When I saw Jason McNamara’s letter in the Jan. 31 issue of DM News, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It’s a pretty sad state of the union when a technologist like Jason, someone I hold in high regard, seeks to denigrate a competitive technology because it is more affordable than his own by a factor of 5,000 to 1.
Furthermore, he claims that DM News is creating confusion with its article by focusing the reader’s attention on the wrong things. In fact, he is creating the confusion! I would say that Jason lacks a full understanding of stickEmail’s functionality, but having personally presented stickEmail to him, I know that is not the case. I suspect that he is unjustly concerned and resentful that a “list” company has entered “his” market with a low-cost offering that threatens his existing revenue model. Well, Jason, welcome to America!
Today’s technologies allow developers to leapfrog their predecessors with an entirely new generation of products. It’s unfortunate for companies like his that find themselves under the increased pressure of keeping up with “the next greatest thing.” I appreciate that Jason’s customers spend more than $50,000 (his words) to produce an “e-mailable” flash video, but bottom line – they no longer need to.
Other viable, more affordable solutions exist. StickEmail is not the only provider of interactive video in the market. We are but one of the emerging companies providing affordable communications solutions using video and rich media. These new mediums have an incredible “wow” factor and command a lot of attention. These tools are “content,” they are not tools for spamming as Jason suggests, even though any tool in the wrong hands can be abused.
Clearly, videos that are sent via e-mail must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. This is the future, and we will all be seeing and using tools like these in the days to come.
I do agree with Jason that DM News’ readers need to start to understand the different levels of e-mail marketing products available and that we all should focus our attention on those that abuse consumer privacy or exploit the low costs of Internet communications without respect for the recipient. New technology can be scary – especially if you are the one selling the old stuff.
David O. Schwartz, President/CEO, 21st Century Marketing,
Farmingdale, NY
