Benioff just won't get offa that cloud, say some old CRM hands who just can't see any sense behind the rumors.

The business world has been abuzz all week over rumors that CEO Mark Benioff (above) might be entertaining a sale of Salesforce.com, but Paul Greenberg thinks that it's much abuzz about nothing. “I have some doubts that Benioff would sell unless the price is insanely high, so high above what they should be sold for that he wouldn't be able to say no,” says Greenberg, author of CRM at the Speed of Light and noted thought leader in the CRM industry.

That makes the short list of potential buyers very short: Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and IBM by most accounts in the investment community. Greenberg adds a few wild cards, such as Google or Apple—should they all of a sudden desire an entré into the B2B arena, but that's about it.

“There was some speculation over the last year or so because Salesforce and Oracle made overtures for a partnership, and then there was the Office integration with Microsoft,” says consultant Brent Leary, cofounder of CRM Essentials, who mentions Google and Facebook as long-shot acquirers. “It would be fascinating to see if a company out of that tradition, selling advertising with very high margins, made overtures into that space.”

Microsoft and Salesforce entered into a partnership last year that made Salesforce available on Office 365 and Salesforce1 on Windows and Windows Phone 8.1. Yesterday's announcement by Microsoft of a data sharing alliance with Adobe Marketing Cloud might have fueled further acquisition rumors, but Greenberg thinks they're unfounded. “Microsoft's not missing all the things Salesforce is providing,” Greenberg says. “The deal with Adobe tells you that there's another piece of the puzzle they don't need.”

IBM is the potential buyer that could most use what Salesforce brings to the party, but is the old-line technology player up to the task? “IBM doesn't have CRM and doesn't have a foothold in the enterprise cloud. It would be a big splash for them and they definitely need something like that,” Leary says. “But is it a fit in terms of culture? Saleforce moves fast; IBM doesn't.”

Greenberg is also sour on IBM as a buyer. “If we're going on history, I don't like the way IBM typically handled such acquisitions,” he says. “They buy them and drop them into a hole and do not do much with them.”

Should speculation become reality, loyal Salesforce users have no need to fret. “Assuming that a company buys them for something less nefarious than taking them out of the marketplace, there will be no change in Salesforce over the course of a few years,” Greenberg says. “Salesforce users would find themselves in a period of stasis—and I mean that in a good way.”

Greenberg, who has known Benioff as long as the Salesforce founder has been in the business, says he can envision one scenario—and only one—that would have him stepping down from his lofty throne over the CRM world. “He's incredibly charitable. He likes to do good things for people—Bill Clinton-like. He might be at a point where he'd be interested in focusing his life that way,” Greenberg notes. “Benioff will drive me up a wall sometimes, but his charitable heart is real. And you know what they say, the heart wants what the heart wants.”

Business Breaking News: 12 Tips for a Winning Elevator Pitch

If you've been to a business networking event, you've no doubt been bombarded by elevator pitches. At the end of the night, though, only a few will stand out in your mind — and fewer still will result in sought-after contacts. What sets those pitches apart, and how can you ensure that yours generates interest and conversation?

Whether you're looking for investors or just trying to get people interested in your business, your success depends on your ability to explain what makes your business unique and to hook your listener in less than a minute. Entrepreneurs and business professionals share their best tips for writing and delivering a great elevator pitch.

Start off strong. "Eighty percent of your success will depend on your opening line. It must snag your listener's interest and make them want to know more. Do this right, and your prospects will follow you, wanting more." – Bert Martinez, founder and president of Bert Martinez Communications [8 Essential Questions Your Elevator Pitch Should Answer]

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Two thirds of brands and agencies will shift budget away from TV to fund the 43% YOY increase.

TV will pay the price form more video ads.

More than 300 brand marketers and agency executives polled by the Interactive Advertising Bureau this month said they would increase spending on digital video to $10.3 billion this year, a 43% increase over 2014. Increasing ad budgets and a high level of optimism about the prospects of the medium will fuel the trend.

Budget diverted from broadcast and cable TV will ultimately fund the increase. Only 33% of respondents said they expected to increase spending on TVs this year versus 68% who said they'd devote more budget to digital video and 58% who'd invest more in mobile video. In all, 67% said they'd be shifting funds from TV into video buys.

Another sign of vitality for the channel is an upward trend in ad placement within original video content. Advertisers devoted 34% of their video budgets to original content in 2013, 36% in 2014, and expect to ratchet up to 40% this year. More than half of both agency execs and marketers said they'd pull funds from cable TV to fund increased placements within original videos.

Two thirds of respondents agreed that original video programming would be as important to their efforts as TV programming within five years. The time frame of video's ultimate arrival may depend on measurability. Three quarters of those polled said they'd be more likely to spend more on video ads if research existed to prove they generated sales on par with TV spots.

“This study demonstrates unequivocally that digital video is a fierce competitor for advertising dollars,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP of research, analytics, and measurement for IAB.

