By Wesley Wong
"As digital technology transforms the way we communicate,
one company is bringing a rather traditional kind of storytelling
into the electronic era. Email Shows Inc. applies the 18th-century
idea of the epistolary novel to e-mail - today's most popular form
of personal written text."
- Publisher's Weekly
There has always been a divide in the digital space between the World
Wide Web and email. The WWW is traditionally used for more impersonal
and open forms of communication such as news, stock quotes, and shopping.
Email, on the other hand is typically used for interpersonal communication,
and we loath the idea of marketing through email, feeling that is
an invasion of our personal space. Emailshows.com blurs this line
between email and the web. The site allows users to subscribe to email
lists, when blind carbon copy the subscriber on emails between fictional
characters, allowing the user to voyeuristically experience the unfolding
of a drama or plot in a very personal manner. Users can subscribe
to a variety of such 'shows'. Many are based on films such as Erin
Brokovich or American Psycho. By subscribing to the Erin
Brokovich show the user will receive emails sent by the main character
of this film that trace her struggles to make a difference for the
environment. Likewise, the American Psycho show features emails from
the psychotic, drive yuppie killer in the film.
The Internet is frequently used in the promotion of films to provide
a place for fans to check out character descriptions, or play simple
Shockwave games related to the film. Most of these sites, however,
do not mirror the creativity of the films themselves, but rather serve
as a source of information. This type of marketing comes closer to
the actual experience of the film, drawing the reader into the world
of the characters, and extending the fiction of film beyond the celluloid
and into digital space. It's an innovative and compelling idea. Whereas
most forms of email marketing, spam, are deleted by the recipient,
these well written short fiction pieces are entertaining and offer
the reader something beyond a 'deal'. This is the sort of creativity
that shows that new business models based on advertising are still
viable, and they just need to take into account the user's expectations
and tastes. I have subscribed to several of the shows, and so far
the experience has been excellent.