Digital + Social

When MediaPost’s Online Media Daily covered the news that four national advertising organizations and two online civil liberties groups had filed amicus briefs in favor of pornography group the Free Speech Coalition’s lawsuit against Utah over its so-called child-protection do-not-e-mail registries, reporter Wendy Davis dutifully included comment from the registries’ leading proponent Matthew Prince, who also runs them and makes money from them:

“Matthew Prince, CEO of Unspam, said he was ‘surprised’ by the attempt of groups representing mainstream marketers to get involved in the case. ‘I’m surprised that organizations like the Association of National Advertisers—whose boards are made up of companies like Wal-Mart and LeapFrog, and who have been at the forefront of protecting the rights of individuals and parents to choose what material comes into their homes—would support a lawsuit by the pornography industry, arguing that they have the right to send whatever and whenever they want, and to whomever they want.’”

After sitting through a marketing Webinar filled with a little too much relationship-speak, branding consultant Eric Weaver last week posted a rant on his blog headlined

E-mail service provider Accucast announced today it has been acquired by business-communications outsourcer Premiere Global Services.

E-mail marketing spending will grow from $885 million in 2005 to $1.1 billion by 2010, and the volume of spam messages per consumer will decrease by 13% a year during this same period, according to JupiterResearch.

Bad news: 38% of consumers surveyed last summer defined spam as “e-mail that tries to sell me a product/service even if I know the sender.” In other words, even if someone is your customer, he’s likely to consider you a spammer

Vongo, a new video download service from Starz Entertainment Group LLC, has chosen Dynamics Direct Inc. to manage its e-mail communications.

What more can you do for movie goers who already enjoy in-theater table service and a full bar? You can send them an e-mail newsletter. That’s what Brian Schultz, founder of Studio Movie Grill, started doing five years ago.

Illinois state Rep. Jack Franks decided at the last minute to shelve a bill that would have established a so-called child-protection do-not e-mail registry in that state.

AOL’s announcement that it would begin implementing Goodmail’s CertifiedEmail program and phasing out its enhanced whitelist is being denounced by at least one top industry executive as a cynical attempt to get more money out of non-spamming marketers.

Illinois state Rep. Jack Franks decided at the last minute to shelve a bill that would have established a so-called child-protection do-not e-mail registry in that state, Magilla Marketing has learned.

After an estimated 50 or 60 calls to his office and the office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Franks became convinced his bill was flawed enough that it shouldn