UK

That is a familiar image, isn't it? The well-traveled, world-weary suitcase, littered with stickers from places visited from Alaska to Zimbabwe. The trusty suitcase that is lugged from state to state and country to country: it may be battered and bruised, but it serves its owner well as they globe-trot across the world.

I used to be envious of the owners of those suitcases. That image motivated me to have my own beat-up, decorated travel companion to visit far off places with.

I have been living outside of America for almost nine years now. I lived in Sydney, Australia for just under five years...

There’s no doubt that today’s consumers are mobile. They’re constantly on-the-go, sending and receiving communications of all types, and they’ve come to expect that information be (literally) in-hand at all times. Consumers in the UK and around the globe are no longer sitting at their computers searching for information—instead, they expect information to be available all around them. At the same time, they expect that information to be relevant to their lives.

The hyper-connected consumer expects brands of all sizes and industries to start meeting them where they are. It also provides new...

As I write this, 93% of UK online consumers are email subscribers and 40% of these subscribers are opening, reading and responding to email on their mobile phones or tablets. If you think these statistics suggest UK consumers prefer email above all channels for receiving offers and information from brands, you are absolutely correct!

A new report from eMarketer confirms why more marketing budget is flowing to permission-based email and why email has become “The Linchpin” of integrated digital marketing strategies.

Among the key findings in the report are these:

• Econsultancy and Adestra’s Email...

“Email is dead – Sign up for our email to hear more…”

Google the phrase "email is dead" and you’ll find countless news articles, blogs and opinion pieces claiming the death of our beloved email is nigh--and that by 2018, email's trendier younger cousin social media will ensure that email becomes as popular a communication device as the carrier pigeon.

ExactTarget caught up with Dominic Edmunds--founder and president of SaleCycle, the basket abandonment email specialists--to get his thoughts on the death of email.

ExactTarget: So, Dominic, let’s get straight to the point. When will you be closing...

Digital channels have revolutionized the way we communicate with our customers. We’re all in hot pursuit of new and innovative ways to effectively deliver the right messages, through the right channels, at the right time.

At ExactTarget, we recognize that creating and maintaining relationships with consumers requires more than clever writing and glossy marketing materials. To truly connect with customers, marketers need to understand both consumer behaviors and motivations. That’s why we went straight to the source and asked consumers how they view and use each unique communication medium.

Five...

In the digital industry, it’s easy to talk about the fall of traditional advertising. While these sources certainly aren’t disappearing forever as many like to suggest, they are most certainly evolving. The Associated Press has long been linked with the print industry. The nonprofit news agency that has worked to fill newspapers is now adapting to the new digital world. In an ironic twist, this longtime print powerhouse is now asking: Are You Adapting?

This video points to the 2012 London Olympics as the tipping point in the sporting world’s digital evolution. We may not have noticed it while...

Who do you think are the most engaged Twitter users in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa)? Would you have guessed our passionate friends in France, Spain, or Italy? I did.

According to a large global study from GlobalWebIndex, that surveyed over 152,000 Internet users, the Middle East has the world’s most engaged Twitter audiences. In Saudi Arabia, 51% of internet users surveyed were active Twitter users, putting it in first place worldwide. The United Arab Emirates ranked third, with 34% of internet users actively using the social network.

eMarketer writes, "GlobalWebIndex defines “active...

This week I encountered something that I didn't think was possible: I met someone who does not own a mobile phone. You can pick your jaw up off the floor now. 

I had the same reaction. This guy must have been one of the only people--if not the only person-- in London who does not own a mobile device. Hey, maybe some people just don't want to be connected 24/7. Based on recent data on smartphone penetration in the UK,  this encounter is definitely the exception to what is on pace to become the rule. 

The one recent stat that I read that really jumped out at me was that, three out of four UK...

March 27 is observed as the festival of colour, Holi, by a large number of Indians across the world. This holiday is a particuarly interesting social experiment, and one I've grown up observing since early childhood.

It’s a day celebrated not just with friends and family, but with pretty much anyone you can get your hands on--neighbour, neighbour's dog, et al. The key is dousing your victim in either coloured water or colourful powder dyes. In fact, it's not unusual for prim and proper suited office workers refusing to get into the spirit of things to be hit with water balloons thrown by school...

Multiple touch points and disparate systems can often prove challenging for organisations trying to make sense of their data, leaving them with no way to leverage the information they have to gain insight into their customers.

