Recently, the rise of "word-of-mouth" campaigns has opened up new territory for marketing communications. Although we can’t control what other people say about our products, we can supply them with ideas and words they can use in emails, blog postings, and conversations. BzzAgent recently studied their most successful agents and found that these people enjoy helping others make shopping decisions right in the store.

Brandweek: Report: Word-of-Mouth Agents Should Hit Stores, 2006-Oct-2, by Todd Wasserman

Marketers who are looking to make their word-of-mouth campaigns more successful should deploy some of their "agents" in-store, a new report argues. The white paper, from the Keller Fay Group, a New Brunswick, N.J., research firm, also says that the most successful agents are more likely to approach strangers and to use multiple forms to communicate, including e-mail, instant messaging, blogging and the phone.