In hopes of landing an internship at an ad agency, Dutch student Max Kurstjens, who’s studying in Sweden, took matters into his own hands. Kurstjens tells AdFreak via email that he struggled to get in touch with the agencies, so he targeted their Instagram hashtags instead.
“Why? To get their attention and to mock the hashtag phenomenon, especially in the advertising world,” he says.
Kurstjens created different Instagram accounts to flood the feeds of certain agencies, including TBWA, Droga5 and Wieden + Kennedy. Scrolling through an agency hashtag yields a composite of images that take the hashtag hostage and direct users to wehaveyourhastag.com. There, you’ll find a robotic arm dumping hashtags into shark-infested waters, holding them over a fiery grill and electrocuting them.
The only way to save your hashtag is to invite the guy for a cup of coffee.
It’s not clear yet whether he’s landed that elusive interview. But hey, the site’s pretty cool. We hope he graduates from hijacking hashtags soon, before they have to bring in the hostage negotiators.
How does a popular job posting site show off the breadth of its help-wanted offerings in the limited space of one commercial? For Indeed, the answer was to use its own listings to hire experienced professionals for the ad’s cast and crew.
“How the world works” is the theme delivered across TV, digital, print and other media in a rollout that began last week in the U.K., targeting both applicants and companies looking to hire. Bright, bouncy and upbeat, the initiative, crafted by Mullen, emphasizes teamwork and striving toward common goals.
A 50-second spot sets the tone, presenting an ad inside an ad with meta twists that turn the medium into the message.
We see folks from various professions “working” among huge letters that spell out the word I-n-d-e-e-d. The camera pulls back to reveal that the action is taking place on a soundstage where an ad is being filmed. “How do commercials work?” a voiceover begins. “Well, you need a team of talented professionals, working together, focused on the task, doing all kinds of jobs.” The crew on the set—choreographer, boom operator, caterer, makeup artist and others—are identified by on-screen icons which, in the spot’s clickable version, let users search Indeed’s site for those jobs.
What’s more, these folks aren’t actors, but actual professionals (real choreographers, caterers, etc.) hired through Indeed for the spot. (The making-of clip below, which goes into detail on this process, is a must-see.) Even the talent being used to represent nurses, engineers, IT specialists and financial planners are actual trained members of those professions.
Admittedly, not all parts were truly cast through Indeed, since Mullen and other production partners like the directing collective StyleWar were already in place. Here’s how a Mullen spokesperson described the process:
“For the video part of the campaign, we used the Indeed platform to scout and hire creative and production talent. Indeed posted 26 job openings on its website for roles in the spot. Within 48 hours, 1,500 applications were received. Indeed conducted more than 200 interviews in just 14 days. Once a selection was made, industry professionals from six different countries—U.K., U.S., Canada, Czech Republic, Australia and Germany—traveled to Prague for filming and production.”
Beyond TV and digital video, coffee-cup wraps detail the jobs needed to bring java to market, while subway and newspaper ads explain the positions required by those industries.
Communicating aspirational themes and complex information is no easy task, but, overall, this campaign does a fine job of taking Indeed’s message to a higher level.
CREDITS Client: Indeed, Austin, Texas Senior Vice President, Marketing: Paul D’Arcy Vice President, Corporate Marketing: Mary Ellen Duggan
Agency: Mullen, Boston and San Francisco Chief Creative Officer: Mark Wenneker Executive Creative Director: Paul Foulkes Group Creative Director, Copy: Tim Cawley Copywriter: E.B. Davis Copywriter: Jamie Rome Art Directors: Brooke Doner, Ryan Montgomery Designer: Mike Molinaro 3-D Artist, Concept Designer: Andy Jones Producer: Mary Donington
VIDEO CREDITS Production Company: Smuggler Director: StyleWar Editing Company: General Editorial Color Correction, Visual Effects, Titles: The Mill Audio Postproduction: Soundtrack Music: Madplanet
How does a popular job posting site show off the breadth of its help-wanted offerings in the limited space of one commercial? For Indeed, the answer was to use its own listings to hire experienced professionals for the ad's cast and crew.
"How the world works" is the theme delivered across TV, digital, print and other media in a rollout that began last week in the U.K., targeting both applicants and companies looking to hire. Bright, bouncy and upbeat, the initiative, crafted by Mullen, emphasizes teamwork and striving toward common goals.
A 50-second spot sets the tone, presenting an ad inside an ad with meta twists that turn the medium into the message.
We see folks from various professions "working" among huge letters that spell out the word I-n-d-e-e-d. The camera pulls back to reveal that the action is taking place on a soundstage where an ad is being filmed. "How do commercials work?" a voiceover begins. "Well, you need a team of talented professionals, working together, focused on the task, doing all kinds of jobs." The crew on the set—choreographer, boom operator, caterer, makeup artist and others—are identified by on-screen icons which, in the spot's clickable version, let users search Indeed's site for those jobs.
What's more, these folks aren't actors, but actual professionals (real choreographers, caterers, etc.) hired through Indeed for the spot. (The making-of clip below, which goes into detail on this process, is a must-see.) Even the talent being used to represent nurses, engineers, IT specialists and financial planners are actual trained members of those professions.
