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LinkedIn pays big after class action lawsuit over user emails

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Title: LinkedIn pays big after class action lawsuit over user emails
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The company known for using reminder emails to get you to use its professional networking service will now have to pay a hefty sum for ta...

<img alt="Linkin907" height="359" src="http://rack.1.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzEwLzAzLzhiL2xpbmtpbjkwNy43MTViOC5qcGcKcAl0aHVtYgk5NTB4NTM0IwplCWpwZw/20cac4ec/7b9/linkin907.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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The company known for using reminder emails to get you to use its professional networking service will now have to pay a hefty sum for taking the tactic a bit too far.</div>
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In an email sent by LinkedIn on Friday, users were notified that they were eligible for a class action settlement related to email marketing. The company has agreed to pay out $13 million to users who may have been impacted by its Add Connections service. The settlement stems from a 2013 class action lawsuit filed in California.</div>
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LinkedIn's Add Connections program allowed users to import their personal contacts into the company's system and then have invitations to connect on LinkedIn sent out on their behalf. However, if a recipient of the invitation email didn't accept the invitation within a certain amount of time, LinkedIn would then send two follow up emails repeating the invitation.</div>
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If you're a big fan of LinkedIn, that's called thorough follow-up. But others, less familiar with the service, might consider such messages to be annoying spam. What makes such an instance worse is if the recipient thinks the spammy messages are coming from you, a person they know, rather than a third party.</div>
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The key here is in LinkedIn's email persistence without the user's consent. On the <a href="http://www.addconnectionssettlement.com%20/" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">settlement website</a>, Gilardi & Co., the legal firm handling the payout, states:</div>
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The Court found that members consented to importing their contacts and sending the connection invitation, but did not find that members consented to LinkedIn sending the two reminder emails.</div>
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Within the settlement notification emails are individual claim ID numbers, which can then be used to file a claim for your chunk of $13 million. Of course, no one is expecting any of the claimants to win big money, but if the final tally of any of the claimants results in an individual payout of less than $10, LinkedIn has agreed to add an additional $750,000 to the overall payout fund.</div>
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LinkedIn's payout is designed to cover a broad range of email activity, from September 17, 2011 and October 31, 2014. But for LinkedIn users, there's a catch. On the claim form you must swear (under penalty of perjury) that you were indeed a user of Add Connections during the aforementioned time span. So if you're just annoyed by LinkedIn emails, but aren’t sure if you used Add Connections yourself, you may want to check before you submit your claim for a slice of the payout.</div>
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Although LinkedIn is making the massive payment to address legal claims around email abuse, the company itself hasn't directly admitted to any wrongdoing.</div>
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When contacted by <em>Mashable</em>, a LinkedIn spokesperson stated that because the court, "suggested that we could be more clear about the fact that we send reminder emails about pending invitations from LinkedIn members, we have made changes to our product and Privacy Policy. Ultimately, we decided to resolve this case so that we can put our focus where it matters most: finding additional ways to improve our members’ experiences on LinkedIn."</div>
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The deadline for filing a claim is December 14.</div>
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LinkedIn pays big after class action lawsuit over user emails

The company known for using reminder emails to get you to use its professional networking service will now have to pay a hefty sum for ta...

How to achieve the work-life balance you always wantedbus

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Title: How to achieve the work-life balance you always wantedbus
Author: Unknown
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

Mashable's latest #BizChats Twitter chat discussed how professionals can better manage their crazy, chaotic work schedules that ma...

<img alt="42-56450364" height="359" src="http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzEwLzAyLzljLzQyNTY0NTAzNjQuOWIwMjcuanBnCnAJdGh1bWIJOTUweDUzNCMKZQlqcGc/39ad144e/d74/42-56450364.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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<em>Mashable's</em> latest <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23BizChats%20&src=typd" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">#BizChats</a> Twitter chat discussed how professionals can better manage their crazy, chaotic work schedules that make up an "average" work week.</div>
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Over the course of an hour, ExpressHackings covered an array of questions, ranging from the challenges associated with work-life balance in today's culture to how professionals can respectfully set boundaries at work to prevent burnout.</div>
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Several life-balance experts shared their knowledge on the topic including: <a href="https://twitter.com/mandaclay" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amanda Clayman</a>, financial wellness expert and life balance enthusiast; <a href="https://twitter.com/EricaDiamond" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Erica Diamond</a>, lifestyle coach, founder & editor in chief of <em><a href="http://womenonthefence.com/" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Women On The Fence</a></em>; <a href="https://twitter.com/WriteEditRepeat" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Lylah Alphonse</a>, managing editor for U.S News; and <a href="https://twitter.com/samanthaettus" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Samantha Ettus</a>, work-life balance renegade, bestselling author and Forbes contributor.</div>
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Check out highlights from our chat in the Storify, below:</div>
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<em>Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.</em></div>

How to achieve the work-life balance you always wantedbus

Mashable's latest #BizChats Twitter chat discussed how professionals can better manage their crazy, chaotic work schedules that ma...