Business Breaking News: 7 Strange and Unusual Foodie Businesses

Food is more than just a necessity; it brings people together. Whether you're reconnecting with an old friend over dinner and drinks, meeting a new love interest for coffee, or bonding with your family over a holiday meal, food is at the center of it all. So it's no surprise that food can inspire a lot more than a fun day out or a cozy night in — it can lead to a great business idea, too.

When you think about food businesses, your first thought is likely restaurants and retail stores, but some companies have taken the foodie trend to a whole new level. From the weird (bacon-flavored envelopes) to the inspiring (a food truck that gives back to the community), here are seven unique food and beverage businesses you probably didn't even know existed.

A food truck franchise with a cause

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The digital marketing veteran's retail career includes stops at Petco, Guitar Center, and Albertson's.

Danielle Mohn

Danielle Mohn, who began her career consulting large retail clients for Teradata, has been named chief marketing officer of Build.com. The Chico, CA-based company is the third largest online home improvement retailer after Home Depot and Lowe's.

Following her early experience with Teradata in the '90s, Mohn directed loyalty marketing for Albertson's and held senior marketing roles at Harrah's Entertainment and Guitar Center. For the last four years she was VP of marketing and customer strategy at Petco.

At Build.com, Mohn has been charged with defining unique customer experiences for both consumers and trade professionals. She will report to the company's president and founder, Christian Friedland. “Danielle's expertise will be essential in helping us navigate new business channels, evolve our brand position, and further solidify our reputation as an industry innovator,” said Friedland in a release announcing the appointment.

At Petco, Mohn established a customer insights team dedicated to improving marketing strategies and delivering record ROI. Petco was named 2014 Brand of the Year by Ace Metrix and BrainJuicer honored the brand for having the top ad in retail for 2013.

Business Breaking News: Shocking! 'Clickbait' Doesn't Work With Email Marketing

If you want better returns on your email marketing efforts, pay close attention to your subject lines.

"Clickbait" subject lines that try to shock you into reading a message and those that promote prices and discounts are among the least effective, according to new research from data solutions provider Return Path.

While clickbait subject lines like "you won’t believe this shocking secret" are very successful at garnering Web traffic, they don't provide the same results via email. Specifically, the use of the phrase "secret of" in a subject line results in an 8.69 percent decrease in read rates compared with messages containing similar content sent with different subject lines. Additionally, the use of the word "shocking" had a 1.22 percent decrease in read rates.

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For marketers concerned about cookie-less tracking of customers, TRUSTe issues a new solution.

Spurred on by the explosion of the cookie-less mobile channel and a European Union directive, marketers are increasingly moving to a technology known as device fingerprinting to track consumers across devices and serve them relevant ads based on their complete online activity. But therein lies a danger: Because fingerprinting allows entities—some of them unsavory—to collect device characteristics without owner consent, privacy protections could be violated in the collecting.

As a result, TRUSTe has introduced a device-fingerprinting-detection capability as part of its Website Monitoring Service used by companies to monitor and protect consumer data collected on their sites. Kris Vann, an attorney and senior product marketing manager at TRUSTe, says the new capability is influenced by concern over what marketers fear will be the widening net of the EU Cookie Directive that demands opt-in consent from consumers for cookie collection.

“Last November, the [European Commission's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party] made it clear that the intent was to have the Cookie Directive extend beyond just cookies to device fingerprinting. We knew it was coming. But they've made it very clear in writing,” Vann says.

In its mission statement for reform of the legal framework of data protection, the EC states that it must be modernized “to meet the challenges resulting from globalization and the use of new technologies,” and European authorities confirmed last November that it meant all methods of tracking, including device fingerprinting.

By tracking characteristics of a browser's environment like the browser version, screen dimensions, fonts, and even IP addresses, device fingerprinting is able to single out individual devices for targeting. TRUSTe detects fingerprinting by identifying tell-tale Java script on Web pages.

“Desktop cookies are still the standard, but as people branch out to using multiple devices, companies are able to collect hundreds of elements pertaining to devices, making fingerprinting a widely used technique,” says TRUSTe product manager Helen Huang. “With this new tool, we can see all the tracking happening on a company's site and give them notice.”

Business Breaking News: 7 Strange and Unusual Foodie Businesses

Food is more than just a necessity; it brings people together. Whether you're reconnecting with an old friend over dinner and drinks, meeting a new love interest for coffee, or bonding with your family over a holiday meal, food is at the center of it all. So it's no surprise that food can inspire a lot more than a fun day out or a cozy night in — it can lead to a great business idea, too.

When you think about food businesses, your first thought is likely restaurants and retail stores, but some companies have taken the foodie trend to a whole new level. From the weird (bacon-flavored envelopes) to the inspiring (a food truck that gives back to the community), here are seven unique food and beverage businesses you probably didn't even know existed.

A food truck franchise with a cause

Commodity Online News: LME Inventory data: Copper stocks gained by 950 tons

The Web could soon become a safer place.

In an effort to protect the privacy and security of Internet users, AdRoll recently announced that its display ad inventory will be encrypted to HTTPS.

The retargeting platform provider has been at the forefront of the industry shift while working with Google and other partners to help lessen the burden of managing SSL compliance from advertisers across all sizes and verticals.

