Creative Card Game Drives HR Leads
After undertaking a comprehensive rebrand in 2024, hoomph has continued to trust The Bigger Boat with its ongoing brand and marketing strategy – ensuring the business not only reaches the right audience, in the right place, at the right time, but communicates consistently as the creative HR partner it has so intentionally shaped. This campaign is the epitome of this commitment, using a much-loved – and mischievous – card game as inspiration to inform a lead-generation asset that gets seen and remembered.
The challenge
Not your typical HR consultancy, hoomph is known for its vibrant and people-focused approach. The name – a portmanteau of ‘humans’ and ‘oomph’ – says it all. So, when it came to planning its next lead-generation campaign, the company needed an idea that packed as much personality as the brand itself. The goal was not only to stand out against competitors, but to stay authentic to its identity and ensure every communication truly resonated with its target audience.
Crucially, lead generation doesn’t have to mean putting budget behind Google or LinkedIn Ads every time. While both are powerful tools for many, neither felt like the natural fit for this high-energy, personality-driven brand. Yes, these channels can place a business directly in front of a highly targeted audience, but they also put it in a competitive, crowded environment where attention is fleeting and interactions can often feel transactional. Instead, we wanted to create something more personable that genuinely compelled engagement rather than presenting yet another ad to scroll past. What’s more, we wanted it to be genuinely cost effective too.
Our solution
Flexing our creative muscles, we suggested a parody of world-renowned party game Cards Against Humanity. Loved for its boundary-testing humour and absurd answer combinations, it was the ultimate rebuttal for an HR company that – while always professional – refuses to be tarred with the ‘boring’ brush. Crucially, it was drastically different from a typical lead-generation asset too, offering a greater chance for the brand to cut through.
With the idea locked in – titled hoomph vs HR – we began brainstorming phrases. These would be cringeworthy HR scenarios that could (and sometimes do) happen in the workplace, adding a lighthearted spin that encourages laughter while, ultimately, showing how not to do HR. The options needed to be witty, but they also needed to respect the line between making light of awkward HR situations and making light of serious issues, with nothing crude, discriminatory, or offensive making the cut. What’s more, answer cards needed to work interchangeably with every prompt, suited to any pairing that could be plucked out at random.
Card copy finalised, we then worked on the design. The deck followed the same two-colour structure as the original, but instead used hoomph's recognisable pink and green palette and playful iconography to feel more on brand. We created a similarly characterful box for the card game, and even extended the creative visuals and content to the instruction manual inside, mirroring more familiar workplace scenarios throughout the rule deviations and point systems. For example, the ‘Per my last email’ rule: if someone plays a card so perfect the table groans, the prompt reader may fast-track the decision and award the round immediately.
With the creative ready to go, we handled sourcing print and delivery through Alakazam, removing the headache of coordinating production for hoomph while ensuring the finished decks met our quality expectations and stayed within budget. We then built the campaign around the physical asset, creating targeted client emails and organic social content to drive interest. A dedicated landing page housed further information alongside a digital extension pack – a PDF packed with more fill-in-the-blank fun, keeping the momentum going and giving those who missed out on a physical deck a way to join in.
Grace Lenihan
Senior account director, The Bigger Boat