At TFM&A (Technology for Marketing & Advertising) in London recently, I was struck by the number of similar conversations I had with various marketers. Consistently, they expressed frustrations around having to depend heavily on IT to obtain data in order to send out customer communications and how this generally leads to delays and unnecessary additional costs.

Whenever a...

About 18 months ago, I blogged about some impending changes to cookie laws in the EU, and potential ramifications for marketers. As it turns out, those laws didn't cause the world to end, some Governmental sites weren't even compliant, and to this date I do not believe the legislation has been truly enforced on any individual or organisation.

That being said, the latest proposed updates to the EU Data Protection Regulations have potentially much more widespread impact for all marketing, and indeed any company which handles or processes customer data.

If the legislation were to be passed in its...

I am proud to announce the next version of Conversations with ExactTarget. Today's interview is with Mark Schaefer, one of the most acclaimed and accomplished marketing consultants in America with a special emphasis in social media marketing. A few of his recent accomplishments include:

• Forbes magazine “Power 50″ social media influencers of the world
• AdAge magazine “Power 150″ marketing blogger
• TweetSmarter 2011 Twitter User of the year
• Peer-elected 2011 B2B Twitter User of the Year
• B2B Magazine (UK) social media book of the year: Tao of Twitter
• Author of two best-selling marketing books
• Seven...

Sky Broadband, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the UK, announced last year that they were migrating their Sky Email service (historically powered by Google Mail) to Yahoo! Mail. The ISP sent out an initial message to their customers last November offering them the chance to opt-in early to the new service, which is set to launch in April 2013.

Earlier this month, Sky launched their official migration site, offering users more information about the transition. Users have to agree to the new Terms and Conditions to continue using Sky Email after the yet-to-be-specified transition date this...

As a member of ExactTarget's Global Support leadership team, I see a lot of examples of how not to do things. Most of the time, my team can help you reverse-engineer the issue and align your work to industry and ExactTarget best practices. There are some mistakes, though, that even we can't help you come back from--and that can be disastrous to your marketing program.

Here are the top five that I've seen from my time at the support desk, and how you can avoid being a victim:

1. Location location location: Know your source of truth for subscriber information. Is it your internal CRM database? Is...

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona kicked off in full force on Sunday. In addition to presenting at Pepcom, the ExactTarget Mobile team had the chance to talk to hundreds of press and analysts about our expanded mobile platform—all while eating wonderful Spanish food and enjoying some Catalan music!

We also attended the MWC Show, with its eight different exhibit halls. One of the highlights of the show was the Connected City, which included examples of all the ways our lives are—and will be—impacted by mobile across home, health, work, entertainment, and more. The high point for me was the...

Mobile World Congress convenes just one week from today in Barcelona, Spain (February 25-28). We are excited to make the trip to the world’s premier mobile industry event and round out what seems like a mobile world tour, after already hitting CES, Mobile Insider Summit, and MMA this year.

The theme of Mobile World Congress 2013 is “Explore the New Mobile Horizon” and will center on trends like contactless payments, augmented reality, embedded devices, and connected cities. There will be over 1,500 product and technology exhibitors and an App Planet dedicated to the mobile app...

Remember that rather Orange stand at eXtremeCRM in Rome? Yes, that was us--ExactTarget!

eXtremeCRM was an awesome opportunity for Microsoft CRM partners across EMEA to network, find out what is in the roadmap for Microsoft Dynamics this year, and just share some CRM Love!

Many of you had the opportunity to speak with us and the conversations around partnership opportunities are just kick-starting. We are looking forward to seeing what the aftermath of the event holds for us all.

My favourite part of the event was Bill Patterson's closing presentation, it was great to see Bill echo ExactTarget’s...

"We record anything, anywhere, anytime.” - Sam Phillips

Way back when in the year of 1950, Sam Phillips created a platform for what would become the foundation of American rock and roll. Sam Phillips founded Sun Records, a recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Phillips not only discovered Elvis Presley, he also helped launched the career of many of the most important artists in music history: Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Howlin’ Wolf, just to name a few.

Back in 1950, there were far fewer channels to reach customers: television was a luxury that few could afford, only 10% of homes had a...

As our Global Marketing Manager at ExactTarget, it's a privilege to work with each of our different market locations: North America, Australia/APAC, Brazil, and our EMEA locations which include the UK, France, Germany, and the Nordics. Working with each of these talented teams around the world means that I get to see interactive marketing in action.

In fact, there is a lot planned for this upcoming quarter: ExactTarget will be making a grand entrance into some of our relatively new offices with exciting positioning of our cross-channel capabilities. This week alone we had a group of global...