Net companies are resorting to guerrilla ad tactics in the very real war to pull in customers, turn profits and satisfy investors.

It isn't easy being heard over the roar of all those Internet companies vying for attention. Net companies are resorting to guerrilla ad tactics in the very real war to pull in customers, turn profits and satisfy investors. It goes way beyond traditional broadcast, print and outdoor ads. Instead, there's the "Yellow Snow" campaign that had company logos drawn in the snow with yellow- colored water. Or the Charitycounts.com campaign where 10,000 wallets were scattered on the streets of New York and San Francisco. Each wallet had a note inside reading: "If you were looking to get some free cash, shame on you. Redeem yourself by visiting Charitycounts.com." Only about 1 percent of people can recall 12 ads associated with a company, according to a survey by Active Research. With daily promotions such as stickers on fruit and skyscraper-sized billboards, people screen out much of what they see, causing dot-coms to force new color into the average marketing campaign. "The more outlandish (dot-coms) get, the more opportunity they get for a public relations event," said Michele Slack, an advertising analyst with research firm Jupiter Communications. Word of mouth is the most compelling reason for people to visit a Web site, according to a recent report from Jupiter, which found that most people pass information about a site to between four and six of their friends. The No. 2 reason is an endorsement in a newspaper or magazine.