Case Studies
Voltia
The situation: Voltia, an electromobility company, had a superior product to most competitors globally, but nobody knew about it. An innovative, high-quality product that needed brand awareness to drive sales results. Voltia was active in six countries but had true global potential.
The goal: To increase brand awareness worldwide and drive leads and potential partnerships into the pipeline.
The initial state of LinkedIn: No Company Page, three active users in sales and the total number of followers of all employees combined was below 4,000. The sales manager had 1,800, the sales team another 1,800 combined, and the rest was management and HR. Being unknown made the sales process much more complicated.
The solution: Creating Employee Ambassadors’ profiles, training for all employees, KPIs for colleagues and a monthly checklist of LinkedIn activities. The sales and management teams became the Ambassadors, and even the technical team, engineers and all other functions were their targets as Cheerleaders. Later, they introduced lead generation campaigns.
The results: Each team member has 2,000–4,000 active followers from almost sixty countries. The average number of views increased tenfold. They reached global recognition. Their Leads know precisely who they are talking to and how great their product and services are. Currently, they have active clients in nineteen countries: roughly half of them got to know them through LinkedIn first. A portion of these clients admit that they have been convinced by Ambassadors’ posts that they are trustworthy and they deliver. Voltia has active business negotiations in another six countries and has received requests from almost all the sixty countries where they have followers
dm drogerie markt
The company is Europe’s premier drugstore retail chain, renowned for its B2C retail stores and high-quality products. In addition, the company is an innovative employer, pioneering CSR initiatives, internal educational projects, untraditional employee benefits and dual training for secondary school students.
The situation: B2C themes were being communicated on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Despite being a brand people love in retail and logistics, dm drogerie markt was largely unrecognised for its exciting opportunities in white-collar roles, particularly in the IT, Legal, Marketing and Expansion departments. The company’s proud workforce needed a social platform to amplify their experiences, and potential high-quality recruits were largely unaware of the diverse career opportunities available.
The objective: The goal was to use LinkedIn to position dm drogerie markt as a top-tier employer for a wide range of professional talent. Key to this was a desire to showcase the company’s sustainable practices, including zero-waste initiatives, to attract high-quality recruits aligned with the company’s values.
The starting point: Before the inception of the Ambassador Project, LinkedIn was utilised mainly on an individual basis, with a passive Company Page created to be followed by existing employees. Recognising the platform’s potential, the top management gave the green light for a dedicated LinkedIn strategy led by two colleagues from the HR department, with leaders from various departments committing to active participation.
The strategy: A cross-departmental Ambassador Project Group was formed, with key representatives from the C-suite (CIO, CFO, CHRO, CMO) and HR department. The team set out to:
- Highlight the distinctive work culture at dm drogerie markt
- Start an Ambassadors and communication initiative on LinkedIn
- Engage top management as active Ambassadors.
- Elevate Ambassador profiles for greater visibility and connectivity
- Regularly create engaging content for both the Company Page and personal profiles
- Regularly connect with colleagues from other European countries to build a cross-cultural project that aligned with the strategy, vision and values of the company
The execution: The Ambassador Team launched a comprehensive campaign that integrated personal storytelling, values-led content and active networking. This cross-departmental effort fostered a shared sense of purpose within the organisation and created an inclusive atmosphere where everyone felt equally important.
The impact: The results of the Ambassador Project were not only transformative but also far-reaching and resulted in:
- The doubling of followers on the Company Page
- A surge in monthly engagement, increasing by up to 500%
- A 300% organic increase in connections on Ambassadors’ personal profiles
- Six-figure view counts on LinkedIn Company Page posts
- Creative posts that drew in high-quality candidates The global impact: After a year, the Employee Ambassadors had the necessary tools, strategies, and tactics to continue the initiative. The success of this small subsidiary in transforming employer branding through LinkedIn inspired larger European entities within the group to adopt similar strategies. This crosscountry project led to forming an ‘Attractive Employer Working Group’ across various European countries, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy. This formalised project approach further amplified the company’s attractiveness as an employer on an international scale. The HR department started receiving proactive requests from employees seeking more LinkedIn training and reinforcing internal communication with social proof. Significant increases in visitors to both the website and career page from LinkedIn demonstrated the campaign’s success. But beyond the numbers, the initiative fostered a more connected, empowered workforce at dm drogerie markt, highlighting the far-reaching impact of a successful cross-departmental, cross-country project.
VÚB Banka
(INTESA SANPAOLO GROUP)
The company had used LinkedIn as a tool for a long time but very rarely actively communicated on it. The bank’s LinkedIn profile did not reflect a clearly defined brand and tone of voice used in communicating with clients. The Company Page was not used for employer branding or internal communication. The employees really loved working for VÚB banka (Intesa Sanpaolo Group), but they did not communicate this to the outside world. The LinkedIn Company Page was not used for employer branding at all. They decided to change that. Why the Project started: The spark that started the amazing LinkedIn journey was the acute need for new colleagues, mainly from the IT sector. They had great teams and a working environment, but the company did not communicate this. The tone of voice for B2C marketing campaigns was very warm. Using humour, they attracted a specific type of client and wanted to attract a specific type of talent, too. The implementation process: The company went through the whole Ambassador Project in the stages we defined in this book. They started with almost the entire HR department and other groups of employees. After they’d identified their perfect Ambassadors from various departments (the Board, PR, HR, IT and the contact centre), their Ambassadors had a unique content creation support programme, education plan and regular meetings. The Ambassadors also had the chance to impact the Company Page. The Marketing and PR department created an internal campaign for colleagues that presented LinkedIn’s importance with practical tips. LinkedIn was added to the recruitment and onboarding process to give candidates a chance to find out what it looks like inside the company and thus achieve a better fit with the company culture. The biggest changes in their LinkedIn communication were:
- Authentic pictures without any major adjustments from an advertising agency
- Every Ambassador created posts for their personal profiles by themselves
- Internal support from Cheerleaders increased the impact of both internal and external communication
The results:
- Regionally, the company reached the highest engagement rate in the banking sector
- 400+% increase in the number of followers of the Ambassadors
- Significant increase of IT-experienced followers on the Company Page
- LinkedIn became an effective platform for internal communication and retention
- They receive a stream of incoming CVs that are an excellent fit for the company culture
- Receiving various awards for the company and their Ambassadors (including Best Employer Award)
- Global impact by means of informal communication of important activities and projects to their parent company
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