This question sparked the development of Osuma’s brand. Behind this is a deep understanding of the significant transformation in the working world. Increasingly, especially among the younger generation, job seekers do not want to see their workplace as a final destination. At first glance, it might seem that the trend is to idolize rootlessness and complete freedom. However, that is not the case.
Good brand building always starts with understanding a human problem. That means understanding a human-sized and human-shaped dream, fear, aspiration, problem, or need. Osuma particularly appeals to those who seek both individual recognition and respect in their careers and stability in their professional and daily lives. They want assurance that work will continue to be available. Today’s professionals also look for security and credibility.
According to Osuma, old-fashioned personnel leasing is a thing of the past. While companies still need flexibility in their workforce to meet demand and seasonal fluctuations, every employer wishes that employees feel they belong to the community and feel capable and important. HR expertise and employer image are more important to employers today than ever. The ultimate goal for everyone is a win-win situation, where the employee finds the right career and the employer finds the right person – a true match.
From these foundations, a deeper understanding emerged of why the job market needs to evolve. Changes in values are key drivers towards better work and working life. Osuma has decided to be part of this positive change and it needs to be communicated to the world. The company’s growth strategy created a need to deepen Osuma’s brand message. We started writing the brand strategy together – Osuma’s Red Playbook. The result was the promise: “So that no good job is left undone.”
“I like Ahooy Creative’s style. When there is trust in the collaboration, we can genuinely discuss and exchange opinions. I particularly appreciate the willingness and ability to listen. The task of a marketing partner is not to push various projects or ideas to order. I felt that Ahooy started from completely different premises. Here, the long shared history was a huge advantage,” describes the collaboration Osuma’s founder Ville Auvinen.
Unknowingly, we chose the color of that playbook already in 2016 when Osuma Henkilöstöpalvelut saw the light of day and the new entrepreneur needed a high-quality and distinctive look and website. The investment in a carefully designed appearance and website has since paid off many times over. Today, Osuma is one of the largest employers in Eastern Finland. The same look created in 2016 is still fresh, strong, and recognizable. Even though the brand now wanted to evolve, it was easy for all parties to state that Osuma had built so much value around the brand over the years that new efforts should be built on the existing foundation.
“The company’s marketing strategy and brand were created several years ago. Small updates had been made along the way, but now it was time to bring them to the present,” says Osuma’s COO Erkka Sarnola.
“Previously, Osuma’s brand was built more locally. With the brand renewal, Osuma is now suitable everywhere, allowing us to implement our strategy to expand to other locations. The brand look, communication themes, and tone of voice also needed to be updated.”
Messages, Visuals, and Web Renewed
Osuma’s strongest message was selected as the compelling and emotionally engaging slogan “Straight to the Heart.” Perhaps the brand has quietly spoken those words all along. Why not say them out loud? Besides, the right job should always be a direct hit to the heart.
In addition to emotion, the brand needed to be brought to life. Osuma is a highly visible company, and since the majority of its visibility occurs on digital platforms, it was justified to create a visual language for the brand. Now Osuma stands out in a high-quality and recognizable way at all times. And there’s no need to reinvent the wheel for every video production. The company now has a ready template and a large animation library at its disposal.
It was also time to renew Osuma’s online presence. The website was revamped with user experience and accessibility in mind. The pages needed to serve both job seekers and employers better. At the same time, digital marketing was updated. While search engine advertising can nowadays be considered part of a company’s basic accessibility, it achieves significant competitive advantage when done correctly. We decided to delve deeper into analytics and conversion data and revamped the continuous advertising model.
“In a short time, the number of applications has increased, the quality of traffic is better, and the amount of money spent on advertising has become much more productive,” says Erkka.
The number of applicants through the website immediately began to grow, and the conversion rate has increased by over 16%. Along with growth, quality has also improved significantly. When measuring how much successful conversion, i.e., an application submitted from the site, has cost in digital marketing, the price has decreased by 27%. The quality metric is known in digital marketing as CPL (cost per lead).
“Osuma’s brand and message now resonate with our target groups in the right way. Traffic and the number of applicants have increased with the updates. Overall, we can now clearly differentiate ourselves from our competitors,” Erkka describes the impact of the work.
“Good marketing is always both strategic and operational. Short and long game. We want our marketing partner to know us and be able to serve across the entire scope of marketing responsibilities. Therefore, the collaboration must be close,” Ville Auvinen summarizes his views.
Erkka sums up working with Ahooy: “The collaboration with Ahooy’s teams (creative team, digital and web team, sales) has worked well. We can trust their professional expertise and get good development ideas and concrete actions as the basis for business development.”
