• by Nina Lentini , Staff Writer @Nina_Lentini, June 11, 2019

In a new take on interactivity at our Email Insider Summit, we paired two people to present a design critique of emails offered up by brands present at the conference. (Bravo, brave people!)

Eric Bandholz, the founder of Beardbrand, and Erik Teng, senior email marketing manager of email at Quip, took a hard look at Lenovo's email, for one example. Teng's first question was about the navigation bars at the top of the email. He asked the audience whether they get any click-through and, surprise! Most said yes. He stood corrected.

Moving on, Teng said he likes copy and images. "It's playful, the copy is awesome and the imagery pops (see above)."

But Bandholz wanted to know what Lenovo stands for. He acknowledged that it "storied history and amazing products." But he felt there was a huge opportunity in defining itself better. "It's bold," he said of the images, "but where's the soul?"

Marion Price, email marketing manager, NA ecommerce for Lenovo, told attendees: "You're right about our brand lacking identity. It's something that we're working on as a company. As far as color goes, we've been giving our loyalty program rainbow colors, hoping the playfulness will make us seem more modern."

With most of the emails, they focused on consistent fonts, proper headers, engaging photography as assets.