From: Smith-Harmon
Subject Line: REI and Smith-Harmon Win eec People’s Choice Award: Best in Email
Date: February 14, 2009

Year-long Welcome Email Series Recognized by Industry Peers as Groundbreaking

SEATTLE, February 13, 2009 — Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, and Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), the national outdoor gear and apparel retailer, have been named the winners of the Email Experience Council’s People’s Choice Award: Best in Email for their work together on REI’s new member welcome series.

The welcome campaign consists of 12 email messages that are sent to new co-op members over the course of their first year of membership, culminating in a 1-year anniversary message. In addition to creating a dialogue between REI and its newest members, the campaign is also one of the company’s inaugural efforts to leverage membership data to increase relevancy in REI customer communications.

“Selecting a winner for this year’s People’s Choice Award was a simple task,” said Jeanniey Mullen, founder of the Email Experience Council. “Within minutes of opening up voting to the eec membership, this campaign was identified as a winner. The eec received a tremendous number of email messages and notes from those who voted praising the creative and effective approach this campaign used. We were thrilled to award the People’s Choice Award to Smith-Harmon and REI at our annual Email Evolution Conference and hope that this campaign inspires other email marketers to strive for such outstanding results.” Lisa Harmon, co-founder and principal at Smith-Harmon, said, “When there are still a significant number of marketers who don’t send a welcome email at all, REI’s 12-email new member welcome series is truly remarkable. Focused on engagement through brand messaging and education, it stands in sharp contrast to the highly promotional tenor of most retail emails, and shows that the soft-sell approach delivers higher lifetime value.”

Meg Reynolds, REI’s manager of email programs, said, “REI is delighted with this recognition from the EEC and its members. It’s great to have industry peers acknowledge your efforts as best-of-class. Smith-Harmon translates the REI brand with exceptional skill and nuance in our email communications. It’s a great partnership.”

Each email in the welcome series showcases photography submitted by REI members and focuses on a single topic—whether it’s REI’s environment stewardship, member dividends or educational resources. The images and language highlight REI’s passionate commitment to its members, local communities and the great outdoors, while encouraging new members to take part in the REI community through stewardship, outdoor clinics, gear reviews and more.

View the creatives for the 12 emails in REI’s new member welcome series.

The winner of the eec People’s Choice Award: Best in Email was announced at the Email Evolution Conference, which was held Feb. 9-11 at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz.

We are excited to announce that we are OMMA Award-Winners! Our REI Member Mail Series has won the OMMA Award in the Email Campaign Category. Thanks for your votes-we're honored! REI's new Member Mail campaign is a series of messages sent to new REI co-op members, highlighting benefits of membership and linking to content that illustrates REI's commitment to its members, communities, and the outdoors. Each mail covers a single topic, keeping the focus tight, the message brief and the look inspirational. Each email contains something different, from videos and photo galleries to coupons and member reviews. Props to the REI email team, too! This crew is sharp, on-brand and fun to work with.

From: Me
Subject Line: Smith-Harmon and REI are 2008 EEC Performance Award Finalists!
Date: Thursday, January 24, 2008

I am proud to announce that Smith-Harmon and REI are 2008 EEC Performance Award finalists! See the details on the EEC website >

The Email Experience Council created the Email Performance Award to recognize an individual or company that has created a campaign that demonstrates the full power of email marketing. Chosen by the members of the eec, the winning campaign will provide further evidence of email marketing’s unsurpassed return on investment and provide inspiration to others seeking to elevate the performance of their own programs. Entries will be evaluated for their marketing strategy, creative components and—most importantly—results. Learn more >

Members of the eec can vote for the winner from among the Email Performance Award finalists. Just log into your eec account and follow the instructions. Voting concludes at the end of day on Monday, Jan. 28. Vote now >

About our entry:
Working with our team, REI - the outdoors apparel and gear retailer - redesigned its July 7 “Summer Shoes Gearmail” email, implementing a range of best practices to optimize for viewing in preview panes, to improve readability, and to make calls-to-action more prominent. For the redesigned email, the unique click-through rate rose 22%, unique traffic to target specialty shop rose 90%, and revenue per email rose 11%. Because of the strength of the results of this creative test, REI moved forward with an entire suite of redesigned, maximized email creative templates in time for the critical fourth-quarter period.
For details, view our nomination form >

And check out the creative:
Summary of Redesigned Creative Innovations >
Legacy Creative >
Legacy Creative in Preview Pane >
Redesigned Creative >
Redesigned Creative in Preview Pane >

Looking for inspiration? After closely monitoring, observing, applauding and, in some cases, trash-talking the creative efforts of over 100 leading online retailers since 2004, I'd like to take a moment to recognize a handful of shining stars. It's not just about one or two standout emails: this group consistently delivers creative, innovative and memorable campaigns.

From: Apple
Subject Line: Great gift ideas to surprise your valentine.
Date: Friday, January 27, 2006

Apple won our 2006 Q1 EDM vote with their January 27 "Love is in the ear" campaign. And looking back, it's no wonder. The copy, the imagery, the layout, the theme. They all work together in a beautiful harmony. It's clever, elegant and most importantly…effective. There's no arguing that Apple had a stellar 2006. Can't wait to get my iPhone.


From: Crate & Barrel
Subject Line: Greens that Wow
Date: Monday, April 10, 2006

Smart, fresh and simple. Nominated for an award in Q1 and Q2 of 2006, Crate and Barrel consistently delivers aesthetically pleasing creative throughout the winter, spring, summer and fall. Their campaigns are honest and hardworking, with no crazy hooks, no flashing animations and no groundbreaking, medium-altering innovations. In a nutshell, they keep it real. While basic sometimes means boring, in the case of Crate and Barrel it means consistent, on-brand and best-practices worthy. No gimmicks here.


From: UrbanOutfitters.com
Subject Line: Take an Extra 25% off. This time, we mean it.
Date: Thursday, June 22, 2006

It's always good to explore the lighter side of life, and Urban Outfitters has proven that humor always comes out a winner. They win the witty vote, for sure. They throw traditional production values out the window in favor of a few good laughs, and it really works. There is a refreshing, human element to their campaigns. As a matter of fact, it feels like you're funniest BFF wrote the copy and created the layout.


From: Barneys New York
Subject Line: Wedges, Platforms + Boots - Barneys New York
Date: Wednesday, October 18, 2006

The standing ovation goes to Barneys for their generous use of humor. Their silly imagery, casually elegant handwritten font and dashed-off calls-to-action (Shut up and shop!) project a fun, attractive, devil-may-care attitude. Their creative is clean, welcoming and aspirational. It's always good to see the upper-class crowd taking themselves a little less seriously.


From: J.Crew
Subject Line: $4.95 Shipping. Gobble, gobble.
Date: Wednesday, November 22, 2006

J.Crew really found their voice in 2006. Their copy is intelligent, sassy, direct and convincing in a non-intrusive wink-wink, nudge-nudge, buy-now sort of way. And we love it! They rely heavily on copy to float their creative, and float they do. Their messages are always timely to the holidays, the weather and any other national event that they can tie in. Their sale emails are effectively persistent, without being demanding, which conveys a sense of real urgency to shop before your co-worker, friend or neighbor gets that perfect sweater before you do.

From: UrbanOutfitters.com
Subject Line: Take an Extra 25% off. This time, we mean it.
Date: Thursday, June 22, 2006

And the winner of the Best EDM of Q1 2006 Award is...Urban Outfitters, with their June 22 "This time, we mean it" campaign. Here's what some of our voters has to say about the winning EDM:

"I think Urban has the best email campaigns lately. And their subject lines are hilarious -- always makes me want to open them."

"We have all made this mistake right?!!! They came out on top, apologized and gained their customer loyalty back in this well put together email. Great job! Hopefully, I/we will never have to pull this off...but if we do, we will follow their lead!"

"This is just hillarious. Great to see Urban Outfitters having fun with EDMs; it's refreshing."

Congratulations to the team at Urban Outfitters! Looks like a little humor goes a long way!

Please consider participating in the Q3 2006 nomination process. Forward outstanding nominations to edm@smith-harmon.com. Please make sure to include the campaign From, Subject Line and Date fields, as well as the entire campaign creative. Preferred creative formats include a link to a hosted HTML file or a .jpg or .png screenshot attachment. Please list the reasons you consider the campaign worthy of consideration. Also, please indicate whether you would like your name posted online with your nomination.

