Buried treasure: Ogilvy ad goes underground

Brussels – When Ogilvy Brussels wanted a web designer with an outsider’s perspective, they decided to look where young creatives source the tools of the trade – on pirate file-sharing websites.

Adobe’s Creative Suite is used by design professionals worldwide, but priced with deep-pocketed businesses in mind. Young designers, especially freelancers, widely pirate the software, so Ogilvy created a dummy file with a recruitment message inside.

Ultimately, the idea is not simply an advert, but a way to promote the firm that enables Ogilvy to position itself as a savvy company in touch with young people and open to unorthodox strategies.

Innovators are moving into underused spaces to conserve resources or target their messages at specific groups, a tactic we described in our Symbiotic Branding macrotrend. We explored another example of virtual space-squatting in a recent Insight news story.