10 clever ways to be more innovative at work

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Title: 10 clever ways to be more innovative at work
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IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE, WAVEBREAK MEDIA LTD/WAVEBREAK MEDIA LTD./CORBIS Quick: What sounds more fun? Filling in spreadsheets ...

<img alt="Inspiration" height="359" src="http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzEwLzAxL2QzL2luc3BpcmF0aW9uLjliYmZjLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTk1MHg1MzQjCmUJanBn/cf3c8749/77d/inspiration.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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Quick: What sounds more fun? Filling in spreadsheets with data for eight hours or coming up with new and exciting ideas?</div>
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I'll go ahead and assume you went with option two. The opportunity to innovate is something most of us want more of in our daily work lives. Yet often, we feel we can't be more creative at work because of factors beyond our control. Perhaps your company is risk-averse and likes to play it safe, perhaps your targets are intimidatingly aggressive, or perhaps the sheer size of your to-do list makes adding anything new feel impossible.</div>
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While a lot of these may be true, there are also some tips and tricks almost anyone can adopt to keep your innovation muscles strong and ready to go. And like any muscle group, the more you practice it, the stronger, better, and more unstoppable it becomes. Here are 10 things you can do on the job to make it easier to be more innovative every single day.</div>
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1. Start conducting stand-up meetings</h3>
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Your entire energy changes when you're standing. Unsurprisingly, the entire energy of a meeting does, too. Convert one of your meetings to a standing one and watch the momentum, enthusiasm, and action soar. They'll move faster and be more action-orientated and more likely to motivate your team. Need help convincing your boss? Throw<a href="http://lessmeeting.com/blog/hidden-benefit-stand-up-meeting/" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">this article</a> on the benefits his or her way.</div>
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2. Surround yourself with inspiration</h3>
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Whenever you see something from the big wide world that captures your attention, put it on display. It can be any discovery: an awesome ad in a magazine, an unusually arranged menu, or even a well-written email that made you laugh. The more provocative, the better! If you have space on a wall near you, eke out a spot where you can display everything. Or, if you work in an open office where wall space is at a minimum, do it virtually on Pinterest.</div>
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3. Get a buddy</h3>
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Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. Pick a colleague you feel comfortable with with and make yourselves accountable to each other. Encourage him or her to keep trying new things, whether it's trying a new place for lunch, pitching an idea in an unorthodox manner, sharing articles that inspire, or just doing some old-fashioned brainstorming. It's better — and easier — together.</div>
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4. Pick small projects</h3>
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We often think that ideas must always be big, transformative, and game-changing. But often, it's lots of small, novel things that add up to make a huge difference. The benefits to small-scale innovation are huge. Not only do they happen quickly and (most often) without a lot of fuss, they also garner the interest and attention of both your team and organization; thus paving the way for bigger, meatier innovation projects to follow. Try changing lots of small things, like how you sign off your emails, how you reward yourself for good work, or how you kick off meetings.</div>
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5. Flip your assumptions</h3>
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We all have things we do with our eyes shut. It's part of what makes us excel at our jobs, but also part of what blinds us to opportunities. Over the course of the day, identify all the tasks you do without thinking. Take a moment to talk about how you could do them differently. Sometimes it won't work (spell check might always be the best way to proofread your work). However, it will often lead you to find a new way of doing the same old thing.</div>
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6. Bring it to life</h3>
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Stop talking and start building! Put your thoughts into words, your words into pictures, and your pictures into prototypes. When people can see your idea, they're less likely to forget it and much more likely to take it seriously and become involved in its development and bullet-proofing. Even a bad drawing is better than no drawing.</div>
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7. Ban things</h3>
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Though it may sound counterintuitive, having constraints and parameters actually inspire innovation by forcing you to think dynamically and creatively. As an exercise, start banning things and exploring the implications. Ban words, ban resources, ban your primary target market, ban your default communication tools, and watch your creativity take off. Often, the ideas you settle on will likely be watered down versions of your initial suggestions, but the point of this exercise is to spark new thoughts on how to do the same old things.</div>
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8. Get out of the office</h3>
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Make a habit of stepping outside even if it's just to walk around the block. As you stroll, make a point to notice things. If you need some discipline on your inspiration hunt, make a game of it and deliberately hunt for things that begin with the letter A on the first day, B the second, and so on. Your mind will start connecting dots between what you see and the problems you left back at the office. That's the beauty of our subconscious.</div>
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9. Fuel up on creativity</h3>
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For too many of us, checking our phone is the first thing we do each day. Feed your mind with creativity instead of diving into the email deluge (that can wait). Pick your favorite song, <a href="https://www.themuse.com/advice/51-smart-podcasts-that-will-make-your-commute-way-better" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">podcast</a>, or blog to kick-start the morning. Whatever it is, make sure it fuels your imagination. You'll be amazed how much it will inspire your attitude and creativity throughout the day.</div>
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10. Ask yourself "What would my hero do?"</h3>
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When you're stumped with a problem you can't make any headway on, call in the big guns. Keep a list near your desk of some of your favorite creative forces. Then, when a problem strikes, consult your list and ask yourself what they might do to solve it. Considering how Willy Wonka would solve a packaging challenge, how Coco Chanel would tackle a communications issue, and how Salvador Dali would take on streamlining a supply chain can be very enlightening.</div>
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These tricks may seem trivial, but together they force you to see the world in a new way. And that's what innovation is all about — seeing opportunity where no one else can. The more you practice these, the more easily it will become your default way of thinking — and the more innovation will become part of your daily work.</div>
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As a final thought, remember that committing to innovation is a brave thing to do. Your actions will likely inspire others on your team to join. There will be days when it feels like too much to take on, but drum up your inner warrior and keep going. And remember that persistence beats resistance.</div>

