The world's biggest banks no longer compete with just each other to rake in top talent — they now battle with the likes of Google, Facebook, and a burgeoning raft of upstart technology companies for the best minds.
Gone are the days of simple job ads and recruitment fairs — banks have to convince potential bright, young graduates to join the finance world instead of the seemingly more alluring world of tech.
So JPMorgan is trying to get one step ahead of its competitors by using two techniques via the social media platform Snapchat to reel in millennials (those born between 1982 and 1999) and Generation Z (those born between 1996 and 2010.)
JPMorgan told Business Insider that it has decided to raise brand awareness amongst the generations that will be future bank talent via targeted ads and geofilters on Snapchat — it says it is the "first" bank in the UK to use the latter technique. It wants to show young people that there is more to a job in a bank than traditional finance and that it can cater for all different types of people.
Being on Snapchat may also help banks shake off some of that stuffy image.
JPMorgan geofilters
Firstly, JPMorgan is preparing special geofilters for several running events in the UK and the US.
If you swipe up on a photo or video you shoot in Snapchat, you'll usually find at least a few location-specific filters you can apply to your snap. They are either paid for by brands for events, or submitted by Snapchat users for specific neighborhoods and cities. These are geofilters.
JPMorgan will make these available for runners in its Corporate Challenge races in London and New York this summer. The bank told Business Insider that the teams started signing up this week for the London event.
If the London races — which take place on July 20 and July 21 in Battersea Park— are as large as last year's then it could reel in quite a few interested young people. In 2015, the London races had 29,000 competitors. The New York race takes place on June 1 and June 2.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan is also taking advantage of Snapchat releasing "on-demand geofilters" — they are a way for anyone to create a geofilter and pay Snapchat to show it for a much more specific location and period of time — think birthdays, office parties, weddings.
In JPMorgan's case — it is using it for high school and university events in UK and US. It's a pretty nifty way of gaining traction in recruitment. It's the prime time in a young person's life when their career path is usually decided.
In the US, JPMorgan will also release ads targeted at American graduates.
JPMorgan wants to show students, on a platform that is native to them, that you don't have to go down a traditional route to work for a bank. There are plenty of roles from a diverse range of people.
The budget spent on the recruitment push was not disclosed.
JPMorgan told Business Insider that "our social media presence is truly worldwide. Whether we're Periscoping from Dubai or live Tweeting in French from Paris, we want to reflect the global cultures of JPMorgan."
