• by February 19, 2001

By Adam Bernard

TMXinteractive, an email marketing company that designs and delivers TV-style email commercials, has recently signed Shannon Sharpe of the Baltimore Ravens to be their national spokesperson.

At first look, a marriage between a star athlete and a company that specializes in rich media email marketing may seem strange, but Blair Lyon, President and CEO of TMXinteractive, feels it's a great fit. "Working with Shannon, a three time Super Bowl champ, doesn't hurt our ability to work with other sports teams. We did some work with him for a charity event in Baltimore, and he was into it. We've been brainstorming since." Lyon added, "TMXinteractive can also leverage the relationship to get rich media messages into the advertising mix."

Sharpe, meanwhile, gets the ability to promote, well, Shannon Sharpe. A Pro-Bowl Tight End, he has won Super Bowls with both the Ravens and the Broncos, has appeared in numerous television commercials, and is known as one of the more vocal players in the NFL.

Lyon said, "Shannon is essentially like another sales rep/agent. He has a commission structure. If he brings us to an opportunity with a company, helps, and participates, he will get a commission. He also gets to leverage and build his brand, and promote his charity work and goodwill."

TMXinteractive does not send out emails, but is a technology and design service designed to generate a TV style message, such as video or flash, that they later stream into an email, hoping to drive up response rates. Lyon says their technology allows them to track how every person moved and interacted with a given message, which helps better tailor a campaign.

Incidentally, this past Valentine's Day, TMXinteractive joined forces with permission-based e-marketer CheetahMail. TMXinteractive said it will work closely with CheetahMail and its clients, to offer its technologies for streaming multimedia content directly into the body of an email. At the same time, TMXinteractive's clients will benefit from CheetahMail's e-marketing knowledge and their ability to distribute digital content to highly targeted audiences worldwide.

- Adam Bernard may be reached at AdamBernard@mediapost.com