A case featuring DataArt’s employer brand promotion for labour markets. Key markets of activation – Ukraine and Russia. Occasion – St. Valentine’s Day 2018 Integrated brand communications campaign based on a new section on Skillotron dedicated to geek culture experts. For questions and feedback mail to hrm.branding@dataart.com

2. GEEKY ST. VALENTINE’S CASE STUDY
FEBRUARY 2018

3. BIG IDEA

4. VALUES:
• PEOPLE FIRST
• FLEXIBILITY
• EXPERTISE
• TRUST
OUR TRUE NORTH
4
OUR VALUES MEAN A LOT TO
US AT DATAART. BUT WE TRY
TO AVOID TALKING ABOUT
THEM DIRECTLY BECAUSE IT
MIGHT SOUND POMPOUS AND
ARTIFICIAL OUT OF CONTEXT.

5. EMPLOYER VALUE PROPOSITION
5
WE CREATED A VERY SPECIFIC
EMPLOYER VALUE PROPOSITION
(EVP) IN ORDER TO SHOW WHAT
EXACTLY WE MEAN BY OUR
VALUES, HOW THEY ARE
SUPPORTED IN EVERYDAY LIFE.

6. PEOPLE FIRST & EXPERTISE IS A MATCH FOR EMOTIONAL&RATIONAL COMM
COMBO
VALUES DEFINE WHO WE ARE
Inclusive
Non-judgemental
Knowledgeable, intellectual, expert
Enthusiastic, eager to contribute to community
Honest in communications
Proud of what we do
Fluent in English
Geek culture
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
DA corporate culture
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
OUR VALUES AT DATAART MATCH CLASSIC GEEK
SUBCULTURE VALUES. THAT IS WHY WE DECIDED
TO CREATE AN INTEGRATED BRAND COMM
CAMPAIGN BASED ON THIS IDEA IN ORDER FOR
PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND US BETTER
6

7. WHEN SHOULD WE LAUNCH IT?

8. Market:
• St. Valentine’s Day is a popular occasion in Europe
• Awareness about St. Valentine’s Day > DataArt > Skillotron
THE FUTURE IS NOW!
DataArt:
• PR opportunity
• 20+ offices have various local ideas for
celebration
• We have own resources to create unique
engaging content
EMPLOYER BRAND IS A BRAND,
THEREFORE IT ABIDES THE
CLASSIC BRAND MANAGEMENT
LAWS OF GROWTH: INCREASE
BRAND AWARENESS BY
INCREASING BRAND
PENETRATION I.E. SPENDING
FREE TIME USING YOUR
PRODUCT DURING A SPECIFIC
OCCASION. TIMING IS KEY
8

9. HOW DO YOU BREAK
THE CLUTTER OF
“COPY-PASTE”
CONTENT OF HEARTS
AND CUPCAKES?
EASY!
9
LOVE IS IN THE AIR

10. 10
KEY GOAL − MAX VISIBILITY
DATAART BROKE THROUGH
THE CLUTTER DURING THE
ST. VALENTINE’S
OCCASION HYPE DUE TO
BOLD GRAPHIC CODE AND
A “COUNTER CULTURE VS
MAINSTREAM CLASH”
MESSAGE

11. CONTENT IS KING!
Call to action:
• Geeks united!
• Don’t be alone!
• Come celebrate with us on Skillotron!
Love is depicted as:
• Love your inner geek
• DataArt loves our colleagues
• Bold graphic code (even for hearts/kisses)
KEY MESSAGE DEFINES
GRAPHICS
CONTENT IS ADAPTED TO
SUPPORT CHANNEL GOALS
AND FORMATS (OWN MEDIA,
MAILINGS, FB, INSTA, REACH-
BUILDING MEDIA ETC.) BUT
PRESERVES KEY MESSAGES
TO STAY MEMORABLE
11