Thanks so much to all of you for your participation! I hope to see more of your ideas and comments on the blog this quarter. Let's all work together to raise the bar on EDM design industry-wide.

From: Crate and Barrel
Subject Line: A New Wave of Watercolors
Date: Tuesday, April 4, 2006

From: Williams-Sonoma
Subject Line: Just for Mom: Williams-Sonoma’s Personalized Apron
Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2006



From: UrbanOutfitters.com
Subject Line: Take an Extra 25% off. This time, we mean it.
Date: Thursday, June 22, 2006

From: J.Crew
Subject Line: J.Crew at the beach
Date: Thursday, June 22, 2006



Above, please find the nominees for the Best EDM of Q2 2006 Award Title! The Q2 2006 Smith-Harmon EDM Review “Best EDM” Contest is part of a series of ongoing quarterly reviews meant to acknowledge and reward excellence in Email Marketing Creative. From hundreds of candidates, our panel of experts selected four campaigns that reflected outstanding accomplishment in creative design, strategy and implementation.

Vote now through August 7, 2006. The Best EDM of Q2 2006 Award Winner will be announced on edm.smith-harmon.com, as well as via email, on August 11, 2006. Cast your vote now >

Would you like to participate in the Q3 2006 nomination process? Please forward outstanding nominations to edm@smith-harmon.com. Please make sure to include the campaign From, Subject Line and Date fields, as well as the entire campaign creative. Preferred creative formats include a link to a hosted HTML file or a .jpg or .png screenshot attachment. Please list the reasons you consider the campaign worthy of consideration. Also, please indicate whether you would like your name posted online with your nomination.

From: Apple
Subject Line: Great gift ideas to surprise your valentine.
Date: Friday, January 27, 2006

And the winner of the Best EDM of Q1 2006 Award is... Apple, with their January 27 "Love is in the ear" campaign. Congratulations to the team at Apple; our voters found a favorite with your success in working together product imagery, copy and a seasonal theme in an elegant, clever and effective way.

The vote was extremely close: Janie and Jack, Crate & Barrel and Kate Spade all earned significant votes (and kudos). Congratulations to the teams behind all of the nominated campaigns: you've raised the bar on Email Marketing industry-wide! Because you do such consistent good work, I wouldn't be surprised to see your names come up for consideration again in Q2...

Please consider participating in the Q2 2006 nomination process. Forward outstanding nominations to edm@smith-harmon.com. Please make sure to include the campaign From, Subject Line and Date fields, as well as the entire campaign creative. Preferred creative formats include a link to a hosted HTML file or a .jpg or .png screenshot attachment. Please list the reasons you consider the campaign worthy of consideration. Also, please indicate whether you would like your name posted online with your nomination.

Thanks so much to all of you for your participation! I hope to see more of your ideas and comments on the blog this quarter. Let's all work together to make our EDMs even more successful!

From: katespade.com
Subject Line: new items on sale: 30-50% off
Date: Thursday, January 5, 2006

From: Apple
Subject Line: Great gift ideas to surprise your valentine.
Date: Friday, January 27, 2006

From: Crate and Barrel
Subject Line: Introduce a new bold pop of color
Date: Tuesday, March 21, 2006

From: Janie and Jack
Subject Line: Our New Collections Capture an Adventurous Spirit
Date: Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Above, please find the nominees for the Best EDM of Q1 2006 Award Title! This is the first in a series of ongoing quarterly reviews meant to acknowledge and reward excellence in Email Marketing Creative Strategy, Design and Implementation.

Vote now through May 5, 2006. The Best EDM of Q1 2006 Award Winner will be announced on edm.smith-harmon.com, as well as via email, on May 8, 2006.
Cast your vote now >

Would you like to participate in the Q2 2006 Nomination Process? Please forward oustanding nominations to edm@smith-harmon.com. Please make sure to include the campaign From, Subject Line and Date fields, as well as the entire campaign creative. Preferred creative formats include a link to a hosted HTML file or a .jpg or .png screenshot attachment. Please list the reasons you consider the campaign worthy of consideration. Also, please indicate whether you would like your name posted online with your nomination.