How to get a job with the help of Google and $6?
Using LinkedIn or Facebook to find a job is an old school. Google these days is a way to go. Take a look at Alec Brownstein, a copywriter by trade, who exploited people’s urge to know what is being said about them online and got the job of his dreams.
Brownstein had a good job but wanted a more creative one. He came up with the list of ad agencies and creative directors he wanted to work for. He wrote a very short ad and paid for it to appear alongside search results anytime someone Googled those names.
This is how ad appeared on Google. Image by Alec Brownstein
Brownstein, who himself would regularly type his name in Google search just for the fun of it, hope guys at the ad agencies do the same thing.
Brownstein spent just $6 for the ads.
The ads, which linked to his website, addressed each individual by name. “Hey,” it read, “Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too.”
Brownstein’s plan worked. Several weeks after the ad appeared online it was noticed by Scott Vitrone and Ian Reichenthal, the co-executive creative directors at advertising giant Young & Rubicam in New York.
“I thought it was funny right off the bat,” Reichenthal said in an interview to National Public Radio, describing Brownstein’s approach as exquisitely simple and wonders why it hadn’t been tried before.
Vitrone described the ad very personal: “It was like he was talking to us.”
But the Google ad was a different matter. In fact, Brownstein is the only person they’ve hired whose self-promotion ploy worked.
Vitrone says Brownstein demonstrated the creative talent and innovative thinking they look for in their staff.
Brownstein is now a senior copywriter at Young & Rubicam. His campaign won ad industry awards in the self-promotion category.
