Columbia, doing everything in its power to whip up enthusiasm for the three-disc set (two DVDs, one remastered CD) commemorating the 30th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run, sent out the above email a few days ago offering recipients access to a podcast about the making of Springsteen’s hallmark album.

“This 7-episode series takes the listener from inception to completion of the seminal album through audio highlights,” states the email. “In order to subscribe to this podcast, you must be using iTunes or similar software to transfer the audio files to your portable device.” This is the Feedburner link, in case you’re interested.

Gotta give the Columbia marketing folks credit on this one: This is an excellent blend of email and podcasting to deliver a highly relevant and valuable message. The email carries no overt call to action to buy the set — any fan receiving this email knows the anniversary box is out there. But Columbia is fueling the inclination to buy with real content here — seven podcasts that look like they’ll total about an hour of audio. (Right now, only the first two installments are available.) I’d love to see the final metrics on this mailing: I suspect the conversion percentage (those who opened the email that went on to download the podcasts) is deep into the double digits.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2005 at 6:30 am and is filed under Internet Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Springsteen.