"AdRoll believes in building technology that helps enable digital transparency and security. We are happy to join Google in rallying the industry to create an ecosystem that benefits the advertiser and the consumer,” says AdRoll CTO Valentino Volonghi. “We've spent years migrating all our inventory to HTTPS, this investment will help ensure secure and safer ad serving for AdRoll clients.”

AdRoll's move sets the stage for the adoption of server encryption by the ad tech ecosystem. Its partnership with Google aims to make this approach a standard industry practice.

“AdRoll has been a longstanding partner and one of the first to actively join Google in investing in a more secure advertising ecosystem,” says Chip Hall, director of programmatic platform sales for Google. “It is imperative that the industry works together to make HTTPS a reality everywhere, and we are happy to have partners like AdRoll join the effort to make ad experiences safe and secure.”  

Performance marketing does its part to provide a free Internet by subsidizing the content that users have come to expect. Encrypted communications and strong origin identifiers help protect that user experience and are poised to help the industry thwart fraud, malware, and other security challenges.

“This all started with security problems, malware, phishing,” says Volonghi. “The Web is a scary place.”

For the past three years AdRoll has finagled its platform to make its ad inventory SSL compliant. All ads passed through AdRoll can now automatically detect if a page is SSL compliant and adapt dynamically. Bidders now understand the SSL signal in real time and choose the right creative for SSL-secured inventory.

“We've basically enabled our customers to bring back their customers,” says Volonghi.

Business Breaking News: The Number One Thing to Avoid Doing in a Job Interview

Nothing hurts your chances of landing a job more than checking your phone during an interview, according to new research.

More than three-quarters of executives remove candidates from consideration if the person uses his or her cellphone during the interview, according to a study from the staffing firm The Creative Group.

Showing up late without acknowledging it; failing to bring items that were requested, such as a resume, portfolio or references; wearing improper interview attire; and speaking poorly of a previous employer round out the other top five job-interview deal breakers.

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The Orbis founder leaves Infor to join the cloud-based solutions provider.

Grant Halloran

Anaplan has announced the hiring of Grant Halloran as its new chief marketing officer. Halloran arrives at the cloud-based planning solutions company from Infor, where he was global VP and general manager.

Halloran was the founder and CEO of Orbis, an SaaS-based marketing resource management business he sold to Infor in 2012. Orbis was developed to assist marketers in handling complex tasks such as planning, budgeting, and production and digital asset management. The native Australian was an entrepreneur nearly from the beginning of his career in mar-tech, having founded and managed the marketing solutions ProductBank and Brand Manager in the '90s and Aughts.

“This problem we fix is global and we are addressing it with a truly international business culture,” said Halloran of Anaplan, which provides planning solutions for sales, finance, operations, and human resources.

Anaplan claims to have doubled its user base to some 35,000 and will be taking its Hub users conference to nine cites this year.

Business Breaking News: Facebook News Feed Update Hits Business Pages

Does your business's social media marketing strategy rely on your Facebook Page? Don't be surprised if your Page's reach and traffic tank.

Facebook announced that it is revamping its News Feed with a major change that will directly affect Page owners: Instead of featuring posts from a wide range of sources, News Feed will now promote posts from a user's friends by placing them higher up on the feed. This presents a big shift for small business owners, who can now expect less visibility for their posts and, consequently, a decrease in Page traffic.

Here's what we know about the update and what small businesses can do to mitigate the damage and improve their Facebook marketing campaigns. [Facebook for Business: Everything You Need to Know]

Commodity Online News: Fresh buying seen in Ref soya Oil open interest up 7.54%

Pin partnership is formed.

Pinterest today launched a partnership program with a select group of 10 marketing services companies that are developing tools to help commercial pinners optimize their content on the social network.

“About two thirds of the content on Pinterest comes from brands and publishers,” says Yuri Kidwell, who heads up the new Marketing Developer Partners (MDP) program. “Brands are a natural part of Pinterest. They improve the overall content for pinners, who come to us to plan their future and discover what they want to do in life."

The first companies to join the program and get access to Pinterest's content publishing API are Ahalogy, Buffer, Curalate, Expion, Newscred, Percolate, Shoutlet, Spredfast, Sprinklr, and Tailwind. They were chosen for their experience in directing Pinterest programs for Fortune 1000 companies.

“They're building things like pin schedulers that tell when to publish and systems to tag content to tell what's working and what's not,” Kidwell says. “We've been live for three months with this in a beta test and published millions of pins. The program has shown stronger than average re-pin rates.”

Kidwell says that significant pin volume increases were experienced by Kraft in a test with Pinterest optimization company Ahalogy, and by Dove and Hellman's with the planning and analysis platform Percolate.

“Pinterest has been in start-up mode for the past several years, and its rise to popularity often exceeded its ability to build relationships with interested brands. Pulling in nimble partners will help innovate within the existing space in a user-friendly way,” comments Joe Gizzi, strategy director at Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, a content marketing agency. “Layering in a scheduler that suggests the best time to pin can only help brands reach audiences when they are visiting most often.”

