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Unilever Strikes Ad Deal with MySpace User

It's the 2006 version of how to make friends and influence people. Christine Dolce, a Southern California cosmetician, has become a sensation on MySpace. She has over 900,000 friends who link to her MySpace page, which has become a second source of revenue for her. Dolce, who goes by the name ForBiddeN, looks like your quintessential bleached blonde dominatrix. She's sexy, smart, and ruthless--and loaded with marketing savvy. She makes and sells her own jeans, which she promotes on the site, and has secured a few ad dollars. Unilever, the consumer-goods giant, hooked up with Dolce to promote Axe, the deodorant it markets to 18- to-24-year-old males. As part of the agreement, Dolce is hosting an interactive dating advergame, called Gamekillers. So far, some 75,000 MySpace users have signed up. MySpace's biggest challenge has been making money on its incredible usage; brand advertisers have to devise creative ways to reach audiences on the social network. Unilever's deal could represent the future of marketing on the News Corp. site.

Read the whole story at Economist.com »

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