• by Shankar Gupta , February 14, 2006

Buzz marketing firm BzzAgent Monday announced the launch of a word-of-mouth marketing channel that gives advertisers and marketers the ability to purchase access to BzzAgent's 'hive' of volunteer consumer evangelists.

The first agency to partner with BzzAgent in the initiative will be Arnold, which will use the channel to promote a product sampling campaign for Hershey Foods next month. Arnold's campaign will incorporate broadcast, online, and word-of-mouth marketing.

The service allows agency partners like Arnold to access BzzAgent's management and tracking platform directly, as well as control over the creative message--aiming to create a system where word-of-mouth can be bought and managed similar to online or broadcast advertisements.

BzzAgent also announced an agency partnership with Starcom MediaVest Group's word-of-mouth unit, Reverb division. BzzAgent did not disclose what campaign the agency would be promoting via its channel.

In the past year, word-of-mouth marketers have increasingly attempted to gain mainstream acceptance. In July 2005, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, of which BzzAgent is a founding member, released a "terminology framework"--a set of terms aiming to codify terms that can be used to measure and track word-of-mouth advertising. And in February 2005, that organization released an ethics code, which rejected so-called "stealth marketing," and advocated transparency in word-of-mouth campaigns.