Many Hispanics can read and understand English marketing campaigns. However, more advanced marketers may benefit from customizing creative for people of different backgrounds and languages. With Hispanics projected to rise from 50% to 70% penetration over the next five years, they are probably a good test group.
 

With its reach, Google's new re-targeting product will provide brands a way to campaign to their target consumers. In many experiments I have run, re-targeted offerings have consistently outperformed generic campaigns thus making this functionality, from a media spend side, more attractive. As such, I would expect Google to try and charge a bit more for it and I am still not certain how the audience measurement / Google Analytics angle will play into it.
 

I often write services in C# that send reports and monitor performance on a configurable schedule. I have found the C# MailMessage class to be perfect for my email sending needs.
 

Many brands need display advertisements run through affiliate networks to expand reach. However, few affiliate networks actually provide good transparency into where the advertisements are shown. New data suggests the advertisers need and want this.
 

Twitter has spoken about a few ways to monetize their product... from analytics, to business tools, to paid placement. However, a recent article by eMarketer suggests that most business are not interested in advertising that increases their follower counts. If that is true, what does that mean for LiveIntent.com?. I am not worried for LiveIntent though. The larger issue is that nobody has been able to quantify the value of a follower. Once that question has an answer, ROI calculations on products like those that LiveIntent offers will become a no-brainer.

Another article by MarketingVox also discusses the failings of the program at a high level. It still seems that everyone questions if Twitter will ever develop a model people/companies can get excited about.

Nothing new other than a commitment to continue investigating the practices of behavioral targeting.
 

Facebook (FB) has the data that every marketer would die for; non-appended, self-reported, up to date data points. I receive advertisements with special deals because I am a UVA graduate student amongst other highly targeted offers. It will be interesting to see how FB's entry into email plays out and how they monetize that channel. I expect they'll be one of the first primarily social based spam filters, e.g. accept mail from known network contacts, etc.
 

I have to agree with the restaurant owners in this case. With such a strong web presence, Yelp has the power to influence many consumers who expect the site to be objective and present a neutral picture of a restaurant. The fact that restaurants can, effectively, pay to modify the way data is presented, shedding a different light, is concerning. Recently, the FTC said that people who blog/comment should identify any relationship to a company. Well, I would extend that to say that if a company is manipulating the presentation of data, it should be clearly noted as well.
 

Great article from Adage on Hulu's financial model. As a frequent user of Hulu, I have been pleased to avoid the costs of Tivo or even paying for cable while still getting integrated and centrally located access to much of prime time TV. The ad supported model is great and relatively non-intrusive. I would prefer to see them rotate advertisements throughout the program though, rather than repeat the same advertisement. Were it to become a paid subscription service in the neighborhood of $10 per month, I would gladly pay, much like I currently do for Netflix. I would like to see Hulu add some additional premium content though, e.g. Starz programming on Netflix. Either way, subscription or ad supported, I will continue to use Hulu.
 

While operations of leading newspapers continue to struggle, a move towards a completely paid model seems like a last-ditch, but already proven ineffective, move to increase revenue. Why implement a strategy shown elsewhere not to work v. implementing a mixed model of free and paid content that has had some success? Unless Murdoch plans to offer engaging content not elsewhere available (unlikely), I see this move as a waste of time.
 

Affiliates for email have a lot of flexibility with how they deploy email. To protect your brand, one should adhere to many of the recommendations provided in this post. A lot of companies will not be willing to disclose IPs and Domains... so getting yourself seeded is a must. If you don't, I don't think ignorance will fly in court.
 

As consumers get more protective of their email address, businesses look to prevent attrition of their lists by complicating the opt-out and offering many chances to stay on.
 

As more features are introduced to manage preferences and subscriptions on the unsub link click, double check that what you tell users in the email is correct. HotScripts.com makes a "one-click" unsubscribe claim in the email, but the user has to click again on the landing page. How is that one-click?
 

In 2008/2009 ISPs evolved their delivery metrics to be centered around the user. Consequently, email marketers must as well to survive. List and user signup practices are one where a company can be more user centric.
 

Whether its because AOL is challenged or because small increases on a small base can look very large on a percentage basis, the fact remains that AOL is picking up top talent in its senior ranks. This is not say, though, that it has lost top talent as well. For one, our beloved ISP Postmaster team is gone and onto new opportunities.
 

Very interesting development that ISPs are going to start charging for SPAM filtering. A manager at Google says “I think it’s a great idea, and I think that we are going to be doing it too. If email users weren’t so careless with their email addresses, we wouldn’t be in this situation. They are the ones who allowed their email address to be harvested and used by spammers. Why should we have to pay for that?”
 

China's crack down drives registrations for .ru domains. But what is to happen, April 1, when Russia enacts new laws designed to crack down on the same thing: anonymous domain registrations.
 

This is a very interesting document detailing much of what ISP Abuse desks must handle. I found it via Annalivia Ford's blog (annaliviaford.com). Speaking of Annaliva, she is now at Unicast (see more)
 

Great to see companies, when you can find them, can be held accountable to CAN-SPAM. In this case, a FROM line and misleading offer led to judgment for the plaintiff. What to take away from this, clearly and conspicuously identify the sender in the from email address (not just the reply-to) and make sure the offer is clear and accurate.
 

Interesting development for 3rd party marketers leveraging SSC for inbox placement. It should come as no surprise that best practice is to put 3rd party and transactional mail streams on different IPs and now SSC will differentiate between the two as to levels of certification. If your mail goes across the same IP, you will receive the lowest eligible level of certification.
 

