Sprinkles is the world’s first cupcake bakery spread across 5 cities in US and growing rapidly. They also have a thriving fanbase on Facebook with 81,000 fans. They also use their page to ask customers what’s the next location they want and what they think of the new flavor. But the interesting bit is that each day on the site, Sprinkles announces a secret word, such as “ganache” or “bunny,” and the first 25 or 50 people to show up at any of its five stores around the country and whisper that word get a free cupcake. Apart from driving footfalls, the promotion also gets them a larger Facebook fanbase.

IKEA opened a new store in Malmo, Sweden, and didn’t have a large budget to get the word out. It engaged an agency called Forsman and Bodenfors to create a special launch campaign. The agency created a Facebook profile for the store manager, Gordon Gustavsson. Over a two-week period, they uploaded images of IKEA showrooms to his Facebook photo album. The first person to tag their name to a product in the pictures, won it. The viral nature of Facebook newsfeeds and links meant that the word got out and Swedes asked for more pictures so that they could tag themselves to a new piece of furniture.

Check the video below:

Attached below is the Theatrical Teaser for Yashraj Films’ soon-to-be-released film Rocket Singh – Salesman of the Year. Two thoughts on the movie:

1. Dubbing the IIT/IIM/AIIMS junta is a good marketing ploy to pull in the masses who haven’t had the good fortune to qualify for a seat at any of these premium institutes.
2. I sincerely hope that the movie will change the way people perceive the sales profession.

Link via Sarin Suares.

A post on TechCrunch says that Google has put up signs around the MIT campus with a code that reads, “If you can figure this out, you may have a future with Google.” The code that follows is an array of alphabets and numbers and has been reproduced below:

Apparently, the code reveals a phone number where you can call in and leave your contact information. So go ahead and take a shot at it.

Update (Sep 23, 2009):
The code has been solved. It’s a alphanumeric substitution cipher with the key being JOBS. So, the code for translation works as follows:

JOBS = 0123 (J=0, O=1, B=2, S=3)

And hence the alphanumeric series is to be deciphered as:

0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
456789ABCDE2FGHIJKL0MNOP1QRS3TUVWXYZ

The result:
CONGRA T UL ATION SK EE PSEAR CHIN GORCALL6 17 6390 570×10
CONGRATULATIONS KEEP SEARCHING OR CALL 617 639 0570 (extension 10)

The who’s who of the online recruitment industry in India are now on Twitter. Just put together a list:

CareerBuilder.co.in
Twitter handle: @CareerBuilderIN
Twitter representative: Scott (@goradesi)
Subjects of Tweets: Jobseeker tips from across the Internet, International news around politics and the economy, Weather reports from Delhi, Scott’s stay in India

Naukri.com
Twitter handle: @Naukri
Twitter representative: PR Team / Brand Manager
Subject of Tweets: Developments on Naukri.com, Recruitment Industry Updates, Jobseeker Tips, Quotes, Hari Sadu

Shine.com
Twitter handle: @Shinedotcom
Twitter representative: Nikhil Suri & Divya Taneja
Subject of Tweets: Developments on Shine.com, Jobseeker Tips

SutraJobs.com
Twitter handle: @sutrajobs
Twitter representative:  Rizwan Iqbal (Co-founder)
Subject of tweets: Job feeds

TimesJobs.com
Twitter handle: @timesjobsdotcom
Twitter representative: Reva Khurana (Product Analyst / Product Manager) 
Subject of tweets:  Jobseeker tips, Developments on TimesJobs.com, Timings of chat sessions with HR Professionals

Workosaur.com
Twitter handles: @wNimish, @workosaur and more
Twitter representative: Nimish Adani (Founder) for @wNimish, Twitterfeed for the rest
Subject of tweets: 
@wNimish – Developments on Workosaur.com, Tidbits about the online space, management and startups, Interesting links, Personal interests such as Crosswords & Puzzles
@workosaur & others – Job feeds

What’s been good to see is that all the above have embraced Twitter whole-heartedly i.e. they aren’t mere outlets for press releases, they don’t seem to be governed by any rules, they are listening to what’s being said and interacting at a personal level.

If you lay your hands on today’s Mint newspaper, turn to Page 20. It carries a near full-page article featuring Workosaur.com. The essence of the article is that instead of lying low and waiting for the recession to pass by, one must build on their skill sets and consider moving to other sunrise industries such as Energy and Infrastructure.

You can also read the article online under the Careers section on LiveMint.com. The online edition also carries a Podcast on the same issue. Click here to read.

Cheers to Aruna Viswanatha at Mint for the coverage.

A friend of mine, Prashanth, just got a pup home and baptized her Princess Leia (Star Wars character). Having read up some trivia while creating the Workosaur Quiz section a few months back, I had learnt that Leia is one of the few (if not only) fictional characters who has an associated emoticon. She is represented as @-_-@ thanks to her trademark doughnut hairstyle. Obviously, Prashanth was thrilled to know about it and every time we chat online, we always discuss @-_-@ (his pup).

The Milk Moustache
Back in 2007, a dairy industry promotional group called MilkPEP started a campaign to evoke its distinctive milk moustache TV/Print ads (featuring Beyonce and her mother) through the medium of text messaging by adding a milk moustache to the smiley emoticon :-{) and trademarking the emoticon. While a trademark gives MilkPEP the right to exclusive use, am sure they’d like more people to use this in their text messages and emails.

Tourism Queensland ran a great campaign called ‘The Best Job in the World’ for the position of Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. They put out a beautiful site showcasing the islands and the job. 34,000 people from 200 countries sent in their application ahead of the deadline yesterday. The fact that all applicants were required to send in videos of themselves makes this number look even larger. 50 applications will now be shortlisted over the next 4 days. The videos would be open to the public soon who’d be allowed to vote for a Wild Card applicant.

Update (April 27, 2009): There is one Indian in the fray as well – RJ Anjaan. Read about him here.

Update (May 06, 2009): A Briton named Ben Southall pips RJ Anjaan to obtain the world’s best job. Read here.

I was just about to book evening tickets to a new flick, when Nirupama from Orchard (Chennai) mailed me a list of movies that one should avoid during this season. And may God bless her because the movie I was to watch is on that list. So before you hit the cinemas, make sure you’ve gone through this list: