No, even though the mayor of Sin City is desperate for a hockey team, the NHL is not putting an expansion club there. But when it comes to building an email list, the league has had success with using sweepstakes offering free Vegas trips as a platform. At the MediaPost Email Insider Summit, NHL direct marketing executive Amie Ray said the league has been able to enlarge its database hugely by collecting email addresses from people entering the Vegas giveways. Prizes such as signed Crosby or Ovechkin jerseys evidently can't compete. "Sweepstakes work!" Ray said. "Everyone and their …

Buoyed by a continued rebound in brand advertising, Yahoo Tuesday reported a first-quarter profit of $310 million, or 22 cents per share. That easily beat the consensus analyst expectation of 9 cents a share and was nearly triple the 8 cents a share the company earned a year ago. Net income for the period came in at $1.13 billion, slightly below the analyst estimate of $1.17 billion. Gross revenue of $1.6 billion was up 1% from a year ago. Yahoo’s earnings were boosted by 7 cents a share through the sale of its Zimbra email unit and …

Email marketers are constantly debating frequency -- how often to send messages. It's a balance in looking to drive sales without turning off customers. On a panel at MediaPost's Email Insider Summit, Responsys executive Heather Blank indicated the answer is rather simple: do what feels right. Certainly, don't have a quota. If there's something to say, say it -- if not, don't send. "There is no magic frequency number, if you have a relevant story send it," she said. "If you don't, suppress it." She continued: "Stop planning your email calendars based on a number. If …

According to Google, one in five searches are related to location. Adjusting to this behavior, the search giant has launched several new services under the umbrella name Google Places. According to ReadWriteWeb, “Google Places is primarily a merging of its Local Business Center with its Place Pages, of which there are more than 50 million.â€� Along with tailoring users’ searches by their respective location, Google will also be offering businesses the ability to define their service areas. “That, coupled with real-time updates, should allow for some interesting uses of Google with not only delivery services, but completely mobile vendors …

AMC will not use the return of “Mad Men� this summer as a lead-in to help launch new series “Rubicon.� Don Draper’s next moves on “Men� will debut July 25 and run Sundays at 10 p.m. “Rubicon,� which focuses on a government analyst uncovering a conspiracy, will premiere Aug. 1 and run in the 9 p.m. pre-"Men" hour – rather than the other way around. “Mad Men� is entering its fourth season -- and AMC apparently didn't want to risk moving the hit from its established 10 p.m.

Fast Company continues its coverage of Ford and the carmaker’s efforts to incorporate smartphone technology into the driving experience. Discussing Ford’s in-car Sync system, it explains: “The idea is that when you connect up a Sync-compatible smartphone, running the right kinds of apps, to your Sync-enabled car, you’ll be able to merely utter a few words of command to get the app to bend to your will.â€� The new Sync AppLink service only works with BlackBerry and Android phones at the moment, but iPhone -- and even iPad -- compatibility could come later this year. One lucky app that …

At the MediaPost Email Insider Summit, an NBC executive said research shows a slew of people used mobile devices to supplement their TV watching of the Olympic Games in February. Hayle Chun, a digital media specialist in the sports and Olympics business, said nearly half of people accessing NBC's mobile content did so while watching TV. They may have been too lazy to reach for the computer, but they also apparently used a handheld device to access biographies of athletes, country profiles, perhaps explanations of curling, as well as videos. Much of that could have been prompted by the …

As it turns out, Google isn’t the only hugely successful company capable of bad ideas. Indeed, Facebook is pulling the plug on Lite just seven months after releasing the service to the world. Hyped as a potential Twitter-killer, Facebook Lite was a simplified version of the site, which was supposedly “optimized for people with slow connections,â€� notes All Facebook. “But apparently not enough people were using it.â€� Regarding the service, Facebook said: “We’re no longer supporting it, but learned a lot from the test of a slimmed-down site.â€� The question remains as to why Facebook would act so fast …

For all its moral and social failings, realists credit porn with driving the broad adoption of new technology, including the Internet itself. Having none of it, Apple CEO Steve Jobs isn’t budging on his staunch opposition to X-Rated media on the iPhone, the iPad, or any device under his control. “We do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone,â€� Jobs writes in a letter obtained by TechCrunch. “Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone.â€� And, while TechCrunch admits to not authenticating the letter, it notes that Jobs has drawn connections between …

Email marketers often don't test new ideas or approaches because they are afraid they may not do it well, or that they won't be able to read the results accurately. Chris Marriott, VP, Global Agency Services for Acxiom, shared some commonly held false notions that he urged marketers to avoid. He spoke as part of a panel at the Email Insider Summit Monday morning. Never assume, he said, that: -All eyeballs are created equal -The last click should get all the credit (There are many activities that are valuable which don't drive specific conversions, like thanking renewing …