Is Microsoft the first IT company to use cinema advertising as part of its recruitment campaign? The company placed its pacy, youth-oriented 20second advert in the break before Star Wars in cinemas throughout the State, spending £25,000 for the month-long campaign.

"The Phantom Menace will attract people who consider the original Star Wars film in 1977 as one of the formative events of their childhood," says Mr Noel Boyle, staffing manager at Microsoft's European product development centre.

"We feel that advertising during one of the all-time bastions of popular culture is a great way of letting people know about the high tech opportunities at Microsoft."

The company's recruitment is co-ordinated by specialist advertisers Eureka, which says IT companies are looking at a range of media including Internet advertising, to get staff.

"We have had a strong level of response to the cinema ad, which is excellent," says Ms Eileen Sheridan, an account director at Eureka, "especially when you consider that viewers have to remember a free-phone number which they heard before the film."

Microsoft's cinema ad was created by Mr Dave Shanley and Mr Brendan Keane of Pirana and it has been adapted for an outdoor campaign.