The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the UK has begun a month-long campaign to attract Internet-savvy gamers into intelligence careers. Essentially, the government is looking to hire gamers to IT jobs. The GCHQ is the surveillance arm of British intelligence - comparable to the  American NSA.

The GCHQ is taking an aggressive approach to attract these tech savvy gamers. They are embedding job ads within video games such as  “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent.” This is the World’s first in-game recruitment advertising campaign.

Screenshot via Spong

Billboards advertising open GCHQ positions will appear in scenes of various video games (computer, Xbox).

“The world of online gaming offers GCHQ an additional route for targeting a captive audience,” explains Kate Clemens, Head of GCHQ’s Digital Strategy at TMP Worldwide. “These gamers are loyal and frequent users of PC and console games and are particularly receptive to innovative forms of advertising.”

Government recruitment strategies have changed. Online ads, paper ads, campus recruitment - all may be usurped by more interactive forms of advertising. This method of recruitment will enable the GCHQ to further refine the applicant pool to a more specific subset of IT professionals.

Via CSO Online, AP, Onrec Tags: recruitment, gchq, government, it, intelligence, advertising, job posting, gaming, gamers