HotJobs.com Launches New Campaign

Internet job board HotJobs.com, which made headlines last year by spending half its annual revenue on a single Super Bowl spot, is starting its ad efforts early this year, announcing on Friday a media campaign that will culminate in two 30-second commercials during the game.

With the tagline, “The Hottest Hand on the Web,” the new campaign will feature the familiar hand icon that appears when Internet browser users put their mouse over a click-able link.

The icon will appear in the ads as a character that is a tough job negotiator. Spending for the campaign is estimated to be in the tens of millions.

“Our goal is to make everyone think of the handiness of HotJobs.com when they see the hand icon” says Richard Johnson, founder and CEO of HotJobs.com.

“The creative for our campaign this year breaks exciting new ground by animating the ubiquitous hand and we didn’t want to let this opportunity slip through our hands.”

The Super Bowl relationship apparently worked so well for HotJobs.com last year, that it has decided to step up its involvement. The company is buying two spots on the televised broadcast of the game, and becoming a sponsor and section sponsor of SuperBowl.com.

Since HotJobs.com spent $2 million on last year’s game, the company went public, grew five-fold in revenue, and increased its site traffic from 450,000 to 2.3 million.

The site, according to an August 1999 study conducted by Opinion Research Corp. International, ranked number six in overall brand recognition among e-commerce sites.