Hey, Genius!! Microsoft Looks to Combat Google/Apple Employment Brands…

By · 07.15.2008 · 7 Comments
Tagged: Culture, Kris Dunn, Sourcing ·

Seen an Apple ad lately?  Then you know Microsoft is getting hammered in the branding business.  Just for the record, in those Apple ads, Apple is represented by the cool tech guy, Microsoft is the overweight, uncool guy who likes wearing a suit.  But you knew that – you’re sharp…

To it’s credit, Microsoft knows it has a problem and is taking steps to try and get the cool factor goingHeygenius  again.  Part of the program is the Hey Genius! recruiting campaign, designed to reach Gen Y as a tool to inform them about the fun things going on at Microsoft.  I saw this a month or two ago, thought it was pretty cool and understated, and forgot to blog about it.  Then I saw Dennis Smith do a brief post on it and remembered the campaign (hat tip).

They’ll need lots more, of course, but they’re on their way.  Don’t forget to steal this idea and do something like it.  How cool would your employment branding look with something like this?

Pretty cool.  I bet ACME across the street, or whoever your competition is, couldn’t pull this off.

Do it now!

FOT Background Check

Kris Dunn
 Kris Dunn is Chief Human Resources Officer at Kinetix and a blogger at The HR Capitalist and the Founder and Executive Editor of Fistful of Talent. That makes him a career VP of HR, a blogger, a dad and a hoops junkie, the order of which changes based on his mood. Tweet him @kris_dunn. Oh, and in case you hadn't heard the good word, he's also jumped into the RPO game as part owner of a rising shop out of ATL, Kinetix. Not your mama's recruiting process outsourcing, that's for sure... check 'em out.

7 Comments

  1. Kevin Stakelum says:
    07.15.2008 at 7:58 am

    Hello Maren,
    Great article, you should also go check out the “View my World” site at http://www.viewmyworld.com/ aimed more at the professional market.
    There is also a new, grassroots blog that has been started that features technical managers talking about managing in the technical space. The site is called TechLeaders and the URL is http://blogs.msdn.com/techleaders
    Kevin

    Reply
  2. Michael Wolfe says:
    07.15.2008 at 10:00 am

    Hey Jason P…
    Just ran across this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=aZNU9OoCGF0
    When are they coming out with Meet Microsoft: “Jason”

    Reply
  3. Pankow says:
    07.15.2008 at 10:52 am

    I got a free t-shirt out of Hey, Genius. :-)

    Reply
  4. richardparker says:
    09.23.2008 at 1:25 pm

    I am surprised. I read an article “somewhere” that said that viewers subconsciously disliked the Apple kid as arrogant, condescending and pretty typical of all Gen Y’s, and liked the Microsofty for who he was – nice guy we all work with who may not keep his job because he isn’t cool enough.

    Reply
  5. KD says:
    09.23.2008 at 9:21 pm

    Richard -
    Thanks for checking in. Can you find a link to that article? I’d be really interested to see it. See the most recent post below at the capitalist, because it looks like Microsoft went exactly in that direction with their most recent ads….
    http://www.hrcapitalist.com/2008/09/microsoft-focus.html
    Thanks – KD

    Reply
  6. epilation says:
    04.11.2009 at 4:03 pm

    http://epilation-electrolysis.blogspot.com/
    most recent post below thans

    Reply
  7. secure tabs says:
    12.08.2011 at 4:44 pm

    I don’t think that they can win against those giants because they haven’t done yet so I don’t think that they will do it.

    Reply

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