Admittedly, not all parts were truly cast through Indeed, since Mullen and other production partners like the directing collective StyleWar were already in place. Here's how a Mullen spokesperson described the process:
"For the video part of the campaign, we used the Indeed platform to scout and hire creative and production talent. Indeed posted 26 job openings on its website for roles in the spot. Within 48 hours, 1,500 applications were received. Indeed conducted more than 200 interviews in just 14 days. Once a selection was made, industry professionals from six different countries—U.K., U.S., Canada, Czech Republic, Australia and Germany—traveled to Prague for filming and production."
Beyond TV and digital video, coffee-cup wraps detail the jobs needed to bring java to market, while subway and newspaper ads explain the positions required by those industries.
Communicating aspirational themes and complex information is no easy task, but, overall, this campaign does a fine job of taking Indeed's message to a higher level.
CREDITS Client: Indeed, Austin, Texas Senior Vice President, Marketing: Paul D'Arcy Vice President, Corporate Marketing: Mary Ellen Duggan
Agency: Mullen, Boston and San Francisco Chief Creative Officer: Mark Wenneker Executive Creative Director: Paul Foulkes Group Creative Director, Copy: Tim Cawley Copywriter: E.B. Davis Copywriter: Jamie Rome Art Directors: Brooke Doner, Ryan Montgomery Designer: Mike Molinaro 3-D Artist, Concept Designer: Andy Jones Producer: Mary Donington
VIDEO CREDITS Production Company: Smuggler Director: StyleWar Editing Company: General Editorial Color Correction, Visual Effects, Titles: The Mill Audio Postproduction: Soundtrack Music: Madplanet
Usually it's the young designers and copywriters who create awesomely creative new ways to apply for internships. This time, oddly enough, it's someone looking for a spot in account management.
A young woman named Leah created a Lego-esque model of herself and sent it out to her "dream advertising agencies" as an internship application. "Build the perfect Account Service intern," announces the headline on her packet. The introduction letter goes on to describe her skills as a good listener, people person and multitasker.
"I wanted a fun way to stand out to agencies and get my résumé out of the trash can," she notes in a photo gallery on Imgur. "I've always loved LEGO and I created this set to highlight my creativity, skills and initiative."
Are you a fan of jorts? No matter. You will be wearing them daily after you move to Cleveland and start working at Brokaw.
Two weeks ago, the 54-person agency rolled out geo-targeted banner ads on Mediabistro, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter encouraging ad people in the larger markets to come and be a big fish in little old Cleveland. Among the perks promised in the ads: that your salary will get you a mansion, and that you'll look "slightly more attractive" than you looked in that bigger town with all those beautiful people. The ads link to brokaw.com/recruitment, where you can actually try to make this Cleveland dream happen.
Brokaw says it's gotten more than 200 résumés from creative, strategic, media, and digital people at agencies like Mullen, Crispin Porter + Boguksy, Draftfab, Young & Rubicam, Taxi, Leo Burnett and Ogilvy & Mather. This is "proof the best culture can attract the best talent," the agency tells us. "Even to a city that still thinks 'jorts' are cool."
Rich Silverstein is apparently not an easy boss to have. The notoriously demanding co-founder of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco is looking for a new executive assistant, as his current assistant is leaving. And judging by the Craiglist help-wanted ad, and the crazy-fun accompanying website, you should almost certainly NOT apply for this job. Here's how the Craigslist ad starts out:
Have you ever looked greatness in the eyes—and cried because it was so damn beautiful it hurt your feelings? If not, you should really get to know Rich Silverstein. Rich has been inducted into halls of fame—yes, plural. His achievements read like a novel, albeit one written by Stephen King. You've probably heard stories. And they're every bit as true as they are misleading. He is tough and expects greatness. But he holds himself to the same impossible standards. The success he's had is the stuff of Mad Men. And the stuff of madmen. Rich Silverstein answers to nobody. And that nobody could be you.
Then there's a list of prerequisites for the job (one of them is that you must not be "an agency spy. Or ever have written for AgencySpy"), along with a link to work4rich.com.
That's where things get truly cray cray, as the application process turns out to be a series of ludicrous Web challenges, including transcribing a fast talker's gibberish and memorizing a set of names in just two seconds.
You have until Sept. 6 to get past that step in the process, and then "Rich will handpick his favorites and invite them to the Google Hangout of the century." That should be a doozy.
Yes, that's right, you enjoy your current job just fine, thank you.
Credits below.
CREDITS Creatives: Zach Canfield Pablo Rochat Adaye Worku
Another day, another resume billboard. Earlier this year, 24-year-old Adam Pacitti landed a job in media—which he describes as an “ultra competitive, cutthroat and slightly vacuous industry"—by spending some $770 on a billboard directing potential employers to a website about himself. It worked. After 60 offers, Adam accepted a position at KEO Digital. AOL Jobs caught up with him this week and parsed the strategy. Is this really a useful template for people looking for work? I mean, no one should have to spend that much money to get a company to look at his resume.
Lots of companies advertise their job openings to the ends of the earth, which we can't really fault in this economy. But rather than let HR weed out applicants arbitrarily, Flickr decided to hide a link to its job postings for coders somewhere only worthy coding applicants would ever find it—inside the source code of its website. Of course, the effect is kind of ruined by other websites posting about it with screenshots of the message, but such is the price of good ideas. Just ask the guys who did practically the same thing three years ago with ads for EA's Dante's Inferno. Via The Denver Egotist.
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