Marketing recipe for success at HR Campus

From golden retrievers with reading glasses and briefcases to deliberately parked cars in the wrong place: HR Campus founder Marek pulled out all the stops in the early years of the company to make a name for himself. The best lessons learnt from his time in guerrilla marketing:

1. if you have no money, get creative

At the start of HR Campus in 1998, Marek was solely responsible for marketing and the budget was very modest. No problem for Marek: in his first advertising campaign, golden retriever Boris became a model and posed with an elegant hat, reading glasses and briefcase to the slogan: "HR Campus is coming, you can pet our consultants!"

2. marketing must stand out, not please

Professors from the University of Heidelberg and the University of Zurich later used the HR Campus golden retriever advert as a case study in how marketing should not be done. "At least they talked about it," laughs Marek today about the campaign. "Years later, former students of these professors were still asking me about our adverts."

3. attention over regulations

At every trade fair or event attended by HR Campus, Marek parked the company car in the middle of the visitor car park, unlike other participants. This meant that people noticed the name HR Campus for the first time on their way to the entrance. "I was often asked several times during the day to move the car to the other trade fair participants."

4 The more unconventional, the better

Ballpoint pens or lighters as promotional gifts - not at HR Campus. As founder Marek had 30,000 pairs of lambskin slippers in his attic, HR Campus sent the cosy slippers to its customers for a while. The slippers were so popular that we were still receiving requests for them years later.

Ah HR Campus, those are the ...

The eye-catching marketing had an effect: "Suddenly, people were familiar with HR Campus and people were talking about us," recalls Marek. This was also reflected in the company's figures and helped HR Campus to grow and establish itself on the market.