Behind these results were just two people who made up the entire IT Engine marketing team at the time: Marketing Manager Milana Božičić and CEO Bojan Zrnić.

The ultimate goal of employer branding is to make people want to work for you — and to make them happy once they do. How much did this campaign contribute to that?

Milana: I think that with our campaigns and everything else we do, both externally and internally, we’ve only scratched the surface of employer branding. There’s still a lot of work to be done 😊 — or rather, it’s a cycle that never really ends. There’s no room for complacency. 😊

The campaigns helped the IT community learn more about us, follow us on social media, and become interested in us as a potential employer. We all know what the market is like and how many opportunities there are for developers. We wanted to show IT Engine in our own way — to give people a glimpse of who we are through satire and humor. And, ultimately, to attract people who share our values or have similar ones. I believe we’ve succeeded, and that this is only the beginning.

Let’s go back to the beginning. Where did the idea come from to satirically portray the “problem” IT companies face when recruiting developers, and how they can sometimes take things to extremes in the process? While each video is undeniably funny, how “risky” was it to put a campaign like this out there publicly?

Bojan: The idea of introducing IT Engine to the public through humorous videos was there from the very beginning. It evolved over time and eventually became a reality with the help of Milana Božičić and Miloš Milaković. We decided to be bold and not shy away from anything in the script, so naturally, we were a little worried about how people might react. This kind of marketing had never been done in the Serbian IT industry before. But after the first video was released without any negative reactions, we realized we had made the right call.

Which communication channels did you use to reach your target audience?

Milana: Our main focus was LinkedIn, although the sketches were also posted on Instagram and Facebook, and later on YouTube, mainly to make them available with English subtitles. LinkedIn was definitely the right choice, but since things change so quickly, maybe TikTok is next for us 😁. In any case, we built a really large community on LinkedIn, which was one of our goals from the start.

Following the first campaign, “This Is NOT How You Conduct a Job Interview,” three more video sketches stood out: “The Raise,” “Developers Ordering Food,” and “Working from Home VS Working from the Office.” All three received an excellent response, not only from developers but from a much wider audience as well. What kind of results did the “A Developer’s Life” series achieve?

Milana: Six months after the first campaign, we launched “A Developer’s Life.” The idea was to show the community that we’re still here — that the plan was never to launch a single campaign and then disappear. We’re still here.

The results show that our community is growing and that, for now, we don’t need to post job openings on certain career platforms or invest in traditional job ads. The point was to give people who identify with what our company stands for the freedom to reach out to us, even if they’re not sure they want to make a change right now. Maybe they will be ready for one somewhere down the line.

Number of views six months after publication:

The Raise (LinkedIn) — 97,251 views, from May 9 to December 23
The Raise (Instagram) — 18,873 views, from May 9 to December 23
The Raise (Facebook) — 65,967 views, from May 9 to December 23

Developers Ordering Food — 61,979 views, from May 23 to December 23
(LinkedIn)

Developers Ordering Food — 10,006 views, from May 23 to December 23
(Instagram)

Developers Ordering Food — 59,076 views, from May 23 to December 23
(Facebook)

Working from Home VS Working from the Office — 145,764 views, from June 6 to December 23
(LinkedIn)

Working from Home VS Working from the Office — 13,737 views, from June 6 to December 23
(Instagram)

Working from Home VS Working from the Office — 101,802 views, from June 6 to December 23
(Facebook)

Bojan: The results were exactly what we were aiming for: greater brand awareness within the community, an increase in our social media following, and more job applications. All the numbers exceeded our expectations.

How much do the awards you received mean to you, and were you expecting to win them?

Milana: We were certainly very happy to receive them. The first came at the “Learning by Doing” conference in Split, and we were genuinely surprised because it was a regional event and the award went to us. We were invited to be part of the conference and receive the award, which was a great honor. We’re glad that our campaign inspired many people to step outside their comfort zone.

The award for Best Digital Campaign at the Empple Festival nicely rounded out the whole story and gave us the extra motivation to keep going at our own pace.

Will IT Engine continue in the same #samolagano spirit? Can we expect a continuation of the campaign or similar projects in the near future?

Bojan: We’ll be doing many more campaigns in the same spirit, because that’s been part of the company’s vision from the very beginning — we’re only now starting to share it with the wider community. Alongside employer branding campaigns, we’ll also be putting more focus on sales campaigns.