• The New York Times, Thursday, January 4, 2007 1 PM

As video and audio are increasingly being used to build brands on the Web, mascots and other types of brand ambassadors are proving to be right at home. As part of experiential marketing campaigns, they give marketers like Procter & Gamble and Diageo greater flexibility because they can use the same image on TV, in print or online.

P.& G. posts images of its flesh-and-blood Mr. Clean on a Web site (mrclean.com), and a real-life hunky Mr. Clean took his magic to New Orleans, where he led volunteers in clean up efforts after Hurricane Katrina. P&G also posted the video clips of a Mr. Clean look-alike contest on YouTube, though they have generated only about 700 views so far.

Diageo posts video and audio of its Tanqueray gin ambassador, Tony Sinclair--an urbane, hip, smooth-talking 30-something--on Tanqueray.com. It is preparing a nine-minute Web movie, "Globe Probe," that takes Sinclair and oddball characters to India. Once there, they search for the lime groves of Rangpur to help make a new Diageo offering, Tanqueray Rangpur.

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