10 clever ways to be more innovative at work

IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE, WAVEBREAK MEDIA LTD/WAVEBREAK MEDIA LTD./CORBIS Quick: What sounds more fun? Filling in spreadsheets ...

3 key ways marketers should personalize the online experience

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Title: 3 key ways marketers should personalize the online experience
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This article is part of SWOT Team , a series on Mashable that features insights from leaders in marketing, brand-building and public rel...

<img alt="Thurs-1" height="359" src="http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzEwLzAxLzEyL1RodXJzMS4wMzM5MC5qcGcKcAl0aHVtYgk5NTB4NTM0IwplCWpwZw/060dca80/4b2/Thurs-1.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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<em>This article is part of <a href="http://mashable.com/category/swot-team/" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;">SWOT Team</a>, a series on Mashable that features insights from leaders in marketing, brand-building and public relations.</em></div>
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It's a fact: Online personalization is still pretty imperfect. Despite all the data that companies have at their disposal, the biggest players in the space are still struggling to find the right algorithm to reach their customers in meaningful ways. The result is a growing disconnect between consumers and the companies they love.</div>
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The ability to offer a personalized experience online is quickly becoming a requirement for companies to stay relevant, which means they have an important challenge to overcome: making sense of customer data. While data is readily available, it's often siloed within different marketing technologies or across different marketing teams within an organization. This creates a disjointed image of the customer and makes it impossible to draw accurate conclusions. The result is an equally disjointed customer experience.</div>
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To connect this disparate data, companies should consider opting for an open marketing strategy that allows them the flexibility to pull information from a variety of tools. The result is a fuller, richer understanding of each customer — and a better, more personalized experience on their site.</div>
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Here are the three C's of personalization that will lead to the best possible customer experience</div>
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1. Customer profile</h2>
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IMAGE: MASHABLE COMPOSITE NEIL WEBB/CORBIS</div>
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Building a strong customer profile starts from the very first interaction. That means pulling in as much relevant data as possible and marrying it to generate accurate insights. For example, at a department store, your customer who's a gardening enthusiast might also be a chef or a soccer player as well. Without building a profile, you'd miss opportunities to share relevant content to this customer — who only visits your brand for lawn tools and paint.</div>
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Moreover, your brand should know that a customer profile is never "complete" — it's malleable, building on every interaction. Consider what data contributes to the profile. Demographics like age, gender and income, geographic data and psychographic data like interests, hobbies, and lifestyle (even what device your consumer is using) all factor into building a holistic picture of a shopper.</div>
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While much remains consistent, all of these data points are subject to change or shift as individuals grow and develop. Think of a customer's profile as a constant work-in-progress.</div>
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These best practices for building a good customer profile apply to both known and anonymous users, who happen to make up 95% of traffic, <a href="http://insight.venturebeat.com/report/customer-identity-marketing-capturing-storing-and-enriching-right-data" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">a Venture Beat report revealed</a>. Just because a user is anonymous, though, doesn't mean you can't get to know them.</div>
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2. Context</h2>
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While a profile gives companies an understanding of each individual customer, being able to meet their needs in real time is the key.</div>
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Contextualization is the where, when and why around a customer's interaction with a brand, and is sensitive to many fast-changing factors like seasonality, location and time of day.</div>
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For example, a customer from New England who's browsing your site in November might be interested in winter coats or snow boots. If a vacationer is looking for an afternoon excursion, they shouldn't be offered hiking spots or outdoor picnic destinations if rain is in the forecast.</div>
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The holiday season is another particularly important time to take context into account when tracking customers as they navigate your site; most of your customers, at that time, won't be shopping for themselves.</div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="as-more-daytoday-activities" style="color: #00aeef;"></a></div>
<span class="microcontent" data-description="As more day-to-day activities take place online, analyzing context becomes even more important for you to do." data-fragment="as-more-daytoday-activities" data-micro="1"><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.5555562973022px; line-height: 25px;">Companies need to make sure they're using marketing tools that allow them to gather this data and match it to existing customer profiles. Remember, the goal of personalization is to get as close to a one-on-one relationship with your customer as possible — context is a major component in helping you get there.</span>As more day-to-day activities take place online, analyzing context becomes even more important for you to do.</span> Ten or 20 years ago, logging into a computer felt like a departure. Today, technology is closely integrated with every activity. If you give consumers contextually irrelevant information, it can feel like they're being offered a steak special during breakfast.<br />
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3. Clarity</h2>
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Despite an overall consumer interest in personalization, there is still a great deal of skepticism around the data collection it requires. This is due in large part to privacy concerns;<a href="http://insight.venturebeat.com/state-of-marketing-technology-hyper-personalization?utm_source=vb&utm_medium=refer&utm_content=editorial-post&utm_campaign=somt-personalization-report" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> according to a Venture Beat survey</a>, 96% of Americans express concern about data privacy.</div>
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The mystery around personalization exacerbates the feeling that customer privacy is being violated. Customers want to know what data is collected, what it looks like, how much you need to personalize the site and why they're being served certain recommendations, notifications, etc.</div>
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If they're interested, why not tell them? When pushing them content or promotions, tell them why you think it fits their needs. This will allow customers to opt-in to this process and feel empowered rather than manipulated.</div>
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Netflix, for example, curates content for each user but also asks them to rate content after they've viewed it. They also explain why certain content is recommended to them with something along the lines of "because you liked <em>Sherlock Holmes</em>."</div>
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Being transparent with customers about what kind of data you're collecting is the best case scenario for everyone involved. Customers feel more at ease and have a better understanding of why they're served certain content. Companies find their customers more willing to engage — and are able to offer a better experience overall. If this capability doesn't already exist in your personalization tools, it's worth the investment.</div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="by-using-an-open" style="color: #00aeef;"></a></div>
<span class="microcontent" data-description="By using an open marketing approach to pull data from a variety of places, you'll be able to make smarter, more strategic decisions" data-fragment="by-using-an-open" data-micro="1"><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.5555562973022px; line-height: 25px;">Brands like Nike will automatically send customers an email reminding them that it's time to replace their sneakers after they've logged 400 miles in their running app.</span>By using an open marketing approach to pull data from a variety of places, you'll be able to make smarter, more strategic decisions</span> about engaging with each individual customer. Soon, consumers won't even have to do a Google search when they're shopping for new clothes or looking for a restaurant — it will be recommended to them before they even have the chance.<br />
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As companies' personalization efforts become more and more sophisticated, this predictive personalization will evolve from "creepy" characterizations to normal customer interactions. That said, personalization should feel like a service, not a violation. Maintaining transparency and accuracy will be an essential part of this advanced personalization. Customers should feel understood and cared for by their favorite brands. By building a customer profile that's dynamic, takes context into account and is open and transparent to the customer, you can build great relationships and keep the loyalty of your customers.</div>

