How wagamama achieved a 27% reduction in their Annual Recruitment Media Spend
Working with inploi wagamama successfully optimised their talent attraction mix, achieving a remarkable 27% reduction in their annual recruitment media spend to achieve their hiring objectives. Using inploi’s dynamic talent attraction engine, wagamama attracted over 23,000 job applications at an impressive Cost Per Application (CPA) of £4.89 - a 63% decrease in CPA compared to the previous year.
Results
reduction in annual recruitment marketing spend
YOY decrease in the average cost per application
YOY increase in application completion rate
About wagamama
Established in 1992, wagamama is a Japanese-inspired restaurant chain renowned for its commitment to fresh ingredients and fast, communal dining experiences. With open kitchens and shared tables, wagamama aims to foster social interactions and a sense of belonging among its customers.
Building on a positive year of trading in 2022, wagamama anticipated a minimum of 10 new restaurant openings in 2023. Recognising that an improved candidate experience and higher quality applications were an essential part of delivering on their strategy, they sought a solution to enhance recruitment efforts and improve the return on media spend.
Approach
To maximise the return on investment, wagamama adopted a comprehensive strategy with inploi:
Programmatic Advertising Campaigns: Leveraged to target relevant candidates across various platforms, maximising reach and fostering engagement.
User-friendly Chatbot Interface: Implemented a mobile-optimised chatbot interface to host their application process, resulting in a 30%+ increase in application completion rates.
Data-driven Optimisation: A custom dashboard developed to enable real-time adjustments and continuous campaign optimisation, as well as providing wagamama hiring managers with full visibility on performance.
To ensure the unique look and feel of wagamama’s brand shone through at every stage of the candidate journey, wagamama integrated inploi’s candidate experience platform with their Talos ATS. Jobs are automatically synced from Talos onto the careers site and candidates are able to submit their full job application via the inploi chatbot, with bespoke journeys created for each role type. All application data is then automatically sent back into Talos. This setup provides a mobile-first, seamless experience for candidates, and considerable time-savings for the wagamama team with a consistent stream of high quality candidates into their ATS.
Martin Wonham, Talent Acquisition Manager at wagamama, highlighted the importance of pairing a smart attraction strategy with a seamless application experience as vital to capture the best candidates.
Martin Wonham, Talent Acquisition Manager @ wagamama
inploi have also worked closely with Talos to extract post-application data from the ATS on behalf of wagamama. Crucially, this means that wagamama are able to track key metrics like cost per hire, time to offer and time to hire across all their key roles and locations, identifying bottlenecks and ensuring the wagamama hiring strategy remains ahead of the curve.
Results
Achieved 27% savings on the Annual Recruitment Media Budget
Recorded a remarkable 63% decrease in Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) year-on-year
Experienced a substantial 174% increase in application completion rate year-on-year
Partnership Success
Beyond delivering tangible results, inploi's data-driven approach, intelligent automation, and collaborative spirit stood out for Martin Wonham. He highlighted the significance of inploi's investment in wagamama's success, making them a true partner in achieving wagamama’s recruitment objectives.
Martin Wonham, Talent Acquisition Manager @ wagamama
Future Outlook
Looking ahead, both inploi and Wagamama are poised to further optimise their collaboration. They plan to reduce media spend by an additional 27% in 2024 while fueling the expansion of 10 new restaurant openings, demonstrating their commitment to sustained efficiency and growth.
Martin Wonham, Talent Acquisition Manager @ wagamama
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