Q&As

Tommy Hilfiger is out with a new campaign designed to build buzz around its revamped juniors line with an instant-win game, which promises a grand-prize trip to New York.

Where do African American entrepreneurs turn for business advice? Many are now going to www.izania.com, a Web site that in one year has experienced a 400% growth in traffic. And many are reading the weekly Izania e-mail newsletter.

Many marketers are treading gingerly around the notion of adding a blog to their Web site. But don’t count online jewelry retailer Ice.com among the pussyfooters. The Montreal-based e-commerce site has not one but three blogs up and running and linked to its Web pages.

What’s with this explosion of blogs?
Every schoolkid has one. Every would-be author or philosopher has one. Every frustrated lover has one. That’s why a potentially informative medium already has its waters loaded with mud.

Arbitron Inc. is attempting to resume radio measurement surveys in the hurricane-devastated New Orleans and Gulf Coast markets.

If it is successfully able to measure current audiences in a study conducted between April and June, by mid-July it will release listener demographics that will encourage the channel

A U.S. federal judge says he will probably give the Department of Justice some of the search data it has asked for from Google, now that government attorneys have greatly reduced the scope of their request.

The good news in Nautilus Inc.

Ford Motor Co. is boosting two of its brands via Webisodes that promote the new Mercury Milan and Lincoln Zephyr sedans.

The Hershey Co. this week breaks a multi-pronged marketing blitz for its Take 5 candy bar, its first comprehensive campaign since launching Take 5 last year. Hershey hopes to jumpstart trial with extensive sampling, buzz marketing and in-theatre promos as well as TV, online ads and a dedicated Web site, Thegreatestcandybarever.com.

White-shoe bankers, beware: Washington Mutual has taken to the streets of the Big Apple and the Windy City this week with teams of guerilla marketers who are spreading the word on the company’s new roster of free financial services.