3 key ways marketers should personalize the online experience

This article is part of SWOT Team , a series on Mashable that features insights from leaders in marketing, brand-building and public rel...

Donate sperm, get an iPhone 6S, Chinese marketers boast

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Title: Donate sperm, get an iPhone 6S, Chinese marketers boast
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Faced with a shortage of sperm donors, Chinese sperm banks have a new marketing ploy: They're advertising iPhones in exchange for don...

<img alt="Iphone6s-6s-plus-cameras" height="359" src="http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA5LzE4LzZiL2lwaG9uZTZzNnNwLjkwODRlLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTk1MHg1MzQjCmUJanBn/002085ac/d11/iphone6s-6s-plus-cameras.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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Faced with a shortage of sperm donors, Chinese sperm banks have a new marketing ploy: They're advertising iPhones in exchange for donations.</div>
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Well, sort of. The going rate for donations seems to hover between 5,000 yuan (US$785.68) and 6,000 yuan (US$942.82), which is enough to cover the US$649 needed for a 16GB <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/09/18/chinese-sperm-bank-iphone-6s/mashable.com/2015/09/10/iphone-6s-rose-gold-is-the-new-pink/" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;">iPhone 6S</a>when it comes out.</div>
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Several sperm banks are distributing flyers and taking out newspaper ads with iPhones prominently displayed on top, in the hopes of catching more eyes with their plea.</div>
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For example, the Renji Hospital in Shanghai started distributing a <a href="http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5MTI1OTk2NQ%3D%3D&mid=212312312&idx=1&sn=9cf2cac76b12c11436d58a2b15c1884d&scene=1&srcid=0914PZpOick3ZF9tev7M3VKn&key=dffc561732c22651461d5747fed4df912bf4d50fa9c1ff10388f6bdca92ad924e6989e50eeaf5bf6b349b1495ad3de73&ascene=0&uin=MTg5NDQxMjQzOA%3D%3D&devicetype=iMac%20MacBookPro9%2C2%20OSX%20OSX%2010.10.3%20build%2814D136%29&version=11000110&pass_ticket=9Gnbyik3IlWOij6Qu7uNmG%2Fyt0ui8mgCsjbDeGA2i3mzPMQb%2FIV7ZugzVgw%2FxnOf" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">digital flyer</a> (link in Chinese) on chat app WeChat, offering 6,000 yuan (US$942.82) for a 40 millilitres donation, as well as a free medical check. It even states that men can donate over several sessions within a six-month stretch, since a regular "session" will produce somewhere between 2 millilitres and 6 millilitres of a sample.</div>
<figure class="image" style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin: 0px 0px 50px; position: relative;"><div style="padding: 0px;">
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<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-09-18 at 10.38.54 am" class="" data-caption="Renji Hospital's sperm donation room." data-credit-link="" data-credit-name="WeChat/Weixin" data-credit-provider="" data-fragment="m!0dba" data-image="http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA5LzE4LzA5L1NjcmVlblNob3QyLmI0MTQwLnBuZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/75244a99/77a/Screen-Shot-2015-09-18-at-10.38.54-am.png" data-micro="1" data-width="1000" src="http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA5LzE4LzA5L1NjcmVlblNob3QyLmI0MTQwLnBuZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/75244a99/77a/Screen-Shot-2015-09-18-at-10.38.54-am.png" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Screen Shot 2015-09-18 at 10.38.54 am" /></div>
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Renji Hospital's sperm donation room.</div>
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IMAGE: WECHAT/WEIXIN</div>
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<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-09-18 at 10.39.03 am" class="" data-caption="The donation room has a bright blue sofa chair." data-credit-link="" data-credit-name="WeChat/Weixin" data-credit-provider="" data-fragment="m!74a8" data-image="http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA5LzE4LzA5L1NjcmVlblNob3QyLmY3ZjBkLnBuZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/65537d56/fd3/Screen-Shot-2015-09-18-at-10.39.03-am.png" data-micro="1" data-width="1000" src="http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA5LzE4LzA5L1NjcmVlblNob3QyLmY3ZjBkLnBuZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/65537d56/fd3/Screen-Shot-2015-09-18-at-10.39.03-am.png" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Screen Shot 2015-09-18 at 10.39.03 am" /></div>
