A large blue and yellow box arrived on my desk.
Working in HR at Coca-Cola, I was recruiting for the highly coveted role of marketing manager, and receiving lots of creative applications.
This is one I remember, but for all the wrong reasons.
Lifting the lid, I saw what looked like a blue genieโs bottle wrapped in yellow tissue paper.
And inside the bottle was a scroll, containing their application.
Did I unfurl and read their application? Yes.
Did they get the job? No.
In fact, they didnโt even get an interview.
Because while they did get my attention, they got the wrong kind of attention.
As brands go, itโs hard not to think of one that is more enmeshed with a specific colour than Coca-Cola.
So why, I wondered, did this person send a blue genie bottle in a blue and yellow box?
And why a genie bottle at all? The application didnโt explain the point of this creative choice.
This was for a senior marketing role, and all they had done was demonstrate how poorly they understood our brand and the role of creativity to engage an audience.
My broader point, which is even more important in this attention-hungry economy, is that getting attention is one thing.
๐ Getting the right kind of attention is something else.
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