• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 30, 2004

Communications management firm Marqui, which provides simple software for marketers and associations seeking brand management, plans to launch its controversial advertising "Blogosphere Program" today. About 16 sleep-deprived bloggers will receive $800 a month for mentioning--positively or negatively--Marqui once a week and posting Marqui's insignia on their blog.

Each week, Marqui will send bloggers--who they've picked by hand--content related to the company, such as customer success stories and industry innovations. Bloggers can use the fed material or not, but they have to mention Marqui once a week.

"A negative voice is better than no voice at all," reasoned Stephen King, Marqui's CEO. "When does a company get the opportunity to respond directly to a consumer's comments and criticism?"

"They're going to have to bunt this one right down the line," warned Steve Rubel, vice president of client services at CooperKatz and an expert on blogs. Rubel recognizes the risk of a reader backlash if they get a whiff of manipulation, but he also sees an opportunity: "If Marqui sees real ROI from this partnership, I'm sure it will usher in a new era for media and investment into blogs."

King wondered, when blogs were brought to his attention over a year ago, why advertisers only use them for click-through ads. Seeing their interactive potential, King sought out blogosphere guru Marc Canter, a cofounder of Macromedia and now principal of consulting firm Broadband Mechanics.

Canter jumped on board Marqui's effort to penetrate the blogosphere late last summer, but advised that the initiative should be transparent, to prevent a backlash. For example, Marqui is urging that all bloggers involved disclose their relationship with Marqui, and the Toronto-based company has posted the ins and outs of the program on its Web site.

"We've put about $180,000 into this thing, and, if it works, hundreds of millions of dollars could potentially spill into the blogosphere," enthused Canter.

Mitch Ratcliffe, a writer and interactive entrepreneur, helped Marqui write its "Blogosphere Program" contract , and was chosen to promote Marqui on his own blog, ratcliffeblog.com. "I think the program's potential to affect the Internet was somewhat overstated, but Marqui is receiving tons of brand awareness just for trying something new."

When Ratcliffe told the readers of his blog last week about his non-exclusive contract with Marqui, he said the response was mild. His receives 2,100 to 2,800 unique visitor hits a day, according to Ratcliffe, from readers looking for tech talk and left-leaning political wonkery.

He also writes a daily blog for Red Herring's Web site and said that, by comparison, Marqui's $800 per month isn't bad (the $800 does not include an additional $50 for every qualified sales lead sent to Marqui).

Marqui sells "software as a service subscriptions"--starting at $199 per month--that enable marketing communications professionals to manage and distribute communications to most devices and formats, including Web sites, e-mail, PDAs, and SMS. Text or media files are entered in the company's online system, and then converted to XML files, which can be re-purposed as needed.