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Vol. 93 Marta Puerto: The viral job candidate
How product marketer Marta Puerto ended up with 5,000 LinkedIn connection requests
Case Studied
September 02, 2025
Case Studied
Marketing oneself
Getting to the interview stage is often the hardest part of job hunting. Even with a strong résumé, applications often vanish into the ATS void without leading to any person-to-person conversations.
That’s why many candidates today turn to creative hacks: TikTok résumés, LinkedIn posts, or stunt applications that are meant to grab attention, put a face to a resume, and showcase individual personalities and skills.
In 2024, a product marketing manager named Marta Puerto pulled this off in true marketer fashion.
This week, Case Studied explores how product marketer Marta Puerto got recruiters to come knocking down her door.
The Brief
Puerto’s story starts with her time as a product marketing manager at Xolo. “I was in love with my job,” she said. But after nearly two and a half years with the company, she received notice that she was laid off.
After receiving the news, Puerto started the search for her next big role. “I did a lot of thinking, travelling, and, of course, applying,” she said. But Puerto found herself in the same position as so many other jobseekers in the cooling market—sending out applications en masse and receiving back nothing but automated rejection emails.
When Puerto did make it to the interview stage, she did well but the challenge was getting to that point. “It was the first barrier that I couldn’t break through,” Puerto told Bloomberg. “And so I thought, ‘Okay, I have to do something.’”
The Execution
Puerto decided to take her skills as a marketer and apply it to herself. She produced a polished, self-funded video called “Meet Marta: The movie 🎬”, with editing and shooting help from the production company Filmograma.
The 1 minute, 42 second-long video looks and feels like a campaign hero film but for an individual marketer instead of a brand. Puerto tells the story of being laid off, setting out on the job hunt, and eventually making the video itself.
She then showcases her skills by stating “Over the six years I worked in marketing, my colleagues would say that…” Puerto then lists off her key traits and skills while speaking in five different languages (not including English, the language she’s speaking throughout the film).
The video ends with overlaid text that reads: “Free trial ended. Book an interview,” with elevator-style music playing in the background.
Once the video was made, all that was left to do was post it on LinkedIn.
The Results
“Meet Marta: The movie” immediately went viral on LinkedIn. It racked up over 147,000 reactions, over 7,000 comments, and over 5,000 reposts. Industry folks held it up as a shining example of creativity and several news outlets, including Bloomberg, covered the story.
As for Puerto herself, the product marketer received over 5,000 LinkedIn connection requests and was bombarded with interview requests.
“I really thought maybe 100 or at most 200 likes from my network,” she told Bloomberg. “And now I'm getting connections from previous recruiters that had said no to me. And now they're like ‘Oh, now I want a piece of Marta.’”
Based on her LinkedIn, Puerto did end up landing her next opportunity as a senior product marketing manager at a company called Lokalise.
The Takeaways
1) Treat your search like a marketing campaign.
Puerto transformed her job hunt into a campaign, positioning herself as both the product and the marketer. By creating a video that showcased her storytelling and creativity, she turned what could have been a static résumé into a dynamic proof of concept. Her search became a demonstration of her professional skills.
If you’re on the job search, look for creative opportunities in the same way you would when executing a campaign. Many of the same rules can apply, plus reframing your job search in this way can help you unlock different ways of thinking. You may see some opportunities that you hadn’t before.
2) Pick the right distribution channel.
The brilliance of Puerto’s video was matched by her choice of platform. By posting on LinkedIn, she put her message in front of the exact audience—hiring managers, peers, and recruiters—who could act on it. The right placement amplified the creative work.
Great ideas can fall flat if they’re shared in the wrong place. Match your distribution to where your target audience is already active and engaged. Creativity grabs attention, but placement ensures it lands in the right hands.
3) Be transparent (or even vulnerable) about your challenges.
Puerto openly shared that she was doing well in interviews but struggling to land enough of them. That honesty and vulnerability helped turn her job search into a story others wanted to support.
Transparency can be just as powerful as polish. By explaining not just what you did, but why you did it, you invite empathy and build trust. Whether you’re a brand or an individual, framing your work with context makes people more likely to engage and advocate for you.