Challenging stereotypes and convincing youngsters that jobs such as building caretakers, sales workers, cashiers are excellent jobs would take a totally new approach. We needed a channel that was part of the Gen Z’s life and was not subject to ignore job announcements: GTA 5 Real Life Mod. The newest GTA game mod gives a life-like feeling to the game; players can apply to multiple jobs, attend college, earn a degree, and it is 100% non-violent. It was the first time a brand transformed a game into a new medium to recruit GenZs for jobs in the real world.

Youth unemployment reached an alarmingly low level in 2022. 20% of young adults under 24 are NOT working at all. Moreover, the retail industry is outside Gen Z's top preferences, occupying a tenth place in this segment's most wanted job industries. Despite Gen Z's lack of interest, Kaufland needed to find a way to "get under the skin of youngsters" and ignite a relevant conversation about its not-so-cool store jobs. And to be honest, we knew that Gen Z ignores real world job announcements. The only jobs they pursue with an open heart are in the virtual world. They spend several hours daily practicing jobs in the GTA Real Life mod while in the real world the workforce is declining. The newest GTA game mod gives a life-like feeling to the game; players can apply to multiple jobs, and make a salary while working their way up the charts.

Kaufland created Grand Job Experience, the first in-game experience that revolutionizes the recruitment techniques for Gen Z. We leveraged gaming to fully immerse young generations in Kaufland's store universe to practice real jobs and tasks in their preferred online environment. Not to mention that the players who entered the Grand Job Experience server were surprised to find a supermarket like the one in the real world, both in terms of appearance and store assets: working cash registers, truck cargo, floor washing machines, etc. We invited gamers to explore real jobs such as building caretakers, sales workers, cashiers, etc. The brand recruitment campaign inside a game was impressive and got the gaming community engaged in spreading the word that working in the retail industry can be exciting. And for the first time, a game was used as a tool to recruit GenZs for jobs in the real world.

Young audiences are notoriously difficult to reach with traditional media advertising. As they don’t react well to top-down or intrusive brand messages, we chose another media channel to engage them where they are: within the GTA Real Life mod. We built a four-tiered strategy: - Creating a behavior in the GTA Real Life gameplay that can become a behavior in your life: you practice real jobs and tasks, as in the real world. - Considering gamers as real people. Gaming is more than a leisure activity, it’s a source of gaining money. If you want to be competitive in your gameplay, having a job is a key factor for your performance. - Teaming up with the biggest streamers to spread this message to gain persuasion. - Making the job announcements from the real world accessible to all gamers by introducing our career website on their in-game phone.

We created the Grand Job Experience server from scratch by working with game architectures from all over the world. Developing a server is easy but building a new virtual Kaufland like the one in the real world, both in terms of appearance and store assets, it’s a complicated job. We released the server through PR, digital, and social media campaigns during East European Comic Con. Targeted ads spread the video teaser on gamers’ favorite platforms (Twitch, YouTube, TikTok). Leading streamers did multiple streams in which they practiced different jobs such as Store Manager, Cashier, Commercial worker, Department manager, and Building janitor. During the streams, they tried to recruit other players to start a job at Kaufland. To be sure that they would do their job well, real people from Kaufland trained them before the event. We introduced our career website on their in-game phone.

All of the following results were made without media investment, through a 100% organic spread of our idea. In less than two days, our streamers have accumulated over 193.000 views, with +150% versus the initial objective. The visibility was hot! The gaming community has spent over 1.5 million minutes, translated into 25,000 hours, watching the new Kaufland virtual store streams. Grand Job Experience is the best campaign ever made for Kaufland, with an all-time high engagement rate (+180%) from the gamers. During the two days of activation, we hired 1240 virtual users at the Kaufland of the GTA RealLife. We also achieved impressive results in the real world - the number of CVs received from Gen Z and Young Millennials by our HR department increased with 1200 in September 2022 (7248 new Cvs) versus August 2022 (6043 new Cvs). Gen Zs stopped considering Kaufland's jobs not so cool for them.

With over 16,000 employees, Kaufland is the largest employer in the local economy. However, Kaufland's employer popularity did not match Gen Z's cultural reality in 2022:

A SHINY FUTURE ABROAD

In Gen Z's opinion, Romania is an unworthy place of employment, and they find more attractive a job abroad. A total of 380,861 young people aged 18 to 24 left the country in search of a better future in 2022.

RETAIL IS NOT AN INSPIRATION FOR GEN Z

Moreover, the retail industry is outside Gen Z's top preferences, occupying tenth place in this segment's most wanted job industries.

GAMING IN ROMANIA

Gen Z uses the Internet for every aspect of their life. Gaming is a key growth area where they spend most of their time. About 33% of Gen Zers in Romania are more likely to have video gaming as a hobby than the average online user.