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The donation room has a bright blue sofa chair.</div>
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IMAGE: WECHAT/WEIXIN</div>
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A Jiangsu sperm bank is offering 5,000 yuan (US$785.68) for donations, a newspaper ad states. It raised this amount from 3,500 yuan (US$549.99), <a href="http://weibo.com/2697197521/A8bEReZJe" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">according to</a> a group of bloggers.</div>
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<img alt="a0c3f7d1jw1e8colkxegqj20bs0a9q3f" class="" data-caption="Sperm donors wanted, newspaper ad states." data-credit-link="" data-credit-name="Weibo" data-credit-provider="" data-fragment="m!b420" data-image="http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA5LzE4L2FjL2EwYzNmN2QxancxLjQ5MWVhLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/84b042ce/452/a0c3f7d1jw1e8colkxegqj20bs0a9q3f.jpg" data-micro="1" data-width="1000" src="http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA5LzE4L2FjL2EwYzNmN2QxancxLjQ5MWVhLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/84b042ce/452/a0c3f7d1jw1e8colkxegqj20bs0a9q3f.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="a0c3f7d1jw1e8colkxegqj20bs0a9q3f" /></div>
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Sperm donors wanted, newspaper ad states.</div>
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IMAGE: WEIBO</div>
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A Hubei province sperm bank is even more brazen in its marketing tagline. It says "you don't have to sell a kidney" to buy an iPhone 6S anymore.</div>
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"Selling a kidney" is in reference to reports of people donating their organs for iPhones and iPads in the past. In 2011, a 17-year-old boy from the Hunan province donated one of his kidneys for the Apple devices. Selling a kidney, or <em>maishen</em>, has become a catchphrase for the lengths that people will go for iPhones in the country.</div>
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Some porn sites are catching onto the meme as well. An account calling itself the "Zhengzhou sperm bank" has been posting on Weibo with the news and its porn site address.</div>
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<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-09-18 at 10.18.49 am" class="" data-caption="" data-credit-link="" data-credit-name="Weibo" data-credit-provider="" data-fragment="m!4915" data-image="http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA5LzE4LzA5L1NjcmVlblNob3QyLmNhM2EzLnBuZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/bdb7dc60/cbd/Screen-Shot-2015-09-18-at-10.18.49-am.png" data-micro="1" data-width="602" src="http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA5LzE4LzA5L1NjcmVlblNob3QyLmNhM2EzLnBuZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/bdb7dc60/cbd/Screen-Shot-2015-09-18-at-10.18.49-am.png" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Screen Shot 2015-09-18 at 10.18.49 am" /></div>
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IMAGE: WEIBO</div>
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China has strict rules governing sperm banks. There are 18 authorised in the country, and inspection on samples can take up to 10 months before each can be cleared for use.</div>
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The going rate for samples at the country's latest bank in Guangxi was between 3,000 yuan (US$471.42) and 4,000 yuan (US$628.57) according to a 2014 report.</div>
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<em>Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.</em></div>

Donate sperm, get an iPhone 6S, Chinese marketers boast

Faced with a shortage of sperm donors, Chinese sperm banks have a new marketing ploy: They're advertising iPhones in exchange for don...

iPhone 'subscription' is Apple's most diabolical business plan yet

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Title: iPhone 'subscription' is Apple's most diabolical business plan yet
Author: Unknown
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

Who loves iPhones? Who loves new iPhones? Who wants to have the latest and greatest iPhone in their hands every time an Apple iPhone la...

