The Hands of Time March Forward

Yet another year has passed, and where has the online marketing industry gone? The truth is, not very far. Sure, there has been talk of ad standardization, legislation to control unsolicited e-mail, and selling online advertising in a manner more consistent with television and other traditional media, but the fact is that little progress was made on any of these fronts....

Are We Witnessing the Death of E-mail Marketing?

E-mail once held the greatest promise of all online marketing vehicles. It can be highly targeted, it enables marketers to engage their customers in a two-way, ongoing dialogue, and users often voluntarily sign up to receive them. In a time that has now past, these attributes led to high click-through and action rates....

Viral Marketing: The New Word of Mouth

An Unfortunate Name

The term “viral marketing” has been unfairly vilified in a variety of media outlets over recent months, mostly by people who have only a vague idea what the term means. Perhaps the criticism is based on the negative connotations that the word “viral” conjures up....

National Cybersecurity: A Pro-Active Online Communications Campaign

On September 18, 2002, the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board (PCIPB) released a draft of a national strategy to secure cyberspace. The Bivings Group specializes in online public affairs campaigns and media intelligence and has an evolved expertise in network security and integrity. This piece is intended to bring these two competencies together to form a point of departure for the U.S....

Managing Content in Midsize Companies

Ask any market research group and they will tell you the same thing – the market for content management software is about to explode. Meta Group estimates a growth in sales to $10 billion in 2004, while rival Ovum is betting on an increase to more than $13 billion in the same period....