Every company wants to be known as truly innovative. But it’s rare to find a Fortune 50 organization outside of big tech that’s actually walking the walk. MetLife, one of the oldest providers of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs, has undergone a groundbreaking transformation in an otherwise staid industry through the work of their Global Technology & Operations (GTO) arm.

While MetLife has long been a trusted household name, it was not always synonymous with technological innovation – a reputation they sought in order to recruit thousands of technologists to work for GTO. The primary campaign objective was to raise MetLife’s awareness to attract talent while also engaging current employees. Our strategy to bolster MetLife’s reputation as an innovator was integrated, ambitious, and inherently digital.

We created the GTO Intranet and built a custom interface to generate interactive, collaborative content designed to foster employee engagement. The GTO external site houses original content that illustrates MetLife’s forward-thinking approach to technology and collaborative culture, and links to MetLife Synapse, an interactive skill-based recruiting tool that helps entice and qualify potential candidates.

GTO saw transformative levels of engagement. To date, there has been a 153% increase in unique visitors to MetLifeGTO.com compared to visitors following the initial launch, and Intranet traffic has increased 52% since its November 2013 launch. Our work with MetLife GTO is a proven yet progressive use of technology for PR purposes, establishing MetLife GTO’s long-term reputation as an innovator while moving the needle on immediate recruitment needs.

GROUNDBREAKING & TECHJAM: These events brought GTO droves of media and potential talent, as well as established strong ties with the local North Carolina technology community, pivotal to GTO’s recruitment needs.

TWITTER & LINKEDIN: The TechJam was bolstered by real-time tweets from our newly-launched handle, @ML_TechandOps. GTO’s presence on LinkedIn benefitted from MetLife being one of 50 first companies to adopt a custom auto-populated career tab based on an individual’s profile.

INTRANET: We built the GTO Intranet and populated it with rich content from our in-house “news bureau.” We conceived and executed a global photo challenge, a crowd-sourced idea challenge, and Virtual Office Hours, a video platform for leadership to engage with employees.

EXTERNAL SITES: We created MetLifeGTO.com as a recruitment tool and thought leadership platform to showcase GTO’s innovations and value proposition like never before. We also created a portal called Synapse, where potential candidates complete a role-based technical challenge.

METLIFE TECH UNIVERSITY: We developed compelling messaging and materials for university and career recruiting events, providing prospective applicants a glimpse into MetLife GTO’s culture.

RECRUITMENT:

• Activities drove a 50% sustained increase in applications comparing the 3-week average post-Nov. 1 to the 3-week average post-Nov. 1

• 153% increase in unique visitors to MetLifeGTO.com from Q1 2014 compared to Q4 2013

• @ML_TechandOps gained 1,300+ followers in two months and saw 27,900 social media engagements

• Our animated video saw 330,000+ views

• 23,949,425 media impressions in 4 months with coverage in Forbes, Fortune , Gigaom, and InformationWeek

INTERNAL ENGAGEMENT:

• The MetLife GTO Intranet saw 15,776 total unique visitors and 79,515 total page views

• Intranet traffic increased 52% from 7,793 visitors in December to 11,869 visitors in January

• Campaigns drove strong engagement with the Intranet:

• The Photo Challenge generated 500 photos, 26,284 votes, 38,799 page views, and 5,001 votes cast across 14 countries

• The Ideas Challenge resulted in 150 ideas, with 44,0014 votes cast across 15 countries

• Each Virtual Office Hours session booked within days