Marketing "Smart Hiring"

Almost all hi-tech firms emphasize the "We hire smart people" approach. A while back it got me thinking as to how firms stay competitive in this arena. What makes a graduate student look at a company and say "Thats where I want to go". Huge benefits and fat checks with perks are well known reasons, however what got me thinking is the "brand" that companies create and live up to.

I was blown away after reading this article: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/09/09/comprehension_test/


Long story short, 50 foot manners hanging from the celing of Harvard Square Subway station say " ''[First 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e].com,"

This piece of "undisclosed advertising" is certain to pique someone's interest - the chain reaction then follows...where a student then figures out the solution to this problem, hits the intended URL and if he/she jumps through all such hoops on the URL, gets an invitation to submit his/her resume to google!

Surely, this campaign must have created a buzz in the student community.

On the same lines, I recently saw a print ad that said "If you're intelligent, we are hiring!"

How cool is that!

Google Sites

Future of Online Advertising (WebGuild/Google).

Quotes from the talk:

We must accept the fact that there is no "mass" in mass media.

Consumers are beginning to, in a real sense, own our brands. We need to learn to begin to let go.

Six trends-

1) The emergence of communtainment (think YouTube).

2) The increasing popularity of Usites (or UGC).

3) Internet, as a medium, has become mainstream.

4) Declining usage of traditional media.

5) Fragmentation of content consumption.

6) Evolution of user-generated brands.

Google to use Nielsen data for its TV ads.

First of all, admit it. You did not know that Google sells TV ads. It does. It is still a small business, but it is expected to grow. Now, Google has announced that it will use Nielsen data to help advertisers target better. Should the networks worry?

The World of Steve Ballmer

Google = one-trick pony

Microsoft Search = precocious toddler

Full story here.

Articles that are critical of Google.

The number of articles that are critical of Google are on the rise.

This article in Slate points out that Google has way too much information about way too many people. Excerpt-

"I am presently a happy user of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Chat, Google Groups, Google Video, and Google Notebook (which I use to clip interesting things online). I also love Google Desktop, which has indexed the contents of my computer. What has Google made of all this information? If they wanted, they could know my friends, my family, my weakness for homemade YouTube soccer highlights. They could know what car I drive, where I drive it to, and where I shop. They definitely know what blogs I read and how often I read them. They took a picture of the building where I live. They just started a 411 service that will give them my voice. They're making me a mobile phone. The attention they've lavished on me would be flattering, if it weren't so vaguely menacing. I'm not alone in this feeling."

A recent article also pointed out the problems with Google's AdSense system. Excerpt follows-

Here is a top 10 list of what Google does not reveal.

1. Google does not tell advertisers where exactly their ad will get placed.
2. Google does not tell some publishers why exactly they shut them down.
3. Google does not share any network-level performance figures.
4. Google does not provide any information about how overall click rates have changed over time.
5. Google does not share any information on who clicked on the ads.
6. Google does not reveal what leads to higher placement among paid ads.
7. Google does not reveal how exactly it evaluates the quality of a text ad, i.e., the Quality Score. According to Google, the formula varies depending on whether it's calculating minimum bids or assigning ad position.
8. Google does not tell advertisers what countries the users come from.
9. Google never tells publishers why they got paid a certain amount.
10. Google does not publish any research on ad effectiveness.

Will Google change its practices in response to these articles?