Infographic: Carlos Monteiro

Source: YouGov BrandIndex

Recently, Fast Company presented a social business case study cooked up by Vivaldi Partners and  examined the following brands:

• Mattel’s Matchmaking Marketing for Barbie & Ken
• Intel’s Museum of Me
• Flip Video’s Fatal Flop
• American Eagle’s Spring Break Style
• Blablablab’s Barcelona Bet

As FC reported, here are the lessons:

Mattel – When reviving an old workhorse, consider the entire target market. Ken and Barbie may be toys for children, but it’s the moms and dads on Facebook and Foursquare who have the buying power.

Intel - Any branding effort that focuses on the user/consumer will boost all-important sharing (Hey, look at what I made!) and narcissism can translate to revenue.

Flip Video - Even great campaigns can’t stop a shutdown. The initiative scored high on the Social Currency meter. As a tool for self-expression it was the best example of identity generators, according to Vivaldi. “The innovative and viral nature of this initiative helped it score high in building conversation and stimulating positive advocacy.”

American Eagle - To expand your reach and draw more customers, play in a different (and bigger) sandbox. Vivaldi gave American Eagle props for community building on a larger platform, “allowing them to comment on looks that were created and find styling inspiration from one other.”

Blablablab - Most quirky and fun initiatives don’t necessarily lend themselves to mass market replication. Beyond obvious technical challenges, Vivaldi says the initiative doesn’t “score much on advocacy, affiliation, and/or utility due to the fact that the interaction is mostly between the brand and the users, and not as much between the users themselves.”

These are all good lessons every marketer could, and should, learn. Then again, these hard lessons could also be avoided if marketers took cues from social biz expert David Armano’s recent post on Social Business Planning in 2012. Worth the read!

100. Leonard Cohen – Ten New Songs

99. The Hold Steady – Almost Killed Me

98. TV on the Radio –  Return to Cookie Mountain

97. Wilco – Blue Sky Blue

96. The Streets – Original Pirate Material

95. Alicia Keys – Songs in A Minor

94. The Libertines – Up the Bracket

93. Johnny Cash – Unearthed

92. Bon Iver – For Emma Forever Ago

91. The Hives – Veni Vidi Vicious

90. Amadou & Mariam – Dimanche a Bamako

89. Radiohead – Hail to the Thief

88. Brian Wilson – Smile

87. Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere

86. The Postal Service – Give Up

85. Coldplay – Viva la Vida

84. Eminem – The Eminem Show

83. The Black Keys – Attack & Release

82. Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R

81. Ryan Adams – Gold

80. Kings of Leon – Youth and Young Manhood

79.  The New Pornographers – Electric Version

78. Sufjan Stevens – Illinoise

77. Yo La Tango – And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out

76. Sigur Ros – 0

75. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

74. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium

73. Coldplay – Parachutes

72. Sleater Kinney – The Woods

71. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

70. Missy Elliot – Under Construction

69. Bright Eyes – Lifted or…

68. U2 – How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

67. Bjork – Vespertine

66. Antony & the Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now

65. Manu Chao – Proxima Estacion Esperanza

64. Gillian Welch – Time the Revelator

63. Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak

62. Johnny Cash – American III: Solitary Man

61. The Shins – Oh, Inverted World

60. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

59. Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights

58. Danger Mouse – The Grey Album

57. Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism

56. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

55. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand

52. Norah Jones – Come Away With Me

51. Kings of Leon – Only By the Night

50. M.I.A – Arular

49. Spoon – Kill the Moonlight

48. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning

47. Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine

46. Justin Timberlake – FutureSex/LoveSounds

45. Kanye West – Graduation

44. The Killers – Hot Fuss

43. System of a Down – Toxicity

42. Elliott Smith – Figure 8

41. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not

40. Kanye West – Late Registration

39. Kings of Leon – Aha Shake Heartbreak

38. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker

37. 50 Cent – Get Rich or Die Tryin’

