How to...create a viral job advert

It’s often a mystery why some job advertisements go viral, whilst others get a measly handful of applicants, despite being crafted thoroughly with attention to detail.

Investing in a good marketing campaign can often pay dividends or alternatively, injecting wit and satire into a job advert can spark just as much, if not more interest.

Recently, Skyline Offices wrote a job advert seeking a candidate who is “desperate” or “demoralised” and “wants to live the Monaco lifestyle on a Wetherspoons budget.” Benefits include: the ability to select job title; “HUGE autonomy”; “access to our selection of booze from our ‘drinking globe’”; and “[upon leaving] a gushing and over the top reference that puts most modern fiction to shame”.

This job advert, and its subsequent online viral spreading, aligns with findings published in the International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising by researchers from Oulu Business School and Oulu University of Applied Sciences. The researchers found that humorous campaigns can increase exposure; although the downside is that the chances of flippant job applications increases.