Pinterest has been testing a new Ads API program since the beginning of the year. “It's in limited tests with a few advertisers. We're looking at how to gain efficiencies in buying promoted pins at scale,” says Kidwell, who joined Pinterest about a year ago from CitizenNet, a Facebook partner.

Business Breaking News: The 10 Best (and Worst) Cities for Starting a Business

If you're starting a new business, you might want to consider moving down South and avoiding California, new research suggests.

Six of this year's 10 best cities in which to start a business are located in Southern U.S. states, and seven of the worst are in California, according to a study from the personal finance social network WalletHub.

Shreveport, Louisiana, tops this year's list of the best cities in which to start a business, as it ranked highly for having accessible resources for entrepreneurs and a friendly business environment.

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The interactive retailer looks to him to sustain momentum in the omnichannel arena.

John Aylward

Home Shopping Network today announced the hiring of retail industry veteran John Aylward as its chief marketing officer. His resume includes senior marketing positions at The Gap, Starbucks, and Sony. His charge at the interactive purveyor of merchandise will be to oversee integrated marketing, omnichannel efforts, and creative strategy.

“John is a proven talent with a strong record of achievement across a wide range of brands,” said HSN President Bill Brand in a statement announcing the appointment. “His background will help us build on the momentum we achieved last year, which included record sales and customer growth.”

Aylward most recently served as SVP and head of marketing for DSW. He previously spent two years as VP marketing for Starbucks' tea Teavana and seven years at Gap Inc., where he was director of marketing strategy for North America and then brand director for Europe. From 2003 to 2005 he served as Sony's senior marketing communications manager in Europe.

Business Breaking News: Facebook News Feed Update Hits Business Pages

Does your business's social media marketing strategy rely on your Facebook Page? Don't be surprised if your Page's reach and traffic tank.

Facebook announced that it is revamping its News Feed with a major change that will directly affect Page owners: Instead of featuring posts from a wide range of sources, News Feed will now promote posts from a user's friends by placing them higher up on the feed. This presents a big shift for small business owners, who can now expect less visibility for their posts and, consequently, a decrease in Page traffic.

Here's what we know about the update and what small businesses can do to mitigate the damage and improve their Facebook marketing campaigns. [Facebook for Business: Everything You Need to Know]

Commodity Online News: LME Inventory data: Copper stocks gained by 950 tons

Appboy introduces a system designed for scheduling timed, personalized reactions to app engagement to maximize revenue.

Appboy founder and CTO Bill Magnuson says that the primary mission of his three-year-old company has always been to provide intelligent CRM for mobile-first marketers on an enterprise scale. “What we're interested in is—whenever a brand is having a conversation with a consumer—we want to drive that conversation with the right content.”

Hence, this week's launch of the mobile marketing automation provider's Action-Based Delivery feature. The data-driven program detects changes in the states of app users and lets marketers tailor and send email or push notifications to them aimed at increasing app engagement time and revenue generation.

“This is about much more than app abandonment,” Magnuson says. “This creates lift among highly engaged users, moving them through the onboarding funnel in a more effective manner and increasing revenue from them.”

Magnuson says this is accomplished by storing all data on a per-user basis and making it all available for use by clients. Triggers for message firing can include a made purchase, an abandoned cart, or persona locale. Marketers used rule-base systems to send messages immediately after a specified action takes place or can set delays to include exceptions when an action takes place, ensuring that messages are still relevant when customers receive them.

The Chive, a photo entertainment website and app, beta-tested Action-Based Delivery by sending push notifications with coupon codes three minutes after a new user's first session. “Our initial tests yielded a 45% open rate on Android,” says Curtis Thomas, activation marketing manager at Resignation Media, which owns The Chive. “The responsiveness and adaptability allows us to better prompt user behavior."

Data points that marketers can use to construct message plans include the loyalty card information and lifetime value of specific customers. “We want to be able to influence the user journey,” Magnuson says.

Business Breaking News: Acer Chromebook 15 Review: Is It Good for Business?

Looking for a big-screen work machine at a budget price? Acer's new Chromebook 15 might fit the bill, if you can deal with the inherent limitations of Google's Chrome OS operating system.

The Chromebook 15 is targeted at home and student use, but that doesn't mean business users can't benefit from the notebook's big 15.6-inch display, speedy performance and long battery life. You also get a comfy keyboard and a roomy touchpad, starting at just $250. And while Chrome OS isn't as robust as Microsoft's Windows or Apple's OS X, the Google operating system is still a low-maintenance, easy-to-use platform for basic productivity.

Design

Commodity Online News: Fresh selling seen in Turmeric down at 8352

USPS expects three other discount plans to proceed as planned, too.

In its April 16 filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission revising requests for certain market dominant rate approvals, the U.S. Postal Service announced that it would proceed on schedule with the first of four planned promotions for 2015.

The Earned Value Promotion, reports USPS, will run from May 1 through July 31. This program is intended to reverse some of the decline in First Class mailings. To qualify, mailers that include Business Reply or Courtesy Reply pieces in their direct mail campaigns will receive a postage credit of each piece returned to them.

The Postal Service also expressed its intent to move forward with the planned effective dates for three other discount programs that incent use of color, mobile integration, and technologies such as augmented reality in direct mail campaigns. (See the full schedule below.)

Effective dates for the 2015 promotions were put in question when the PRC rejected some price and classification adjustments, as well as by the D.C. District Court of Appeals' delayed judgment on USPS's petition to bake the 4.3% exigent price increase into the base mail rate.

Business Breaking News: The Number One Thing to Avoid Doing in a Job Interview

Nothing hurts your chances of landing a job more than checking your phone during an interview, according to new research.

More than three-quarters of executives remove candidates from consideration if the person uses his or her cellphone during the interview, according to a study from the staffing firm The Creative Group.

Showing up late without acknowledging it; failing to bring items that were requested, such as a resume, portfolio or references; wearing improper interview attire; and speaking poorly of a previous employer round out the other top five job-interview deal breakers.

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Direct Marketing News Editorial Team

April 24, 2015

18 Chief Marketers Who Put the "Excel" in Excellent

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Real Leading Ladies don't walk red carpets. They make strides in their industry.

The Femme Fatales of the marketing world knock out the competition by making their brand irresistible and their customers starry-eyed with devotion. They inspire and empower their teams to create their own starring roles. And they do it all with verve and flair. 

These Leading Ladies are the inspiration for the Direct Marketing News Marketing Hall of Femme. The award celebrates achievements of the most accomplished and influential women in marketing. 

These exceptional female marketing chiefs have risen to the apex of their profession as champions of customer-centric, data-driven marketing. Their methods have improved marketing performance and have yielded measurable results—from revenue growth to increases in customer engagement. Their stories are ones of daring and determination, of savvy and ingenuity. 

Read on for the narratives behind the 2015 Marketing Hall of Femme honorees' success stories. –Ginger Conlon

Alicianne Rand Newscred	Amy Hoops Wente Vineyard	Ashley Johnston Experian Marketing Services

Blair Christie Cisco	Corianne Sklar Bluewolf	Elizabeth Jackson HookLogic

Kate Spellman Penton	Linda Vetter Yes Lifecycle Marketing	Lori Wright TIBCO Software Inc.

Lucille Dehart Tristar Products, Inc.	Maly Ly Sojern	Melissa Wallace Splash

Michelle Bottomley Mercer	Mish Fletcher OgilvyOne Worldwide	Natasha Raja Dice

Samantha Skey SheKnows Media	Yael Zheng Tintri

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Business Breaking News: Facebook News Feed Update Hits Business Pages

Does your business's social media marketing strategy rely on your Facebook Page? Don't be surprised if your Page's reach and traffic tank.

Facebook announced that it is revamping its News Feed with a major change that will directly affect Page owners: Instead of featuring posts from a wide range of sources, News Feed will now promote posts from a user's friends by placing them higher up on the feed. This presents a big shift for small business owners, who can now expect less visibility for their posts and, consequently, a decrease in Page traffic.

Here's what we know about the update and what small businesses can do to mitigate the damage and improve their Facebook marketing campaigns. [Facebook for Business: Everything You Need to Know]

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Can ads effectively be measured on social media? The metrics mavens of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter agree it's a work in progress.

LinkedIn's Jason Leigh

Things change so fast in the digital marketing world. Social networks are invented and, just a few years later, people can't imagine a world without them. A software company introduces a platform to follow customers across channels and suddenly 10 competitors appear with new and improved solutions. But Dan Slotwiner, head of measurement solutions at one of those social networks, Facebook, reminds digital marketers that these are still the pioneering days.

“The shift to mobile has been so rapid we still have lots of questions on how this will develop. We will watch how consumers react to mobile and react to that. But we don't have enough data yet. We're still early on in monetizing this thing,” Slotwiner said yesterday at a panel discussion in New York. The event was a meeting of the metrics mavens of the Big Three social networks convened by 4C on the occasion of the introduction of its Social Ads 2.0 tool.

The other two—LinkedIn Global Insights Director Jason Leigh and Twitter Head of Measurement Solutions Eddie Smith—found it hard to disagree with Slotwiner. “We need more intent data,” Leigh concurred. “Sequencing is something we can do, but is it unbiased data? Sometimes it's representative of some phenomenon, sometimes not. There's not enough theory or data out there to guide us.”

Not all agreed on one facet of attribution. When moderator Lance Neuhauser, 4C's CEO, asked if buying something online and picking it up in a store was e-commerce, only Smith said yes. Leigh and Slotwiner were both of the opinion that attribution for the sale belonged where the transaction was consummated, but Smith argued that some credit should be assigned to digital's influence on the purchase. He wondered why desktops persevered as the veritable cash registers of e-commerce.

“Why don't people buy on mobile phones?” Smith asked. “Why is that? I don't understand.”

Leigh had an answer for him, calling upon some research into that question he conducted while working at Razorfish. “People said that the desktop experience was much better and they wanted a similar experience on mobile, but they weren't getting it,” he said.

