• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, May 22, 2008

Software developer ExactTarget came to the Summit with a defiant message: "Subscribers Rule!." More academically: Marketing today is bottom-up -- top-down is as moldy as dial-up. Give consumers info they want, when and where.

ET didn't take too many chances that their INSIGHT! would fall through the cracks. Enter one of the most effective marketing tactics ever: the free T-shirt.

ET gave out hipster-style faded gray ones with "Subscribers Rule!" on the back -- and a funky logo on the front: a hand with fingers adjusted in sort of the universal "Rock On" sign. ET also handed out stickers soon to be on bumpers all over its Indianapolis home base. (Company vp Chip House donned one of the shirts for his lunchtime presentation.)

The "Subscribers Rule" philosppsy was devised partly from a study ET just put out about one-to-one communications success.

The research "shows email is a channel that consumers have deemed acceptable for marketing communciations, while text messaging and instant messaging are still trying to establish themselves." But "this is not to say that these aren't viable channels for marketers when persmission is explicitly acquired."

"In fact, that is the whole point of SUBSCRIBERS RULE!," the study concludes (caps are ET's). Some people may want stock updates via SMS or even old-time voicemails from a car dealer.Â

"The key for marketers is to understand the preferences of each subscriber by asking for permission, then tailoring channel selection and messaging based on this knowledge," ET writes.

Want to know more? A SubscribersRule.com site is going up soon.    Â