• Ad Age, Wednesday, August 9, 2006 1:15 PM

A growing number of marketers are turning the concept of using social-networking Web sites as advehicles upside down. They are creating small, invitation-only networks and using them as valuable marketing tools. While popular sites like MySpace.com offers a free-for-all atmosphere with millions of viewers, these new online communities offer much smaller numbers--but give marketers total content control. "These networks are quickly becoming the new CRM tools," says Jamie Tedford, svp-marketing and media innovation at Arnold Worldwide. "The importance of the number of friends a brand has is a reflection of the new opt-in permission-based marketing." Marketers getting involved include Kraft Foods, Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, Hallmark, Unilever, Reebok, General Motors Corp., General Mills, State Farm and Starwood Hotels. All have online communities run by Communispace, a 7-year-old company based in Massachusetts. The idea is catching on and delivering tangible results. For example, community members assured Unilever's Axe that its Tsunami body spray wasn't an insensitive name, following the 2004 disaster. And they helped Kraft decide which Asian foods it should include in a line of diet products.

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