36. U2 – No Line on the Horizon

35. PJ Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

34. Outkast – Speakerboxx: The Love Below

33. Daft Punk – Discovery

32. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III

31. My Morning Jacket – Z

30. Radiohead – In Rainbows

29. Sigur Ros – Agitus Byrjun

28. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell

27. The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

26. The Greatest – Cat Power

25. Radiohead – Amnesiac

24. Bruce Springsteen – Magic

23. D’Angelo – Voodoo

22. Green Day – American Idiot

21. Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head

20. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black

19. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells

18. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

17. Beck – Sea Change

16. Outkast – Stankonia

15. Bruce Springsteen – The Rising

14. Jay-Z – The Black Album

13. U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind

12. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver

11. Bob Dylan – Love and Theft

10. Kanye West – The College Dropout

9. M.I.A. – Kala

8. Bob Dylan – Modern Times

7. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP

6. Arcade Fire – Funeral

5. The White Stripes – Elephant

4. Jay-Z – The Blueprint

3. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2. The Strokes – Is This It

1. Radiohead – Kid A

There you have it. I’m pretty pumped to see Fiona Apple, Cat Power and Sigur Ros get some love, but I don’t think Coldplay and Kanye West deserved as many accolades on this list as they did. I don’t like anything by M.I.A. and can’t believe The Strokes made it to #2, but a majority of the albums make sense to me. I’m disappointed not to see Alice in Chains / Black Gives Way to Blue and Pearl Jam’s self-titled album (Binaural, too, but I don’t expect RS to agree). I don’t like that Animal Collective didn’t make the 100 and I’m a bit surprised Clash, Modest Mouse, Muse or Gorillaz didn’t either. I also have to agree with a commenter, the 2000s were nothing without the lyrical battles between Taking Back Sunday and Brand New.

Well, what do you think? What’s missing or overrated? Weigh in below!

Courtesy of SnowPeak on Flickr

As a junkie for catalysts of innovation, each year I eagerly await Fast Company’s list of The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies. This year didn’t disappoint.

Naturally, Apple proudly sits atop the list, climbing from No. 3, and it makes me wonder if they continue the success of the Year of the iPad, will they’ll reign supreme in 2011, too? Another mover-and-shaker is (no surprise) is Twitter which made it all the way from the bottom of the list last year. These two certainly were my favorite two brands to watch in 2010. Although I was a bit disappointed with Apple’s social innovations last fall, I constantly sit bright-eyed awaiting the next big toy– as do millions of other fanboys and girls. Same goes for Twitter. While I patiently await their genius business model, I’m not worried. These two are exceptionally smart brands with smart people. That’s the key.

It saddened me a bit that Google dropped from four to six this year, but I think it was fitting as they had a few social setbacks in the last 365 days. It’s nice to see a giant get a nice slice of humble pie so as not to become to evil. Luckily, with Page back at the helm, I suspect good innovations are to come in 2011. Though we may not have Google Circles yet, Google Music is a great start.

Epocrates is a new innovator to me– one known for providing docs and nurses an instant drug reference, cleared the top 10. This medical innovator also sat atop Fast Co’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Healthcare, joined by mobile app developer Voxiva, GE and PharmaSecure, a cost-effective protection against counterfeit drugs.

Another one of my favorite lists is the top 10 music innovators. While I don’t really agree with Pandora taking the crown (I’d prefer 8tracks or Grooveshark), I appreciate the company as an innovator of tunes in the digital age. The one I had to be sure made the list was Arcade Fire for their stellar collaboration with Google on their HTML5 digital album release delight, The Wilderness Downtown.

So there you have it, folks. The innovation kings and queens. I urge you to take a gander at the other vertical lists and let me know what you think. Do you agree with the global list? Does Nokia deserve it’s perch? Does Coca Cola make a great music innovator? Think another health company deserves to make the top 10? Share your thoughts below!

The rumors proved true with Apple TV and for that, I’m grateful. As one who doesn’t enjoy nor see a point in paying for cable (lost that battle with the roommates), I’m happy to see Apple in contention for TV eyeballs after the epic (but healthy) fail of 2006. Never having been a big Netflix-er, I’m not immediately drawn to the product other than for the lovely fact that all files are stored in the cloud. Instead, I’d rather keep my eye on Boxee when the time comes to make the switch.

