The New York Times just published a great article ("With a Cellphone as my Guide," June 28) about a new mobile service being rolled out in Japan. The benefit of this service could be tremendous for marketers as well as consumers.

We've all heard the promise of location-based marketing. For example, a future version of the mobile version of Google Maps could start by using the GPS built into most phones to display an initial map based on where you are standing at the moment. Then, when you search for sushi or an ATM, the search and related maps return hits that are ordered by how far away they happen to be right then.

Well, a new service in Japan takes this one major step forward by adding a compass. Not only will searches (as well as advertisements) appear based on your location, but also based on where you are pointing your cell phone. So, if you are in downtown Tokyo and you point your cell phone at an electronics store across the street, you will be able immediately to get information on the store as well as any coupons or advertising materials that might be relevant.

Now that is cool.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

People usually don't think "spammer" when they hear the word Kodak. But the photography giant recently earned the dubious honor of being the first name-brand, legitimate player to be charged by the Federal Trade Commission for violating the CAN-SPAM Act. (You can read the details in this FTC news release.)

What did Kodak do wrong? For several months in 2004, Kodak Imaging Network sent email marketing messages that were missing an opt-out, a notice of the right to opt-out and a valid physical postal address. The company said the violation was due to a computer error, and that the emails were sent to recipients who had given permission. But the FTC was unmoved.

To settle the case, the Kodak subsidiary agreed to pay civil penalties amounting to the campaign's gross proceeds and to submit to monitoring to ensure compliance with the FTC's order prohibiting future violations.

In pursuing a strict interpretation of the law despite Kodak's otherwise good intentions, the FTC appears to be sending a message: CAN-SPAM isn't just for the bad guys. Mainstream businesses are also subject to enforcement -- even when violations are unintentional or seem relatively minor.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 08:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

No matter how much you invest or how big your brand is, even companies like AOL and Google can experience service issues. It struck me as particularly noteworthy that both of these esteemed inbox providers suffered major system glitches, one right after another. AOL email was offline for the good part of day June 1 for both users and senders, and Gmail had a smaller but apparently no less impacting outage for some of its users a few weeks later.

The take-away for me is that service issues are an inherent part of the Internet. So it's critical to have contingency plans in place when the inevitable happens and your servers go hiccup. In particular, AOL impressed many of us in the ESP community with the way it handled communications and updates throughout its outage. Its actions allowed us to communicate the issues to our clients, and the result was a manageable problem that was already old news to nearly everyone involved.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every year, MarketingSherpa holds a "People's Choice" for internet marketing blogs. I am very flattered that they have included this blog as a finalist in the Email Marketing Blog category.

If you are a fan, please take a moment to go their survey and submit your vote (along with the other blogs you might read).

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=803032287919.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A friend of mine recently attended an Online Publishers Association conference, where he saw a presentation on the impact of online marketing relative to more traditional media. Both the study's methodology and its results are very interesting. The study, titled, "A Day in the Life: An Ethnographic Study of Media Consumption," seeks to find out how consumers really interact with the media in their lives and how they consume advertising over those media.

The authors of the study, conducted by the Center for Media Design at Ball State University, gathered data in three distinct ways: they interviewed the participants, asked them to keep a diary and, most uniquely of all, followed them around -- for days. We all know that self-reported studies are imperfect, but true observational studies are rare due to their cost and effort. So this more in-depth approach makes the results even more noteworthy:

• TV continues to be king. More time is spent on TV than on the Web.


• The Web now has equaled or surpassed the reach and exposure of radio, newspapers and magazines.


• Not surprisingly, the Web dominates in the workplace. (It's hard to watch TV at work <grin>.)


• The Web's greatest influence is not as a stand-alone medium, but as a partner that drives up results when used alongside other media.


• Web users spend more money in virtually every category than traditional TV-centric consumers.

The bottom line of the report is that online marketing spend as a percentage of total advertising spend still significantly trails the percentage of time consumers spend online.

It's good to be in online marketing...

Posted by Bill Nussey at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)