Monster.Com - Building The Brand

BUILDING THE BRAND

One of the key factors in Monster.com 's success was the brand recognition it was able to achieve. Jeff Taylor, Monster.com 's CEO and founder of The Monster Board, is regarded as an innovative marketer.He estimated that Monster.com would spend about $250 million around the world to build the company's brand in 2001. The company did its first Super Bowl ad in 1999, when it introduced its "What I want to be when I grow up" advertising theme, which it used for about two years. Immediately after the ad, traffic at Monster.com increased by 450 percent. The results encouraged the company to spend more on TV advertising and brand building. Taylor estimated that Monster.com spent about $45 million on branding in 1999, with about 65 percent of the budget going to television advertising. The company's ads ran more than 500,000 times during 1999. During this time the company doubled in size, in part as a result of renaming the business Monster.com, advertising on the Super Bowl, and then developing its partnership with America Online. By the end of 1999 Monster.com was easily the most-visited online job search site.

Monster.com also built its brand in other ways. The company owned two blimps, which it flew over major sporting events. The company also had a presence at major events ranging from Mardi Gras to the Daytona 500. The firm's monster mascot, named Trumpasaurus, went to events and ran in marathons. Taylor himself spoke at about 75 events a year. In 2001 Monster.com produced a 30-minute infomercial called "The Monster Show," which was shown on unused media time the company bought on off-peak, non-network programming. The company also bought time on about 100 radio stations, with CEO Taylor going on air to be a guest or host a special program where people could call in and ask questions or talk about finding a job.