Very Sneaky-Clever Warner

So apart from obvious the privacy concerns, it seems that most people here actually want to receive adverts?

Yeah, it's really clever. About as clever as me ringing you up and asking if you want to buy double glazing...

You mention 'the community' a lot. Which community is it - marketing bought our souls?

I actually have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, if you got this ad from them, you're obviously already an iTunes customer, otherwise you would've chosen the windows media player format. So in this way, are they just preaching to the choir?

On the other hand unless you opted in to receive the advertisement, they may be crossing some boundaries. My local pizza delivery has recently decided that because they have my phone number (which is used for account identification/address lookup when you call) they feel they now have the right to call and advertise to me. Yes, I'm a customer, but this is outside of what I have permitted as well.Email advertisements such as the one above can fall into that same area of grey.

To think this is anything but clever - lets go farther - lets call it expected. Web 2.0 is about conversation and responding to knowledge. In my thinking if they really do have more things you might be interested in looking at the would not be doing you justice by keeping it to themselves. I think it is more like an obligation. They have your contact information, they know what you have done why not try to engage you further - more companies should be doing this - * large asterisk here - as long as there is an opt out and they adhere to the opt out if asked.

I think it is marvelous. Targeted, conversational, relevant, not a magaphone screaming, 800 BUY CARS!, over and over for 60 seconds of our life. Classier than Amazons graphics although no one knows me better, from a consumer standpoint.

For the record, I think it's super clever. It's what we all want, isn't it? We want people to advertise to us the things we might actually want. That mail was rife with links that I wanted to click. I went to the Apple store and I did look around. It was exactly what it should be.

@Tim Street - hmmm. I guess you're right. Inside the code, by the way, on the side you can't see, there's also the "Big Ass Save Button." Mebbe I'll shift that language a bit, once I find it.

Chris,
Nevermind what we think about, you were the target, what do you think about? And that's really what it's all about right? To Apple and Warner Brothers you are a highly qualified and engaged digital video customer. Did you purchase another digital movie? Did you preview any? If so the ad paid off. If not but you clicked or passed on the ad, then it was still effective.
This goes to a larger theory about advertising. People claim to hate advertising, yet they don't mind it if the ad is from a brand or for a product they're interested in.
As others have also mentioned, they'd be fools not to take advantage of the data they collected.

I think relevant is the word you are looking for. Not rude. Not clever.

No the big question is, what if Kat bought you a digital download as a joke? Say, a digital version of "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert ?" Would you be getting some rude offers now?

On another note, has anyone found your footer that says, "This site runs on WordPress with a Thesis theme framework pimped out by Chris Pearson." to be rude? "Pimped" may be used on MTV and in certain social circles but it is not a professional word to be use in business settings.

Chris -

As a guy who spends his day thinking about Email Marketing (I work at Email Service Provider, Bronto), this is exactly they type of data all marketers should be using to their advantage, IMHO. On our blog, on the phone, (sometimes to my wife), I preach that email should be timely, relevant, targeted, etc. This email certainly hits on all 3. Timely in that you've just purchased. You're already thinking about Dark Night (upsell). Relevant in that they already know you own the movie, therefore it makes sense to offer you complimentary products. Targeted in that this is a one-off email, not a blast...one of my least favorite terms.

I say that whoever is helping iTunes with their email marketing strategy nailed it. Do you mind sharing the from name (iTunes?) and subject line of this email? Also, you clearly opened the email, but did you click on any links? Did you purchase anything else as a result?

dj

--
DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices & Deliverability at Bronto

Clever! Greatly reduces the annoyance factor that it's a sales ad. Just building on contact with existing clients.

Cleaver - and quite honestly expected and just good 1:1 marketing. As the people I shop with learn about my likes and dislikes I appreciate and welcome their suggestions.

If you buy a suit, the salesman suggests a nice tie to go with it.
If you subscribe to a magazine, you're guaranteed to get promos for other titles from the publisher.
Geez, even McDonalds asks if you'd like fries with that?
You got something from them, regardless of the fact that it was free, it would be naive to think that they wouldn't want to build an ongoing relationship with you.
Are there any site operators out there who have given out free e-books and then not followed up with the individual to keep them coming back?
This really isn't anything new.

It is most certainly clever using your preferences and suggesting more to you. At least that was based n something you already purchased rather than a search term or a website you visited.

If they contact you only this first time, I'd say clever. From the second time on, it's exponentially annoying.

