Hipsters rejoice! Nike has re-released its original line of (now vintage) running shoes and, in an amazing feat of irony, is promoting it through a medium that was just a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye back in 1977. The Nike Vintage Running Web site, centered around fictional magazine Oregon Runner, features handy tips and tricks for the modern runner wearing vintage circa 2007 Nikes (beer, for instance, is “the essential post-race drink”) and detailed descriptions of the new/vintage shoes. Check it out.

It seems there is a perfect time to reach email readers: Thursday morning, around 11 am.
According to the latest issue of Marketing News, the Web consultants eROI, Inc. have found that most electronic mail gets read at either 11 am or 4 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays—after that first of the week rush, but before weekenditis sets in. Good to know.

With Steve Jobs announcing a seemingly endless variety of iPods the other day, one of them being the new Internet-surfing iPod Touch, some folks may have started considering that our current Web sites may soon become obsolete. A lot of these “ancient” sites out there are just not easy enough to navigate - even the skinniest of fingers are simply too darn fat to choose between hyperlinks written in an 8 point font. A List Apart, however, assures us we don’t have to pack it in just yet. With just a couple of alterations, such as site dimensions and URL sizes, we can all have home pages that accommodate the brave new electronic world of tiny touch screens.

One of the biggest (and quickest) tools for measuring the success of an online campaign are click-through rates (or CTRs, as we call them in the biz). Trouble is, the knowledge of how to use them hasn’t spread as fast as their actual use – which is why we loved the article in this month’s Marketing News on CTRs and their various roles in the world of online marketing.

Put simply, click-throughs refers to the number of people who clicked on your link when it appeared on a third-party Web site or in an email blast. The CTR is the percentage of click-throughs given a certain amount of exposure. So, if you sent out 100 emails and 20 people clicked on a link to your Web site, your CTR would be 20%. Great, except - what does that mean? (more…)

Illustrious fashion mag, Vogue, has outdone itself once again. The September 2007 issue features a whopping 840 pages…727 of which are advertisements. Weighing in at nearly five pounds, the magazine’s actual content doesn’t begin until page 54. Vogue and other fashion mags have always been ad-heavy, but this issue in particular may have sparked advertisers’ interests due to Vogue’s new Web site, ShopVogue.TV. The site offers four hours of original programming and, more importantly, allows readers to purchase any of the over 1500 products they saw in the content and ads of the Fall Fashion issue. If the Web site is successful, Vogue may be starting a new trend among magazines. As it nears catalog status, though, shouldn’t we get a discount?