Hugh MacLeod drew this last year for Steve Clayton at Microsoft. At the time Clayton said, "I like it a lot and plan to paste it around the building as liberally as I can and to see what Mr Ballmer thinks of it :)" He took the concept a lot further than that - in this blog post he says that he put the image on the cover of a report destined for Bill Gates' desk.

The latter post contains a video where Clayton talks about the Blue Monster's origins and what it represents to him. Microsoft, he says, is not telling the story of how it's in the business of changing the world. The Blue Monster shouts that world-changing mission from its toothy maw.

Clayton says that the Monster is gaining a lot of traction inside Microsoft. It achieved greater visibility outside the company when Clayton auctioned off a signed lithograph on eBay and donated the proceeds to child protection resource NSPCC.

I like Joe Wilcox's term for this in Microsoft Watch: "moonshine marketing." Not "moonshine" as in "insubstantial", but rather the high-powered hooch brewed in backwoods stills.

This is a striking example of how employees are turning into marketers. Clayton is stepping into the spotlight and announcing, "Regardless of what you're hearing through official channels, this is our company's story, and this sketch of a roaring monster that a friend of mine did embodies it." It's been happening for the last couple of years in Microsoft blogs, but (and as a writer it pains me to say this) you can't beat a really compelling image when it comes to getting your point across. MacLeod has given this grassroots movement within Microsoft a mascot.

(BTW, Microsoft and eBay are Metia clients.)

Tags: Microsoft, Blue Monster, Hugh MacLeod, Steve Clayton, moonshine marketing, grassroots marketing, eBay