How do you make port jobs more appealing?

Working in the port, unknown is unloved

At the harbour, there are more than 1,400 companies, which are offering a wide range of job opportunities. Still, there are quite a few misconceptions surrounding the kind of jobs available in and around the port. That, and a less-than-ideal location, make it particularly difficult to fill job openings. The question remains: how do you make jobs at the Ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge more appealing?

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Challenge

Make port jobs more well-known and appealing

Solution

A creative omnichannel campaign with a good storytelling foundation.

About Havenjobs.com

The wide range of opportunities at the port – the most important driver of the Belgian economy – were too often overlooked. That's exactly why Havenjobs.com was developed. The idea was initiated by Port of Antwerp-Bruges, VDAB and various other partners in both Antwerp (Alfaport Voka, Voka Antwerpen-Waasland, MLSO, Havencentrum & Antwerp City) and Zeebrugge (APZI-Voka West-Vlaanderen, TUA West, Cewez & Bruges City).

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Different stakeholders with the same goal

The Ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge are filled with companies that are looking for all sorts of profiles. However, research shows that people are unaware of just how diverse the job opportunities at or near the harbour are.

To turn that situation around, Port of Antwerp-Bruges, VDAB and several of their partners knocked on iO’s door. Havenjobs.com simply had to make people excited about working at or near the harbour. Our experts happily made that happen.

From name to storytelling

When the Port of Antwerp-Bruges launched its new platform, iO was already supporting the Port and its partners. Our experts provided advice and help in terms of naming the platform, determining its positioning and setting up a creative campaign to make the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge more well-known and appealing.

Havenjobs.com: from port workers to ICTs

First and foremost, the employees of today have high expectations. Additionally, there’s a common misconception: people don’t find the port industry appealing, yet the most appealing industries (pharma, tech, etc.) are often located near the harbour. Finally, employees are looking for impact (social responsibility, purpose). All this information led to one strategic message: “The port brings all the most appealing industries together at one fascinating place of work near you.”

Havenjobs.com was created to reinforce that message. The platform needs to attract candidates for various jobs at and around the harbour, from dock workers and IT experts to accountants and marketers.

An omnichannel campaign takes the flashy slogan to the target audience

Using our strategic message as a baseline, we came up with a slogan: Een job in de haven. Da’s net iets anders. (A port job. Not quite like any other job.) To make this slogan pop, we created drawings and animations with “port giants”. Because a port with giant boats, cranes and heaps of containers may be impressive – but the people who work there sure are, too.

The slogan was used in the creative multimedia campaign. It ran on social media, online video, Face2Face and buses in Antwerp and Bruges. The multimedia approach targeted young adults, job searchers and those hoping to make a career switch.

These areas of expertise from iO made the campaign a success

Free advice from our specialists?

Bas Jespers - Managing Director Belgium, iO Belgium

Impressive results create new influx at port

From accountants to workers: those looking for port jobs now (since April 2023) turn to one website. Havenjobs.com compiles all vacancies from the ports (Antwerp and Zeebrugge) and its surroundings, across many industries. Less than six months later, 1,400 companies and loads of potential employees had already made their way over to the platform.

The campaign also turned out to be a huge success. With a low CPV, a high engagement rate and a ditto conversion rate (‘apply to vacancy’), we surpassed all our benchmarks.
Right now, the website shows around 1,739 active vacancies, from 1,400 companies. A Process Operator vacancy is the most popular one so far.
Via all digital channels, we reached over 2 million people.
The animated videos were watched in full 4.6 million times at a very low cost of 2 cents per video that was watched completely.
Though it wasn’t our main goal, we welcomed over 30,000 visitors to the website, with an engagement rate of 80%.
In Google, vacancy links were clicked over 600 times with an average conversion rate of 4.5%.