Yay! Emails with Embedded Videos are on the way!

Apparently I was out of the loop -- several years ago, tired of email users who were unknowingly downloading spyware and viruses via video embedded in emails, ISP's blocked JavaScript functionality that allowed for video. Currently, the best email marketers can do is provide a link that allows a visitor to click through to a clip that is housed on another page.

So that's why I don't get emails from non-profits, with embedded videos:) Mystery solved.

However, things are about to change --

Early next year, the Silicon Valley company Goodmail will launch a product, in partnership with AOL, Yahoo, Cox, Comcast and others, that will give studios and television networks a way to insert video directly into emails!!

When a recipient opens a message, they will be able to almost instantly view a move trailer or a promo for an upcoming TV episode.

The product, Certified Video, is set up so that the video will begin playing when the email is opened, but without audio. In order to avoid being overly intrusive, a consumer then must click to turn on the sound.

Media clients have already been secured, including Live Nation, a major cable news network, a leading newspaper, and a conglomerate with a group of broadcast and cable outlets.

AMC isn't a client yet, but Goodmail thinks that Certified Video could be used to drive viewers to tv shows by providing preview clips and recaps in email form.

Movie studios and networks could use it to market "DVD extras" - footage that ended up on the cutting-room floor, or footage recorded behind-the-scenes.

There is no limit to the length of the clips in an email. And while it is unlikely from a simple consumer preference standpoint, programmers could make full episodes available. "I'm giving them the canvas and they'll paint the picture," Goodmail CEO Peter Horan said.

Goodmail is backed by four private equity firms, and in November raised $20 million in a new round of financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

source: Goodmail Systems Allows Video In Email, by David Goetzl, MediaPost.com, 12/9/08, 11:07 PM