How to Optimize Your Email Campaign ROI

Email marketing is always changing. While overall read rates declined in Q4 2012, some marketers defied the odds with responsible, well-planned email sending strategies. However, as the top email marketers continue to test and optimize, new subscriber behaviors are changing the rules of the game.

Download this Email Intelligence Report now from Return Path to tap into the latest data trends and analytics to optimize your email campaigns and email ROI.

Sophia Vergara Disses Guy For Can of Diet Pepsi

In her continuing quest to find and consume every last can of Diet Pepsi, Sophia Vergara, again, passes over a suitor, this time eschewing the advances of a handsome fellow diner in favor of, yes, another can of Pepsi.

Created by TBWA, the work continues its association with the Modern Family star.

Marketers Ball Seeks Sponsorship For ad:tech Event

If you're heading to ad:tech San Francisco in April, consider sponsoring and attending The Marketers Ball. In the past, has had Digital Underground & Too Short with live bands to back them both. In New York they've had Funkmaster Flex, Doug E Fresh, they've co-produced an event that brought Naughty By Nature and Slick Rick.

During the Affiliate Summit shows they've had Nelly, Big Boi of Outkast, Three 6 Mafia, Ice-T & Coco and many others. Attendance at these parties averages 2,000.

If your a company that will be attending and/or exhibiting at ad:tech, consider sponsoring The Marketers Ball. Packages begin at $1,000. If you're interested please contact darren@marketersball.com or call 818 825-3972.

Digital Cupid Reveals Your True Valentine

If you think you know who your true Valentine is, think again. After all in this day and age of social media...ahem...stalking, the rules are very different. And Charlotte-based ad agency Tattoo Projects is out to prove it.

The agency has developed a Facebook app called From Cupid that, by analyzing your Facebook interactions, tells who who your true sweetheart is. The results may surprise you!

Band Launches Single..On USB Sticks Attached to Balloons

Belgian band Garcia Goodbye got creative with the launch of its new single. The band decided to literally launch the single...by attaching USB stick containing the song to balloons they let go into the sky.

The band also decided it would personally travel to the furthest location the USB was found, 800 kilometers from the home.

The stunt seems to have work. The band's single has been featured on Coldplay's website.

more »

I Get Mad YouTube Views Cuz People Can't Smell My Poo

Litter Genie, with help from JWT New York, is out with its third music video featuring Walter who, along with his Lap Cats, invite you to groove to the sounds of Me Luvz Mahselfz.

With nearly 2.5 million combined views for his previous music videos, I Haz A Catnip in Mah Head and I Haz a Pie Row Tek Nik, Walter's musical fame has grown beyond YouTube.

As part of the promotion, people can tweet their own rap lyrics to @LitterGenieCat and one dollar will be donated to Best Friends Animal Society through February 17.

Best lyrics in the new tune" "I'm on YouTube getting all kinds of views because people can't smell my poo."

more »

Perhaps the Best Agency Self-Promo Ever

Out for about a month (OK, two years and one month!), this video from john. st. examines the scenario of a simple birthday party which, if planned properly, is no small task and requires artful skills to pull of successfully. Using this analogy, john st, magically convinces us that if they could pull off the perfect birthday party, just imagine what they could do for a brand.

more »

Percussionist Slaps Four Thong-Clad Asses

Here's one of the more unique methods a musician can use to call attention to his band. Percussionist Jorge Perez, member of the musical group Patax, can be seen in this video having his way, musically speaking, with four woman who have offered up their thong-clad asses for Jorge to, well, slap as he sees fit.

more »

UnPretentiousil Cures Hipsterism, Cassies Care

- Unpretentiousil has been scientifically and clinically proven to cure hipsters.

- Need help insuring your video will "go viral?" Check out TubeRank.

- Dish Network's new ad pays its respects to...TV commercials.

- To raise awareness of the 13th SriLankan Airlines Golf Classic in Colombo (which had been on a two year hiatus), Grant McCann developed stickers that made people's car windows look like they had been shattered.

- The Cassies, Canada's version of the Effies, is being promoted with three videos that poke fun at just how much regular people couldn't care less about awards shows. (One, Two, Three)

How Inbound Marketing Serves the New Purchase Loop Mentality

For over one hundred years, brands have been tailoring their marketing to the four-step purchase funnel developed in 1898 by Elias St. Elmo Lewis. The familiar steps are awareness, interest, desire and action. Simple. Straight-forward. And has served marketers well for a century.

Well now it's out of date. According to new research conducted by Latitude, 87 percent of consumers no travel a less linear, more complex pathway to final purchase. And there are new steps in the process which include openness, realized want or need, learning and education, seeking idea and inspiration, research and vetting...and post-purchase evaluation and expansion.

Check out this in-depth article I wrote for HubSpot that details the new process and how brands can fine-tune their marketing for each individual step.