12. REUSABLE CONTENT
• Geek culture is a fun lifestyle content with wider
penetration than tech tests
• Entry point/light content for people who only start their
journey in tech
• High potential for future activation due to fresh user
generated content
• Different mashups of questions to serve multiple
occasions
• We can use Skillotron in all engineering locations for
local PR
PEOPLE FORGET CONTENT
FAST, THEREFORE IT IS
REUSABLE
USER POOL IS A “LEAKING
BUCKET”, THEREFORE YOU
NEED TO TOP IT UP WITH NEW
ONES CONSTANTLY
12

13. WHY SKILLOTRON?

14. • Proxy product of DataArt
• Self-check platform
• Launch – August 2017
• 8000 registrations*
• 800 unique users daily
• ~ 2500 questions (most of them - UGC)
• Play session duration ~ 5,5 min
• 0 USD spent on promo*, pure organic growth
* 1 3 FEBRUARY 2 0 1 8
SKILLOTRON
14

15. INTERFACE
15

16. QUESTIONS
16

17. QUESTIONS
17

18. RESULTS
18

19. WHY SKILLORTON?
• We use engaging mechanics linked
to Skillotron at own and partner
events and in SM
• It has potential to serve as self-check
tool for ads, recruitment process,
contests for students
• We target online-ads of new
vacancies on Skillotron registered
users
SERVICE COMPANIES ARE
NOT FAMOUS FOR HAVING
A LOT OF ENGAGING
CONTENT TO KEEP THE
PUBLIC INTERESTED,
THEIR CONTENT IS LESS
EMOTIONAL AND LACKS
PRACTICAL CASES DUE
TO LEGAL RESTRICTIONS
RELATED TO CLIENTS’
BEST INTERESTS
19

20. SOFT PRELAUNCH
• We distributed press-releases dedicated to
Skillotron and infographics based on Skillotron
statistics a week before the key activations:
where are the most skilled programmers from,
what languages they use etc.
• Targeted countries: Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine
• Results: >60 publications in media incl. the
most respected media in 3 countries
• 1100 new visitors at Skillotron
20

21. MEDIA PROJECT WITH TPROGER
• Promo-quiz “Check how geeky you are” on 14th FEB
• 10 short questions
• Call to action in results overview: improve your skills
to Skillotron
• Key targets: min 3700 new Skillotron players, >80K
unique contacts of targeted groups with DataArt
brand
• Results: 67% of Skillotron new visitors for the first
week of campaign
• +>1200 new Skillotron players for the first 3 days of
campaign
Promo in Russian-speaking IT-
communities and channel
21

22. INTERNAL COMM

23. • Make it true and create ownership
• Geek community setup (10 people)
• >100 questions in 5 groups of interests:
 Video games
 Comics
 TV shows/movies/cartoons
 Board games
 Geek memes
• Fact check and approve questions from external
contributors
FIND YOUR TRIBE. LOVE THEM HARD
23

24. INTERNAL PROMO
• NEW skill section on Skillotron (front page)
• 125 question in the category
• Geek Pop Culture Skillotron Contest (early FEB)
• Geek Pop Culture Skillotron Tournament (14th)
• Light version: “Have they kissed?” quiz
• Mailing
• Local chats
• Internal portal
• Banners in internal systems
TEST CONTENT ON INTERNAL AUDIENCE
PRIOR TO EXTERNAL LAUNCH
24

25.  Max contributor (Lviv)
CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT
 Ultimate geek (Lublin)
WIN HEARTS WITH
TRUE CONTENT
25

26. EXTENAL PROMO

27. SKILLOTRON GOT GEEKY*
• Call to action: Come celebrate with us on Skillotron!
• 174 questions ≈ .Net/QA Automation sections
• Compelling content
• Additional channels:
− Info partnership with universities
− CRM database
− Individual posts on LinkedIn >3K
Users Session
TOTAL 2228 2675
website 962 928
tproger 609 631
Direct 377 411
mailing 363 409
ebanoe.it 345 385
dou.ua 244 264
quiz
(website) 27 29
* 1 4 F E B 2 0 1 7 O N L Y
+ 1 1 0 % T R A F F I C I N C R E A S E V S . A V E R A G E
27