In response to a question from the audience about what each panelist most feared, Leigh made right for the boogeyman capable of building the biggest obstacles to the transparent customer view. “Privacy regulations,” he said. “I worry that some of the data will be taken away and won't be able to be used. It would make my life much less interesting than it is today.”

Business Breaking News: The Number One Thing to Avoid Doing in a Job Interview

Nothing hurts your chances of landing a job more than checking your phone during an interview, according to new research.

More than three-quarters of executives remove candidates from consideration if the person uses his or her cellphone during the interview, according to a study from the staffing firm The Creative Group.

Showing up late without acknowledging it; failing to bring items that were requested, such as a resume, portfolio or references; wearing improper interview attire; and speaking poorly of a previous employer round out the other top five job-interview deal breakers.

Commodity Online News: Gold may trade negative on strong dollar subdued demand

Mobile's 76% growth paces the medium's fifth consecutive year of double-digit gains, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau.

Digital advertising revenues rose by 16% to $49.5 billion in 2014, led by a 76% boost in mobile spending, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report released today. It marked the fifth straight year of double-digit increases for the medium.

Mobile was the second largest format in digital advertising at $12.5 billion, accounting for 25% of total spend last year versus 17% in 2013. “A prominent rise in social—a significant mobile activity—is driving growth in advertising revenue,” said David Silverman, a partner in PwC US, which prepared the report for IAB.

Most of mobile's increase came at the expense of search, which declined five share points to 38% of total spend. But search remains the most popular ad format, followed by display with a 27% share. Banner ads held their place as the largest budget item under the display category, followed by video.

No significant change was detected in the pricing models favored by digital marketers last year. Two thirds of spend was devoted to performance-based ads and one third to impression-based models—though there was a 1-point uptick in usage of hybrid models.

Other highlights of IAB's revenue assessment:

• Social media spend rose in tandem with mobile, increasing by 57% to $7 billion.
• Digital video ads rose by 17%, to $3.3 billion in expenditures.
• Retailers remained the biggest spenders online, accounting for 21% of the total in 2014. Next came financial services at 13% and automotive at 12%.

Business Breaking News: 4 Big Issues Affecting Tomorrow's Workplace

Technology has made today's workplace entirely different from the one employees knew just five years ago. And at the rate mobile devices and remote work capabilities are advancing, it won't be long before the workplace completely changes again.

But it's not just evolving technological trends like wearable devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) that companies need to account for. Legislative changes around health care and labor laws, as well as the changing generational makeup of the workforce, will also require employers to adjust their strategies going forward. 

To help businesses start preparing for tomorrow's work environment, human resources experts and business leaders weighed in on some of the most important issues that will affect or continue to affect the workplace over the next several years. [The Evolving Employee Handbook: 6 Issues to Consider]

Commodity Online News: Sell MCX Crude Oil at higher levels: Karvy

2015 Marketing Hall of Femme honorees hosted a Twitter chat on women and leadership. Here's what some of the leading women had to say about female empowerment.

In celebration of our 2015 Marketing Hall of Femme honorees, Direct Marketing News teamed up with global consultancy company Mercer yesterday afternoon to host a tweet chat about female empowerment in marketing.

DMN Editor-in-Chief Ginger Conlon, along with 2015 Marketing Hall of Femme inductee and Mercer CMO Michelle Bottomley, hosted the chat and drove the discussion on topics including women's indisputable potential in marketing and female leadership and the specific skills women can bring to the (boardroom) table.The tweets were rapid—and fervent. Bottomley and several other Hall of Femme honorees also tackled topics such as women's internal value and what businesses stand to gain with their support of lady professionals.

Here are some highlights from the virtual event. Check out the hashtags #MktgFemme and #WhenWomenThrive to follow the entire discussion.

.@dmnews Women in biz excel at results orientation, collaboration, team management. #MktgFemme http://bit.ly/1aZ86lJ

— Michelle Bottomley (@MichelleBott) April 21, 2015

Women should proud of what we bring to the table and shouldn't feel the need to compromise any aspect of who we are #mktgfemme

— Ashley Johnston-Daly (@ashleydaly) April 21, 2015

Q: What lessons can we take from Silicon Valley's gender diversity/equality issues? #MktgFemme @MichelleBott

— Matt Damsker (@DamskerMatt) April 21, 2015

Staying authentic is important to women in leadership #MktgFemme

— katespellman (@katespellman) April 21, 2015

.@JeannetteY1 @MichelleBott Coaching and being mentored is great for navigating organizations and establishing your leadership #MktgFemme

— Leslie Dukker Doty (@leslieddoty) April 21, 2015

.@JeannetteY1 Women & Men benefit from profl coaching esp for change mgmt initiatives that involve new ways of thinking/working #MktgFemme

— Michelle Bottomley (@MichelleBott) April 21, 2015

RT @MichelleBott: #GenderDiversity good biz. Mercer studies show eliminating gap btwn male and female emp rates boost GDP 34%. #MktgFemme

— Barney Loehnis (@Barneylo) April 21, 2015

@MsShellySmith Shelly Lazarus & @carlaogilvy12 @ogilvy show that women can truly lead their firms and biz transformation. #MktgFemme

— Michelle Bottomley (@MichelleBott) April 21, 2015

@DMNreporter several factors but one major one is that we don't promote our achievements as much as we should.