<img alt="Mashable_apple-680" height="358" src="http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA5LzA5LzE0L21hc2hhYmxlX0FQLjBiNmI3LmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTk1MHg1MzQjCmUJanBn/26c37dce/e52/mashable_APPLE-680.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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Who loves iPhones? Who loves <em>new</em> iPhones? Who wants to have the latest and greatest iPhone in their hands every time an Apple iPhone launch event comes around? And who can afford $32 a month?</div>
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If your answer to all the above questions is "everyone, duh," congratulations: You understand the tremendous economic viability of <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/09/09/apple-yearly-upgrade-program/" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;">Apple's new "upgrade plan."</a> This is a relatively inoffensive name for what might as well be called an iPhone subscription service — or a way for Apple to more efficiently hoover money out of your wallet.</div>
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Do the math, and it's not hard to see why switching iPhone users to a subscription is a diabolically brilliant business plan. Let's say that, like me, you're on the "S" cycle and were planning to buy an iPhone 6S while re-upping your two-year carrier contract. That would set me back $199 to $399, depending on how much storage I want onboard.</div>
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That's the equivalent of giving Apple somewhere between $8.30 and $16.63 a month for the next 24 months. Not nearly enough for the world's wealthiest company! You think that stock price is going to keep levitating higher if you don't put more cash in the Apple bank?</div>
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But now here comes an Apple Store employee telling me I don't have to limit myself to the every-other-year carrier cycle. I can participate in <em>every</em> iPhone upgrade, without the worry of having to think about it. What's the cost? Less than a basic cable subscription.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
<span style="font-size: 15px;">Suddenly, </span><span class="microcontent" data-description="I find myself contemplating a $32.45 to $42.50 a month payment — or up to 400% of what I was giving Apple before." data-fragment="i-find-myself-contemplating" data-micro="1" style="font-size: 15px;">I find myself contemplating a $32.45 to $42.50 a month payment — or up to 400% of what I was giving Apple before.</span><span style="font-size: 15px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">And all that's</span><span style="font-size: 15px;"> </span><em style="font-size: 15px;">on top</em><span style="font-size: 15px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">of what I'm paying the carriers while locking myself into another two-year contract. (The carriers, who have similar pay-per-month plans of their own, haven't announced any kind of discount for using the Apple plan.)</span></div>
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Granted, I'm getting double the number of iPhones that I got before, so maybe we're only (!) talking about a 200% markup. Getting the phone unlocked is cool; that makes it easier to use abroad. And $99 Apple Care+ is a nice extra to throw in for free, though many of us wouldn't have paid for Apple Care+ given the option.</div>
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But that's not the only factor at play here. I'm also turning those iPhones back in at the end of a year, whereas before I could have <em>resold</em> that phone — and gotten a large chunk of change back. Change that wasn't going into Apple's coffers.</div>
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Also, I'm now a certified subscriber — and as Amazon can tell you, after years of trying to drive its customers into the Amazon Prime program, subscribers are catnip as far as investors are concerned. That's because they are guaranteed to spend more.</div>
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Like a loan shark, Apple always finds a way to turn the screws on its customers, but this surely counts as the company's most usurious innovation yet. The only difference is, with a loan shark, we're not smiling our way to a lower level of disposable income.</div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="i-find-myself-contemplating" style="color: #00aeef;"></a></div>
<blockquote class="microcontent-wrapper pullquote" style="border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-style: none none none solid; border-width: 0px !important; clear: left; color: #777777; float: left; height: auto; margin: 15px 15px 35px -125px; max-width: 45%; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; position: relative; width: 400px;">
<div class="microcontent-shares" data-description="I find myself contemplating a $32.45 to $42.50 a month payment — or up to 400% of what I was giving Apple before." data-fragment="i-find-myself-contemplating" data-url="" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.25s ease; background: rgb(246, 245, 241); height: 0px; left: -47px; opacity: 0; padding: 5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease; width: 30px;">
<a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-facebook facebook" href="http://mashable.com/2015/09/09/iphone-upgrade-plan/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #3b579d; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-twitter twitter" href="http://mashable.com/2015/09/09/iphone-upgrade-plan/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #2daae1; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-google_plus google_plus" href="http://mashable.com/2015/09/09/iphone-upgrade-plan/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #f02f16; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-pinterest pinterest" href="http://mashable.com/2015/09/09/iphone-upgrade-plan/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #bf1e25; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a></div>
<span class="microcontent" data-description="I find myself contemplating a $32.45 to $42.50 a month payment — or up to 400% of what I was giving Apple before." data-fragment="i-find-myself-contemplating" data-micro="1" style="color: #222222; font-family: MuseoSlabRegular, serif; font-size: 2.8rem; line-height: 31.9200000762939px; margin: 0px;">I f</span></blockquote>

iPhone 'subscription' is Apple's most diabolical business plan yet

Who loves iPhones? Who loves new iPhones? Who wants to have the latest and greatest iPhone in their hands every time an Apple iPhone la...

