Wayne Wall, CEO of Hopkinton, Mass.-based on-demand video software provider Flimp Media, discusses video and its impact on the marketing, especially mobile devices and email marketing to those devices. I found it telling that visitors to pages with video spent approximately 1.5 minutes on page compared to 8 to 10 seconds on pages without. This begs the question, ‘Is it time to start embedding video in marketing email?’

Read the entire print article here.

View the article on the Target Marketing site, here.

57% of online retailers plan to spend more on e-commerce technology in 2010, including 49% whose investment priorities cover new or upgraded e-commerce technology platforms, Forrester Research Inc. says in the study, “2010 U.S. Online Retail Technology Investment Outlook.” The report is based on a survey of 291 online retailers in the fourth quarter of 2009. Other popular areas of technology investment this year include content management tools, multichannel order management integration, system security and mobile commerce. Among the goals underlying many investment plans this year are improved marketing capabilities, including a strong focus on social marketing as well as search and other forms of online marketing, the study says. See the summary report here.

Bill Siwicki, editor of Mobile Commerce Report, put together an interesting piece for Intenet Retailer Magazine discussing the pros and cons of mobile sites and mobile apps. He contrasts sites (which have a large reach) with apps (which provide a better user experience). In addition to the clearing up some of the confusion regarding the 2 marketing channels, he discusses why one would go in one direction or the other. For example, an app would potentially have access to the address on someone’s smartphone, where a site would not. Conversely, a site would be available to far more users without the overhead of having to download and install an app.

Read article on Internet Retailer here

Read print article here

The most influential mashup this year wasn’t a Beatles tune remixed with hip-hop lyrics. It was an online street map of Chicago overlaid with crime statistics. Chicagocrime.org, which was created by the journalist Adrian Holovaty, was one of the first Web sites to combine publicly available data from one site (in this case, the Chicago Police Department’s online database) with a digital map supplied by another site (in this case, Google).

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Your mobile phone is about to get a lot cooler. How cool? In the coming months, you’ll be able to dictate text messages and surf the Web just by speaking commands- no tapping or clicking required. If you’re trying to figure out where to go to lunch…

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Americans threw out just shy of three million tons of household electronics in 2006. This so-called e-waste is the fastest-growing part of the municipal waste stream and, depending on your outlook, either an enormous problem or a bonanza. E-waste generally contains substances that, though safely sequestered during each product’s use, can become hazardous if not handled properly when disposed. Those products also hold bits of precious metals like silver, copper, platinum and gold.

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When Andrew Newman and David Sullivan left corporate jobs and set out to launch their own Portland-based marketing fum, one of their founding principles was that they would cater solely to small business owners. Other firms could compete for the big national accounts, but the partners who set up ADMedia Communications in 2004 decided they wanted to offer affordable marketing services to entrepreneurs and family-run businesses that might otherwise not do any marketing at all.

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THE MARCH of digital technologies through cameras, video and a flurry of gadgets is reshaping old standbys and broadening their use. Clock radios are turning into uberstereos; and cameras into slim wonders that beam images to a TV or printer. Television, which had evolved only gradually since the advent of color in the 1950s, is now a digital jungle of new screen types, shapes and technologies. Here’s a look at those and other major trends under way.

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Direct Response Marketing:Try SMS-Based Calls to Action – Advertising Age – Digital.

Digital: How Mobile Technology Is Changing Banking’s Future – Advertising Age – Digital.