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 founding and is reportedly finalizing a deal to
be acquired by WPP Group. M80 charges as much as $200,000 for a six-month campaign, which is based on a simple premise: the company finds people who already love a company's products or
services--called "superfans"--and train them how to woo new consumers via the Internet. "Everyone is passionate about something," Neupert said. "But we need to understand how to harness that
enthusiasm."
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