If you are like me, you probably received email from classmates.com stating that an old acquaintance was looking for you. Well, two people filed suit against the company as they found out nobody was, indeed, looking for them. What does this mean for marketers? Nothing that shouldn't already be obvious; be precise, clear, and honest in your message.
 

Yes!, I said it. If you are a B2C marketer and you are talking about win back then you already have issues in your marketing strategy. You have to lose a customer to need to win them back. Maintaining engagement before, during, and after the sale will not only help keep your consumer base growing, but will also help with your delivery ;)
 

Basically, a lot of spam operations originate in Russia and leverage US technology. Moreover, fines constitute a mere 1% of profit and clearly do not send the message that spam is not ok. However, the author makes an interesting statement comparing Affiliate Networks to suppliers of counterfeit goods. Keep in mind that the advertisements from Affiliate Networks are usually for legit products so it's a stretch, but still an interesting comparison.
 

The draft can be read here boucher privacy law draft. It definitely needs some work... but so far seems like it will do to online advertising what CAN-SPAM did to email... require more transparency. A good overview is available at the national journal.
 

Hefty fine for human error and lack of controls, but the lawsuit is over.
 

Yelp to implement changes to equalize listings and remove preferential factors that could potentially bias opinions in favor of business that advertise on Yelp.
 

The controversial side-effects of enacting the future-proof digital economy bill may be great in England. Here are a few reasons why:

• File sharers often use public and free access points
• People can face tribunals and disconnections over data transferred via their account. Who will provide home owners with the technology required to monitor traffic?
• Does something which may police the free, clearly not anymore, Internet deserve full vetting or to be rushed through like they are doing?

As content providers struggle to make profits, I fully expect them to become more aggressive at protecting their facts. Interesting article discussing the merits of said protection and what may be happening in the industry.
 

A critique of US News' law school ranking methodology doesn't challenge the question but rather the acceptable answers. Limiting the answer to a scale of 1-5, 5 being best, makes it difficult once you are out of the top tier of programs. A #15 school is not the same as #1 or #30 program, so you assign, 4, 5, and 3 respectively. But then what do you do with the next 170 programs?
 

Lawyer receives three year suspension for not advising client over two types of patent application: design and functional. Two other NJ examples of how a few words or decisions can get you into trouble with the ethics committee.
 

Glad to see my personal email is not that of the company's in NJ if I access it at work. One thing I did note was the fact that the password not being saved on the computer was highlighted as an assertion of person's right to remain confidential in communication with person's lawyer.
 

Very interesting article on how US Privacy Law fails to deal with modern technology, particularly with the distinction between first and third party. As more consumer data is stored in third party cloud environments (e.g. email, EC2, cell phone records), the law that protects our privacy becomes obsolete, as it only protects first party data adequately (e.g. personal laptops). A must read for understanding basic legal rights for your data.
 

JCP servers were hacked, unknowingly by the company, in 2007 until the Secret Service brought it to their attention. Claiming protection under the 2004 Crime Victim's Right Act seems reasonable to me at first. However, the more I think about it, there are two victims: (1) JCP and (2) the consumers whose data was breached. Seems like you can't notify (2) while shielding (1). What are you gonna say...? Your data was breached somewhere, on someday, at some time, but I can't tell you when, where, or how because that might give away (1).
 

When a change of location causes one to need to change service with utility providers (and yes I consider Internet and cable a utility), early termination fees always annoy me. In this case, Earthlink tracked ETFs backed to, effectively, specific consumer service purchases and not the consumer. This meant that it was not sufficient to be just a customer for the required time, but that you also needed to be a customer for that particular service; so when you changed services under the same company, the clock reset. I wonder if this happens each time the cable company calls to ask me to upgrade to HBO or when I add a text message package to my cell plan?
 

Interesting way of segmenting consumers based on early morning behavior. I'd love to see them go further and look at propensity to spend $$$ online.
 

Twitter removes 3rd party advertisements from message stream. Not too dissimilar to changes in certification programs for email recently. Nevertheless, the right move in opinion, or they should at least get a revenue share from the players monetizing Twitter technology.
 

Interesting, but brief, article highlighting the obvious, that not all followers are equal. It will be interesting to see what an incremental Twitter follower is worth and if there are good ways to identify one's "engaged" followers v. generic followers. It would be great to see LiveIntent.com excel at driving "engaged" followers and providing insight into the value of the users they drive.
 

eMarketer study finds that users who have been with Twitter longer comprise a larger percentage of tweets. It is not clear, however, if this is because (1) the pool of older users is growing as new registrations stabilize (2) if older users just tweet more often or (3) if Twitter is suffering account abandonment problems with new registrations.
 

Facebook to argue in federal court that it did not violate a patent held by Cross Atlantic Capital Partners for an online social community of users.
 

Another sign that email and social are destined to be integrated, Yahoo! allows users to share status updates across platforms. We have already heard that Facebook will be starting an email client as well. Clearly, the boundaries between email and social communities are being torn down.
 

Facebook recently modified its privacy policy to state that it may share data with trusted partners. Surprisingly, Barry Schnitt (Director Communications FB) says it has nothing to do with advertising. Maybe this is the first step towards auto-integration across communities, e.g. Yahoo! will now auto-update addresses in contact book from FB. Speculation aside, I do wonder how strict of a vetting process FB will employ or if it will be similar to that of the email certification services, where quite a few non-compliant (with regards to certification programs' AUPs) mailers slipped through.
 

This move is spot on with my experience of having a laptop in the classroom. Technology can be a distraction. Glad to see my alma mater is taking action. What's to follow next? I think a ban on iPhones.
 

Interesting, but not unexpected, ruling that Text Messages are considered "calls" when it comes to TCPA.