To spread the word about the Wii video game console earlier this year, Nintendo recruited a handful of gregarious, tech-savvy mothers--dubbed "alpha moms"--to share the console with their friends. Getting the Wii's TV-remote-style controller in the hands of non-gamers is a key element of Nintendo's strategy to broaden its appeal beyond the young men who usually can be counted on to snap up new game systems. Nintendo hosted what it described as "organic events" in eight cities--Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Tonganoxie, Kansas, and Austin, Texas. The company hired a consultant to identify three …

Major League Soccer is ready to join the rest of the soccer world in turning players on its 13 teams into walking billboards for a minimum of $500,000 a year. Commissioner Don Garber retains the right to reject inappropriate advertisers, which he considers companies that sell hard liquor and tobacco or run Internet gambling sites. Last month, Real Salt Lake became the first club to announce a sponsorship deal when it signed a four-year deal with XanGo, a Utah-based company that makes juices and other products from the mangosteen fruit. XanGo was the sponsor of a game in August, …

Ford's new CEO Alan Mulally last week led company directors to a secret war room where color-coded pages containing charts, graphs and lists of Ford products and markets are mounted on all four walls. "This is 'The Plan,' " he said. There are also photos of Ford executives in charge of various divisions, to show who is accountable. Declaring "data can set you free," Mulally has prodded Ford unit heads to meet with other divisions, share information and post their results on the war room wall. "You can't manage a secret," Mulally told them. Pages are …

General Motors marketing executives have been talking about using professional golfer Tiger Woods to advertise brands other than Buick, according to John Larson, GM's general manager of Pontiac-Buick-GMC. Such a move would involve changes to Woods' endorsement contract, however. Larson declines to comment on the specifics of Woods' current contract, but confirms that Woods will stump for Buick for at least another year. Woods broader role could be part of an aggressive marketing effort to revive the Buick, Pontiac and GMC brands in 2007. A new GMC crossover vehicle, the Acadia, is arriving in dealerships. Buick dealers will …

Martin Conroy, an advertising executive who wrote a two-page subscription pitch for The Wall Street Journal that was used for 28 years and is considered a classic in the direct-marketing industry, died Tuesday at 84. "It's the "Hamlet," the "Iliad," the "Divine Comedy" of direct-mail letters," says James R. Rosenfield, a direct-marketing consultant. Conroy's masterwork began: "On a beautiful late spring afternoon, 25 years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better-than-average students, both were personable and both--as young college graduates are--were filled with ambitious …

Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed yesterday to pay $499 million to settle federal investigations into its pricing, sales and marketing practices for the schizophrenia and bipolar disorder drug Abilify. Investigators charged that the company promoted the drug for conditions it was not approved to treat. The settlement also covers some cases in which Bristol allegedly inflated drug prices, so government programs for the poor and elderly paid more. The tentative agreement is one of the biggest in recent years for drug makers regarding drug marketing and pricing. It is subject to approval by the U.S. Department of Justice and …

Haagen-Dazs and Gourmet magazine are sponsoring The Haagen-Dazs Flavor Search, a recipe contest for a new flavor that will be produced in a limited-edition of 1 million pints. Entries so far include State Fair Lemon Bar ice cream, Champagne Brunch and Applesauce ice cream. Contestants enter online at Haagen-Dazs.com/scoop through Feb. 9. Judges from Haagen-Dazs and Gourmet will choose 10 semifinalists to post on the brand's site for consumers to vote. Three finalists win trips to the Oakland headquarters of Haagen-Dazs parent company, Dreyers Grand Ice Cream, to produce their recipes in Haagen-Dazs' test kitchens for a final round …

The value menu is becoming the latest tactical battleground in the fast feeders war to win over consumers of breakfast meals--a market that is now as big as the entire pizza category, with more than $30 billion in annual sales. McDonald's, which began running TV spots in October to promote its Breakfast Dollar Menu and More, is being tested in as many as 20 markets nationwide. Items on the buck-or-less menu include the sausage biscuit, chicken biscuit, sausage burrito, fruit and yogurt parfait, two hash browns, 16-ounce soft drink, and 12-ounce coffee. Burger King is also testing a …

Gillette and Motorola are among the veteran advertisers that will sit out Super Bowl XLI, which will be broadcast by CBS from Miami on Feb. 4. Aleve and Taco Bell will also be on the bench, while Ford is still deciding. Microsoft is considering a buy as part of a massive marketing push for its new Vista operating system. Anheuser-Busch, which has been the exclusive beer sponsor since 1989, has bought enough ad time to run at least 10 30-second spots. Pepsi, the perennial No. 2 advertiser, will also be back with a handful of spots, after also agreeing …

Online local searches have been around for a while, but they have not always been reliable about the availability of specific merchandise. Now, some major retail chains that let customers check inventories at local stores on their Web sites are also starting to share that information with search engines. The result is more useful search results for consumers. NearbyNow just began offering shoppers at three malls in California and one in Arizona a chance to check merchandise availability at most of the malls' stores by sending text messages from their cell phones. A similar service called Slifter, from GPShopper, …