Westin is forgoing traditional hotel marketing methods such as ads featuring fluffy beds and big rooms and will instead take an emotional approach that plays on consumers' sense of smell. A new campaign breaking this week carries the theme, "this is how it should feel" and will include scented strips on print ads in magazines including The New Yorker, Wired, Vanity Fair, Real Simple and Gourmet. The strips will contain the signature White Tea scent that will be faintly wafting through Westin properties worldwide this spring. The effort also includes TV ads that stress an emotional connection. One TV spot …

Marketers are turning to an unlikely source to create and produce minimovies for their products that will be viewed on the Internet and other emerging media outlets: students at New York University. The list includes major marketers like Ford Motor, Verizon, Heineken, and Unilever, which recently commissioned the students to create a film for its Axe deodorant and body spray. Part of an NYU program called ProMotion Pictures, students includes those attending the school's Kanbar Institute of Film & Television as well as M.B.A. candidates from the Stern School of Business. The Kanbar kids handle screenwriting and directing, while the …

Pharmaceutical marketers are beginning to change their advertising to more accurately reflect the severity of some diseases and the side effects of drugs. The move follows voluntary guidelines adopted by the industry in January that came on the threat of government intervention. As a result, spending on brand advertising is flat while disease awareness campaigns have picked up significantly. Many ads appear more straightforward than before and include doctors speaking bluntly about products. Even so, it may not be enough to appease critics. The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing comments from hearings held late last year and restrictions might …

Marketers are embracing search marketing as never before, so naturally their ad agencies are following suit and investing in the nascent discipline. Last year, search marketing reached an estimated $5.1 billion in expenditures and is growing at a much faster clip than advertising in traditional media. A recent forecast predicted the market would reach almost $6.5 billion this year and exceed $10 billion by 2009. The latest agency to step up its search game is OgilvyOne Worldwide, which is forming a unit dedicated to search marketing called NeoSearch@Ogilvy that will operate within Neo- @Ogilvy, a global digital and direct-marketing media …

Michael Ribero has a tough job. He tries to convince major marketers to let consumers walk all over their products. Well, not really, but kind of. Ribero works for Reactrix Inc. of Foster City, California, which has developed a unique form of outdoor, interactive advertising that is projected on the floor at malls, movie theaters and retail outlets. Here's how it works. A ceiling-mounted digital projector casts a full-color, animated image about the size of a pool table on the floor. As people walk across the image, a camera perched next to the projector senses their activity--and the image responds. …

Automakers are beginning to experiment with alternatives to traditional, expensively produced, performance-related TV spots. For example, Honda is using billboards inviting drivers to tune into a particular radio frequency. If they do, they will hear a conversation between a platypus and a car--the Hondas Element--at a cocktail party in which the benefits of the Element are extolled. Another automaker, Volkswagen, has introduced a new effort for its 2006 GTi, a sporty hatchback, which features a bizarre, robot-like little character that represents a driver's "fast"--a reference to the "thing" inside a driver that makes him or her drive fast. Both campaigns …

Food marketers are creating new products and targeting a generation that most advertisers ignore--baby boomers over 50. "As the kids leave the household and you've got that older consumer, there are a lot of needs that we see," said David Johnson, president of Kraft's North American Commercial group. Kraft has responded with products including a South Beach Diet line and Crystal Light drinks, which not only appeal to older consumers but also to those looking for healthier alternatives to products like Kraft's macaroni and cheese. Other food marketers like Unilever and Sara Lee Corp. are also exploring possibilities. But marketers …

Like many marketers, Hershey Corp. is looking at alternative media to promote a product that previously relied almost exclusively on TV advertising. When the company's Take Five candy bar was introduced last year, it was supported by a $17 million TV ad campaign. But this week, a new effort begins that includes a multimedia approach encompassing online advertising as well as 69,000 buzz-marketing evangelists. Jay Cooper, vice president-U.S. Chocolate at Hershey, said the "360-degree" campaign is part of Hershey's more concerted effort to "understand who our consumers are and reach them in more relevant, compelling ways, not just one platform." …

Scotts Miracle Gro is increasing its advertising budget and introducing a new campaign that take a more emotional tone and approach than its previous, performance-oriented efforts. The company plans to spend an estimated $120 million on a new marketing push that includes TV, radio, and print ads that encourage consumers to create an "emerald kingdom" that will enhance the value of their home by 15 percent. "Product performance and the emotional effect will work as a one-two punch," said Eugene Sung, senior vice president and general manager of Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. "Great landscaping is not only valuable in home life, …

The new business pitch has always been a sore spot in the often fragile relationship between marketers and their ad agencies, but lately it has become more delicate than ever. The process has become exacerbated by two factors: one is the explosion of new media choices in the digital realm that has made ad campaigns more complex than ever, and the other is the growing involvement and importance of search consultants, who act as intermediary matchmakers that screen and recommend agencies for clients. The stakes are high for both sides of the equation. For agencies, a big pitch can cost …