HSBC’s advertising agency came up with a novel idea to attract recruits to the bank’s call centres.
It featured a 6ft high box hedge in front of a billboard on the busy A38 commuter route into Leeds, where there is strong competition for staff.
During the day, topiary artists cut the hedge, to leave the shapes of six figures and reveal the billboard message “We know talent when we see it” and a web address.
A video of the event, reduced to 20 seconds, was shown online and to create print advertisements.  The video was also shown on screens in shopping centres and cinemas in Leeds, Swansea and Hamilton, homes to three of HSBC’s seven UK call centres.
TMP Worldwide, which staged the event for HSBC, reported a lot of attention from motorists, some of whom did a U-turn for another look and others who stopped in the road.
It said that applications increased by 27 per cent in the week after the event and the rise continued.  And visitors to the careers web site rose by 14.5 per cent.