We don’t have much of a sweet tooth around here, but news of Ben and Jerry’s decision to drop email marketing in favour of social media has got the taste buds working. This is the first major brand to act on the long-held assumption that email is “for old people”. Boston College stopped issuing email accounts to students way back in November 2008. The medium is now over forty years old and people are elsewhere.

Ben and Jerry will now concentrate on Twitter and Facebook to develop a relationship with customers, but it will send one email per year to its database. That is an amazing about face, some would contend kick in the face, for a long trusted marketing channel. It is also premature for many companies to even consider. However, we shall watch this space with interest.

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