From: Barneys New York
Subject Line: Patent It!
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007

I'd like to note that Barneys went to an 800 pixel width for this campaign. While a lot of folks are claiming that 600 pixels is still the best practice, I'd like to see some proof as to why. We test all the campaigns we produce - most of which are at 700 pixels - in a huge number of web browsers and email programs and haven't come across any problems.

BTW, this is a cute Subject Line.

Posted by lfharmon at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: RedEnvelope
Subject Line: Save up to 70%. So many deals, so little time.
Date: Tuesday, January 9, 2007

This has got to be the shortest EDM ever. Have any of y'all ever seen anything so short? It's like - submessage size. It looks kind of silly to me; why not make better use of inbox real estate? Is this a strategic attempt to fit the entire creative into the dreaded "preview pane", or just the work of a designer short on time?

Posted by lfharmon at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Aveda Online
Subject Line: aveda gifts to stir up the senses
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2005

Gift sets are great for the holidays, but the thumbnails pictured here are too tiny for anyone with a standard screen size and resolution to get much of a look at them. Instead, the prime real estate is occupied by a graphical text treatment which is cute, but would work better as a purely graphical sale message. Here, it exclipses the featured product, and doesn't even include a call-to-action.

Posted by lfharmon at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: J. Crew
Subject Line: Planning a quick getaway?
Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Brilliant! Pack his suitcase (and thereby his shopping cart) for him! This is a great way to sell mix and match items as a set.
A general note about J. Crew EDMs: They're about 200 pixels wider than best practices recommend, requiring us to scroll to the right in order to see the entire design. Recommendation: cut the width down to 600 pixels. 640 max.

Posted by lfharmon at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: babygap.com
Subject Line: New Summer Outfits & Free Shipping
Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2005

While I love the textured treatment and the old-fashioned photo corners, this comes down to a case of "show, don't tell." Rather than wasting precious real estate on descriptive copy no one will read, show images of the tropical-print tops and sporty shorts. Even though I think the photo corners are cute, if I don't see a product I like (and I don't like the bathing suit), I'm not gonna click through.

Posted by lfharmon at 06:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)