Amazon.com made a smart move several years ago when Steve Shure (my former boss at Amazon.com) was hired from Time Inc. to lead Amazon Prime, and then again when Steve was subsequently asked to assume global responsibilities for driving traffic to Amazon’s web properties (some might call this marketing).  Steve had been with Time Inc. for over 20 years overseeing consumer marketing for People, Sports Illustrated, Popular Science and other top publications.  He was (is) a world-class direct marketing expert among other things.

In hiring Steve, Amazon made an explicit choice to bank on Steve’s classic direct marketing skills and not his online marketing experience per se.  I  believe that Steve would be the first to tell you that there were candidates with more impressive online credentials than he had at the time.

Coming from an extensive web background (peoplefirst.com, capitaloneautofinance.com, attwireless.com, amazon.com) I get as excited as the next guy about web 2.0 (hence Letters@!), cool new web technologies and jazzy online advertising advancements.  But the more I talk to our ecommerce clients and help them think about their next set of opportunities, I’ve realized that the industry needs to go back — call it “web 0.5″ — and think about the classic issues of segmenation, good copy writing and creative, disciplined testing.  Has anyone designed a good online version of a Johnson Box?

Of course we’re all going to move forward.  I have no doubt we’ll be talking about web 3.0 and 4.0, and so on, in no time. But at the same time AccuData helps our clients move forward with innovative new strategies, we’re also going to spend a lot of time helping them go back to basics.

By the way, where is Bill Toohey?

What a time for marketers, huh? Most would say, this is a gloom and doom time for us—budgets are slashed, responses are down, and what are we going to do but ride out the wave?

Absolutely not. I see a lot of editorial and industry advertising out there urging marketers to spend more during this downturn to take advantage of weaker competitors – and I agree. I see literally thousands of unique customer transactions per month and I’m seeing three distinct groups.

One group is in the process of throwing in the towel. They are getting beaten by their competitors. Another group is hunkering down, perhaps emphasizing “core” businesses at the expense of new ventures, but keeping their marketing alive. Another group is “leaning-in” and marketing more, by getting more mail in the stream, increasing email activity, and putting more advertising out there – but they are doing it smarter with sharper targeting, the application of predictive models and good offers. “Doing more with less” is no longer a platitude. It’s now survival.

AccuData is in the third camp. We are leaning-in. Last week AccuData launched our new B2B campaign and blog to dedicate and memorialize to our clients and colleagues the great opportunity we see. I’m excited about 2009.