Why recruiters love SuperBowl ads
Posted by Maureen Crawford Hentz at 11:46 AM

I hear there is a big game coming up this weekend. I think that's the reason my husband has been acting so strangely. Today for example, he wore a Patriots hoodie to work, a radical departure from his all-Brooks-Brothers-all-the-time gestalt.

I've always been more of a commericals fan myself and for the past few years as a recruiter, I watch the commercials with even more anticipation. Why? Because of the SuperBowl phenomena: more applicants on job websites in the week after the SuperBowl. My CareerBuilder rep sent me an email to let me know that last year their SuperBowl commercials reached 139.8 million views and drove 1.6 million candidates to the website.

Curious, I went to the referenced source of their data, www.comscore.com. Although I didn't find the Careerbuilder data specifically listed, there was lots of interesting information. Comsource's press release from yesterday has a plethora of interesting facts about the SuperBowl and internet useage.

• more than a quarter (26 percent) [of survey respondents]actually preferred watching the ads [as opposed to the game].
• Males, in particular, were significantly more likely to prefer watching the game itself, while females preferred watching the ads.
• Super Bowl ads will also drive viewers to the Web, with 16 percent of respondents saying they would go online to visit the Web sites of Super Bowl advertisers, while 13 percent said they intended to watch Super Bowl ads or video clips online.

This is all great news for recruiters and a phenomenon I've incorporated into Osram Sylvania's recruitment planning. Even our hiring managers -- who think our department can conjure perfect candidates out of thin air -- are talking about the impact of this weekend's advertising on their open requisitions.

Only time will tell, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for GREAT career site commercials.

CareerBuilder and Monster, if you're listening, please make your commercials particularly appealing for power electronics engineers and internal auditors---I really need an influx of applicants.

Go Pats!