• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, January 3, 2008

With U.S. employers fighting off economic headaches, Monster Worldwide is appealing to the inner passions of job-seekers, unleashing "Your Calling is Calling," a new brand effort.

The global marketing campaign is from BBDO Worldwide--which won the account back in September, and is "evolving our brand beyond just a marketplace for jobs," the company says in a release announcing the new effort.

The campaign includes TV, radio, print and online, with two of the four TV spots--directed by Frank Budgen, Daniel Kleinman, Rupert Sanders and Nicolai Fuglsig--breaking this week in the U.S. and the U.K., rolling into additional markets in Europe throughout the month. The first spot, "Daybreak," shows hundreds of people awakening before dawn on a Monday, trying to fend the day off. The second spot, "Slots," "brings to life the monotony of literally being shackled to your job."

Monster reportedly will spend $200 million on the new effort, and has told investors it will take a more aggressive marketing stance. (The company tapped Joan Blackwood as CMO for North America last June.)

The company says the online initiative "will include a combination of new and re-skinned ads that deliver strong, consistent brand messaging," and that newspapers and weekly publications will feature new print ads based on the same creative platform at launch, followed by monthly vertical placements in subsequent months."

While Monster calls itself the premier global online employment company, Chicago-based CareerBuilder.com is the largest in the U.S. For the first nine months of 2007, CareerBuilder (owned by a group of newspapers, including Gannett) generated $585 million in revenue in North America, compared to $534 million for Monster.

A spokesperson for CareerBuilder says the company is also readying new ads, which will break on the Super Bowl. (Best-known for its captivating "I work with a bunch of monkeys" and cubicle-warfare humor, these new ads will be its first from new agency Wieden + Kennedy.)

But both companies are struggling with an uneasy economic climate, with anxious employers holding off on hiring.

In its November job index, Monster found the majority of industries and occupations it tracks showed reduced online job demand, with the Index falling five points. And last week, CareerBuilder released a forecast for 2008, which reports that just 32% of American companies plan to add permanent, full-time staff this year, down from 40% last year. Eight percent plan to decrease staff levels in 2008, while 47% expect no change.