Type “recruitment video” on Google and it completes alone with SNCF, Decathlon, Enedis or Crédit Agricole. Candidates are looking for examples of big brands, and these campaigns are cardboard for specific and transposable reasons. We decipher four documented devices: "Can you do it?" from the Army, the TikTok campaign of the SNCF with influencers, "Passionate since" from Decathlon and "Come as you are" from McDonald's France. For each: the context, the creative bias, the mechanics that work and how to transpose it with a budget of SMEs or ETI. This article draws four common mechanics that any company can apply to its employer brand.
Type “recruitment video” in Google and watch what automatic entry offers: SNCF, Leroy Merlin, Enedis, Crédit Agricole. Look for “employer brand” and suggestions fall: Decathlon, RATP, Air France. Both candidates and recruiters spontaneously look for examples of big brands. This reflex says a lot: these campaigns have become references, even for those who have neither their brand awareness nor their budget.
The good news is that what makes them strong is not first and foremost a matter of means. It is a question of Biased. We decrypted four publicly documented devices: Army, SNCF, Decathlon, McDonald’s France. For everyone: the context, the creative idea, why it works, and how an SME or an ETI can transpose mechanics with a normal budget.
Why look at big brands (and what not to copy)
A big brand campaign combines months of strategic thinking on a question that every company asks itself: how to make you want to join us? It is a compendium of creative choices tested on a large scale, a free learning subject.
But copying the execution is a trap. The national media plan, film production, advertising agency: none of this is transposable as it is. What is translated is the Mechanical : the target candidate brake, the angle chosen to lift it, the role given to employees. It is this reading grid that we apply to the four cases that follow, and that we use for any Employer Brand Video.
Army: “Can you do it?”, the challenge rather than the promise
In 2024, the Army launches with the agency Dentsu Creative the campaign "Can you do it? ", thought to last until 2028 and which succeeds "Make his life an adventure ", as document Ministry of the Armed Forces.
The creative bias
Where most employers promise (a framework, benefits, a mission), the Army challenges. The campaign is based on an assumed psychological spring, reactance: we are more motivated to prove that we can do one thing when we are told otherwise. The target is not the young person already convinced, but Undecided, the one who had never considered this employer or had a false image.
The device reinforces the purpose by hyperrealism: real military and not actors, little or no music, the real sounds of the material, the breathing of the soldiers. Authenticity becomes the message.
How to transpose with a SME budget
Remember the principle, not the production: stop rolling out the list of your benefits, ask a question that sorts. An industrial SME that hires maintenance technicians can open its video on “This job is not for everyone. Is it for you?” followed by raw studio images, without epic music. A consulting firm can film the reality of a demanding mission rather than a smiling open space. A video that assumes to exclude attracts better those who remain, and saves HR time.
SNCF: pick up the candidates where they are
At the end of 2020, the SNCF invests TikTok to promote professions that are not very visible but in great need of recruitment: stopover agent, high-voltage electrician, train driver. Seven highly followed creators on the platform showcase these professions in short native videos. According to Cap’Com, this first operation (conducted when the company did not even have an active account) has exceeded 1.5 million views.
The creative bias
Rather than producing an institutional film broadcast on its own channels, the SNCF invites itself in the thread of a young audience, in the tone and in the codes of the platform. She does not ask the public to come to the brand: she goes to him, carried by faces in which he recognizes himself. The SNCF has also produced short videos shot with real collaborators in the exercise of their profession, even logic of incarnation.
How to transpose with a SME budget
The question to ask yourself is not “what video to make?” but “where do our candidates really spend their time, and what format is native to it?” A construction company that is looking for site managers has more interest in short vertical formats shot on site than in a long film on its careers page. You don’t need influencers: your employees are your best ambassadors. Portraits of collaborators well realized play exactly this role of face with which the candidate identifies.
Decathlon: “Passionate since”, the employee at the center
Decathlon has deployed the “Passionate Since” campaign, which showcases the link between each employee and a sport. As reported myRHline, the device is based on a shooting bringing together 35 employees from all over France, each presenting a personal photograph of his sporting passion. The brand also carried the idea “You are not your CV”, which values the identity of the candidate rather than his job card.
The creative bias
Decathlon does not present itself as an employer but as a “big team”, and makes real people talk rather than an HR speech. The message is not about the company: it’s about the people who make it up and what drives them outside of work. A candidate projects himself more easily into a future colleague than into a logo: it is the same evidence by the human that makes the strength of a customer testimonials in B2B.
How to transpose with a SME budget
You don’t need 35 employees or a national photo studio. Three or four sincere video portraits are enough for an SME: an employee, his passion or his background, and the link with his profession. The format Interview is ideal: little staging, a lot of truth. A SaaS publisher can film a developer explaining what they’re building and why they’re staying; a family business can tell the story of internal trajectories. The rule: employees choose their words, not the direction of communication.
