Airtasker plunges into prime-time, returns fire on haters ... like a boss

THEY’RE the not-too-serious Airtasker ads which are top-shelf hilarious, despite some critics like Unions NSW seriously hating on what they promote.

THEY’RE the not-too-serious Airtasker ads which are top-shelf hilarious, despite some critics like Unions NSW seriously hating on what they promote.

And they’re a sign that the Sydney-founded online jobs business is ready to go mainstream: like a boss.

The Sydney-based company’s first foray in the TV advertising market is a series of three advertisements with unlikely heroes — individuals connected by using or providing a service on the Airtasker platform, using the tagline ‘Like a Boss’.

Cynthia is a ping pong champion who will take full credit for Derek’s delivery and assembly of her new table. Busy mum Jacinta isn’t planning to tell her husband that Kerry helped her sort the housework.

And Joeline is making Jake’s tech credentials look good by setting up his ‘man cave’ and letting him tell his mates he did it.

Each ad ends with the pair performing a “Like a Boss’ dance, with krumping performances ranging from the seriously cool to the disturbingly creative.

The ads debuted this week on TV, digital, online video, outdoor and social platforms, but the company’s first major advertising campaign will seriously kick into the mainstream on October 1, with slots booked during Channel Seven’s AFL grand final coverage.

All of which is sure to further raise the hackles of Unions NSW, which is planning legal action against Airtasker saying it erodes workers rights.

Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said the job-posting website was ignoring basic employee entitlements, such as penalty rates and the minimum wage, the ABC reported.

It added to the rumblings from other critics, who said Airtasker and other platforms like it — Uber, Deliveroo and Foodora are the face of a ‘new economy;’ that threatens Aussie jobs.

Airtasker CEO and co-founder Tim Fung said today “we acknowledge Union NSW’s concern and welcome an open dialogue on this matter. Just like them, we’re out to empower workers to earn more with their various skills”.

But he took aim at the way Union NSW “has gone about raising” these concerns.

“Only after a media push and the publication of a report condemning the platform did they send a letter requesting a meeting,” he said.

“In contrast, we’ve held discussions with several government bodies including the ATO, ASIC, Australian Small Business Commissioner and Fair Work Ombudsman and in every instance we’ve agreed to work with the body to address their queries. We’ll endeavour to do the same here.”

Unlikely duo: Airtasker’s Joelene and Jake. Picture: Supplied

Meanwhile, Airtasker’s new campaign is already paying dividends.

“Response so far has been amazing. We won ad of the week from (industry website) AdNews, the feedback from industry has been great as well as from users on Twitter and Facebook and we’ve already had a bump to our website traffic,” Airtasker marketing vice president Simon Reynolds said.

“Airtasker has been around since 2012 as a start-up. This is our step-change to a broader base and is a major shift in our approach.

“We’ve been relying on word of mouth. Now we are moving beyond ‘in-the-know’ early adopters into the mainstream.

“Most of our user base is in Sydney and Melbourne. This is part of a bigger push to the rest of Australia.”

Airtasker connects people who need small jobs done with jobseekers who want to perform them. Jobseekers can bid against each other to be hired for talks ranging from traditional jobs like garden clean-ups to more obscure tasks like delivering a home-cooked dinner or, as happened last week, standing in a queue to buy the new iPhone. It has more than 550,000 members and that grows by 25,000 a month.

Mr Fung said Airtasker jobs “are almost entirely new jobs, not old jobs being converted from other types of labour structures”.

“We’re not here to destroy industries or erode existing roles. If anything we’re trying to create them,” he said.

“For example, we had over 700 people lining up for an iPhone 7, making money off of an activity they were undertaking anyway. If we had restricted this type of labour to fulltime labour, this work would perish.”

Krumping campaign: Jacinta and Kerry. Picture: Supplied

He said the “casualisation” of the workforce is happening “regardless of the existence of Airtasker.”.

“It’s a long-term trend. If anything we are looking to increase the supply and variety of casual work, not erode fulltime work,” he said.

“This said, there will always be a demand for fulltime roles. Companies cannot survive on casual labour. Take our company for instance, we employ over 50 fulltime workers, and will not be outsourcing their roles to Airtaskers anytime soon.”

He said the average price per task has increased year by year on Airtasker, and the spread between posted task price (what job posters suggest to pay for a task) and assigned task price (what job posters actually pay) has increased significantly.

“We’ve also recently increased the cap task prices on Airtasker from $999 to $2000 in response to demand for higher valued more sophisticated tasks.”

Originally published as Airtasker plunges into prime-time, returns fire on haters ... like a boss