Virgil Careers/Hcareers: Launch Media Relations

the concept

After being purchased by Virgil Careers, an AI-powered recruiting and career navigation company, Hcareers, one of the world’s leading job search websites for hospitality, was relaunching with Virgil’s proprietary AI technology behind it. Hoping to fill a gap for both job seekers and recruiters, Hcareers was relaunched to serve as the bridge between values-aligned and growth-oriented job seekers and employers. 

For awareness surrounding the relaunch, Hcareers planned to use targeted tactics - media outreach, public activations, paid social ads, speaking opportunities, and industry partnership - to reach both industry leaders and consumers/job seekers to drive traffic to the platform.

Geben was tasked with positioning Hcareers as the go-to HR tech platform among the hospitality industry, both for employers and job seekers, by highlighting the Hcareers CEO as a thought leader on how technology was changing the job search.

the execution

Since media relations played an integral role in sharing Virgil and Hcareers key messages, key audiences and elevating thought leadership, we focused on three main tactics: pitching evergreen stories, capitalizing on timely milestones (e.g. new partnerships, product updates, etc.) and looking for opportunities to insert Virgil and Hcareers into trends or news.

Our approach involved leveraging relationships with national consumer media contacts and crafting pitch topics that would resonate with job seekers during the post-launch window. With 10.9 million unique visitors interested in career advice, job moves, and technology, Fast Company became our top media target to share Virgil thought leadership with. Working with the Hcareers CEO, Geben drafted a byline that would address the stressors that job seekers (including those newly unemployed because of the pandemic) were facing in a suddenly competitive job market. 

the result

Part of this outreach resulted in a 900-word byline featured in Fast Company that was both pitched and written by Geben focusing on hiring technology. The Virgil/Hcareers’ CEO’s byline was published in Fast Company discussing hiring technology and how job seekers can make technologies work for them. 

Having key insights shared in a national publication with takeaways specifically for our top audience (job seekers) not only positioned Ron as a thought leader in HR tech but also increased awareness for Virgil. With a domain authority of 93, this placement also helped provide SEO value and drive awareness for the company, positioning the CEO as a reliable HR tech industry leader.

Journalists and career influencers also shared the article on social media, including Ryan Faas, freelance tech writer; Hannah Morgan, job search blogger for US News & World Report; and Susan P. Joyce, editor at job-hunt.org.