— Ashley Johnston-Daly (@ashleydaly) April 21, 2015

.@dmnews Our complex world requires boldness; it has genius and power. Women can bring bold solutions to business and the world. #mktgfemme

— Michelle Bottomley (@MichelleBott) April 21, 2015

Business Breaking News: OnePlus One: Is It Good for Business?

It may not have the name recognition of phones from Samsung or Apple, but the OnePlus One is a powerful smartphone with an affordable price point and a bunch of handy features for business users. The phone was actually launched a year ago, but up until now it was only available to users who could snag an invite from someone who already owned it.

But now OnePlus has finally opened up orders to all comers. Anyone can buy the Android-powered device for just $299 off-contract, making it one of the best smartphone values around. Here are five reasons the OnePlus One is still one of the best business phones you can buy, even one full year after its initial release.

Value

Commodity Online News: Fresh buying seen in Chana open interest up 10.75%

The creativity-obsessed advertising and marketing industry publication makes a big splash with its hire of the highly regarded journalist.

Campaign US, an online sister publication of Direct Marketing News that focuses primarily on creative excellence in advertising and marketing, has announced the appointment of Douglas Quenqua as its first US editor-in-chief of Campaign.

From the Campaign US site:

Doug will join Campaign on May 4 and will lead the Campaign US team based in Chelsea, in the heart of Manhattan. He will report to Claire Beale, global editor-in-chief, Campaign and Adrian Barrick, editorial director, Campaign US.

In an 18-year career, Doug has established himself as one of the US' leading marcoms journalists. He has been a freelance writer for brands including The New York Times, Wired, Fast Company, the New York Observer, CNBC.com and Columbia Magazine. He is also a former news editor of Adweek and Haymarket's own PRWeek in the US.

In addition, Doug is an accomplished media commentator, having appeared on Today, CNN, NPR, CNBC, and others.

Read the full announcement at Campaign US. Photo courtesy of Campaign US.

Business Breaking News: Acer Chromebook 15 Review: Is It Good for Business?

Looking for a big-screen work machine at a budget price? Acer's new Chromebook 15 might fit the bill, if you can deal with the inherent limitations of Google's Chrome OS operating system.

The Chromebook 15 is targeted at home and student use, but that doesn't mean business users can't benefit from the notebook's big 15.6-inch display, speedy performance and long battery life. You also get a comfy keyboard and a roomy touchpad, starting at just $250. And while Chrome OS isn't as robust as Microsoft's Windows or Apple's OS X, the Google operating system is still a low-maintenance, easy-to-use platform for basic productivity.

Design

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The Affinities function forms profiles using what other people post about targets, as well as what they post themselves.

Crimson Hexagon today added the Affinities tool to its ForSight suite of social media analytics. The program, which had been in beta test since last fall, calls upon social data compiled by the company in its seven years of existence to reveal the interests of customers and target markets.

A point of difference claimed by Crimson Hexagon over similar tools is that Affinities draws upon what other people post about targeted prospects in addition to what they post about themselves. “Even if someone is not really engaged in social media, even if they've never tweeted, we can create a social profile by how they are mentioned by others,” says SVP of Product Errol Apostolopoulos. “With a library of more than 600 billion Twitter posts and a full set of Tumblr data, we feel like we have the broadest coverage to tell the story.”

In a rundown of a beta test on Crimson Hexagon's website attempting to find the most efficient way for a movie studio to buy Facebook fans for a new release, the company claimed 31% superiority in CTR for Affinities versus Facebook's own Audience Insights tool.

Business Breaking News: 10 Strange (But Successfully Funded) Kickstarter Products

If you've got a great product idea but lack the resources to make it happen, Kickstarter and other similar crowdfunding websites are a great way to turn your dreams into reality.

Not every Kickstarter project winds up being funded, but in the past, some weird campaigns have found success — even joke campaigns, like the infamous potato salad Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $55,000. Some products are ingenious, some are fascinating and others are so strange we're not even sure why anyone would back them.

These 10 products may seem odd, but they've all come to life thanks to the Kickstarter community:

Commodity Online News: Maize prices gain on firm spot demand amid short covering

An orderly and seamless customer experience is just what the carpet cleaning company needed.

The modern customer's path to purchase is often a messy one. Instead of traveling a clean, linear path, customers bounce from channel to channel and leave a muddled trail for marketers to decipher. Stanley Steemer wanted to create a more flawless flow from its direct mail to email channels. So the national carpet and floor cleaning company polished up its marketing strategies to create a more seamless experience that would drive engagement and business from new and existing customers, alike.

Sloppy silos

Before deciding to spruce up its direct mail and email strategies, there were a few unkempt spots in Stanley Steemer's marketing approach—mainly silos. “We had previously worked in the direct mail and email space,” says Chelsea Penzone, Stanley Steemer's marketing manager. “However, those two pieces didn't really work that well together.”

