It’s Beyond a Love/Hate Thing

A few weeks ago the Red Branch Media team got to plan something really big and really great for one of our coolest clients. If I’m not saying their name yet, it’s because it’s recently changed. And I learned a thing or two about what I love about marketing, what I loathe about HR Technology and what kind of clients make me tick.

Have you heard? Beyond.com is now @NexxtHR, and we got to be a part of the whole process: Share on X

The (not so) quick change artist

Nexxt, the artist formerly known as Beyond, has been in the space for a long time. Longer than I have, to be sure and longer than most of the people walking the floor at SHRM National in June. In fact, Nexxt has seen more than one evolution. A few years ago, they combined all of their niche job boards (and these include everything from PhillyJobs and Diversity Workers to LGBT Jobsite and HealthcareJobsite) into one large network designed to make the boards easier to search. It was a smart move given the landscape at the time when profile and database numbers were on the lips of every HRTech marketer around.

However, as recruiters and sourcers and HR pros discovered that more profiles didn’t really mean more placements, the game changed from quantity to (for some) quality. Which is when Beyond started thinking about continuing their evolution…which had never really stopped.

Read about how the Nexxt Talent Ecosystem works.

Yes, please, let’s use the word ‘innovate’ some more

First, came the diversity hiring tools, helping companies all over the world build out a hiring plan that worked for them and exposed these companies to the diverse candidates they both wanted and needed. Then, global hiring advice for recruitment marketing was the next hurdle they cleared, focusing on giving HR Marketers the data, insight and reach they needed to truly recruit on a global scale. Then came even more innovation.

Text to Hire solutions have been on everyone’s mind this year but Nexxt has been innovating here for the last three years. Their work pioneering recruitment via SMS has totally changed the game for many employers in all industries; most notably in healthcare, manufacturing and retail.

Then Nexxt turned its sights to recruitment marketing as a whole. Sure large agencies have tools to help big companies retarget advertising to their prospects, but the process is not transparent and those who aren’t enterprise may be priced out of the market. Today, when logging into the Nexxt platform, no matter what size company you are, clients can see how many JOB TITLES exist within a MILES radius and what their standard compensation packages look like.

Then, if they’re active online, you can tailor make ads for them to remind them of your attractive offer…or text your top prospects…or retarget those who abandoned your application online. You get the idea, there’s not a whole LOT you can’t do when it comes to sourcing, recruiting and targeting candidates online.

Fast forward to today, when Nexxt reveals its new brand, built specifically to keep up with internal innovations. Not just a network of job boards, not simply a resume database — Nexxt combines all the job sites, SMS outreach, and recruitment marketing and retargeting in a total recruitment platform. It sorta defies description, because well…no job board has ever innovated like this in the past. But it does make sense. It’s because Beyond has moved beyond job boards. 

Contrary to popular belief, the job board is not dead, but it does need to change. Clunky and frustrating, adding administrative burden to recruitment teams, attracting wrong-fit candidates and expensive to use without probable results…this is what recruiters and HR pros face on the daily.

HR Tech Marketing has its frustrations

So why was it so cool to work with Nexxt on this launch? Because this isn’t another newbie looking to “fix recruitment.” This isn’t a Stanford grad who heard HR Tech is hot. This isn’t someone’s college side-hustle turned MVP. This is a company that knows the hiring space, inside and out, small town to large city, from nurses to construction workers and has successfully created the global network of hiring solutions. In other words, this is kind of a big deal.

It’s also amazing to watch technology being done RIGHT. While Beyond took their time and created real, actionable solutions that…wait for it…WORK, so many other boards are losing their minds and their budgets in quick gimmicks or purchasing technology they have no intention of using. Pundits simultaneously declare the death of fill-in-the-blank while railing against the current technology that everyone is using incorrectly (yes, me included). It takes real guts to innovate in this space and even more guts for an established player to do it.

The fab PR needs to be backed up by great performance and Nexxt has that ability (unlike Next computers!) so watch this space as I see Nexxt growing even more of a foothold into bespoke campaigns, — Chris Bailey, Director of People & Organization at PwC on the Tim Sackett (@TimSackett) blog.

The cherry on top

It’s one thing to work on a reBRAND, but this wasn’t just about a change of logo, name or color palette. It was about creating a functional platform that works and letting the product lead the marketing. What a freaking concept! By the time Red Branch Media came to the table, the product was built, tested, vetted and lauded. We simply had to sprinkle on the glitter.

Listen to the chimes of the Branchers who had the pleasure of working closely on this launch:  

We worked very closely with the Beyond/Nexxt team to throw one outstanding rebrand reveal. They had a very particular feel for their rebrand and delivered very specific goals which made the event management simple. I give kudos to their amazing team. Nothing made us more proud to see the looks on their faces at the moment of reveal, —Christine Harris, Executive Assistant & Business Development at Red Branch Media.

 

If I’m being honest, when I heard all of Nexxt’s ideas for their rebrand, I didn’t know how to feel. Jugglers, coffins, NOLA bands, and a MIME?! There were a lot of crazy performance tricks involved, but it worked, so incredibly well. The reveal was so unique in every way and I was so proud to watch it go off without a hitch, —Noelle Murphy, PR Director at Red Branch Media.

 

Getting the chance to work on a large reveal from a social media perspective was both exciting and nerve-wracking. Of course, anything can go wrong when it comes to social media, but everything went off without a hitch when that clock struck 6:00 pm for the big reveal. It was so exciting to see users on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter interact with the new brand and react to the beautiful new logos and images! —Shalaina Ocasio, Social Media Manager at Red Branch Media

There were other amazing marketing wins. The SHRM show was in New Orleans, which means of COURSE we had a brand “funeral” complete with dirge band and coffin. I mean, this is basically what I signed up to do in marketing.

Pictured: Joe Weinlick, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Nexxt in the Beyond coffin at SHRM 2017.

We got to build excitement without the worry of the “product roadmap being pushed back a bit.” We got to send analysts and journalists real case studies with verifiable numbers, instead of stressing someone might call out our vaporware. It was everything I love about marketing. A product to believe in, a promise you can count on…and a coffin.

Listen to what thought leaders in our space had to say about the Nexxt rebrand:

• #SHRM17 Recap of Beyond.com Rebranding as Nexxt by Tim Sackett
• What’s Nexxt? – #SHRM17 by Robin Schooling
• 2017 SHRM Recap and What’s Nexxt? by Nexxt Team

Sad you missed the show? We caught it all on film. Go watch!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sML7xcsTcqg]