The Future Of Consumer Marketing Is Personal

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Title: The Future Of Consumer Marketing Is Personal
Author: Unknown
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

Today’s marketing industry is a long way from achieving its end-game of a system that delivers the perfect creative through the best medi...

<div style="background-color: #f9f9f9; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e433e; font-family: 'Open Sans', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<img height="378" src="https://www.haebmau.de/var/hm_corporate/storage/images/corporate-website/leistungen/geschaeftsfelder/consumer-marketing/17041-10-ger-DE/Consumer-Marketing.jpg" width="640" /></div>
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Today’s marketing industry is a long way from achieving its end-game of a system that delivers the perfect creative through the best medium at the optimal moment to each individual audience member.</div>
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To move toward that vision, the industry is evolving from an impression-centric paradigm (what does this piece of media cost, how many impressions will it generate and what does the audience look like?) to a user-centric paradigm (what are the characteristics of this particular user at the point at which they encounter my brand?).</div>
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Two fundamental dynamics underpin this shift: a focus on omnichannel data and multi-touch attribution.</div>
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Omnichannel describes the efforts to link data from multiple channels to a single user identity. In fact, there’s an even more profound goal, which is to unify data not only from marketing channels but across all the company’s customer touch points, including customer service, logistics/delivery and repair/maintenance.</div>
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This requires commingling companies’ own data (first-party data) with data generated by their marketing partners (third-party data). As these disparate data sets are aggregated and cleansed, it becomes possible to generate rich profiles on each individual user.</div>
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Platforms that can deliver personalized creative at scale will become vital components of tomorrow’s marketing systems.</blockquote>
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This is a revolution in marketing. It is shifting marketers from thinking in terms of media, channels and audiences to thinking about personalized messaging to individuals, each with their own preferences, personal history with the brand and unique value to the brand.</div>
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Multi-touch attribution (MTA) depends on omnichannel data. It attempts to more accurately credit each touch point between the brand and the user for its contribution to sales. For example, if a user saw a TV ad 50 times, then clicked to purchase off the first display ad they saw, MTA would give significant credit to the TV channel for influencing that purchase.</div>
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Armed with these capabilities, marketers can start to focus on sophisticated consumer marketing questions, such as:</div>
<ul style="background-color: #f9f9f9; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e433e; font-family: 'Open Sans', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 1em 1.1em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">How do I communicate with each customer in a consistent manner across all my brand’s customer touch points? For example, if there was a problem with a product shipment, how do I make sure that my next communication isn’t a request to recommend my service to others?</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">How do I evolve my communications with each customer over time to maximize their value to my brand? For example, how do I make sure I appropriately move from “consideration” messaging to “purchase” messaging for a particular user?</li>
</ul>
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What Are The Consequences Of This Omnichannel, Multi-Touch Attribution Revolution?</h2>
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Marketers will start to think much more broadly about their brands’ touch points with customers. Far beyond paid media, marketers will start to take responsibility for customer support, aspects of sales and even product presentation on web and mobile platforms. Ultimately, the role of chief marketing officer (CMO) will be redefined more broadly.</div>
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Solutions that accurately tie together data across channels are becoming critical pieces of architecture. <a href="http://drawbrid.ge/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Drawbrid.ge</a>, for example, tries to tie devices together into a single user profile; <a href="http://liveintent.com/platform/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">LiveIntent </a>seeks to marry email profiles with web behavior.</div>
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CMOs will increasingly instrument their own companies’ systems to produce useful first-party data from customer service interactions, returns, in-store consultations and more. Companies, such as <a href="http://stellaservice.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">StellaService</a> for customer service and <a href="http://retailnext.net/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">RetailNext</a> for in-store tracking, are developing solutions here.</div>
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A next generation of customer data platforms will emerge with the following characteristics:</div>
<ol style="background-color: #f9f9f9; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e433e; font-family: 'Open Sans', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px 0px 1em 2em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Expertly aggregates and joins disparate customer data sets</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Structures and organizes data around user profiles</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Auto-discovers natural audience segments of users who group together</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Manages data and audiences in real time</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Supports triggered events</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Makes all user data and audience segments available via APIs</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Supports marketers directly, rather than via the IT department</li>
</ol>
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Companies, such as <a href="http://www.getlytics.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Lytics</a> and <a href="https://segment.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Segment.io</a>, are innovating on this vision.</div>
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Marketing decisioning will relocate from within channels to across channels. The logical place to locate the marketing decisioning engine (which determines which creative should be served to whom, when and how) is adjacent to the aggregated data, which it uses for its decision. Omnichannel data, by definition, sits above the individual channels.</div>
