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Home Boys.

Yo! Bonjour!

Has a certain ring to it. Ask these guys, recent university hires working on site in Paris.

We sent them into the world, where they can apply their technology, problem solving, diplomatic skills. And even their skills at using those weird little tools that hold the shells of escargot so you can eat them.

It wasn’t luck that got them there. It was opportunity. The kind you will only find at a world class, global company like ours. We have young people working on state-of-the-art technology projects in Australia. Beijing. Chile. Even Siberia.

They’ve taken their lives, and our technology, to the Nth degree. Further than they may have imagined, but not out of reach, when you work with IBM.

Which brings us back to campus. This semester we’re scouting the country again, looking for more great people and ideas. We’re pushing this company to the Nth Degree.

And you can take us there.

Nth DEGREE

IBM was going through an incredible rebranding, from stale, old school Big Blue to a more contemporary image in the market. At the outset of this effort their most troubling markets were university campuses. They couldn't sell computers and couldn't meet hiring goals, both of which were critical. Students assumed that the IBM product line and company workplace were equally staid. Imagine IBM having an event on campus, serving pizza and giving away their hottest laptops, and fewer than 10 students attending.

They asked us to rebrand them on campus.

We quickly learned that IBM was anything but staid. Their history of innovation is incredible, and their operational structure is nimble and exciting. The product line led the market in speed and features. Really, everything about the company was contemporary, dynamic and humanistic except their image. We also learned that students' biggest fear in terms of taking a job, is leaving the wide-open spaces of campus to get stuck in a cube and left to rot.

So we created Nth Degree. That means with the resources and freedom IBM offers, you can be the best possible you; you to the Nth Degree. Best people. Best products. Best opportunity.
The first semester IBM exceeded hiring goals by 130 percent, and sales on campus went up 200 percent to the previous semester. In subsequent semesters, recruiting and sales kept improving. The program included a huge variety of media and non-media treatments: an animated Web site, advertising and collateral, direct mail, an interactive experience, key chains, stickers, temporary tattoos, t-shirts, presentation media, job fair displays, and more. It was everywhere. It was planned to have a two-year life and was extended a year.

The campaign won top honors in several advertising and communications award shows.