Under the "too funny not to share" category, email industry veteran, Joshua Baer, the CTO of Datran Media, shared a funny story with a group recently, and I asked him if I could pass it along.

Joshua received an unsolicited commercial email the other day with the following footer:

"ADDENDUM- If you don't know or remember me, HHH complies with the Federal Canned Spam Act of 2003, so your contact information will NOT be sold or shared with anyone. You can unsubscribe at anytime with no questions asked."

Of course, lacking a postal address and clear opt-out instructions, this message wasn't remotely compliant with CAN SPAM. Fortunately, and as the gentleman pointed out, it is compliant with the somewhat lesser known, but more culinary oriented Canned Spam Act.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A recent study by Datamonitor has found that email has finally surpassed the telephone as the preferred communications vehicle of choice. The same study also ranked instant messaging and the telephone as the most disruptive communication tools in the workplace.

It looks like email is going to be the best way for BtoB marketers to manage and build relationships for a long time to come.

Network World has a good overview of the study results here.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For anyone who thinks online BtoB marketers lead a less exciting life than their BtoC counterparts, think again. I recently read a great post about BtoB new media marketing on Valeria Maltoni’s blog Conversation Agent that may just change your mind.

Quoting the results of a June online survey of more than 300 marketers by research company, Guideline, Valeria reports that BtoB companies overall embrace more new media platforms sooner, and are much more likely to allocate a higher percentage of their media budgets to online marketing channels than their BtoC counterparts.

BtoB marketers also take a more bottom line approach. They concentrate on lead generation, and have more experience with proven platforms such as email, online ads, search engine optimization and Webinars. BtoC marketers on the other hand tend to focus on brand building through emerging channels. Although BtoC marketers have more experience with viral video, social networking and mobile marketing platforms, BtoB marketers also use emerging channels for brand building, and have more experience with blogs and wikis.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I’m often amazed at how much my younger son is influenced by television advertising. A colleague shared an article with me that further opened my eyes to the power of branding, particularly among young children. (You can read it here.)

A pediatric researcher from Stanford University ran a series of tests with children ages 3-5 to determine their taste preferences for food. The trick was that researchers presented the same food—only in different wrappers. The results:

• Seventy-seven percent of the kids said the same French fries from McDonald’s tasted better when they came from a McDonald’s bag instead of a plain one.
• Sixty-one percent of the kids said milk tasted better in a McDonald’s cup.
• Fifty-four percent said carrots tasted better in a McDonald's bag.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I managed to sneak in a great two-week vacation this summer, but my blog posting frequency dropped off a bit. Not to fear, I'm back now and my blogging will once again be streaming forth across cyberspace <grin>.

TechCrunch, a group-edited blog about new Internet products and technologies, referenced a blog posting by the author of RSS Dave Winer on how social networking Web site Facebook has quietly started putting RSS into its pages. What's cool is that this is not your garden variety RSS, but full-out iRSS (individualized RSS). The new features let Facebook users track the status of their friends without having to log in first. If you really want to know whether Rachel is back from vacation or if Danny is having a good day, have no fear, RSS will make it easy to get this information anywhere, anytime.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)