Comments on: Comments on 9052

Post number 9052

leo — Mon, 16 Jul 2001 18:34:06 -0800

Companies Encouraged to Mine Your Email Messages for Marketing Information. DoubleClick redux only now with e-mail? "Companies should be adding code" to your HTML-based e-mail messages, recommends an analyst from Jupiter, in order to track what products you're recommending to your friends and lovers. You may have missed this one due to CNET's marketing-happy headline. P.S. Here's the original press release from Jupiter.

By: rebeccablood

rebeccablood — Mon, 16 Jul 2001 19:04:23 -0800

well, that's just evil. and another reason to turn off html email. "...only 7 percent of companies, according to Jupiter, can accurately identify "viral influencers."" so, if they track me and identify me as a viral influencer, what do I get? coupons? ice cream? a pony?

By: kindall

kindall — Mon, 16 Jul 2001 19:07:21 -0800

if they track me and identify me as a viral influencer, what do I get? More advertising!

By: leo

leo — Mon, 16 Jul 2001 19:27:01 -0800

Not only that. We should weigh the consequences of NOT being identified as a viral influencer -- I mean, will they just chuck out our mail? On a more serious note, if marketing is fair game why not what people are doing tonight or who they're meeting? How about their tastes in other things? I bet someone could make a buck analyzing that. It's the absence of any sense of reflection that maybe this isn't the greatest idea in the world that struck me the most.

By: fooljay

fooljay — Mon, 16 Jul 2001 19:55:13 -0800

The funny thing is, all they can tell is that the advertised company/product is being talked about. I could be sending it around to 100 friends saying that the product sucks and they'd send me a pony because I'm a "viral influencer"... Marketers are Idiots...

By: buddha9090

buddha9090 — Mon, 16 Jul 2001 21:02:15 -0800

Speaking of marketing nastiness, I just read this article [NY Times] discussing a Manhattan marketing agencies new tactic of sending out twenty something hipsters to bars to rave loudly about a certain corporate sponsors product [in this article's case its a brand of flavored water]. Absolutely disgusting...

By: zempf

zempf — Mon, 16 Jul 2001 21:32:17 -0800

if they track me and identify me as a viral influencer, what do I get? Antibiotics.

By: whatnotever

whatnotever — Mon, 16 Jul 2001 22:00:23 -0800

That would be just like them... Giving antibiotics for a viral influence...

By: davehat

davehat — Mon, 16 Jul 2001 22:17:16 -0800

so, if they track me and identify me as a viral influencer, what do I get? coupons? Mouldy spam?

By: Mars Saxman

Mars Saxman — Tue, 17 Jul 2001 09:37:50 -0800

Right, because we all litter our email to friends with references to specific brand-names. Uh-huh. I wish Outlook let you turn off HTML rendering as well as composition. Maybe it's time to write a procmail script to filter it out at the server... -Mars