• February 13, 2008

The Email Experience Council (eec), the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) email marketing arm, is launching a roundtable called the Digital Lifestyle (DLS) Roundtable. The DLS Roundtable will focus on breaking down channel-specific silos for digital channels such as email, and enabling collaboration in message design that supports a consumer's digital lifestyle.

Jeanniey Mullen, eec founder, will lead this initiative. Mullen made the announcement Tuesday during the eec's inaugural Email Evolution Conference, which is being held in San Diego. Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path and DLS charter member, said the first initiative would be a major survey to determine how businesses are using, and plan to use, digital lifestyle channels to interact with customers.

Other charter members include representatives from OgilvyOne worldwide, JupiterResearch, eROI, ExactTarget, and David Chappell & Associates, among others.

In other news at the conference, the eec announced that it is taking over guardianship of the Email Measurement Accuracy Coalition (EMAC), which has been working to establish email marketing measurement standards. Formed in April 2007 at the behest of concerned industry leaders, the group has been overseen by David Daniels, vice president and research director of JupiterResearch and EMAC executive director.

EMAC's deliverability metrics definitions will be published in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the group, working in tandem with the eec's Research & Intelligence Roundtable, will begin standardizing the definitions of click-through and click-to-open rates, as well as other industry metrics.

The eec also announced a research partnership with JupiterResearch that gives eec members a 25% discount on all reports in the JupiterDirect library.

--Tanya Irwin