Alec Brownstein Gets a Job Through Google AdWords

Nowadays, getting a new job via social media is nothing special. It happens all the time. However, there are still many creative ways to get a job with a bit of clever online marketing.

Alec Brownstein is the senior copywriter at the creative advertising shop Young & Rubicam (Y&R) in New York.

Last summer, Alec did not have this job. He was just another 28-year-old copywriter who worked at a large international ad agency. He wanted nothing more than to work at "a really creative shop for really creative [creative directors]."

Then, when last summer he Googled his favorite creative directors he saw that there were not sponsored listings on the results pages. Because he Googles himself "embarrassingly frequently," he assumed that the creative directors that he looked up to also Googled themselves pretty frequently.

This gave him a brilliant idea. He decided to purchase their names with Google AdWords. If you are not familiar with Google AdWords, it is an advertising campaign tool from Google where you can choose on which search engine results pages you would like your listing to be displayed.


photo credit: VividImageInc

"Everybody Googles themselves," Brownstein explained. "Even if they don't admit it. I wanted to invade that secret, egotistical moment when [the creative directors I admired] were most vulnerable."

Alec was the only person who was bidding on the names of the creative directors that he admired he was able to get his ads on the pages for only 15 cents per click. (This is pretty cheap!)

Whenever someone Googled one of the creative director's names, the following message appeared, "Hey, [creative director's name]: Gooogling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too" with a link to Brownstein's website, alecbrownstein.com.

His video of what he did:


Over the next couple months, Alec job interviews with 4 out of the 5 creative directors and out of those, he received 2 job offers. He decided to go with Y&R

Cost of the whole campaign: $6.

He also received awards in the self-promotion category at tow major advertising award shows, The One Show and The Clios.

"Don't be afraid to put yourself out there in an interesting way," he said. "The people who you want to work for can't hire you any less than they already are. So shoot for the moon."