Now for the biggest disappointment– Apple’s foray into social via iTunes 10 and Ping. While I think the move into social is a good move for Apple, it seems it is a limited one. Lots of users yesterday complained about only being able to choose 10 songs in their profiles and many argued that the suggested musicians to follow were ones they’d never be caught dead listening to– ahem, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. In terms of artist profiles and tour dates, Last.fm has it locked down and even syncs with your calendar. While I don’t immediately see a need for Ping in my digital music life, I’ll most likely set it up, try it out and forget about it. Genius mixes are enough for me. If I rarely want to know what my friends are listening to, I’ll ask them. If I want to check out new music, I’ll visit Pitchfork.com, browse Hype Machine or check out new mixes on 8tracks. As Chris Brogan mentioned, there isn’t much commercial incentive to joining Ping as there is at Amazon.com, where you’re given a few dollars for “every book I guide to your hands.”

It’s not all bad. The good thing about Ping is what I’m ultimately interested in– the ability to share and gift music. It’s great that Ping is mobile and sharable via Twitter and Facebook. But, this isn’t anything new as others like Pandora are already supporting sharing. What I would argue is the best feature about the new logo-laden iTunes is that Live Nation will be powering concert listings and ticket sales right in the UI, something Jobs completely left out of the keynote.

And come on… we’re gonna rock out to Chris Martin of Coldplay?! Jobs, you’re a boomer!

Overall, I’m unimpressed. Will I try out Ping? Sure. Will I buy Apple TV? Maybe. Will I put an iPod on the gift list? Absolutely.

What about you? Which new feature/gadget/update got you excited?

courtesy of CJSORG

An interesting digital discussion popped up in the last day regarding the lack of women in Silicon Valley. It all started with a Wall Street Journal post examining the fact that only 11 percent of U.S. venture-capital backed firms in 2009 had current or former female CEOs. This isn’t a new hot topic. Conferences have been dogged with finding female keynoters and speakers for years. While I do agree there is an unfortunate shortage of X chromosomes in the tech world, I agree with some of TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington’s points– we shouldn’t be blaming men.

Instead, we must continue to act. If we merely sat idly and blamed men in the early 1900s, we wouldn’t have our right to vote. The female brand is a strong and powerful brand. We’re bullishly targeted by marketers for our invaluable purse strings. And more and more in the advertising world, we’re rising to the rankings we deserve.

It’s an uphill battle. Maybe even more so in the tech world. But, to me, it’s pretty empowering to pave a path among men. Trailblazing tech women are the ones I dream of being one day and I hope I’m not alone. I’m a firm believer in that great innovation is born from adversity. So why wouldn’t we use this discrepancy to our advantage? Take that wasted energy on blaming the current conditions and use it to make change. Finding a mentor or even better, being one, is so incredibly important right now. Mentoring helps seed ideas, bring them to fruition and foster them so that they don’t get lost in a man’s world.

Having recently attended an all-female conference, I’m thrilled at the prospect of TEDWomen, despite the digital furry on gender equality. Sure, it’d be great to have more supportive “Breakfast Clubs” of young and established tech and digital media executives like one spearheaded by Gilt Groupe CEO, Susan Lyne, but even without them, we need to find ways to connect, work together and carry on. As Yuli Ziv, founder of Style Coalition, a network of fashion and lifestyle digital publications, told The Wall Street Journal, “In our generation and in our community, I don’t believe there’s any issue or any disadvantage to women. I don’t think we have any excuses.”

So now, I challenge you, ladies (myself included). Stop blaming and start acting together. Find your tech niche and build your beautiful brand your own way. No excuses.

Fed up with rude passengers, Slater got onto the public intercom of Flight 1052 to vent after a passenger stood to fetch his luggage too soon on the full plane from Pittsburgh. He then pulled the chute’s lever, grabbed a beer from the beverage cart, and made his dramatic exit. Slater ran toward the employee parking lot, drove off in his Jeep, and was later arrested a few miles from the airport in his Queens home.

According to The New York Times, Slater was charged with felony counts of criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. He now is suspended from the airline until further investigation.

