Timely and appropriate mail

I woke up this morning to an exploding twitter and FB feeds with lots of friends cheering the defeat of DOMA and Prop 8. Apparently some companies are getting into the act as well.
(Behind a cut because some of this may be slightly NSFW in some places)

TimelyMail_GV Less than 4 hours after the rulings came down, Good Vibration had an email campaign going out celebrating the decisions.
Given the likely demographics of their customer base (mostly liberal, left-leaning, LGBT supporters) this is a great campaign. Lots of people are excited and ecstatic about the rulings. What better way to increase sales than by harvesting some of that energy?
But it’s also a good branding opportunity for Good Vibes. It’s a way for the company to communicate their values to their customer base. By celebrating the rulings, Good Vibes is confirming their commitment to “San Francisco Values.”
I have no doubt that Good Vibes had another campaign ready to go if the court had ruled the opposite way. This campaign, too, would have reinforced their values and engaged their recipient base.
I’m sure other companies and organizations, on both sides of the issue, had similar campaigns lined up to engage and electrify their base. Getting revenue out of it would be good, but is really not the point of these campaigns.

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For instance in many areas of marketing repetition is key. Repeat a slogan and forge an association between the slogan and the product in the mind of the consumer. More repetition is better. Marketers can even go so far as using the same ad to drive consumer action. Television advertising is a prime example of this. Companies don’t create new content for every advertising slot, they create one or a few ads and then replay them over and over. The advertiser doesn’t even really care if the consumer consciously ignores the ads. The unconscious connection is still being made.
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Sending repetitive ads over email may be an effective marketing strategy, but may not be an effective delivery strategy.
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