Case summary
Weselect ran a 6-month, full-funnel Employer Branding campaign for Arla's Götene dairy production facility to attract production, technical, and specialist candidates to a small Swedish town in a competitive national labour market. The campaign combined Employee Generated Content, informational video ads, and a local collaboration with Götene Municipality, driven through Meta and supported by a dedicated landing page in weselects recruitment software.
Result:
- 10% unique click-through rate on Meta
- 95% of all landing page traffic came from the campaign
- 54% of visitors went on to explore open roles
- +433% blue-collar applications per month
- +50% white-collar applications per month
Why does it matter to put a small town on the recruitment map?
Arla's Götene site is one of Sweden's most important hubs for domestic dairy production. Products from Götene reach almost every Swedish kitchen. But while the Arla master brand is famous across Swedish households, the place and the people behind the production are not as well known. That asymmetry creates a tough recruitment problem: how do you attract the right technical and specialist talent to a small town when bigger cities, bigger budgets, and bigger names are competing for the same candidates?
What recruitment challenges did Arla Götene face?
- Skills shortage and long lead times: Local supply of production, technical, and specialist candidates was limited. When roles had to go to external search, lead times and costs climbed.
- High national competition: Arla Götene wasn't only competing with local employers. National players with higher Employer Brand visibility and larger recruitment budgets were targeting the same candidates.
- Business-critical operations with public responsibility: Götene plays a key role in Swedish food supply. Unfilled roles don't just slow the business, they affect production capacity the country depends on.
What was the goal of the campaign?
To put Götene on the map, not as a place people pass through, but as a workplace where the future of Swedish food production is shaped.
Specifically:
- Increase awareness of Arla Götene as an employer
- Strengthen attractiveness for production, technical, and specialist roles
- Build a long-term, proactive talent pool to reduce dependency on external search
- Cut time-to-hire
Which roles were targeted through the campaign?
A national audience across the production value chain:
- Production & operations: Operators, dairy operators, drivers, warehouse staff
- Technical & maintenance: Engineers, mechanics, maintenance technicians
- Leadership & specialist: Group manager, operations manager, site manager, business developer, quality specialist
How did weselect design the strategy?
The core message, "Shape the Future. Grow with Arla in Götene", connected Arla's master brand to the Götene site. Because Arla already has strong consumer-brand awareness, the strategy wasn't to build reach for reach's sake. The goal was to convert existing brand strength into active interest and action, measured in traffic, link clicks, and applications.
Channel mix
- Meta (Facebook + Instagram): primary channels. Broad reach, wide age span, proven track record in Arla's prior Employer Branding-work with weslect.
- LinkedIn: activated when needed for specialist roles
- Sponsored job ads: deployed in autumn during the peak season for priority roles (e.g. Transport Team Leader, Quality Specialist).
Three content tracks
Employee Generated Content (EGC): Filmed by Arla's own employees in Götene, with personal voice-over. Social-first, authentic, far from polished campaign messaging. Drove internal pride and external curiosity.
Informational content: Graphics and video shot on-site to explain complex parts of the operation accessibly. Focus: innovation, culture, development opportunities.
Arla X Götene Municipality: A collaboration with the local municipality that showcased the town itself: nature, outdoor life, quality of life. Drone footage and dairy production video gave candidates the whole picture: the job and the life around it.
A dedicated landing page
All traffic landed on a dedicated Arla Götene landing page with local USPs, current open roles, employee quotes, and information about Götene as a place to live. Built to take candidates from curiosity to application in as few clicks as possible. Interested candidates who weren't ready to apply were captured into a talent pool for ongoing nurturing.
What results did the Arla Götene campaign deliver?
10% Unique CTR on Meta
A click-through rate well above industry benchmarks for Employer Brand campaigns. Clear proof that the message resonated with the right candidates.
95% of all landing page traffic came from the campaign
The dedicated Arla Götene landing page became the conversion engine, with almost all visitors arriving directly from campaign activity.
54% of visitors explored open roles
More than half of the people who landed on the page clicked through to look at current vacancies. A strong signal that interest converted into intent.
+433% increase in blue-collar applications per month
Monthly applications to production roles in Götene jumped more than fivefold during the campaign. The clearest sign that awareness was turning into action.
+50% increase in white-collar applications per month
Specialist, technical, and leadership roles saw a steady lift in monthly applications across the campaign period.
Beyond the numbers, the campaign delivered what Arla set out to achieve: putting Götene on the map, lowering time-to-hire, and decreasing the need for expensive external recruitment.
What did the client say?
"What was incredibly important about this campaign was highlighting Götene as a critical hub for Sweden's domestic food production. We've seen a strong flow of candidates returning to read more before deciding to apply. The campaign has genuinely had an effect. We've reduced our time-to-hire, decreased the need for external search, and put Götene on the map." Conrad Herrström, Employer Branding Manager, Arla
Why did the campaign work?
- Authentic content. Real employees, real footage from the dairy production floor, not stock imagery.
- Local anchoring. Partnering with Götene Municipality made the offer center around a life, not just a job.
- Full-funnel strategy. Awareness, consideration, conversion, and nurture. No candidate dropped through the cracks.
- Ongoing optimization. Channels and budgets moved continuously toward what was working.
Other recommended reads
- Why partner with the local municipality on an Employer Branding campaign?
For employers in smaller towns, the candidate decision isn't only about the job, it's about relocating. A municipality partnership lets the campaign sell the place alongside the workplace: housing, nature, schools, and lifestyle. For Arla Götene, the Götene Municipality collaboration was key to reaching candidates who didn't already live in the area. Read more on how this works: What is place branding and how can it strengthen your employer brand? - How does weselect measure employer branding campaign success?A full-funnel view: ad impressions and CTR (awareness), landing page visits and dwell behaviour (consideration), applications and talent pool subscriptions (conversion), plus downstream business metrics like time-to-hire and external search spend. For a deeper breakdown of the metrics that actually matter, see How to measure the effects of your employer branding.