Slater since has become a bit of a social phenomenon. An msnbc.com poll initially had half of the 91,759 voters deeming Slater a hero, while only 10 percent said he was an “idiot.” However, 30 percent dubbed him “just plain crazy,” and 10 percent indicated they didn’t know what to make of the incident.

He also became the top trending topic nationwide on Twitter and has been hailed as a hero on Facebook. Support has cropped up in the digital space with fan pages like “Free Steven Slater” (approaching 30,000 fans), a Steven Slater PayPal fund, and of course, the “Can Steven Slater Get More Fans Than Justin Bieber?” page.

As the Slater brand takes off, where is JetBlue?

A visit to JetBlue’s Facebook page deems the incident nearly nonexistent, save for a small discussion that cropped up only 18 hours ago entitled “Passenger’s Behavior.” It’s likely most of the comments related to the incident have been deleted. It may behoove JetBlue to take note of these comments in which customers continue to sing the airline’s praises, offer support for Slater given his emotional stress of caring for his dying mother, and encourage the brand to step up and be a leader in implementing passenger codes of conduct.

Only three tweets appeared since the incident, two of which were blunt responses to a CNN reporter along the lines of, “We will not comment further on ongoing investigations.”

Although JetBlue’s PR hands are tied, how the airline responds in the coming days is critical, especially given its favorable social presence. In an initial statement, JetBlue confirmed the chute had been deployed and “at no time was the security or safety of our [100] customers or crew members at risk,” writes MediaPost.

Both head marketer Marty St. George (@mattysg) and newly appointed lead marketing agency, Mullen, headed by Edward Boches (@edwardboches), remained mum. Despite the legal challenges, it might benefit JetBlue to respond to postings as the investigation continues by reaffirming their mission and ensuring the protection and safety of passengers.

“One of the difficulties they are facing is they have to reconcile the contradiction between the public’s expectations that they are going to get the full story from JetBlue immediately, especially based on JetBlue’s history,” said Jonathan Bellinger, VP-social media strategy at Omnicom Group’s Ketchum.

JetBlue recently began to open up with its usual charm in a blog post, which confirms the reason they’re not commenting is that JetBlue respects “the privacy of the individual. People can speak on their own behalf; [JetBlue] won’t do it for them.”

Slater likely will bring positive attention to a brand that has already garnered social media respect and success.

According to Steve Rubel, senior VP-director of Insights at Edelman Digital, “JetBlue has done a good job of building a tremendous amount of relationship capital with the online community by embracing new digital platforms and communicating with people through them so they might not have to answer as many questions about the details of this incident. When a company puts itself out there as a company adept and active in social media, it gains social capital that it can cash in later on in a crisis or legal situation.”

Time will tell whether JetBlue bites the social media dust or cashes in its capital to continue to be a darling.

In this role, Meghan, a South Carolina native living in Brooklyn, NY, is responsible for being the brand style ambassador for the women’s line and social media companion of Gareth, the Levi’s Guy. Meghan will move to San Francisco in August to work out of the HQ where she’ll be posting inspiring looks and designs to the female fan base and millions of worldwide followers. During this six-month brand immersion, she will also be involved in covering news within the community as well as live branding events.

Here’s a look at Meghan’s debut video in which she shows Gareth her Brooklyn neighborhood.

A few weeks ago, Levi’s nominated five women who entered the Facebook contest with 2:40 minute video entries telling the brand reasons they should be the first Levi’s Girl.  Edelman helped create and host the contest as they did with the MTV TJ contest.

Full disclosure: I’m slightly saddened by the news. I consulted a good friend of mine and helped produce her video entry but she unfortunately wasn’t nominated. Despite the news, she realized the journey itself was an adventure (we did have a lot of fun branding her with this video) and that was success enough for the two of us. We got down to what made her click (on the Facebook ad for the contest), what made her warm and fuzzy for the brand and what the brand’s spotted history meant for the future and the environment. By the end of this project, personal branding beat big name branding. Luckily, the nominee we hoped (and voted) for won.

Cheers to Meghan on her upcoming branding adventure! We eagerly look forward to the ideas she’ll socially channel through the long-standing brand. Best of luck, Levi’s Girl!

