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The NY Times article J.C. Penney’s New Plan Is to Reuse Its Old Plans summarizes efforts to go from jcp back to “Penney’s” (“I love Penney’s” as my Mom would say). They...

Angelina Jolie’s announcement of her double mastectomy has lit up the news wires in recent days and rightly so. As a woman and a mom, I applaud her thoughtful and courageous decision to take a proactive approach to her health. In Angelina’s case, knowing her carrier status for BRCA1 set in motion life-saving events to prevent breast cancer.

Thanks to revolutions in genetic testing,...

If you don’t know me personally, I’m the guy you see lugging locked, steel attaché cases around the office. Often from one secured room full of servers to another secured room.

It may look like I work for the CIA, but that’s how seriously we take our information security. Which is why we were one of the first agencies to become ISO/IEC 27001 certified in 2010.

This...

According to the IAB, last year mobile advertising spending increased by 111% and accounted for 9 percent of all digital ad revenue (which also increased).

It's a big jump, but not necessarily as big as it should have been.

They're easy to find but we don't need statistics to prove that behavior has already changed. To accurately reflect the word "marketing," we need to honor the market...

Picture this: You’ve sent your mom a card for her birthday. She’ll reach into the mailbox, see the envelope, and pause. A smile will move across her face.

The envelope feels different and looks special. It has her name on it. She’ll either open it then and there, carefully untucking the card. Or she’ll place it on the kitchen table to savor the unveiling later.

All...

As large amounts of advertising dollars shift to digital vehicles, the age old struggle of marketers to determine what part of their budget is actually working has taken on a new name – “attribution.” While digital vehicles add more channels of audience reach, the fundamental issues of attribution remain the same.

The first thing to embrace is that complex buying decisions...

While perusing Forrester’s 2013 Interactive Marketing Predictions report (Forrester Research, February 11, 2013), I realized that I can now add another title to my role as a participant in the U.S. economy –...

Recently I bought a new car. This new object of my affection is a Fiat 500 - you may remember their Super Bowl ad from last year. It's possible that I've wanted this car since then.

My car is a blast to drive. In fact, just thinking about it can cheer me up. Just like the advertising suggests, owning...

At Hacker Group, proofreading is a crucial function in the flawless implementation of direct marketing programs across all accountable media. Our team of proofreaders is tasked with approving every element of each project they review—from the big picture to the smallest detail, from smartphone and tablet to the mailbox.

A proofreader can expect to review up to 100 individual projects...

I had the honor of attending a B.B. King show last weekend and it struck me that we could all learn some customer relationship management lessons from one of the hardest working men in music history.

He’s in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he’s considered one of the top 10 best guitarists of all time and he was born in 1925. Yes – you heard me – he’s 87 years...

The recent New York Times article by Michael Moss – The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food – basically sums up that big food companies have engineered junk food to make fat, salt,...

The concept of Mobile First has been around for a few years now, and like all new trends it has finally hit the main stage as the most important new term that you should keep in mind every day. There’s the Mobile First theory, and of course the major design and code elements that make a Mobile First campaign successful. I’m not a developer, so I’m going to stick to theory, and...

For years my livelihood in direct marketing was heavily dependent on mail. So the announcement of the loss of Saturday delivery, while no surprise, threw me for a bit of an emotional loop. In fact, it took me a while to process what it really meant – for me and for my organization.

Here’s my take, after some consideration.

From a delivery perspective: ...

Relevance is key in customer lifecycle communications. Today’s savvy customers understand that the companies seeking to retain them have the big data details behind their relationship. These customers increasingly allow and even expect these nuggets of relevance to be used to communicate with, inform and retain them.

Hacker Group’s customer lifecycle program for Carnival Cruise...

While it is counterintuitive to think a single interaction – a response to a solicitation – should get marketing credit for a sale, most marketers strive to prove this very fact in their efforts to understand what part of their budget is actually working.

The intent of multi-channel marketing is to produce a greater volume of market engagement than from the use of a single channel. ...

I recently promised more examples of what I’m calling “Customer-Focused Messaging.”

What I mean by that is considering deeply not just the customer’s attitude toward the brand or product, not just an insight into her pain points, but thinking...

Marketers like to debate campaign execution: Should the approach center on one consistent design theme? Does there need to be a fully consistent design across platforms? Is the consistent thread of a brand identity enough to unite a message?

I suppose there’s no right answer to these questions, but there are certainly other critical factors to consider. Plus, we should never forget...

No one wants to be “that guy” . . . the one with the annoying habit that everyone notices except him. Brands risk that when they don’t pay attention to how people are consuming their marketing messages.

But you’re not “that guy.” Right?

If you create unique email interfaces for the most popular devices and email clients, that’s certainly a start....

Just saw in Mashable a shocking new infographic from Lab42 that broke the news that no one believes...

Look at all the communications you’ve delivered in 2012. Email, direct mail, Twitter and Facebook conversations – and, we hope, face-to-face or (at least) phone conversations.

Are they engaging your customers, leads and prospects as much as they possibly could? Are there key facts you could gather through upcoming programs that could improve your close rate?

Much has been...