For 16 months in 2002 and '03, Ontario beer lovers made free telephone calls through a special promotion offered by Toronto-based Labatt Brewing Company Ltd.  Using Internet-based technology, the company enabled consumers to make free long-distance calls -- in exchange for listening to a targeted message before placing the call.

Thanks to a powerful word-of-mouth campaign, nearly 300,000 college students and other customers had dialed more than 50 million calls by October 2003. This direct marketing effort paid off for Labatt  in greater awareness and affinity for the brand