I see it as a way for them to continue building a relationship with you. Call it graded levels of commitment (GLC), upselling, or a customer loyalty program. They are just trying to provide more of what they offer to the world. I don't know of a successful business that doesn't do it.

iTunes tells Chris (a current customer) they have more to offer. Chris tells us (his non-paying readers) that he provides blog outreach programs - see his previous post. Both entities are making an attempt to inform potential clients about their offerings. Both are trying to strengthen their relationship with a captive audience.

Is there a huge difference?

It's not clever; it's perfect! You're already watching the digital copy, so why not offer you more? If you liked it, you're more likely to buy, and if you didn't, then they're not exactly going to loose you w/ another offer now, are they? Plus, it's not a hard sell, so they're making it feel more like an offer and less like a sales pitch.

Reminds me of a drug dealer...
"Have a taste for free" then get you hooked. Best (and easiest if the product is good) marketing around.

For me this is absolutely okay. Getting to know i-Tunes is a real value for people that have never heard about it or just haven't gotten around using it yet. And believe me there are millions out there. And it has value for the rest of us because new people discovering i-Tunes means more people that will also create content. So in the end we have more music, more podcasts and more videos :-)

Clever. You've already self-selected yourself as the perfect segment. Now it's just a matter of which circle of the ven diagram you fall into: annoyed or well served.

NIghty night!

oops. I failed trying to Bold the word 'their' in the quote...

@jose "...,but I think it’s in their best interest to do what they did."

Therein lies the rub.
Now, some will buy, which means it's not entirely bad.
If those who ignore, or buy make up the vast majority,
it's good marketing.
How many will be angered? If few or none, then it's proof
of good back end model projection.

Upselling. I think it's fine. How would Warner know if you wanted more without asking?

neither - any good salesman knows on parting you ask anything else - common sense - my take - but then i am an old style barter shoot em up cowboy from home home on the range where the deer and the antelop play and seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all days - the chorus please - thank you maybe huh

g-oh

I say clever. People may not know that you can get movies like that, and say "hey I can buy movies from itunes - cool!"

Then they go there and spend lots of dollars in a year and have over 1000 podcasts on their itunes they haven't listened to yet! - Oh wait that's me!

Rick
twitter.com/Rick_Smith

Clever. It's not a hard hard sell, and you weren't terribly surprised that an iTunes validation led to some response, right? We don't tend to mind when the outreach is relevant.

Rude is if you take no action to further the engagement and they continue to email you after this initial outreach.

This would be the email marketing equivalent of sending out your e-newsletter and then sending a follow up email to one of your subscribers saying "I see that on Friday 1/30 at 9:45pm you clicked on a link to read the Very Sneaky-Clever Warner article..." I'm sure some people have tried this technique and chances are they quickly received an unsubscribe from that e-newsletter reader. It may indeed be clever but to me it comes off sounding way too big brother-ish.

I think it's only to be expected.

a little cheeky, pretty clever

Siobhan Bulfin
Social media and interactive marketing, NZ

I'm all for it! As long as your opted in with iTunes (which I think you have to be to use iTunes), then this makes great sense from an integrated marketing standpoint.

Thanks for sharing!

Its just a modern twist on the long held practices of warranty card registration (ie. finding out who ended up with your good anyway) and upselling.

I think it's clever. The biggest danger is that the upselling practice can be a little too strong/intense. For example I bought two books from Amazon UK, and ever since they send me emails about a once a week for books I "might be interested in." And hell they're close... most of the books they recommend I already know. But the frequency is annoying.

I say clever. Unobtrusive and generous. I like it, though I may be missing implications without further knowledge of the iTunes store.

Clever, I think. Get you to enjoy the digital copy, and then use it to interest you in further downloads...giving someone something for free is a good way to show them the value of your product...advertising AFTER is what is clever.

I wish I had the accessibility to buy such media online... Living in Asia :(

wouldn't they be kind of crazy to NOT use that data point for further marketing? :)

Fantastically clever! It features what they have as well as gives you a sample of the quality and capability. It is also an excellent partnership with the studio and distribution!

It isn't anything more than the "previews" you see at the beginning of the movies or the "ads" you get attached to the DVD you buy.

@nathanmcgee

Clever. You're already displaying a preference for viewing on the platform - why not offer you more? Anything that cuts down your search time is a good thing - no?
Where they are dumb is the AppleTV interface - why can I not have a list of new movies since I last looked? Surely it would be simple to do. Currently you have to trawl through the genres and hope you spot the new ones.

Rudely Clever!

It makes perfect sense. At first, it seems annoying, but I think it's in their best interest to do what they did.