Trojan Mugs

Background

This was not a new idea. The Greeks had tried it thousands of years earlier and it had worked for them. So when George Patterson Y&R needed to fill 15 new positions in a hurry to meet the needs of a major new client, they gave the Trojan horse a second outing. 

Idea

The agency needed to recruit the new personnel from competitive agencies. Somehow, they needed to get past the watchful eye of their rivals' gatekeepers but without compromising staff in the process.

Trojan mugs looked like the sort of complimentary gifts often sent out by film production companies. In this instance, Trojan Films did not actually exist.

A total of 64 mugs were sent to targeted individuals in competitor companies. When they filled them with hot water, heat-sensitive ceramic printing revealed the invitation to ring talent manager Tom Stevenson.

Results

This ancient back-door tactic that gave birth to a new way of poaching staff resulted in the new positions being filled within the first four weeks.

Our Thoughts

This got a big thumbs-up from the editorial committee not because it is an advertising idea that advertising people would especially enjoy but because it must have saved the agency a massive amount of money in head- hunter fees as well as a significant amount of time. Filling the positions this way saved $96,000, they say.

Time is money too. I can remember spending over a year trying to recruit a creative director for one job and here GPY&R had it cracked in a month.

People often ask, what is creativity? My answer is, it’s the effective solution to a problem. What made this effective was the very fact the idea was creative. The two are inseparable.