- Michael Page, the recruitment consultant, has made its first ever agency appointments to maintain its position in a market increasingly dominated by online job-finding services.
The company is putting a reported £3 million behind the initiative, having hired Mustoe Merriman Herring Levy to produce creative work and MediaVest to handle media.
Mustoe Merriman's brief is to promote Michael Page's new website as well as producing a brand development plan.
The appointments are a response to the burgeoning number of recruitment websites by the company whose core business is the placement of professional people from graduates to senior executives earning up to £300,000 a year.
Mustoe Merriman was appointed without a pitch and renews its relationship with Michael Stevenson, Michael Page's marketing director, who joined the company two months ago from Mazda Cars. As client services dirctor, he worked with the agency on its Kia account.
"I know Mustoe Merriman to be a sensible agency which isn't away with the fairies," Stevenson said.
The agency hirings end the current arrangements by the company, currently the biggest spender in the Financial Times, whose ad requirements have been handled by an in-house design team.
"The company has always been very sales-focused and we've never actively managed our brand," Stevenson explained. "I'm not quite sure what our brand personality is but we have to differentiate ourselves. We're not just another dotcom."
A print campaign is expected to appear early in the new year. Nick Mustoe, the Mustoe Merriman chief executive, said: "Michael Page operates in a market where there are a number of big players but it has a great heritage and is constantly looking at new sectors."