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The corollary is that sophisticated, single-channel decisioning systems, such as<a href="https://www.oracle.com/marketingcloud/products/cross-channel/marketing-to-consumers.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Responsys</a> for email, will become less relevant and will lose share to cheaper, execution-focused alternatives, such as <a href="https://sendgrid.com/marketing/sendgrid-services?cvosrc=PPC.Bing.sendgrib&cvo_cid=SendGrid%20-%20US%20-%20Brand%20-%20(English)&mc=Paid%20Search&mcd=BingAds&keyword=sendgrib&network=%7Bnetwork%7D&matchtype=e&mobile=&content=&search=1&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=%5Bsendgrib%5D&utm_content=%21acq%21v2%2134335083397-8303227637-1649139544&utm_campaign=SendGrid+-+US+-+Brand+-+%28English%29" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SendGrid</a>.</div>
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Platforms that can deliver personalized creative at scale will become vital components of tomorrow’s marketing systems. This is one of the dynamics that is least appreciated by investors — perhaps because it is hard to do well, and investors have been burned here before.</div>
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Marketing messages perform best when they are tailored to the characteristics of the user and the particular touch point with the brand: Is the user a newcomer to the brand? Did the user recently complain to customer service? Are they awaiting a delivery? Are they a high-potential prospect? Companies, such as <a href="http://www.sundaysky.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SundaySky</a> for video and <a href="http://persado.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Persado</a> for copyrighting, are focused on this area.</div>
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What Are The Implications For The Major Players In The Industry?</h2>
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<a href="https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> have a good grip on market dynamics, with Facebook particularly well-positioned because the entire company has been built upon the concept of a user profile as the basic marketing unit.</div>
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Both companies understand that there will be a battle over who owns the marketing decisioning engine. Google and Facebook, which control the largest pools of third-party data, want companies to upload first-party data so Google and Facebook can aggregate it with the vast pools of third-party data they already control.</div>
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Both companies have recently launched “custom audiences” products that facilitate first-party data upload. This gives <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">de facto</em> control of the marketing decision to Google and Facebook, and takes it out of the hands of the marketing companies; greater control will enable Google and Facebook to generate higher margins.</div>
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The industry is evolving from an impression-centric paradigm to a user-centric paradigm.</blockquote>
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Smaller companies may be happy to have Google and Facebook become their <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">de facto</em> multi-channel marketing stack, but larger companies with higher volumes of their own valuable data will attempt to manage their own marketing decisions.</div>
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These larger marketing companies represent the target market for <a href="http://www.oracle.com/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Oracle</a>, <a href="http://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html?sdid=KKSPQ&ttsrccat=sem-na-ccm-cons-freetrial&skwcid=AL!3085!10!9101721783!20541711981&s_kwcid=AL!3085!10!9101721783!20541711981&ef_id=VXS@qQAABPuj5ww7:20150813195022:s" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Adobe</a>,<a href="http://www.salesforce.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Salesforce</a> and others with ambitions to build the next-gen enterprise marketing tech stack.</div>
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Of these, Oracle has arguably accumulated the most valuable set of assets with the acquisitions of <a href="https://www.oracle.com/marketingcloud/products/cross-channel/marketing-to-businesses.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Eloqua</a>, <a href="http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/Acquisitions/bluekai/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">BlueKai</a>, <a href="http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/acquisitions/compendium/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #089e00; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Compendium</a> and Responsys. But, the company’s focus on heavy implementations and its orientation toward serving IT, as well as marketing, may hinder its growth.</div>
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In and among these elephants, there is of course still room for startups to thrive. It is likely that the larger companies will continue to acquire to build out their capability set. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </em></div>
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What Are The Some Of The Implications For Users?</h2>
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Users will find that companies become smarter about communicating with them — both to sell them stuff and to provide support and services. Users will be prompted to restock their favorite coffee brand; reminded to buy insurance for their upcoming vacation; offered test drives of exactly the model of car they were considering; and automatically answered by a mortgage consultant when they call their bank with a mortgage inquiry.</div>
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Many will find this creepy, and there will be much ink spilt on the subject of privacy. But the great majority of users will not care — reasoning that the improvement in service and advertising relevance is worth the cost of a machine knowing their habits.</div>
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In some ways, this is similar to retail a century ago when the local storekeeper knew your preferred brands, your shopping habits, when you had guests in town, your medical conditions or other personal details, and tailored their service appropriately. Some people appreciate the personal service; some would prefer the storekeeper not to know their business.</div>
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The difference is that this time around, Internet companies are reselling what they know about you to others. That is uncharted territory — and a subject for other discussions.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Disclaimer: I have invested in a number of companies that are relevant to these themes, and a subset are mentioned in this article. They include SundaySky, Windsor Circle and Lytics. Comcast Ventures is also an investor in StellaService. I invested in these companies because I hold this view of the future; I don’t hold this view of the future because I invested in these companies.</em></div>

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