The Salty scoop

Stocked with a  YouTube channel, a Twitter page, and a Facebook profile, Salty, the funny and cute shaker, demands online attention, occasionally appearing on Chatroulette. Salty’s friends, fans, and followers participate in contests and post pictures via Flickr.

They have cleared out 18,000 replica shakers in the first 25 days of the campaign, according to marketing blogger, Marta Kagan. The adorable shaker effectively has transformed an ordinary product into the leading product in its category with a 10 percent spike in sales.

The shaker’s campaign appeal comes from the experience. Salty provides a conversation about a brand and provides meaning to the brand message in a very entertaining way. As Kagan writes, “Watching his videos or talking with Salty on Twitter or Facebook or Chat Roulette doesn’t feel like watching an ad at all. It feels like FUN.”

And that’s the beauty of good brand marketing — ditching advertising for a good, fun, and relevant story.

Old Spice seduction

The ad blitz began in February when Old Spice introduced its brand character,  the Old Spice Man, during the Super Bowl. Played by a shirtless Mustafa, a former NFL wide receiver with a brooding baritone, polished comedy, and six-pack abs, the Old Spice Man introduced himself to the world as “the man your man could smell like.” Wieden + Kennedy (Portland, OR) created the legendary ad, which now counts 13 million views on YouTube.

The blitz continued last week with a simple, eerie message Wieden posted on Old Spice’s Fabceook and Twitter page: “Today could be just like the other 364 days you log into Twitter, or maybe the Old Spice Man shows up @OldSpice.”

Show up he did. In a 48-hour blast of nearly 200 real-time video responses to questions from high-profile social influencers like Alyssa Milano, Perez Hilton, and Digg’s Kevin Rose via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Reddit. Responses also included a marriage proposal, an ode to Demi Moore, and the answer to a request for an Old Spice voice mail app.

Wieden decided to center the push on Twitter and YouTube with the former serving as the distribution channel and the latter hosting the videos. The campaign generated more than 58 million Old Spice YouTube channel views, and followers to the Twitter account have grown to 43,000, partially due to a Twitter ad promotion that featured the push as a trending topic.

According to AdWeek’s Brian Morrissey, the effort involved a team of writers, art directors, producers, editors, and social media strategists. The social media experts initially identified popular bloggers in key areas including entertainment, technology, and advertising (Perez Hilton, 4 Chan).

Iain Tait, global interactive executive creative director at Wieden, admitted some videos were pre-shot, but the vast majority were written and produced on the fly in the studio within the 48-hour span. The social media team scoured the Web and fed funny or interesting comments relating to the brand to the creatives.

“We don’t have the answers of who the real influencers are in the world right now,” Tait said. “We wanted to pick a cross-section where we could meet influencers in different areas.”

With several videos, typically shot in a take or two, released in an hour, the Wieden team ruled the real-time Web with the campaign. Tait warns that the shift to real-time advertising requires both a brave client and team of creatives willing to churn out work on extremely tight deadlines.

“What’s happening is, everyone is having such fun with this thing,” Taid added. “It transmits itself through to the Internet. People have a sense of something fun going on here.”

Both the Korr and Old Spice campaigns demonstrate how creativity, fun, and bravery breathe life into brand mascots, even without a media budget. If you don’t have a big-time ad agency writing copy for you on the fly, the principles of these campaigns are within any brand’s reach. As Entrepreneur.com’s Craig Reiss explained, the following rules apply to all:

1. Create a persona that is strong and on point.
2. Seed social networks with invitations to interact.
3. Engage the engaged, the famous and the influencers.
4. Personalize the response and people will compete for inclusion.
5. Make it episodic and easy to share.
6. Keep the videos simple and short.
7. Promote it with tie-ins offline.

In just a week, the buzz of Old Spice helped establish more lists of social media best practices and a compendium of lessons. Surely this isn’t the last social media darling we’ll hear about from Wieden + Kennedy, and hopefully more brands will follow in the Old Spice Guy’s footsteps. For now, we all could benefit from more case studies like these.

I encourage you to openly share some of your cases, tactics, or lessons for viral success below and help bring life to brand mascots. Or join the conversation at Digital Pivot and read more.

