GECKO Hospitality Creative Rational

Gecko Hospitality is one of America’s best hospitality-focused recruiting firms. Gecko offers the largest selection of hospitality, restaurant, hotel, resort, and club management positions, as recognized by Forbes Magazine in 2018, 2019, & 2021. Gecko represents over 450 organizations internationally, including many Fortune 500 companies, local franchise restaurants, and hotel groups. Gecko has filled over 20,000 positions since its inception in 2000.

Gecko Hospitality is made up of a network of over 40 franchises. Many of these are owned by those who made their way up through the hospitality industry and decided to make the shift into owning their own businesses. They use their knowledge along with experience to help the industry and those working in it find the perfect fit with one another.

Despite this success, high ratings, as well as hundreds of positive reviews Gecko has received from recruits, ownership thought the brand was lacking a defined personality. Therefore, he approached Spiro & Associates with a request to audit the brand and develop a plan to better define its personality through proposed creative and production services.

The Brand ArchitectsTM began by investigating Gecko’s competitive position in the hospitality staffing arena, evaluating the positioning line “Connecting People and Changing Lives, One Career At A Time®.” We researched the current advertising efforts by auditing the website, social media, public relations, along with dialing in on some ideal print and digital opportunities.

Upon reviewing the competitive landscape and the positioning of Gecko, the category is noticeably devoid of any company with an engaging, distinctive personality. Gecko’s target candidates, like many people today, are looking for not only a ‘job’ but a career and a ‘fit’…something that matches their personality, values, etc. It, therefore, becomes even more important to create messages and a personality in line with this.

The upper-level positions Gecko recruits for have likely worked at the operational or ‘ground level’ (server, bartender, etc.) at some point in their careers. The following theme line The Brand ArchitectsTM developed gives the Gecko brand a more authentic, real, streetwise twist within the brand’s current parameters. It also works alongside their established positioning line without competing with it…though in most cases could serve as both a campaign and positioning statement.

Let Go, and Let Gecko.

This direction has a certain ‘we’ve got this’ quality both candidates and companies will appreciate. The job search process can be long and stressful for both sides. This simple statement offers added assurance that they are in good hands.

Another facet to Spiro’s assignment was to develop a series of edgy, eye-catching headlines that could be used in restaurant publications, where those reading the ads would be less likely to be offended by the unprecedented messaging.

Finally, we assisted with ideas for gifts franchise owners could mail to potential clients as a way to get their foot in the door and introduce themselves as well as their services.

“Let Go, and Let Gecko” has been woven into all marketing channels including print and digital ads, social media, e-blasts, and applied to Gecko’s new corporate gifting program developed by Spiro & Associates. It was officially announced at their 2022 Annual Franchisee Conference and all franchise owners were encouraged to begin applying it to their own advertising and social media. Included in this suggestion was Spiro & Associates developed templates for better brand consistency.

The edgier headlines have been used in Full-Service Restaurant (FSR) and Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) publications in both print and digital banner ads. For RestaurantNews.com, a series of five e-blasts were designed that include quirky calls-to-action which leads back to a special landing page on the Gecko Hospitality website where we are able to track how many click-throughs they are receiving. {Need stats}

For the corporate gifting program, The Brand ArchitectsTM developed three levels of gifts. For smaller clients, a wooden handle wine corkscrew customized Gecko packaging that includes the message “Let’s open a discussion…and uncork a future together.” For larger clients, a gift that looks like a wine bottle opens to reveal a wine tool set in a customized box with the message “Don’t make a pour decision…Let Go, and Let Gecko handle your hiring needs.” As a thank you gift to new clients, franchise owners can gift a stainless- steel wine chiller with custom packaging that reads “Open, Pour, Sip. Relax. Repeat. – Thank you for choosing Gecko Hospitality as an extension of your recruiting department.”

Along with “Let Go, and Let Gecko,” these efforts were also revealed at Gecko’s 2022 Annual Franchisee Conference. They were received with cheers, laughter, and excitement. In addition, Spiro’s Chief Creative Officer had the distinct pleasure of being the morning’s keynote speaker and discuss brand loyalty as well as the new brand positioning. Franchise owners are eager to start using all strategies in their recruiting efforts.