The recent launch of Media Genesis by Dr SK Fung - the former
general manager of TVB International and founder of CNBC Asia - is to
help customers deliver personalised, permission-based email marketing
services in Asian languages by deploying technology from software
provider Xchange.
With an estimated 500 million email boxes anticipated worldwide by the
end of this year, The Body Shop and Time Inc Asia are among Media
Genesis' first clients in Hong Kong.
The marketing product, backed by Internet consultancy firm Icon
Medialab, implements rich media email, featuring technology from Radical
Communication, which allows companies to incorporate audio, video and
animation into email.
While the service can help clients acquire new customers, Dr Fung
stressed companies must initially utilise their own mailing lists.
"We don't own and we don't sell email lists, so we are truly independent
and there is no conflict of interest ... We are as comfortable working
with Coca-Cola as we are working with Pepsi at the same time," Dr Fung
said.
Further, Dr Fung said, unlike unsolicited Spam, the service allows
customers to choose if they wish to continue receiving the information
or would prefer to unsubscribe.
Media Genesis offers customers a full service, which includes analysis
segmentation; data hosting; capturing of new data; client segmentation;
campaign planning, and tracking and reporting analysis.
Alternatively, clients with a smaller budget can register at Media
Genesis' website and implement the self-service ASP (application service
provider) option, which allows users to access the company's software
and back-end infrastructure to run their own email campaign.
Each email could cost from about US$0.20 to US$2,
depending on whether it was in plain text or video.
Once potential customers receive the email, they have the option to
forward the message to three other people. While Media Genesis can track
the sent message, it lacks the right to include the new addresses to its
database without prior permission.
Dr Fung added the service was not limited to dotcom companies and would
be as effective for traditional bricks-and-mortar businesses.
According to figures released by Media Genesis, 74 per cent of
Asia-Pacific Internet users have email boxes. That figure is expected to
increase to more than 90 per cent by 2004.
