e-Dialog, TMX Team for Rich Media

Continuing the online ad industry’s efforts to encourage rich media adoption, email marketer e-Dialog and rich media firm TMX are teaming up to boost each other’s offerings.

Through a strategic alliance, Lexington, Mass-based online direct marketing firm e-Dialog will offer its clients email campaigns using TMX’s technology, which embeds targeted rich media and streaming media in campaign mailings, without requiring attachments or plug-ins.

As a result, e-Dialog can offer clients the option to include sound, video and interactivity within email campaigns, which then can be optimized or analyzed using e-Dialog’s messaging platform.

“Partnering with TMX brings best-of-breed rich media capabilities to our sophisticated email marketing solutions and lets us build campaigns for our clients that have an added dimension of entertainment and interactivity,” said e-Dialog President and Chief Executive John Rizzi. “Rich media is an exciting and effective tactic when conceived and deployed properly. In the hands of experts, rich media is capable of adding real value to our clients’ relationships with their customers.”

In return, TMX will offer e-Dialog’s email marketing services to its own clients, which to date have included the National Football League, Charles Schwab and Liz Claiborne.

“Our customers rely on us to push the envelope when it comes to developing the newest, most exciting rich media tactics to drive response from people’s inboxes,” said Blair Lyon, co-founder and chief executive officer of TMX. “Our specific strengths in rich media, combined with e-Dialog’s expertise in email marketing strategy, analytics, and execution, provide a powerful combination for marketers.”

The alliance combines e-Dialog’s delivery platform with TMX’s rich media solution and creative services, giving the two firms a combined end-to-end system for designing and distributing rich media email campaigns.

That’s rapidly becoming a crucial offering for email marketers, since rich and streaming media are thought to be more effective than static offers in online marketing — and both typically command higher billings. Rich media is also becoming sought-after as marketers seek to break through the clutter in email users’ inboxes.

In recent weeks, several players have taken steps to beef up their rich media email offerings. Naviant, which became one of the largest opt-in email players through the recent purchase of 24/7 Real Media’s email unit, signed a deal last month with TMX rival MindArrow Systems.

In March, Dynamics Direct launched enhancements to its video email product, designed to help marketers repurpose existing offline ad creative for personalized email campaigns.