As I’m in the process of relocating from England back to the U.S., I’ve been unsubscribing from myriad UK e-mail newsletters. And I’m disappointed—not by how difficult it has been, but rather by how laissez-faire companies seem to be about losing me as a subscriber. The same businesses that had courted me with “please subscribe, pretty please” on their Web sites and in their catalogs were letting me unsubscribe without so much as a “we’ll miss you” or “was it something we said?”
Okay, a few companies did include a form on their unsubscribe page asking why I was canceling. But just one not only asked why but also sent me a confirmation e-mail that made a point of saying how sorry it was sorry to see me go. I felt so warm and fuzzy after reading the e-mail that, had I not been moving, I would have reinstated my subscription then and there.
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By now we all know that the Apple iPad will go down in history as the most revolutionary device since the opposable thumb, and the most tin-eared product name since Dr. Crapper’s brainchild.
The naming problem can be overcome if the tablet gets enough lift among the public. (Who would have given odds that everyone would want a Wii?) But the revolutionary promise could come true. Consumers are buying portability in their electronics. Recent forecasts from the Consumer Electronics Association predict that this year’s hot categories will be wireless handsets and especially smart phones (52 million to be sold globally in 2010) and, in the PC category, lightweight, stripped down netbooks (30 million units to be sold this year.) more
In a PR event to demonstrate that it really wants drivers to be safe, UK-based insurer, confused.com, bubble-wrapped an entire, accident prone street yesterday.
Here’s the link to the story.
Kinda hard to squeeze a ROMI out of a stunt like this, don’t you think?
Dockers has found a new use for a popular music identifying technology.
The technology, Shazam, was developed for smartphones to let users identify music by simply pointing their handheld in the direction of the music and clicking the “tag now” button. The technology recognizes the music and opens a Shazam landing page that identifies the song and artist, and offers other information, like where to buy the song and musical recommendations.
Dockers may just be one of the first brands to use the technology as a means to market to consumers, driving viewers of its Super Bowl ad, “Men Without Pants” to a splash page it created. During the ad, the song, “I Wear No Pants,” is sung. People who tag the song will be directed to Dockers content that includes information about its new campaign to drive sales of men’s khakis, learn about its products, purchase the “I Wear No Pants” soundtrack or enter a contest.
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Just when it looks like the U.S. Postal Service is gonna remain perpetually insolvent and people are pulling out their hair about what to do about it, the USPS Inspector General comes out with a report saying the USPS overpaid its Civil Service Retirement System pension obligations for retired employees by $75 billion over nearly 40 years.
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You have to give John A. Greco Jr. credit for making it to 2010 as president/CEO of the Direct Marketing Association. Thanks to the nasty fight for DMA proxy votes just before the group’s annual board meeting on Oct. 18, I thought Greco would be a goner after the Annual Conference that week. more
