Interactive

There’s a privacy bill zooming around the California state legislature (SB 761) ostensibly designed to restrict Web site operators from making malicious changes to site visitors’ computer settings. The bill further prohibits site operators from collecting, storing and transferring information gathered surreptitiously online, such as through cookies, and requires opt-out mechanisms.

Got no problem with the first part, although it’s probably more toothless and feel-good than practical: Offshore miscreants aren’t going to give a damn about the state of California shaking its finger at them, and legitimate businesses walk the line when it comes to installing malwear or preventing software from being uninstalled.

But there are a few casual sentences and phrases in the bill which, due to their vagueness, could potentially be killers of the marketing data industry. more

So, does your company’s email marketing creative bring across your brand’s true identity and flavor? I was reminded of how important that truly is by some recent emails I received from Alchemy by Carla Hall.

Carla Hall was a finalist on season five of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” and was voted fan favorite of the recently completed “Top Chef: All-Stars.” Her motto is “cook with love” and she comes across as bubbly and fun—everything her email creative isn’t.

more

Apparently two things are inevitable when you cover new marketing technology as much as I do. First, you become attuned to the point at which technical explanations no longer make sense, and you have to look for help in dumbing it down to their least-geeky essence.

And second, you’re almost bound to become something of a shade-tree legal expert, since almost all of these new tech platforms contain the seeds of class-action suits. more

Fun note from a Windy City correspondent this morning regarding Alliance Data System’s acquisition of Aspen Marketing: “So when Epsilon [an Alliance Data subsidiary] has some tarnished equity, [clients] can trot out Aspen as the email juvenile…”.

It’s a fun conceit – and certainly news of the acquisition is giving the continued buzz from the company’s March 30 Unauthorized Entry Incident (as it calls the theft of e-mail addresses and names) a challenge for industry attention. And Epsilon’s brand received no favors when seemingly every consumer notification announcement sent out by its clients cited Epsilon by name. more

On the surface, of the two “E” holidays celebrated this past weekend, Easter is a much easier target for marketers to tackle. After all, there’s baskets full of things families who celebrate the holiday typically want to buy—candy and toys (on behalf of EB, of course), new clothes, flowers and plants for decorations and gifts, and so on.

But Earth Day? To me, that’s a more difficult sell. While it is very trendy to go green, isn’t it really all about simplifying things, and being kinder to the planet and generating less waste? That seems counter intuitive to buying more stuff you really don’t need, which comes boxed, packed and shipped in materials the planet doesn’t need.

Still, my email inbox was packed with pitches for both in the weeks running up to the April 22-24 eco-eggstravaganza.

more

I can’t believe the uproar over the creative used in an email J. Crew sent to customers last week. J. Crew president and esteemed creative director Jenna Lyons shared a few of her favorite products in the email feature titled “Saturday With Jenna.”

One of those things is a hot-pink Essie nail polish, which Lyons’ young son Beckett is sporting in the photo. Horrors!

People seemed particularly upset by the photo’s caption, which reads, “Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.” more