Alec Baldwin in a suit

We’re diving into the archives to pull out this story of the most creative use of Google AdWords that we have heard. In 2010, copywriter Alec Brownstein wanted to get a job at a new ad agency. The question was how to get noticed by the ad executives he wanted to work for.

His solution? Buy advertisements to appear whenever one of the executives searched for his or her own name on Google. The ads, which cost Brownstein $6, prompted them to hire him and check out his online portfolio. It was a bold bet on the vanity of the human spirit, and it paid off. Brownstein relates his experience in the video below:

According to a follow up video Brownstein made, his stunt resulted in 5.1 billion impressions of free (or $6) publicity as different media outlets covered his story. Let’s see if we can’t make a dent in that figure.

This post was written by Alex Mayyasi. Follow him on Twitter here or Google Plus. To get occasional notifications when we write blog posts, sign up for our email list.