated more than 6 million impressions and nearly 2 million views on the different platforms on which the operation was broadcasted (Youtube, Meta, LinkedIn). Thanks to this campaign, more than 110,000 people connected to Volkswagengroup.fr/carrieres and the agency dedicated to the sorting of résumé could no longer count the number of them (53,705 résumés were received).