Liqueur brand Kahlua ran a multichannel campaign around the holidays called "Taste the Spirit of the Holidays." Customers were encouraged to enter a sweepstakes and share their own recipes and photos of the beverage. While many people participated through social media, more than 16,000 entered the contest via email.

The Honest Company, an online retailer that sells eco-friendly baby products, is not afraid of Gmail tabs. In fact, the company, which was founded by actress Jessica Alba, found no change in metrics after Gmail began adding marketing messages to promotions tabs. When Gmail tabs first launches, the company sent out an email asking consumers to add them to their primary folder, which could have helped.

Email marketing services company Responsys has acquired push notification provider Push IO, in a deal whose terms were not disclosed. The technology will allow Responsys to provide marketers with tools that deliver push notifications across devices. The news comes just a month after Oracle made a $1.5 billion bid to purchase Responsys.

Sixty-five percent of emails were opened on mobile devices in Q4 2013, up from 61 percent in Q3 2013, according to a new report from email services firm Movable Ink. The US Consumer Device Preference Report: Q4 2013 report also showed that of the 65 percent of email that gets opened on mobile gadgets, only 16 percent of those are opened on a tablet.

Romanian police have caught the Romanian hacker who allegedly broke into the email accounts of a number of American celebrities and politicians including Colin Powell, and George W. Bush. Marcel Lazr Lehel, otherwise known as "Guccifer," was caught where he lived in the Romanian city of Arad. He is also believed to have also hacked into the email accounts of several Romanian figures.

The National Consumer Agency in Ireland has forced the airlines Aer Lingus and Ryan Air to provide customers with a contact email address on their websites. In addition, this email must reply to customer queries "rapidly and in a direct and effective manner". The ruling comes after the two airlines received compliance notices last year for their breach of EU regulations by failing to provide contact email addresses on their websites. Both airlines have complied and now offer customer service via email.

Sen. Al Franken has launched an email campaign to critique the anniversary of the conservative group Citizens United. Franken emailed supporters the message, "Thanks for helping me wish Citizens United a terrible birthday." He goes on to ask for donations that support an anti-Citizens United effort at February's precinct caucuses.

A group of consumers have come forward claiming that Target obtained their email addresses without permission. The allegations came after Target sent out an email earlier this month warning them about the retailer's data breach over the holiday. The email was often seen as a phishing scam, even though it was legitimately sent from the retailer. To make matters worse, scammers have jumped on the confusion and begun sending spam emails looking like they are from Target.

Trust for emails from Target are at an all time low. After the company's major data breach over the holidays, the company sent out an email offering a year of free credit reporting to victims. Then scammers faked the email. CNN Money has put together a list to help consumers figure out if the email from Target is for real or not. They point to a number of clues. For example, legitimate Target emails are being sent from TargetNews@target.bfi0.com. Target is not asking for money or personal information like a social security number, as the spam emails are. In addition, …

Last week Target sent out an email to customers whose accounts were breached during the holidays offering a one year of free credit monitoring. Some consumers thought that the email was fake, but it was for real. Now scammers are adding to the confusion by sending scams via email, Facebook and other outlets, reports the store.