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2004-09-13
Google is running an interesting advertisement in search of new talent. The ad is on banners and billboards that reads: "(First 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e).com". That's all it says. Solve that, go to the web site, and you'll get yet another math problem. Solve that and you get invited to apply for a job at Google. Clever mix of math and marketing that simultaneously appeals to the brainiacs Google desires and generates a public image of the company being staffed by super-bright, ultra-cool, intelligent geniuses. On top of that, they're getting free publicity from media outlets talking about the ad campaign. I smell a "business school case study" coming from this one. However, I have to wonder if the campaign will really attract good candidates, especially now that the solutions to the puzzles have been published on the internet? I suspect the Google HR team now has thousands of applications to sort through, most of which are from people who simply wanted to be able to say they applied to Google. In fact, the more I think about it, I'm not so sure this was a legitimate search for talent as it was a public relations stunt. I think this guy said it best: "This Google ad works on a micro level, and it works on a macro level," said Fritz Kuhn, a senior vice president of Boston advertising firm Hill, Holliday. "The target-audience people who are going to see it are going to say, 'That is my language, that is directed at me.' For the rest of us, it just burnishes the image of Google: I can't work there, but, wow, those guys are smart."
2:28 PM
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