There was a lot of talk at the Summit this morning about the "F" word (Facebook) and Matt Blumberg of Return Path even did a very cogent Evolution of the F Word in Email Marketing.  He tracking the key drivers of success through the years of email marketing. He started with Focus, then moved to Free (long a dirty word due to the spam filters, but now we are free to be direct marketers again!), Feedback Loops, Frequency, Five (Airline Miles) - a reference to opening keynote Hal Brierley's talk about how millions of consumers will review and respond to ads for …

The liveliest exchange occurred during the Innovation Panel at this morning's kick off to the Email Insider Summit here in beautiful Deer Valley. Moderator Matt Blumberg of Return Path asked if technology is helping or hurting email marketing - and in particular how the do not track registry would potentially restrict marketer's ability to create relevancy.

Most of us would probably rather be sent into a dungeon with an insurance salesman (any Take the Money and Run fans out there?) than be bombared with political ads for months and months previous to elections. So some eyebrows raised this morning when opening keynote speaker Hal Brierley, founder and CEO of eMiles, reported on a new service called eMiles Vote!

Email practitioners may take the role their craft has in the greater world of corporate marketing for granted, but the reality is significant number of companies still don't include email as a line item on their marketing budget.

Anyone involved in email marketing knows how vexing it can be when users adopt a new mail client, or even a new version of a computer operating system rendering old programs incompatible. So it was not without some fanfare that email marketing and instant messaging developer IndrediMail announced this morning that it is now compatible with Microsoft’s Windows Vista â€" the standard operating system issued with all new Microsoft-based personal computers. “We believe that our compatibility with Vista is very significant, since we estimate that Vista already accounts for over 10% of the Windows market and will continue to …

Greetings from Park City Utah. The first night of the Email Insider event is now over (well for some of us - however the networking continues for some:-)) If you've never been to an Insider Summit - you don't know what you are missing. It is an event unlike any other. About 125 email marketers convene for three and a half days to network, learn, make new friends and hang with old ones, talk about how to make the industry stronger - and most importantly - have lots of fun.

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Sponsor remarks are an obligatory part of trade shows and conferences like OMMA Video, especially following the lunches they paid for. But Tremor Networks’ Randy Kilgore was surprisingly candid and eminently human about the whole process, going so far as to call himself a human “pre-roll.” “I’m like a pre-roll here,” he said, noting that he paid for the ad, and, I’m what’s standing between you and the content.” Kilgore was referring to the afternoon panels and tracks. Conference chair Steve Smith suggested Kilgore’s delivery might serve big video content providers too. “Randy, if you can tell …

Cable networks' new programming may give those channels a chance for more market share in the wake of the writers' strike. But in reality it may just add to an already existing TV glut. Many cable networks have reality shows  -- or scripted shows that may not depend union writers. Discovery, TLC, Bravo, A&E, and the like, have many reality shows now looking to make hay. Add to this some scripted shows ready to hit the air. TNT, for example, will air new episodes of "The Closer" and  "Saving Grace." All this seems good for cable because in December, …

Bravo has launched what it describes as the “first-ever mobile fan club” for its “Project Runway” series. Sponsored by L'Oréal Paris, by texting RUNWAY to 27286 (BRAVO), members can receive exclusive content including video, behind-the-scenes messages, interaction with designers and more.  Fans will get a "Project Runway" guide to New York which encompasses the designers and judges’ favorite places in New York. Bravo has partnered with Socialight, a location-based social platform that lets people create, share, and discover virtual sticky notes tied to real-world places. On the web, fans can view an interactive New York map with notes detailing the …