Choice HR x Cocco Agency

From manual work to scalable LinkedIn outreach with HR decision-makers > Fast pilot launch + strong increase in relevant conversations and LinkedIn visibility Teatteri Toivo is an independent theatre company in Helsinki known for its bold productions, immersive performances, and a strong community-driven ethos. Their mission is to create meaningful cultural experiences while operating with the same commercial discipline as any modern creative organisation.

Choice HR is a personnel services company positioned as the Choice for organisations that understand the strategic importance of attracting, recruiting, and engaging talent. Their services are designed to improve clients’ competitiveness, productivity, and employer brand in a market where talent decisions directly affect business growth and customer experience.

As their activity increased, so did the amount of manual work behind sales and outreach. The team reached a point where continuing without automation no longer made sense.

“We were simply tired of doing everything manually. The volume had grown to a level where we knew we needed automation if we wanted to move forward efficiently.”– Päivi Lehtonen, CEO, Choice HR

From trusted conversations to a concrete pilot

The collaboration between Choice HR and Cocco Agency started from an existing professional connection. After several sparring discussions, it became clear that the next logical step was to test automation in practice.

The primary goal was to quickly launch a pilot and evaluate LinkedIn as a channel for reaching HR decision-makers, alongside existing channels. Moving from idea to execution happened in under four weeks.

“We went from an idea to a live pilot very quickly. The only thing that slowed us down slightly was our own internal lead list validation. Otherwise, the process itself was fast and straightforward.” – Päivi Lehtonen, CEO, Choice HR

Why Cocco Agency?

The decision was not based on hype or trend-driven promises. Choice HR already has strong marketing expertise in-house and wanted a partner who would provide focused, practical support rather than overselling complex solutions.

“We didn’t want anyone selling us everything under the sun. We wanted targeted, effective help. It felt important that the partner understands marketing deeply enough not to overcomplicate things.”– Päivi Lehtonen, CEO, Choice HR

Cocco’s pragmatic approach, combined with a solid background in marketing agencies and HubSpot environments, made the choice feel natural.

How the collaboration worked in practice

The onboarding phase was smooth and efficient. A clear, itemised proposal was delivered early, and the kickoff meeting was scheduled without delay. While one live sparring session was held, most of the collaboration took place remotely and worked well. A few practical challenges emerged at the beginning, but they were addressed quickly and professionally.

“Even when small challenges came up, they were handled in a very clean and calm way. Looking back, we could have centralised project communication even more, but overall the process worked really well.”– Päivi Lehtonen, CEO, Choice HR

What worked especially well in the AI pilot

One of the strongest aspects of the collaboration was the hands-on support around LinkedIn Sales Navigator and outreach messaging. Cocco helped refine lead lists and provided thoughtful feedback on how to approach prospects in a way that fit Choice HR’s sales style.

“The help with Sales Navigator lists and our outreach messaging was extremely valuable. It wasn’t just ‘do this’, but clear reasoning on why this pilot made sense and where it was worth investing our time.”– Päivi Lehtonen, CEO, Choice HR

Concrete results so far

The pilot delivered fast, tangible signals of success. Choice HR saw a rapid increase in relevant conversation openings within their HR decision-maker target group. At the same time, both personal and company-level LinkedIn profile visits increased significantly.

One particularly effective decision was to run outreach in the name of a client-facing team member and activate existing recruiter networks.

“That turned out to be a really good call. The amount of conversations that opened up actually exceeded our expectations.”– Päivi Lehtonen, CEO, Choice HR

The increased engagement also highlighted an important operational insight: when outreach works well, internal resourcing for follow-up becomes critical.

“We were positively surprised by how much follow-up work the conversations required. In hindsight, we could have resourced that part more from the start, even though handling it ourselves wasn’t a big issue.”– Päivi Lehtonen, CEO, Choice HR

The biggest shift: moving from idea to execution

The most meaningful change during the collaboration was not just the results themselves, but the transition from conceptual thinking to real-world execution.

“Honestly, the biggest win was that we actually started. This didn’t stay at the idea level. We now have something concrete that fits our budget and is easy to scale.”– Päivi Lehtonen, CEO, Choice HR

Recommendation

Choice HR describes the collaboration as both practical and motivating.

“I absolutely recommend Cocco. Anna found a solution that matched our budget and growth stage, and she pushed us just enough to make sure we did our part as well. Without that, this might have stayed just a nice idea.” – Päivi Lehtonen, CEO, Choice HR