Day One, Morning session It was a capacity filled room as the session opened this morning. Interestingly, I asked how had been at the summit before and the majority were all new folks. That is a
good thing and showing that show is attracting a lot of new voices. The VIP’s in the room were astounding with the heads of email and interactive marketing from companies such as Coca-Cola, Hanes,
The Hartford, Roche, H&R Block, Polo, Merck, Lands’ End, IBM, American Express, CVS/pharmacy, Capital One, Hewlette Packard, Wyndham Vacation Resorts, American Airlines, Home Depot, and many
many more all in attendance. The theme this morning was “Relevancy†in email as speaker after speaker first tried to define relevancy and stress its importance to success of email as a
marketing channel. As John Stichweh, Director of Global Interactive Marketing for Coca-Cola, said in his highly entertaining keynote: “People don’t hate email. They hate irrelevant email.â€
This theme was expanded by David Daniels, Vice President, Research Director for Jupiter Research, who emphasized that relevancy increases ROI. According to Daniels, 53% unsubscribe from email lists
that they don’t find relevant. But defining relevance can sometimes be in the eye of the beholder, as one marketer related in a conversation he had on the subject with his CFO who said: “Free
Shipping is relevant to everyone. Discount coupons are relevant to everyone. A sale is relevant to everyone.†Balancing the needs of the CFO, the head of email marketing, and the consumer is a
tough balancing act but one marketers better start getting right.