“I dare to promise that we will deepen our collaboration with Ahooy Creative even further,” promises Ville.
Osuma is a pioneer in personnel services in Finland. As a strategic partner in the management and development of human capital, the company offers extensive expert services for personnel acquisition and development, as well as recruitment and work-life training, direct recruitment, and various assessment services. Osuma employs about 750 professionals monthly, and since its founding in 2016, the company has grown continuously, now being the largest operator in the field in Eastern Finland.
Shall We Work Together?
Often, a company’s operations, expertise, and products have outpaced its visible brand and communication. From the outside, one can get a completely wrong picture of the activities and their level. There is much more potential, but it remains untapped. Or the company is undergoing a strategic change that needs to be communicated both internally and externally. These are common situations where a brand builder’s toolkit is an invaluable help. Contact us. You will gain access to a brand and marketing communications team with extensive skills and experience.
From client to collaborator – Meet Annika, Ahooy’s new Project Manager
We’re excited to welcome Annika Kettunen to Ahooy as our new Project Manager, bringing a…
Can the new era of work promise both individuality and stability to professionals?
This question sparked the development of Osuma’s brand. Behind this is a deep understanding of…
The Forgotten Customers: Those Who Aren’t Buying From You… Yet
Survivor bias, the phenomenon of making decisions based on an incomplete set of data, is…
During World War II, Allied military strategists were eager to reinforce their aircraft for better resilience during combat missions. An extensive examination of the returning planes revealed that they were most frequently hit in the wings, tail, and fuselage. The initial reaction? Strengthen these parts.
However, statistician Abraham Wald challenged this conclusion. He pointed out a critical flaw in their reasoning: the analysis was based only on the planes that had returned from missions. Wald suggested that attention should instead be focused on the areas that were hit on the planes that didn’t make it back – the cockpit, engines, and fuel tanks. These, he argued, were the truly vulnerable parts. This perspective completely transformed their approach.
Survivor bias, the phenomenon of making decisions based on an incomplete set of data, like those planes that survived, is still prevalent in decision-making today. It sheds light on why sales and marketing often seem to be at odds.
Sales teams typically focus on customers who have “made it through” the sales funnel. Their world revolves around the consideration stage of this funnel, celebrating victories to the executive team. While sales are crucial, there’s a common misconception that the customer’s decision is solely based on the facts and expertise presented by the salesperson. In reality, customers often have already made a subconscious decision before even meeting the salesperson, having navigated their way through the funnel to that point. By focusing only on the conversion or the final purchase, a distorted view of what truly attracts and engages customers can emerge.
Today’s trend in performance marketing – digital marketing focused on optimizing for results – creates a similar illusion. It’s all about conversion: did the customer leave a lead, make a purchase, download something? Digital metrics show the hits, but not the misses. Corner offices obsess over short-term ROI, pushing marketers to pour all their efforts into reaching those ready to buy. Logical, yes, but myopic.
A study by LinkedIn and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute compared the long-term effectiveness of brand marketing versus performance marketing. The hypothesis? That well-optimized, conversion-focused digital marketing would trump the seemingly whimsical world of brand marketing. The long-term results, however, surprised many. Brand marketing proved more effective than performance marketing in terms of efficiency.
A deeper understanding emerges when considering the potential audience of a brand, along with the time window. This gave rise to the 95-5 rule, particularly relevant in the B2B world. It suggests that the vast majority of potential customers – 95% – are not looking to purchase your services right now. But later, they likely will, as businesses infrequently acquire new products or services. By focusing solely on the immediate 5% ready to buy, companies miss the opportunity to impact a broader audience – those not currently in the buying cycle.
This leads to a somewhat paradoxical conclusion: target your marketing broadly at those who aren’t buying right now. Invest in branding so that when the window of opportunity opens, your brand is top of mind. Market share is captured by companies that are remembered, as the most crucial search engine still lies within the human mind. The same study reveals that even with a smaller media budget, but with creative execution, you can outshine the tactical ad spreads of giants.
This finding doesn’t mean we should entirely shift gears and stop tactical marketing or stop optimizing for conversion. Both are needed. Customers still require credible prompts at the moment of consideration, but the focus of marketing communication can be safely shifted from short-term sales to brand marketing. It turns out, this approach not only builds long-term brand value but can also drive immediate sales.
Let’s think broader than the obvious, like Abraham did. To sell more, hire the best, and market more effectively, strengthen the most critical part: the perception of your brand. A lesson well researched and worth learning.
