As word of mouth marketing continues to gain respectability as a viable element of an integrated marketing plan, companies that specialize in the nascent filed are beginning to prosper. One of the most successful is M80, a word of mouth marketing firm founded in 1998 by Dave Neupert, a former record company executive who hit upon word of mouth when he was looking for a new way to promote one of the bands his company handled. Today, M80 has 19 employees and annual revenue of about $2 million. It has grown as much as 20 percent a year since its …

Sensory branding, in which marketers' commercial messages play to a consumer's sense of smell, taste, sound, et al, is growing in popularity and could be on the verge of breaking new ground in efforts from several advertisers. The trend is particularly evident in marketers of alcoholic beverages, personal care products, and even household cleaners like Procter & Gamble, which is giving a sensory twist to its Fairy dishwashing liquid by mixing natural extracts like tea tree, lemon grass, orange, and lime into the product. One company trying to push the sensory envelope is Orgasmic Chocolates, the brainchild of two budding …

Pizza Hut has a new CMO. The company announced Wednesday that Bill Ogle, currently marketing chief for the company's U.K. operation, had been named to replace Tom James, the CMO since 2002. James, a New York native, left the Dallas-based company to return to the East Coast. "There was no business reason," a company spokeswoman said. "He's a New Yorker. This was definitely his decision." James started off with a bang by increasing the fast food marketer's ad budget by $100 million, bring it to a healthy $400 million, when he took over four years ago. He then hired BBDO …

General Motors Corp. is jumping onto the latest marketing bandwagon by initiating contest asking consumers to create a new ad for one of its products. The winner will receive trips and money for creating a 30-second online commercial for Chevy's Tahoe, its best-selling brand. The contest will be conducted on a dedicated Web site where participants can create their own copy and add it to a variety of video clips and sound tracks available on the site through April 10. The promotion follows a branded entertainment initiative by GM in an episode of NBC's "The Apprentice" in which contestants were …

Financial services marketer Visa is taking the strategy of advertising in video games to the next level. In the latest release of a new "CSI" game based on the popular TV show, Visa's credit card fraud protection program is not just promoted through visual appearances; it plays a starring role in the story itself. "It's not just an ad in a game," said Jon Raj, Visa's vice president of advertising and emerging media. "It allows the consumer to understand our product." Visa collaborated with game maker Ubisoft to make the service a central part of the plotline. In the game, …

In another sign that traditional television advertising is losing its appeal for major advertisers, consumer products giant Unilever said this week that television now accounts for about 65 per cent of the company's global advertising budget, down from about 85 per cent at the start of the decade. The news came from Alan Rutherford, Unilever's global media director, who also said Unilever was striving to develop "holistic" marketing campaigns that utilize a wide range of marketing tools. However, he indicated the process was a difficult one. "The ad industry is struggling at the moment in pulling all the components of …

Some people never know when to quit. The ultra-conservative religious organization known as the American Family Association is once gain trying to get Ford Motor Co. to stop advertising in publications that target gay people. This is the same group that launched a boycott against Target for using the word "holiday" instead of "Christmas" in its promo materials. The propose boycott, announced this week, is the latest chapter in an ongoing battle between the conservative group and Ford, which skirmished over the same issue a few months ago. In that scrape, the religious group threatened a boycott and Ford relented, …

Food marketer Campbell Soup is joining forces with the clown princes of basketball--the Harlem Globetrotters--to promote the benefits of an active, healthy lifestyle to kids. Under terms of the three-year agreement, the company will act as a presenting sponsor of the team, which is now based in Phoenix. "We are very committed to helping improve the health of children and this new relationship will help us highlight the benefits of active play," said Douglas Conant, president and CEO of Campbell. Plans calls for both Campbell and the team to participate in pre-game clinics and summer camps for kids, and Campbell …

Banks are not exactly known for innovative, push-the-envelope marketing tactics, but Washington Mutual is trying to break the mold. This week the company introduced a campaign in New York and Chicago that included teams of guerilla marketers spreading the word about the bank's new roster of free financial services. In the two cities, street teams offered customers $2 bills as they walked away from the automated teller machines of competitive banks. There is also a TV effort that includes a character called "Mr. Stodgy Banker" who expresses outrage at the bank's free services, which include free ATM cash withdrawals, a …

Can Max Factor be saved? That's the question being posed not only in the cosmetics industry but at parent company Procter & Gamble as well. The once venerable brand, named after the famous Hollywood makeup man, has fallen far in recent years. Just recently, the 97-year-old brand was de-listed from Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, and Target. The move cut distribution from 26,000 to 10,000 stores, more than 25 percent of them Wal-Marts. The brand had roughly $170 million in U.S. sales last year, according to estimates, and Max Factor's shares last year fell 0.7 points to 2.1 percent in eye …