• Boston Globe, Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:46 AM

Talk about hands-on experience. A Boston marketing firm has developed a new concept in marketing in which companies can put their products directly into the hands of editors and stylists who cover them in their pages. It's called "The Summer House," and it's an actual vacation house on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts that is packed with products from 30 different companies the editors can see, hear, smell, taste and feel while they stay at the house for free on a glorified junket. The Boston firm, CerconeBrownCurtis, describes the initiative in brochures as an '"experiential marketing opportunity"--a place to position products in their natural settings where hard-to-reach editors can taste, touch, smell, test, and review products "without distraction, no competitors." The Summer House reflects a growing shift away from traditional 30-second commercials and glossy magazine advertisements toward nontraditional tactics, such as buzz marketing and product placement, said Susan Fournier, an assistant professor of marketing at Boston University's School of Management. "People want to hear from nonmarketing sources more than ever as distrust of advertisements has grown," Fournier said. "This is the crossing of product placements with gatekeepers of the media and celebrity stylists-- it's really revolutionary in a lot of ways, and very powerful." The companies paid up to $15,000 each to put their products before a rotating crew of editors and stylists who are visiting over the next two months .

Read the whole story at Boston Globe »