Dropbox Case Study: Reaching Engineers Through Storytelling

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Dropbox

Attracting Engineer Talent: Build the Future

To attract the best recruits, we painted a picture of tomorrow.

Dropbox relies on a team of passionate and creative engineers to develop innovative products. But in a highly competitive hiring market, attracting those engineers is a challenge. As part of the recruiting efforts we support in our Dropbox Talent Brand retainer, we set out to create a compelling video that would capture attention and inspire engineers to apply.

The real story of Dropbox Engineering shined through.

To generate a sense of excitement, we wanted to tell the real story of what Dropbox does. It’s not just a place where engineers work on a file-sharing platform; it’s a place where they can turn their ideas into reality, make an impact, and build future-focused products that help people around the world. To tell this story through motion, we added a quirky spin to a nostalgic vibe, partnering with Jimmy Simpson—an illustrations and animation director with a keen eye for this style. The result was a recruiting piece that was more than a message; it was a true invitation to join this exciting work.

Early campaign success inspired Dropbox to scale the concept farther and wider.

This video was created to target engineering talent specifically, but Dropbox was so impressed with the end result that they decided to turn this into a year-long campaign to support their overarching recruitment strategy. The campaign’s initial results were impressive in their own right:

  • 275,000+ video views (0:20 or longer)
  • 3,449,022 ad impressions ($8.63 CPM)
  • 20.48% average view-through rate