Marketers were quick to embrace Snapchat’s on-demand geofilter feature when it launched last month. Now a Minneapolis-based agency is using geofilters for a new purpose: to enlist interns for its summer program at college campuses across the country.
Space150 began rolling out its recruitment push yesterday, creating filters for college campuses, its own offices as well as public locations. The agency’s filters will prompt the students to follow it on its Snapchat handle, where they will be given a creative brief on the basis of which they can apply to the internship program.
Snapchat opened up its geofilters feature last month by inviting people and businesses to design their own geofilters for specific places during set periods of time, starting at just $5.
Instead of relying on standard resumes and interviews, the agency is challenging candidates to create a Snapchat story for the Space150 client of their choice — for the year 2020. “Rather than asking students to come to us, we thought it would be much better to target them where they already are,” said Melissa Murphy, Space150’s head of HR.
One of the filters, for instance, references the Rihanna hit “Work,” while another pokes fun at Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, featuring an outline of his famous hairdo along with the tagline “Make Space150 great again.” A third is Tinder-esque, featuring the dating app’s iconic design.
“It is definitely geared toward the millennial set and even the filters play into their sensibilities,” said Murphy. “We wanted to make them relevant to them and keep the call-to-action to a minimum.”
The filters are available at 29 locations across the country, including campuses like the University of California, Los Angeles; New York University; and University of Southern California as well as portfolio schools like VCU Brandcenter and Miami Ad School. Space150 is looking to hire 10 interns in New York City, Minneapolis, Burbank and Los Angeles. Applications will be accepted until April 10.
This isn’t the first time that an agency has turned to social media for its recruiting. Havas has tapped Twitter, Instagram as well as Snapchat to scout for its interns in the past. On Snapchat, agencies have done everything from employee treasure hunts to pitching clients on the platform.
“Being in a creative and tech-savvy industry, we’re always trying new ways to recruit talent,” said Murphy. “And Snapchat is where all the youngsters are.”
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