10 BEST RECRUITMENT VIDEOS (AND THE DATA ON WHY THEY WORK)
- Dereck Maruma
- Jul 15
- 4 min read
Let's kill the debate before it starts. Job posts with video get a 34% higher application rate. Candidates who watch a recruitment video are 64% more likely to apply. And 78% of talent acquisition professionals say video improved the quality of their applications, not just the volume. If your hiring content is still a wall of text, you're not being classic. You're being beaten.
But "make a video" is not advice, because most recruitment videos are dreadful. Drone shot of the office. Three executives saying "people are our greatest asset". Stock music. A firm handshake. Candidates can smell it from the thumbnail.
Here are ten that got it right, and exactly what to nick from each one.
1. Currys: "Life at Currys"
The UK's best current example, full stop. Currys handed the camera to its Gen Z store staff and let them be weird on TikTok, and the results embarrassed the paid media plan: the brand's employee-led content now delivers better ROI than its paid advertising, per The Drum. The careers account's bio alone ("we don't sell curry, but we can spice up your career") has more personality than most entire employer brands.
Nick this: your shop-floor staff are better presenters than your leadership team.
Let them prove it.
2. Fiverr: "Another Generic
Recruitment Video"
Fiverr made a recruitment video taking the mick out of every recruitment video cliché. The handshakes. The buzzwords. The fake laughing at laptops. It went viral because every candidate alive has seen the ad it's mocking.
Nick this: if everyone in your industry makes the same ad, that's an open goal.
3. Dropbox: The Puppets
Dropbox interviewed real employees, then reshot the audio with muppet-style puppets. Absurd? Completely. Memorable? You're still going to be thinking about it on Thursday.
Nick this: authentic audio plus unexpected visuals equals content people actually finish.
4. Heineken: "Go Places"
An interactive interview that adapts to your answers, tied to a proper EVP. Suddenly Heineken isn't a beer company with vacancies. It's an employer with a personality.
Nick this: make the candidate do something, not just sit through something.
5. NHS: "We Are The NHS"
The biggest recruitment campaign in the UK, and it earns its budget. Instead of telling you nursing is rewarding, it shows real patients telling the stories of the nurses who got them through. The receipts: a 35% year-on-year jump in nursing applications during the campaign, with applications up from 40,770 to 52,150 since 2019.
Nick this: your best advocates might not be your employees. Sometimes it's the people they helped.
6. Zendesk: "This Is Zendesk"
A deliberately low-key office tour that undersells on purpose. Dry humour, zero hype, no beanbag propaganda. It attracts people who like that vibe and politely repels everyone else.
Nick this: a good recruitment video filters people out. That's the entire point.
7. The British Army: "This Is Belonging"
The Army had a perception problem with everyone who wasn't already going to join. This campaign spoke directly to the people who assumed the Army wasn't for them, including young women, LGBTQ+ youth and religiously observant recruits, and answered their actual fears out loud. Applications came in 58% higher than the year before, and positive social sentiment went from 18% to 67%.
Nick this: the candidates you're missing have one specific doubt about you. Name it on camera and answer it honestly.
8. Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue: Making The Uniform Human
Yes, this one's ours. No, we're kinda not sorry. Firefighting looked unreachable to most people scrolling past, especially women and underrepresented groups who had never pictured themselves in the kit. A video-led attraction campaign made the job feel human and doable: 1.65 million impressions, 13,227 clicks, 1,596 leads.
Nick this: if your role suffers from "people like me don't do jobs like that", video kills that myth faster than anything else you can buy.
9. Lidl: Creator-Led Graduate Attraction
Also ours. Still not sorry. Lidl had a Top 100 Graduate Employer ranking and nobody under 25 had a clue. Instead of a press release nobody reads, we built a creator-led paid social campaign that met students mid-scroll: 1.18 million impressions and 14,095 clicks.
Nick this: an award nobody sees is worth precisely nothing. Distribution is half the creative.
10. Your Own Employees, Unpolished
The tenth spot goes to the video most companies are too scared to make. One employee, one phone, one honest answer to "what's the job actually like?" Candidates rank real employee content above nearly everything a brand can produce, which is why job posts with genuine video attract up to three times more candidates.
Nick this: ship the imperfect version. The polish is the thing candidates don't trust.
The Pattern, There's Always A Pattern
None of these work because of production value. They work because they're specific, human, and honest about who the job is for. The average corporate job post pulls in 250 CVs, and most of them are wrong. The game isn't more applicants. It's the right ones. Video is simply the fastest way to let the right person see themselves in the role, and the wrong person scroll on by.
Want a recruitment video that pays for itself in filled roles? See the Lidl and GMFRS numbers or say hiya. We don't do drone shots of car parks.
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