Meeting some resistance among executives about using "custom publishing," Content Marketing Institute's Joe Pulizzi said he re-branded it "content marketing" and interest level jumped. He tells email marketers, they are in the content business. “You have to create the most interesting, the most need-to-have content,” whatever the channel, whether print, staging events or email. “You are content marketers, you are in this business,” Pulizzi said. If a TV marketer produces its own content, it has to buy airtime, but with email: "We own our own media channels, we're not renting.”

First example of custom publishing: late 1800s magazine "The Furrow," from John Deere, to inform farmers who had little source of information about new tools. The magazine exists today, with a Web site. Info courtesy of Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute

A new Forrester report "The Interactive Brand Ecosystem" says "more than 80% of American adults are online and on average those users spend as much time on the Internet as they spend watching TV." Same is true for Europeans under 55. Also, on "most days, the MSN home page reaches more people" than a prime-time TV show. The Internet offers a chance for more comprehensive messaging and consumers say the Internet is "their most important source of product information."

Noted author Arthur Middleton Hughes, a vice president at the Database Marketing Institute, said a larger share of a company's marketing budget can go to email, if email marketers demonstrate to C-suite executives how email can produce a high "lifetime value" for a particular customer. "In almost any organization, email is at the bottom of the power structure," he said. Instead, TV leads the pack. "Lifetime value" for a customer varies widely from company to company of course, but he defines the metric as profit per customer over a three-year period. Hughes, a 33-year veteran of …

A panel with music marketers expresses how tough it can be to stick with a campaign strategy -- email or otherwise -- when an artist may alter plans. "We're trying to control leaks in the music industry, but it makes hard when the artist actually releases it," said Universal Music Group's Anna Lee, referring to a song ahead of time, without a label's approval. Also, after their fans are buzzing about something on Twitter, they may be inspired to oblige requests, affecting a marketing plan. Then, some artists are loathe to do any promotion, and others may …

A record label obviously has massive amounts of content from song clips to music videos, but capitalizing on that to help acquire email addresses might be better utilized. Anna Lee, who works in digital consumer marketing at the Universal Music Group, cited an example of how social media helped the marketer use a content asset to build an email list. A Latin label within UMG noticed that conversation on Facebook and Twitter had people hungering for lyrics for a coming release. So, a program was set up for if people signing up for an email, the lyrics could …

StormPost's Damian Borichevsky suggested that Facebook becoming an ISP faces challenges. The email address program is balky with: no subject lines for messages; messages getting stacked with the newest ones at the bottom; and a filtering mechanism that puts messages in filters if not sent from a friend. Borichevsky said the system's current incarnation will make it tough to use it as a main ISP. But, Facebook has shown it is constantly evolving and tweaking and improvement could come and likely will. "They are a long way off in some areas," Borichevsky said. "Just the momentum they …

Starz senior marketing manager Angela Clayton suggests sending email messages that can facilitate setting a DVR could be a golden ticket. For example, when a message comes plugging Starz show "Camelot," the chance to set up a recording in real time could drive viewership and engagement. Also within TV marketing, Eventful executive Koshie Nartey, who works with NBC, suggested email can generate engagement by involving consumers in a show production process early on. Messages could bring participation in a poll to vote on which contest to use in an upcoming reality series -- or to offer guidance in character …

Trendline Interactive's Mike Bloxham gives a shout-out to Turner's truTV stunt, where it challenged viewers to bring 500,000 "Likes" to the network's Facebook page for show "Operation Repo." TruTV wound up with well over 500,000, and as a reward made a bonus episode of the show available on the page after the current season ended.

Angela Clayton, a senior marketing manager at the media company that operates the Starz and Encore networks, said it uses email marketing to drive tune-in and build brand awareness for shows. Emails used to cover a wide range of programming. But now that Starz is launching original productions, specific emails tied to individual shows are producing higher click-through rates, again showing the power of more targeted emails. Yet, what is Starz learning about its viewers through the process? "That's one of our challenges," Clayton said, noting Starz is evaluating internal data bases to looking to deliver even more personalized …