One of today’s hottest consumer marketing trends, blogging, is rapidly coming of age as both a strategic communication tool and an effective sales technique. Companies, including banks, automotive firms, and entertainment conglomerates, have been developing sophisticated integrated marketing campaigns that incorporate individual or bundled blogs to reach relatively untapped demographics.

Fiat is a case in point. The Italian automaker turned to the blogosphere to help market its revamped Fiat 500 in Brazil. The company developed a sophisticated adventure tale in which a group of young people rode around Brazil in a Fiat 500 searching for their grandfather’s lost artworks, and offered the tale to various blog sites as entertaining filler. The adventure caught on, with many bloggers picking up and running the story.

Fiat’s objective was not direct sales but buzz creation. Bloggers got material that attracted site visitors. And Fiat got its name out to a vast and potentially lucrative audience that has a jaded view of conventional advertising.

Many integrated marketing communication professionals are now paying bloggers handsomely to reach a desired demographic. Capitalizing on this online marketing trend is Orlando, Fla.–based PayPerPost, which links advertisers with bloggers. Founder Ted Murphy developed analytic tools that allow advertisers to rate blog sites and also allow bloggers to rate potential advertisers. PayPerPost user contracts call for both parties to provide full disclosure about key nonproprietary aspects of their respective activities.

Critics of the PayPerPost model suggest that it taints the noncommercial reputation of the blogosphere. Murphy points out that under the service agreement, either the blogger or advertiser can affix a disclosure badge to an advertorial posting, letting viewers know its provenance.

While the PayPerPost model is an intriguing option, a growing number of companies are setting up blogs within their own corporate Web sites. Product-related blogs, in particular, are a way for companies to get invaluable (and often blunt) critiques from consumers. General Motors maintains four blog “families” grouped around products, GM employees, automotive sports, and the real-life adventures of two engineers test-driving Cadillacs around the world.

In 2006, Sony’s attempt to boost PlayStation through a blog campaign backfired badly. The company hired a marketing firm to develop a blog by a purported PlayStation fan named Charlie. But the deception was quickly discovered, prompting an irate response.

Clearly, the blogosphere presents unique opportunities and challenges for marketers. While blogs allow companies to generate excellent word of mouth, the message can’t be controlled once it is out there, says Adam Paul, associate director of business development at ID Society Inc., a New York–based Web and information consultancy.

Consider this: while PayPerPost has attracted some 50,000 blog sites, industry experts now estimate that more than 100 million blogs exist. Terry Dry, president of the Los Angeles–based marketing firm Fanscape, is confident that many more sites can be utilized. “As the audience grows, there will be more money flowing through blogs,” he says. The question is, will they have the right message?

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