A squirrelly campaign to bring a little light and life to a very niche job search
Client
ClearanceJobs
Services
Campaign
Illustration
They walk among us
ClearanceJobs, the only professional networking site solely dedicated to job seekers who hold security clearances, has a reputation for using insider humor to engage their incredibly niche audience. For several years they had been featuring Secret Squirrels—a spy term now comically applied to security cleared professionals—as literal squirrels in their advertising. Wanting to take the idea to the next level, ClearanceJobs enlisted Measure to develop a more cohesive and polished approach to give the campaign more punch.
Ridiculously real
Earlier campaigns had relied on collages made from photos of real squirrels, limiting the possibilities for poses. Measure worked with Pierre-Olivier Thevenin, a talented 3-D artist, to create fully posable, realistically rendered squirrels. Their humanized clothing and ability to express recognizable emotions makes the squirrels relatable to audiences while amplifying the humor in the messaging.
In plain sight
Exhibited on larger-than-life signboards throughout the metro system, the squirrels are now well known in Washington D.C. While such a public display of insider humor might seem counterintuitive, D.C. is host to the largest concentration of cleared professionals in the nation who see the squirrels on their daily commutes.
The crowd goes nuts
The Secret Squirrel campaign has been well received in the cleared community, generating buzz across all social media platforms as users snap pics of their favorite furry counterparts. The endless possibilities of 3-D modeling have allowed that success to continue for several seasons as the secret squirrels become a more integral element of the ClearanceJobs brand.