The company was sending only one promotional email a month, according to Penzone, and it couldn't track the effectiveness of its email or direct mail programs very well. “We weren't gleaning as much information as we could from lead campaigns to make better decisions about the next campaign,” she added.

But instead of trying to tackle both channels at once, Stanley Steemer decided to focus on its email channel first, because it already had a direct mail service provider. As a result, the company hired marketing agency Baesman to help freshen up its strategy and launched a new email program in December 2013.

Spic-and-span sends

Stanley Steemer now sends three emails a month. It sends one promotional email at the beginning of the month and one at the end of the month—each containing the same offer. In addition, the company sends a more content-driven email in the middle of the month, such as one containing new product or service introductions or tips on how to keep a tidy house. Occasionally, it will also send one-off emails for new products or services. 

The company also revamped its welcome series. It freshened the series' design and updated its content.

Along with changing the content and frequency of its emails, Stanley Steemer adjusted its segmentation model. In the past the company didn't really have a segmentation strategy, aside from segmenting branch or franchise contacts, according to Kim Welther, director of client services for Baesman. Now, the carpet and floor cleaning company segments by customer engagement (opens and clicks) and purchase behaviors, offers, and branch or franchise groups, she says. For instance, if a customer just had a carpet cleaning, Stanley Steemer may send her a series about hardwood floor cleaning to expose her to other products and services, Penzone says. Or, if a customer shows a decrease in activity, the company may send an additional contact series.

“We really want to get our customers on that cleaning every three to four months cadence,” Penzone says. “And with direct mail and email, I think those are great ways for us to keep our current clients.”

Pure postage

But existing customers aren't the only clientele Stanley Steemer is interested in attracting; the carpet cleaner also wants to acquire new customers. And direct mail is generally one of the first forms of contact that prospective customers have with the company. So, Stanley Steemer decided to extend its relationship with Baesman and have it head its direct mail strategies in April 2014.

“I want our customer experience to be consistent across channels and having different vendors and different strategies wasn't accomplishing that goal,” Penzone says.

As with its emails prior to Baesman, Stanley Steemer didn't really leverage segmentation when it came to direct mail, Welther says. Now, the company sends different direct mail pieces based on list information and purchase behavior (e.g., customers who buy expensive furniture). In fact, Stanley Steemer now sends nine direct mail pieces a year with 10 to 20 different segmented versions for each campaign, she explains.

Because most cleaning appointments are booked over the phone, Stanley Steemer's call center employees use prospects' email address to send them appointment confirmations, as well as marketing materials once they become a customer.

Sparkling results...and a few minor spills

Since launching its programs, Stanley Steemer has seen results that are nothing short of shiny and bright. According to Welther, the company has experienced a 33% increase in response rate (bookings) through its direct mail efforts, and a 200% increase in response rates after launching its first acquisition campaign. In addition, the company's email marketing has helped generate a 20% month-over-month increase in online bookings, which has also led to a boost in sales.

In fact, Stanley Steemer's success has inspired its marketers to further grow its email program. Last month the company debuted a trigger program for incomplete or cancelled orders, which is like an abandoned cart program, and has already seen a 50% increase in average open rates.

That's not to say that Stanley Steemer's experience was completely unblemished. For instance, the carpet cleaner has franchise owners—most of whom aren't email marketing or direct mail experts. So, the company has had to spend time educating them. Now, about 50 of the company's estimated 180 franchise owners participate in the direct mail program, according to Penzone.

But, overall, Penzone says that having a distinct plan helped Stanley Steemer launch its programs in a neat and orderly fashion. “We had clear expectations, we had goals, and we check in with those goals,” she says. “That was the best thing that I could have done to make this successful."

Business Breaking News: 12 Cool Job Benefits That Keep Employees Happy

As an employer, you want to make sure your employees are happy. After all, your people are the ones who keep your business going. Your organization's workers may be pleased with their telecommuting options and free snacks, but some companies go above and beyond to make sure their employees really love their jobs. Here are 12 unusual but awesome benefits offered by large and small businesses across the country.

No official work hours. What 9 to 5? At Netflix's California headquarters, vacation days and work hours aren't tracked. The company only measures what people get done; so as long as employees do their work, it doesn't matter when or for how long they're in the office. But Netflix's staff members know better than to slack off — abusing this policy gets you a one-way ticket out the door.

Tons of time off. When you work hard, it's nice to have an employer that lets you play hard, too. Some big-name companies like Glassdoor and Virgin Group offer unlimited time off, but this type of policy usually discourages employees from actually taking vacation days, since there's no incentive to "use it or lose it." Boston-based Metis Communications does put a cap on its employees' paid time off, but the amount is incredibly generous — on top of the standard three weeks of vacation time (four, if you've been there four years or more), staff members get their birthdays off, a bonus vacation week during the last week of December and, after five years of employment, summer Friday vacation days. [5 Ways to Cultivate Happy Employees]

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