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If you want a creative job in a competitive industry, sometimes the traditional resume and cover letter combo just doesn’t cut it.

To get the attention of a hiring manager at a top agency, you’ll need something that highlights your assets, proves your intense interest in the agency, and differentiates you from a crowd of people trying to do the exact same thing — all without seeming too over-the-top, gimmicky, or creepy.

No sweat, right? 

For your inspiration and amusement, we’ve put together a list of seven creative approaches used by real job seekers in the marketing and advertising industries. While flashy stunts alone aren’t likely to land you the job, they just might help you get your foot in the door. Check out the marketing stunts below.

7 Creative Stunts People Used to Land Their Marketing Dream Jobs

1) Pretending to be a Prospective Client

August Laustsen, a young art director from Denmark seeking an agency gig in Sweden, was having difficulty landing an interview. Despite sending his resume to all the big agencies in Stockholm, he couldn’t seem to even get a call back. Instead of throwing in the towel, Lausten devised a sneaky and brilliant way to get some agency attention.

“The thing is, when you’re looking for a job in another country, it’s impossible to get through if you don’t have any connections,” Lausten said to Adweek. “None of the CDs [creative directors] knew me, or any of the work that I had done, so I knew I had to take it a step further to get their attention.”

Lausten contacted a number of Swedish agencies pretending to be the marketing director of a firm looking to hire a new agency. He called his fictional firm EMERIH (Yep, that’s “Hire Me” spelled backwards), and set up a website revealing his true intentions as a job seeker.

So did the fake prospect stunt work out? Agencies received Lausten’s bold move “very positively,” and according to his website, he’s now employed as an art director at Round&Round in Stockholm. 

Image Credit: August Lausten

2) Brewing a Custom Beer Resume

If there was ever a foolproof formula for ensuring your resume doesn’t end up at the bottom of the pile, it’s probably this:

Resume + Beer = “Resum-ale” 

Looking to start his job search off with something memorable (and tasty), graphic designer Brennan Gleason decided to brew up a custom beer and design the packaging himself. Each bottle in the four-pack was printed with a portion of his resume, as well as a QR-code to view his full resume online.

“As I was nearing the end of University, the time approached where I needed to start getting my name out there,” Gleason wrote on Behance. “I wanted a resume that would both show off my work, but more importantly who I was and what I loved. I brewed up a nice Blonde Ale, and while that was fermenting I set out to create a packaging design that would reflect my personal identity.”

According to his Dribble account, Gleason currently works for Vancouver-based agency Domain7. 

Image Credit: Brennan Gleason

3) Personally Delivering Donuts

When 25-year-old Lithuanian marketer Lukas Yla moved to San Francisco, he knew he’d have to do something unconventional to break into the extremely competitive marketing and tech scene.

His solution? Dress up as a Postmates delivery courier to personally deliver donuts to the companies he admired — with his resume attached, of course. In October 2016, Yla made over 40 donut deliveries across the Bay Area, dropping off treat-filled boxes emblazoned with some catchy copy: “Most resumes end up in the trash. Mine — in your belly.”

Yla admits the sugary stunt was “a bit odd,” but it ended up earning Yla some much-deserved viral attention . More importantly, the move scored Yla multiple interviews (although according to his LinkedIn he’s still on the search for the perfect marketing gig). 

Image via Adweek

4) Buying a Billboard

After Pasha Stocking was laid off from her job as a marketing and sales director in Connecticut back in 2009, she took all the usual steps to find a new job: sending resumes to prospective employers, going to job fairs, and even registering with temp agencies. After toughing it out in a harsh job market for eight months without any big leads, she knew it was time for something big.

Stocking took $2000 out of her savings and purchased a massive billboard overlooking a busy highway in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She kept everything straightforward and uncomplicated: just a picture of herself, a link to her website, and copy that plainly spelled out her ultimate objective — “HIRE ME!”

While the billboard didn’t end up getting Stocking any offers she seriously considered, it did lead her to start her own print advertising company, specializing in — you guessed it — billboards.

Image Credit: The New York Times

5) Hacking the Agency’s File-Sharing System to Deliver a Resume

As the Chief Creative Officer at 72andSunny, Glenn Cole has witnessed his fair share of stunts from eager agency job seekers. But what has really stood out to him over the years?

“I’ve had a couple of people hack personal accounts to get my attention, which I find really clever,” Cold told Fast Company. In one instance, a prospective candidate hacked the agency’s internal file-sharing service and sent an email containing their resume to every creative director at 72andSunny. The email appeared to be sent from Cole himself.

While the bid for attention impressed Cole, the candidate ultimately wasn’t offered a job (although Cole says they’re still on the agency’s radar for future positions). 

Disclaimer: We don’t recommend hacking a prospective employer to get attention.

6) Writing a “Hire Me” Song

With a Marketing degree from Bentley University and several unpaid internships under his belt, Alec Biedrzycki still wasn’t getting job offers in his field. So he picked up his guitar and wrote a song about it.

“Hire Me” is a three-minute music video Biedrzycki created back in 2009 to use in place of a traditional resume and cover letter. While alternative video resumes are more common today, they were still relatively unheard of when he started sending his song out to employers.

Did the video really help Biedrzycki break into the industry? “I … was jobless and discouraged post-graduation due to the 2008 market crash,” Biedrzycki said. “My career didn’t really start until I launched this in 2009. Connections were made, interviews were set up and I eventually landed a job at an agency later that year. Launching this made me feel like I could pursue a career in marketing, even if the odds were against me.”

Today, Biedrzycki is a Principal Tech Partner Marketing Manager at HubSpot. 

7) Buying Google Ads for Advertising Executives’ Names

When Alec Brownstein was searching for a new job in 2010, he stumbled upon an unlikely opportunity for self-promotion. 

“I was doing a little bit of research on who I wanted to work for, and of course I was using Google, and I noticed when I Googled their names, that there were no sponsored links at the top, no ads there,” Brownstein said to CBS News. “And as someone who Googles myself sort of embarrassingly frequently, I realized if someone were to put someone at the top of my result, I would notice it.”

So Brownstein went ahead and purchased the top result for “Ian Reichenthal,” a creative director at Young and Rubicam. It cost him 15 cents. 

Sure enough, Reichenthal saw the ad after Googling himself, called Brownstein, and ended up hiring him. 

Image Credit: Alec Brownstein via YouTube