HotJobs.com Hits Seattle with Guerilla Marketing Effort

Silicon Alley online recruitment firm HotJobs.com has unleashed a group of guerilla marketers onto the streets of Seattle as part of a two-week beta testing campaign.

HotJobs director of advertising and marketing Mark Karasu told atNewYork, a sister publication to Internet Advertising Report, that the campaign was created by guerilla marketing specialists Eisnor Interactive. He declined to provide financial details of the branding drive, saying it was part of an overall $40-45 million advertising budget for this year.

As part of the two-week program, he said HotJobs.com would send out “evangelists,” onto the streets of Seattle. Perched atop soapboxes, Karasu said the marketers would tout inspirational messages and offer information on the company’s online recruting services.

“Its all aimed at getting our brand into the Seattle market and, more importantly, to get that HotJobs logo into as many hands and on as many desks as possible,” Karasu said. One key part of the guerilla campaign is a chalkboard setup where Seattle residents would be encouraged to write something catchy and inspirational about themselves and their careers. The marketers would then take polaroids of the participants and their chalkboards. The polaroid prints would be branded with the HotJobs logo, Karasu explained.

He said the Seattle market was chosen for the beta test because it was a small, cosmopolitan city where HotJobs had not targeted for marketing before. “It is just the perfect place where we can create some buzz without spending too much money,” he said.

The six-year old company, which employs some 600 employees at locations in the USA, Canada and Australia, has employed Weiss Stagliano Partners to run a glitzy marketing campaign that includes print ads, spots on television and radio.

For the third year in a row, HotJobs.com will be advertising during the Superbowl telecast, which will be on CBS this year. Karasu said HotJobs would pay $2.4 million for four spots on television’s most popular broadcast. The 1999 Superbowl game, broadcast by FOX, was watched by 125 million. HotJobs will have one spot during the actual game and three during the pre-game show.