Employer branding can mean a lot of things. One thing successful employer branding does is share insight on the culture and opportunities your company has to offer. You may imagine that a well-known consumer brand like HBO has no issues when it comes to volume of applicants. You, along with many others, might also associate HBO with “sexy” roles, like being a PA on Game of Thrones. But when it came to roles like Enterprise, Home Entertainment, and Creative Services, they wanted to increase the quality and volume of applicants.

HBO had been working with FindSpark since 2014, recruiting at our events and participating in thought leadership opportunities. With the goal of raising awareness about underexposed departments, including Enterprises, Home Entertainment, and Creative Services, and to increase the diversity of their pipeline, we worked with HBO campus recruiters and the talent acquisition team to produce a custom program, one of our experiential employer branding events.

“Inside HBO: The Unexpected Careers Behind Your Favorite Network.”

Our FindSpark event created a space for a diverse panel of HBO team members, including someone who landed her role at HBO through a previous FindSpark event, to share their journey at HBO and shed light on their roles and departments.

Keep reading behind the scenes look into the FindSpark custom event produced for HBO.

Shining the Light on Lesser Known Departments, Functions, and Fields

Our FindSpark event created a space for a diverse panel of HBO team members, including someone who landed her role at HBO through a previous FindSpark event, to share their journey at HBO and shed light on their roles and departments.

Keep reading behind the scenes look into the FindSpark custom event produced for HBO.

Shining the Light on Lesser Known Departments, Functions, and Fields

One of the major goals of our custom program with HBO was to exposure our members to non-obvious job functions. We did this through the marketing of the event, the panelist choices, and the custom attendee application.

Speakers from each chosen department, all of whom had been at HBO for 5+ years, shared insights into how they landed jobs at HBO, what their days are like, and what helps people succeed at HBO.

They also had the opportunity to network with the speakers and recruiters after the panel.

“I am so glad I attended because I got to learn more about a very unique and non-traditional career path in just 3 hours and hear from the top brass at HBO themselves.”

“The panel gave great advice! I love hearing about how they got their start at HBO and what projects they are most proud of. It was inspirational, and gave me a better idea of what I want out of a career.”

“The panel discussion was a highlight for me. Getting the opportunity to hear from these executives about their unconventional paths that helped them to obtain positions and foster careers at HBO was very inspiring.”

Getting the Right Audience

A major element of custom FindSpark programs is our attendee curation based on your needs and goals. From 20 person lunch and learns, to events like our HBO event with 70+ people, we handle attendee selection so our recruiter partners and hiring managers can focus on connecting.

For this event, we built a custom audience, based on the right balance of gender, ethnicity, and other factors HBO felt were underrepresented in their company and wanted to reach through targeted recruitment.

Attendees also submitted resumes digitally and were encouraged to bring copies to the event.

When you receive the email from #FindSpark saying you’ve been chosen to attend the exclusive #HBO event pic.twitter.com/xIvD9B4dUq

— Brittany Faison (@BrittCFaison) June 10, 2015

Getting Social and Reaching Beyond the Event

Although we had to limit attendance, a benefit of FindSpark custom events is that they are still promoted to our entire community at large via our website, email newsletters, and social media.

Those who weren’t accepted to the event were encouraged to follow HBO career opportunities on their career page, social media accounts, and to meet them at Hustle Summit, our epic diversity recruitment event that HBO participated in weeks after their custom event.

We invited attendees to share their experiences on Twitter, Instagram, and across social media, and incentivized engagement by creating a social media sweepstakes, where HBO and FindSpark rewarded one lucky attendee with an informational interview with an HBO recruiter.

@alaisha_k Congrats Alaisha, you won an informational interview with Antoinette! Email events (at) http://t.co/g8xnbbVyvi to learn more 🙌

— FindSpark (@FindSpark) June 18, 2015

Galvanizing Current Team Members

In addition to the HBO team members who spoke on the panel, recruiters, select hiring managers, and the current HBO Summer Interns were invited to attend the event, hear from panelists, and represent HBO.

The opportunity to create networking opportunities with team members outside of their normal network is a great way to create referrals and gives your team the opportunity to be proud representatives of your brand.

When interns who returned the next year were asked what their favorite part of the program was, a majority of them said the FindSpark event!

Thanks @FindSpark for such a wonderful networking night with @HBOcareers. All the speakers were fantastic! #FindSpark pic.twitter.com/RclVvsR5Zz

— Jennifer Lu (@jnnfrlu) June 18, 2015

We were thrilled to support HBO’s employer branding and diversity & inclusion goals. Select programs results included that 95% of attendees said the event met or exceeded their expectations, 98% had already applied or planned on applying for HBO openings.

Interested in learning about how FindSpark can work with your team to create engaging, custom programs to reach your recruitment, diversity and inclusion, and employer branding goals? Schedule a call today: calendly.com/EmilyMiether