McDonald’s France: respond to the objection, not praise the company
McDonald’s France launches “Come as you are” in 2008 with the agency BETC, an employer and advertising position turned cult, declined in particular in emoji version in 2015. After more than a decade, the brand evolves its signature to “At McDo, I learn every moment”, refocused on personal and professional development. The brand has also opened the application without a CV, especially in video.
The creative bias
Each version of the campaign responds to a real objection from the candidate. “Come as you are” fought the idea that it would take a formatted profile to be accepted. “I’m learning every moment,” replies the next, harsher objection: “It’s a little job with no future.” By switching to lifelong learning, the brand turns an entry-level job into a springboard. This is the definition of a good employer brand: Talk about the candidate’s brakes before talking about yourself.
How to transpose with a SME budget
List the three objections that make your candidates hesitate: remuneration, evolution, atmosphere, image of the job, location. Then build a video that responds head-on to one of them, supporting evidence. A logistics ETI that shows the real paths of internal evolution (carers become team leaders, with their testimonies) defuses the objection “no future” more effectively than any slogan. This work of objections is the same as for a video of brand awareness : we do not say that we are great, we prove that a brake does not have to be.
Four campaigns, four mechanics: the comparison
Beyond budgets, these campaigns share a common grammar, but each illustrates a different dominant mechanism. Here is the transposable synthesis.
| Campaign | Brake candidate targeted | Dominant mechanics | Transposition of SMEs/ITS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army “Can you do it?” | “It’s not for me” | The Challenge that Sorts (Reactance) | A question of openness that assumes to exclude |
| SNCF on TikTok | Invisible or unknown professions | Native format of the target channel | Short vertical videos, shot in the field |
| Decathlon « Passionate since » | "I'm not planning" | Proof by the real collaborators | 3-4 sincere video portraits of employees |
| McDonald’s “Come as you are” | “Small job, no future” | Frontal response to an objection | A video by major objection, supporting evidence |
These four mechanics combine: nothing prevents a portrait of collaborator (Decathlon) broadcast in native format (SNCF) that responds to an objection (McDonald’s) with an angle that sorts (Army). It is also the scheme of the best SME campaigns that we accompany, and that you will find in our Examples of employer brand videos.
What these campaigns teach you about the budget
The temptation, in front of these references, is to conclude “they have the means, not us”. This is a reading error. The expensive elements of these campaigns (TV media plan, celebrities, film production) serve the BroadcastNot the correctness of the message. It is the accuracy that makes the performance of the video itself.
Real employees, a shoot on your field, an assumed angle: this raw material is at home, free. What requires real know-how is the direction: find the angle, make it speak just, climb tight. An SME that invests in two or three well-thought-out videos, broadcast on the channel where its candidates are, often gets a better return than an ETI that disperses a big budget on a film Corporate Generic. The corporate film has its place (reassure, lay down the company) but it does not replace a recruitment video that deals with a precise brake.
Key takeaways
What distinguishes videos from big brands is not the size of the budget, it is the correctness of the bias. Real people rather than actors, the native format of the channel where the candidates live, an objection treated head-on rather than a list of advantages, and an angle that assumes not to please everyone: these four mechanics are accessible to an SME as to an ETI.
Before you think about production, think about intention. The question is not “what beautiful video can we do?” but “what precise brake of our candidates will we answer, and where?”. Once this answer is clear, a simple and sincere video often does better than a spectacular movie without a point of view.
FAQ: Recruitment videos and employer branding
What is the budget for an SME recruitment video?
It all depends on the format: a portrait of a collaborator in an interview costs significantly less than a multi-site scripted film. The right reflex is to start from the candidate brake to be processed and the diffusion channel, and then to size the production accordingly. Two videos are better than an ambitious but generic film.
Do we have to play actors or film our real employees?
Your employees, almost always. This is the common point of the campaigns deciphered here: the Army films real soldiers, Decathlon its employees, the SNCF its employees in station. Authenticity is the first lever of credibility with candidates, and it is also the cheapest. The role of the agency is to put them at ease and make their words emerge.
On which channel to broadcast a recruitment video?
Where your candidates actually spend time, in the native format of this channel. SNCF went to TikTok to reach young people on jobs in tension; an ETI that recruits executives will prefer LinkedIn, and a career page remains useful at the end of the course. The channel is chosen before the format, never after.
Can an employer brand video “sort” candidates without damaging the image?
Yes, and it is even desirable. The Army’s “Can You Do It?” campaign shows that a demanding message attracts precisely those who recognize themselves in the requirement. For an SME, honestly showing the constraints of the job reduces off-target applications and early turnover: two hidden costs much higher than a few CVs less.
How many videos do you need for an employer brand strategy?
A single video is a beginning, not a strategy. An effective foundation for an SME usually combines a short corporate film, two or three portraits of employees and a video that answers the main objection of the candidates. The set often occurs in one or two days of shared shooting, then is declined by channel.