28. RECRUIT GEEKS ON DOU
FORUM:
• Call to action: Geeks united!/Don’t be alone!/Come
celebrate with us on Skillotron!
• Work with negative PR
• https://dou.ua/forums/topic/23112/
• Reach: >2K
MAIN PAGE (photo report, all IT companies):
• Call to action: Geeks united!/Don’t be alone!/Come
celebrate with us on Skillotron!
• https://dou.ua/lenta/events/st-valentine-2018/
• Reach >15K
CORE CONTENT ACTIVATION (FULL
FOCUS ON GEEKS)
28

29. EBANOE.IT
• 110K unique visitors weekly
• Harsh humour based on
Forever Alone meme
CORE CONTENT ADAPTATION
TO FIT THE PLATFORM
29

30. LIGHT VERSION FOR MAX COVERAGE
• Geeks are a subculture, we need to engage light experts
and mainstream audience as well
Narrative: Geeky love
• Love quiz: “Have they kissed?”,
• Redirect to Skillotron from geektimes
Promo:
• Facebook: DataArt & Skillotron communities
• Instagram
CONTENT SPECIFICS TRADE OFF
FOR MAX REACH (50% FOCUS ON
GEEKS, 50% FOCUS ON LOVE)
30

31. TRUE LOVE IN TECH
Article about DA couples on our web site:
https://www.dataart.ua/news/semeinye-pary-v-dataart-sukhaya-statistika-i-romanticheskie-istorii/
• Site: 1465 unique users (14 - 15 Feb),
TOP-material of the week
• FB: ER - 19% (regular - 7-12%), Reach - 6.4k
(regular - 2k)
Article about IT couples on DOU (DA
mentioned):
https://dou.ua/lenta/articles/it-love/
• Reach: > 14.5K
FURTHER CONTENT SPECIFICS
TRADE OFF FOR MAX REACH (MAX
FOCUS ON LOVE, LESS ON GEEKS)
31

32. NUMBERS*
• Signin – 7 286
• Unique – 2 531
• Avg. Session Duration - 00:05:55
• Bounce Rate - 0,45 %
• Demographics:
− Ukraine 1 275 (57%)
− Russia 633 (28%)
− Others Poland, Belarus, US, Germany, Bulgaria, UK (15%)
• Other popular skills activated
during the promo:
- JS
- .NET
- Java
- QA Manual
- English for IT
- PHP
* 1 4 / 0 2 / 2 0 1 8 O N L Y
32

33. SKILLS BY POPULARITY*
• VIDEO GAMES – 410 (319 unique)
• MOVIES/TV SHOWS/CARTOONS - 192 (148 unique)
• COMICS - 108 (79 unique)
• BOARD GAMES - 102 (88 unique)
• GEEK LOVE - 18 (18 unique)
GEEKY LOVE QUIZ WAS AN
ENTRY POINT FOR MOST USERS
THAT BROUGHT THEM TO
SKILLOTRON, THEREFORE IT
WAS NOT POPULAR
33
*14/02/2018 only

34. REACH & COST
WEEKLY REACH =
250K
CPC = 0,024 USD
EFFECTIVE MIX HELPED
US ACHIEVE LOW CPC
34

35. LESSONS LEARNED
• Geeky content is very close to
corporate culture at DataArt
• Integrated brand comm campaign is a
cost-effective way of promo on labour
markets in Eastern Europe
• Products in beta negatively affect
conversion
AUTHENTIC CONTENT AND
EFFECTIVE SCALING WORK WELL
FOR PROMOTING OUR
EMPLOYER BRAND, TECH SIDE IS
VITAL FOR CONVERSION
35

36. NEXT STEPS
• Increase branding of DataArt on
Skillotron
• Finish maintenance on Skillotron
before next activation
• Update interface of Skillotron for
better conversion
THE TEST WAS SUCCESSFUL
FOR DATAART, WE WILL
CONTINUE EXPERIMENTING
WITH THIS REUSABLE
CONTENT MODEL
36

37. CONTACT US: hrm.branding@dataart.com