Exclusive: Ragy Thomas Out at Epsilon
One of the better-known names in e-mail marketing circles is apparently going to be on the market in two months. Ragy Thomas, the man who oversaw the technological integration of Bigfoot Interactive and DoubleClick’s former e-mail unit, is leaving the Epsilon’s marketing agency now known as Purple@Epsilon. The decision is reportedly mutual. ...
E360’s Linhardt Vows to Appeal Comcast Ruling
E360 Insight’s CEO Dave Linhardt said he will appeal the decision rendered against him last week in his lawsuit against Comcast....
What the e360 Decision Means to You
If there is one message American marketers should take away from last week’s court ruling against e-mail marketer e360 Insight, it’s this: Rightly or wrongly, simply being Can Spam compliant is not enough to get e-mail delivered....
LashBack Launching List Monitoring Service
Lashback, the company whose services help marketers tell whether affiliates are honoring opt-out requests and complying with the Can-Spam Act, is launching a new service called ListMonitor. The new service allows e-mail marketers to monitor the mailing behavior of firms with which they share data, according to LashBack vice president of marketing James O’Brien. ...
AOL’s New Blog: Can You Say Opaque?
AOL launched an official postmaster blog last week that is probably a must-bookmark site for any e-mail marketer. However, let’s hope the quality of the information improves from what has been posted so far. ...
Shop.org Study Shows Healthy E-mail Metrics
E-mail to house files is the No. 1 marketing tactic used by online retailers with 92% saying they use it and 93% saying they plan to give it higher priority in 2008, according to Shop.org’s State of Retailing Online 2008: Marketing Report. ...
Reported Online Fraud Losses Soar; E-mail Tops Tactics: FBI
One would hope that by now people would have started getting wise to e-mail scams. But then, one would be wrong. E-mail was by far the most-used vehicle perpetrators of online crime used to contact victims in 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported last week. ...
Epsilon, CheetahMail, Strongmail Announce New Appointments
Marketing services firm Epsilon, e-mail service provider Experian CheetahMail and technology provider StrongMail Systems have each announced high-profile personnel appointments recently....
Exclusive: Anonymous Group Takes Aim at Spamhaus
A group of anonymous e-mail marketers who some believe push the limits of the law has apparently banded together to fight against anti-spam blacklisting organization Spamhaus....
Stupid Experiment Watch: 50 Volunteer to be Spammies
From the complete-waste-of-time file comes news that Internet security firm McAfee has convinced 50 people to spend a month clicking on pop-ups, signing up for promotions and responding to spam e-mail on computers with no filters installed. Can anyone guess what’s going to happen? … Anyone? Anyone? ...
Stupid Media Watch: Journal Times Better Get With it
Quick! Look out the window. What’s that, you ask? It’s flying pigs. Why are pigs flying? Because a consumer newspaper actually ran a well-reasoned opinion piece on direct mail....
ESPs Make a Bunch of New-Client Announcements
Multiple e-mail service providers announced new clients yesterday....
Stunner: FTC Loses Affiliate Marketing Case
A jury in Seattle Monday ruled that a pornography marketer was not responsible for spam sent by some affiliates, handing the Federal Trade Commission a stunning defeat....
Comcast Claims Linhardt Sued to Beat Spam Filters
Comcast has countersued David Linhardt, president of e-mail marketing firm e360 Insight, and the accusations have begun to fly. The most eye-popping claim Comcast makes is that Linhardt is suing Comcast to learn how he can circumvent the cable provider’s spam filters. ...
Stupid Activist Watch: Special Interests, My Rear End
For a great example of an empty boogeyman quote aimed at smearing the pro-marketing opposition look no further than Todd Paglia, executive director of environmental group ForestEthics....
iPost Unveils Auto-Targeting Technology
E-mail service provider iPost today announced it has launched Autotarget predictive analytic technology. ...
Goodmail Launches E-mail Proof-of-Delivery Service
E-mail certification firm Goodmail Systems yesterday announced a new service that allows businesses such as insurance firms, financial institutions and healthcare companies to have proof electronic messages were delivered....
Somewhere, a Yahoo Marketing Executive Dances on Spitzer’s Grave
Four years before he became infamous as “Client No. 9,” disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s utter lack of integrity was on full display during an e-mail marketing dispute with Yahoo for anyone who cared to see it....
What the ValueClick Settlement Means to You
The announcement made by the Federal Trade Commission yesterday that pay-for-performance online marketing services firm ValueClick settled deceptive advertising charges for $2.9 million is not news. ValueClick announced the settlement—which it reached without admitting wrongdoing—almost exactly a month ago in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. What is news, however, is why the FTC says the company was charged. The reason involves what is considered by traditional direct marketers to be one of the two most powerful selling words in the English language: “free.” ...
GOT Corp. Rebranding Name to Campaigner
GOT Corp. decided it has got to get rid of that name. The e-mail marketing software on-demand provider has rebranded itself to Campaigner, the name of its product. ...
Obsessed with Open Rates? Stop it; Focus on Feedback Loops
Marketers should obsess over e-mail feedback loops—reports some inbox providers and anti-spam entities offer on who’s complaining about a sender’s e-mail—the way they do open rates, according to Ben Chestnut, co-founder of e-mail service provider MailChimp....
Psychotic Law Clowns in Utah at it Again
Just when you think Utah state legislators might have regained a smidgeon of sanity regarding Internet law, they prove you wrong … oh, so spectacularly wrong. First, the good news: The state’s legislators last week passed a set of amendments gutting Utah’s ill-conceived trademark protection law. Meanwhile, another wacky Internet law is poised to work its way through the overbearing, moralizing carnival funhouse that is Utah’s state legislature. ...
Stupid Media Watch: Do Reporters Ever Think?
When I was editor of the trade newspaper iMarketing News, I was forever telling reporters that the most important tool they had was their common sense. “I can clean up your writing, but I can’t think for you,” I often said. ...
What the Cyberheat Settlement Means to You
Lost in the recent coverage of the $400,000-pluse settlement between online pornographer Cyber heat and the Federal Trade Commission were the ramifications for everyone else. But as Thomas Hughes, a marketing and advertising lawyer with Hunton & Williams in Washington notes, they’re serious. ...
Stupid Marketer Watch: They’re Kidding, Right?
And from the completely-screwed-up-priorities file comes one particularly glaring statistic in JupiterResearch analyst David Daniels’ e-mail buyer’s guide released yesterday: 70% of e-mail marketing executives said deliverability features and services are their No. 1 consideration when selecting an e-mail service provider....
