Top Midlands recruiter SF Recruitment makes fitting impact at awards

A recruitment specialist in the Midlands pulled off a unique marketing stunt - gift bags of LEGO® pieces - to showcase how everyone at an awards event could find the right fit with them in the jobs market.

SF Recruitment wanted to make a big impact on all of the guests at the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Awards when it was announced they were becoming a patron of the group, and one of 38 local prestigious companies.  

Marketing Director Daniel Meredith, who joined SF Recruitment just seven months ago, wanted to creatively emphasise SF’s reason for being, as positioned by a rebrand carried out in those early months. Their new tagline “a natural fit” and company mission “putting more people in jobs they love” were instilled to guide the company’s philosophy on finding the perfect match between people and companies. They wanted to deliver this message in a fun and attention catching way.

On each table setting, guests would find a small gift bag filled with LEGO® men and women pieces, combined with the words ‘If only putting a team of brilliant people together was this easy’.

However Daniel, who previously worked for brands including Selfridges, Aston Villa and Halfords had just three days to turn the idea into reality, and had to work quickly to make it happen.

“We knew there would be around 1300 of the region’s top industry leaders at the awards ceremony in the centre of Birmingham and were also mindful that the beginning of an event such as this, guests are looking for conversational topics as they take their seats and sit next to colleagues or other guests. Everyone loves LEGO®, so not only was this the ideal way to ensure guests notice and remember us, but also give a gift they would likely take home, and announce our new partnership with the Chamber.

“It was an idea that we had very close to the day of the ceremony, so we had to work quickly to not only get the design just right, but source the gift bags, the 8400 LEGO® pieces, print the insert cards and also gather and fill the bags to make sure we created the desired impact,” he said.

With limited budget available for the stunt, they approached LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre Birmingham with a partnership opportunity. The attraction was happy to work with them and supported with sourcing and providing the LEGO® pieces.

“Everyone pulled together, with assembly lines, distribution and more, and we are incredibly grateful for everyone’s help in seeing the vision and making it happen. The gift bags went down a storm on the night and social media was filled with images of the LEGO® men and women on people’s tables - because who can resist a bit of LEGO® building, whatever their age or where they might be at the time,” Dan said.

Enquiries peaked in the following days, website traffic grew by just under 20% and consultants expressed how their clients regularly mentioned the stunt to them.

Earlier this year, the company, which has offices in Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham, and covers the entire Midlands region, rebanded from being called SF Group and now uses the natural resource of bamboo as an alternative to materials such as paper and plastic and to represent the values a recruiter needs to be successful. 

The company has Dragon’s Den star James Caan as an investor, and last autumn it celebrated reaching 20 years and placing 40,000 professionals throughout the region. It has also expanded at an impressive rate, with 120 employees now recruiting across multiple sectors for all sizes of company and across all industries, and now solely focussed on the Midlands area. They have also achieved an average 40% year on year profit growth for the last six years. 

Paul Faulkner, chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, said: “The

Chamber’s annual dinner and awards is one of the biggest business dinners in the country and

this year’s event was a fantastic night.

“We are delighted to have SF Recruitment on board as our exclusive recruitment patron and it

was great to see them launch their patronage in such an original and captivating way.

“The LEGO® pieces were definitely one of the main talking points in the room and a clever way

of showcasing what they stand for as a business.”