Yes, I went and yes it was bad ass.

Granted we grew up on these movies and as a 9 year old, the Millennium Falcon was one of my most prized possessions, but the thrill these days is in the experience. The full orchestra, massive HD screens and a well coordinated narration through the saga is a must see event.

Needless to say, FanMail is really excited to be supporting this through our clients Another Planet Entertainment as it travels the world. Check out the tour dates, take the family and be ready to experience a really one of a kind concert event.

Really, we were lucky.

In 2001, when we first met the 4 founders of ExactTarget at a dry cleaning conference, who could have guessed where our two businesses would be today? We could have partnered with any number of technology providers to help us drive our direct-to-fan vision… and these days there are dozens if not hundreds of database/email/voice/social/sms service providers out there that run the spectrum in quality and cost.

“Email marketing is a commodity,” is what one exec told me not long ago. Yeah, well sort of… The ability to send lots of messages to lots of people is a commodity, but the ability to accomplish great marketing is not. Permission marketing is not a commodity… it’s a premium. Delivering the right message to the right person at the right time through the right medium is not a commodity… it is a premium.

So, yeah we were lucky. Out of all the partners we could have picked, we picked the one that understands that it isn’t about sending emails but about helping organizations connect with their customers in real and meaningful ways. Great technology is just the beginning, but real and true customer relationships are the glue that keeps it together.

This partnership has been incredibly valuable to FanMail and has allowed us to push some of the most sophisticated direct-to-fan marketing initiatives ever seen in the music and entertainment industry. The technology which ExactTarget has built allows us to ask “how” instead of “if” when it comes to complex direct, lights-out and lifecycle marketing programs. Almost anything we want to do is possible. In addition, their dedication to the FanMail Reseller Partnership and our vision and commitment to the music and entertainment vertical has permitted us to bring ExactTarget technology to our customers in a way that is accessible and cost effective for them.

So, we were not surprised to hear that ExactTarget has swept the field in the latest Forrester Wave report. Earning the title of “Leader of the Pack”, ExactTarget dominated the competition.

The Forrester report analyzed the products and services of 15 top-tier email service providers, using over 70 criteria and found ExactTarget dominated in nearly every category! In fact, ExactTarget earned perfect scores in 6 of the 14 categories – Product Roadmap, Vertical Strategy, Executive Vision, Strength of Management Team, Employees and, most importantly, ExactTarget was the only Email Service Provider to earn a perfect score in the Customers Category – a clear validation of realizing their core value of “Make clients look like heroes.”

The graphic above is a quick synopsis of the report. Notice ExactTarget’s placement in the upper right, making them a “Leader in the Industry.” It’s clear that it’s become a two-horse race between ExactTarget and Responsys. The data behind the graphic tells an even more compelling story. We beat or tied Responsys in 11 of the 14 categories, and ExactTarget beat them especially where it counts: current offering, technology platform, services and customer satisfaction! ExactTarget distanced themselves even further from the rest of the competitive pack, including e-Dialog, CheetahMail, Epsilon, Silverpop, Lyris and EmailVision. Even Forrester made mention in the report of ExactTarget’s acceleration and separation in the market. “ExactTarget has vastly expanded its organization to cater to marketers in any market segment. It offers a highly usable self-service application and has a growing services organization that offers the ability for its personnel to be deployed at the client location.”

Congratulations to the ExactTarget team. This show a tremendous amount of work and dedication to being the best of the best. As we enter 2010, FanMail is very proud to have such a prominent technology leader as our partner!

>> Download the complete Forrester report here

Quote of the Day | Bob Lefsetz

I don’t have the time.
And neither do you.
That’s what your unwanted e-mails are, solicitations.

Check out the full post here>>

The thing that sucks about most marketers is that they think too much like marketers… like solicitors. They have a very hard time stepping away from themselves long enough to ask their audience/client/customer/ticket buyer/fans, “why is that important to you?” and “what are your needs”. Most marketers are only concerned with their own needs… their own point of view and what is important to THEM.

I had a interesting conversation over lunch with a gentleman in the music industry who didn’t understand why permission marketing was important.. or how it worked. The question he raised was, “if cost were not an issue, why shouldn’t promoters send as many emails as possible, to as many people as possible, as often as possible?”

And he has a point… after all, if I throw enough shit at the wall, certainly something will stick.

However, email marketing is NOT permission marketing. Email is just the vehicle… a very efficient vehicle, but just a vehicle none the less. The value is not in the email, but in the PERMISSION… that somebody cares what you are saying and is looking forward to it.

The problem with just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks… is that the people who might have once cared and once gave you permission are likely to get hit along the way.

And once those people go away and block you out… they almost never come back.

One of our newest clients, Them Crooked Vultures, are something to write home to your Mom about. Not just because they are a SUPERgroup made up of drummer Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), but because their marketing and email strategy is highly effective in growing their fans and subscriber list.