• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 8, 2010

While everyone is trying to figure out what goes into planning an effective social media campaign, the most engaging social media marketing is often unplanned, at least from my perspective: it's interesting to see how brands play it by ear when things take an unexpected turn. The latest example is the Gap, which appears to be embarking on a social crowd-sourcing project for its new logo, more or less spontaneously, after the first logo redesign met with a not-so-positive public response, according to Ad Age.

The original redesign replaced the iconic all-caps white letters against a dark blue background with a more understated logo composed of black letters with a blue square in one corner. The redesign was introduced without much preparation or warning, jolting easily-started American consumers and leading to a wave of criticism, complaints, and demands to know what, exactly, Gap thought it was doing.

It's kind of funny that a corporate logo redesign can inspire such a hullabaloo, but there's no question that people become attached to brand images, to the point that they almost seem to be considered public domain.

To its credit, after fumbling the roll out Gap rolled with the punches, recognizing consumers' engagement with the brand and thanking them for their comments. Then Gap went one better by asking consumers to submit their own ideas for a redesigned logo -- taking a PR debacle and transforming it into something which encourages consumer loyalty and raises the brand's profile through interaction.

The only question now is whether Gap will actually adopt one of the user-generated design submissions as its new logo. Although the company made it clear in its Facebook post that it just wanted to "see other ideas, at this point failure to adopt a user-submitted logo would likely draw more negative attention to the brand. So they better hope someone submits something good.