In a good economy, we’re told it is essential to stand out among the job-hunting crowd. In today’s economy, it’s even more of a necessity as graduates enter the workforce and compete for available jobs. Here are three creative ways to help you offer up your experience.

Do what you know

Alec Brownstein landed his dream job with creativity, Google AdWords, and $6. When five top creative directors in New York Googled themselves, they got a witty message from the 29-year-old now famous job searcher which read: “Hey [creative director’s name], Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too.” The ad linked to Brownstein’s site, alecbrownstein.com. Eventually, all but one of the shops called Brownstein. The bold move landed him two awards and two job offers. He is now a senior copywriter at Young & Rubicam.

When asked if this move is creepy, Brownstein’s boss, Scott Vitrone, responded saying he was impressed and thought of the effort as cheeky. He said a partner of his initially came across the ad and encouraged Vitrone to Google himself to check out someone “who’s trying to talk to [him].” Vitrone thought of the ad as “beautifully simple” and called Brownstein in for an interview. He adds that Brownstein did what “we try to do for our clients every day. We’re trying to engage the consumer … He was really kind of displaying what our people do here every day.”

Brownstein is a perfect case study. Bold moves definitely get you in the door, but even as Vitrone explained, you have to back it up. Brownstein had the work to back up the ad. Regarding his experience, Brownstein lends advice to job searchers: “Be targeted …  decide who you want to work for and where you want to work, and then don’t be afraid to put yourself out there in an interesting way to communicate to those people.”

After all, he adds, “It’s not like they can fire you. You don’t work for them yet.”

Although this route won’t work for everyone, it goes to show how taking creative risks in your field can lead you to the opportunities of your dreams.

Participate in workshops

In her daily resource for PR professionals, Sarah Evans, better known as PR Sarah Evans to her growing community of 40,000, often highlights workshop posts. Her newsletter #Commentz includes five of the day’s newsworthy bites, one of which usually is a workshop. This week, she links to CBS’ latest coverage on BP’s latest PR mess amid the oil spill and asks readers for their thoughts on the BP CEO offering an apology via Facebook. Readers who respond use the hashtag #Commentz to follow up with thoughts, questions, concerns, and solutions.

Job seekers who take advantage of these opportunities to offer their thoughts or join Twitter chats like #journchat, which Sarah Evans moderates, increase their exposure among employers. These opportunities could also lead participants to flesh out their thoughts in blog posts and help establish them as experts in their field. Providing real solutions and case studies for current issues or problems allows job seekers to fill the employment gaps much like students fill their portfolios.

Assume an identity

Job applicants can take it a step further and develop a scenario where they assume the identity of a prospective employer or fictitious attacker. The now anonymous and infamous voice behind Twitter handle @BPGlobalPR has gained more than 100,000 followers and counting as it humorously bashes the oil giant on its role in the spill. Some tweets read as follows:

“Just got the concession call from Exxon Valdez. They were great competitors and remarkably evil about everything.” #bpwins! May 27

“@BarackObama – Mr. President, would you like to buy a free $25 ‘bp cares’ t-shirt?” www.streetgiant.bigcartel.com for www.healthygulf.org May 27

“As part of our continued re-branding effort, we are now referring to the spill as ‘Shell Oil’s Gulf Coast Disaster.’” #bpcares June 1

As media speculated the true identity of the tweeter, @BPGlobalPR sent out a press release revealing him or herself as Leroy Stick. In the blog post, the person behind the name explains the purpose: “If someone is terrorizing your neighborhood, sometimes it’s alright to grab a stick and take a swing. Social media, and in this particular case Twitter, has given average people like me the ability to use and invent all sorts of brand new sticks.”

Although this is an extreme example, the vocal persona has captured incredible attention over the past couple weeks and arguably has successfully created an anti-brand campaign by poking at the “BP Cares” tagline. Job seekers could take note by creating scenarios where people carry big “sticks” to attack a brand or product of interest and then show how he or she would respond to such a scenario.

On the other hand, someone might also take note by backing into a social responsibility idea by assuming an anti-brand identity. While BP has some cleaning up to do, the person behind @BPGlobalPR could attract some social media job offers.