It’s perhaps the last frontier on the email front; messages with streaming video directly embedded. And with developers already testing systems, it isn’t far off. Below are excerpts from recent MediaPost article by Elie Ashery highlighting the advances of two developers:
Gmail recently announced a new “Labs” feature allowing users to preview YouTube videos in emails. This technology is currently only for Gmail users, and is limited to YouTube videos, but it stands as significant progress in the move towards true video embedding. Many marketers are experimenting with Gmail-only campaigns, segmenting their lists for gmail.com subscribers and embedding short video clips as part of the campaign.
GoodMail Systems has also found a way to insert and play videos from email messages. The CertifiedVideo platform enables qualified senders to incorporate rich video and audio content directly in email messaging, without additional mouse clicks and pop-ups. CertifiedVideo is based on GoodMail’s core CertifiedEmail technology with the addition of a new CertifiedVideo tokenclass. Senders’ messages are delivered directly to the inbox and ISP restrictions are lifted, enabling video to be instantly viewed by recipients. CertifiedVideo supports streaming and progressive download of .SWF and .FLV files, playable in Adobe Flash Player. If you qualify for GoodMail services, you should definitely take a look at CertifiedVideo.
Read the full text of the article here.
Tags: direct mail, email, Email Marketing, streaming video