Knight Frank: Breaking the Recruitment Agency Dependency
How a global real estate consultancy cut agency spend by 88% and achieved significant cost savings while taking control of their employer brand.
Industry
Use Case
Engagement Started
The Challenge
Knight Frank, a global real estate consultancy, faced a significant recruitment bottleneck. Historically reliant on third-party agencies, the business incurred costs nearing £2 million annually, with 45% of hires sourced externally. The approach raised two primary concerns:
- Financial drain: Agency fees ballooned alongside hiring needs (611 hires in the previous year).
- Brand control loss: Third-party recruiters represented the Knight Frank brand externally, often with minimal oversight.
With only 15 internal recruiters, Knight Frank sought a scalable strategy to source talent directly and reduce costs--while elevating the employer brand in a fiercely competitive job market.
The Turning Point
The recruitment team, led by a strategic push to cut external spend and build a robust internal sourcing engine, partnered with Sixty Seconds in June 2024. The goal: to transform hiring campaigns into engaging, data-driven, brand-aligned outreach across multiple channels.
Key Needs Identified:
- Quicker content production (internal marketing delays exceeded 4 weeks per campaign).
- Control over brand messaging.
- Personalised, scalable outreach with measurable impact.
- Direct sourcing without overloading recruiters.
With Sixty Seconds, Knight Frank gained full autonomy over recruitment marketing. The platform enabled:
- Branded video job ads with engaging visuals and tailored messaging.
- Direct deployment across LinkedIn, Instagram, and other digital channels.
- Instant go-live without waiting on internal approvals.
- Seamless integration into the ATS, creating a full-funnel lead capture mechanism.
Measurable Impact: Numbers That Speak
Engagement Metrics
Click-through rate up 66% since go-live.
Reply rate nearly doubled, from 7% to 13%.
30,000 additional job clicks per month post-video rollout.
Cost Savings
Agency spend down by 88%--from £2 million to an estimated £200--£250k annually.
At least £595,000 in cost avoidance within 5 months.
Funnel Efficiency
Talent now flows directly into Knight Frank's recruitment CRM.
Candidates who engage but don't apply are still captured into targeted talent pools.
Building segmented pipelines by geography and role (e.g., surveyors, property managers).
Brand Control
Complete ownership of employer brand messaging.
Consistent visual and verbal identity across all recruitment touchpoints.
Improved candidate experience with branded communication.
\"The Sixty Seconds platform put us back in control. We no longer wait weeks for marketing to approve content--we create, brand, and deploy instantly. And we've slashed agency spend while owning our brand voice. Our team is now exploring how to use this platform across the entire business.\"
What's Next
The success in recruitment has spurred wider adoption:
- Knight Frank's sales and internal comms teams are exploring Sixty Seconds for business development and employer branding.
- Phase 2 includes real-time funnel tracking and expanded campaign templates for hyper-targeted outreach.
Results Summary
| KPI | Before Sixty Seconds | After Sixty Seconds |
|---|---|---|
| Agency Spend (Annualised) | ~£2,000,000 | ~£250,000 |
| CTR on Job Ads | Baseline | +66% |
| Candidate Replies | 7% | 13% |
| Monthly Job Ad Clicks | Low thousands | +30,000 |
| Marketing Turnaround Time | 4 weeks | Instant |
"The Sixty Seconds platform put us back in control. We no longer wait weeks for marketing to approve content--we create, brand, and deploy instantly. And we've slashed agency spend while owning our brand voice. Our team is now exploring how to use this platform across the entire business."
Why It Worked
Sixty Seconds' platform consolidated job ad creation, video production, and multi-channel publishing--cutting delays, boosting engagement, and delivering qualified candidates. With AI-personalised messaging and full funnel visibility, Knight Frank achieved what most teams struggle to scale: brand-aligned, data-rich marketing that actually delivers.
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