"We believe this is the next step in a natural continuum," proclaims Marqui, a Vancouver-based communications management software service, in its Web site FAQs. "First there were the blind banner ads.
Next, contextual ads...embedded ads, and embedded contextual ads." The next step? Marqui hired 15 independent bloggers to insert mentions of the company's services into their blogs.
The
bloggers were free to write negatively about the company. Some were skeptical about this ad form, so to help refine the program, Marqui recently hired Marc Canter, the co-founder of Macromedia, as an
advisor.
