If the concept of media-free direct-to-the-customer ad campaigns sounds murky, check out Procter & Gamble's Tremor, word-of-mouth marketing to teens, and its sister service, Vocalpoint, targeting moms with kids.

Together they have enrolled 830,000 outgoing types who are comfortable (with some modest rewards) talking up a consumer product.  An ideal member of a Vocalpoint panel might be a mom working at a call center with 100 other women.

RELATED RESOURCES

"Big Change Sweeps the Ad World": Rick Edmonds on the decline of traditional advertising. More about Tremor: "I Sold It Through the Grapevine" (BusinessWeek) "Lies, Damn Lies, and Word of Mouth" (Inc. com)

At the front end, the panelists help in the definition of a compelling benefit to pitch. Then they take on spreading the word, perhaps handing out coupons along with their touts. The campaigns are backed by an assortment of other online and offline promotions. The guiding idea is that advice from a friend or acquaintance is the strongest kind of sales message.

A typical case involving Herbal Essences hair coloring products, targeted to what you and I might call kids with goofy pink and green hair, but P & G terms "young expressionists."  It turns out that a critical issue for this group is the social embarrassment if the final color turns out wrong.  Hence the winning marketing line was "Get what you want; love what you get."

A second campaign aimed at getting teenagers who already drink milk to move up from one glass a day to three.  Building muscle and staying toned was found to be a particular concern of the target group, so the "3X challenge" was promoted as action that "can help you achieve the look you want."

(Maybe the Tremor gang -- or someone -- could figure out a marketing proposition to induce online newspaper readers to linger three times as long as they do now in typically hasty visits).

P & G, whose marketing chops date back to the invention of soap operas as a showcase for its household products, was first out of the blocks in 2000 with word of mouth marketing and has the single biggest effort. Others consumer goods companies are scrambling now to follow.  Viral movie marketing, especially of titles pitched to a young audience, has been gathering momentum through this decade, as newspaper movie advertising slumps.

The movement is now represented by Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). It drew 450 attendees to a convention in Orlando last spring.