Spamming For Safety's Sake

Hundreds of unused bulk-mail pitches sit in a box under Joanne Urbanik's desk at Ultimate Software.

The anthrax scare forced the Weston, Fla., company that specializes in payroll and personnel programs to cancel a long-planned marketing campaign. Urbanik, the company's marketing director, is now looking to salvage fourth-quarter sales by reviving the campaign on the Internet.

Even before two postal workers in the Washington area died Monday of apparent inhalation anthrax, businesses and individuals across the country were rethinking their reliance on regular mail - giving additional impetus to growth in e-mail marketing, billing and other digital communication.

Urbanik said she will try to target individuals who have specifically agreed to receive e-mail offers - but some e-mail recipients worry they will also get bombarded by more unsolicited messages, or spam.

"I grimly expect there will be people who hitchhike on the anthrax scare and say, `For your convenience, we will spam you,"' said John Levine of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail.

Ten people nationwide have contracted anthrax. Most of the cases have been tied to tainted letters.

Though bulk mail has not been the culprit, and the number of tainted letters is low, Gartner analyst Scott Nelson said "the key here is perception, and (consumers) become afraid of unexplained packages."

Bulk mailings generated $528 billion in sales last year, according to the Direct Marketing Association. The group estimates that the anthrax scare will cost bulk mailers at least $1 billion to $2 billion in lost sales.

Recently, it sent out an advisory suggesting that bulk mailers delay mailings to businesses because of potential logjams in company mailrooms. And the group said mailers should consider using e-mail or phone calls as well to alert consumers of postal mail on the way.

Yet Bob Wientzen, the group's chief executive, expects disruptions in direct mail to be temporary.

"E-mail is growing as a marketing tool, but it will grow as an additional channel, not as the only channel," he said. "I don't think that e-mail will ever fully replace direct mail."

Customers, he said, continue to like getting catalogs by mail, and computer technology still cannot match the vibrant images possible with paper. In addition, Wientzen pointed out, millions of Americans still have no access to the Internet.

So far, the anthrax scare has not resulted in drastic increases in e-mail or drops in postal sales. But change could come gradually in the next weeks and months as mailers try to increase the likelihood of having their messages read.

"People who might have hesitated or who have been against e-mail as a marketing tool will reconsider their position," said Glenn Freedman, president of L.I.S.T. Inc., a Lake Success, N.Y., company that handles both postal and electronic mail campaigns.

Usage of e-mail for marketing, bill payments, greeting cards, newsletters an general correspondences has already been growing for years. The anthrax scare is merely accelerating the growth.

In the past, concerns about Internet bill payments and other online transactions have largely related to information security and identity theft. Steven Schneider, a State University of New York professor who has been studying Internet use, said the anthrax scare shifts the tolerance level.

"When you go from worrying about a virus attacking your hard drive to a (germ) attacking your children," Schneider said, "people are more inclined to settle for damage to your hard drive."

And it's not just bulk mailers who are looking into virtual mail.

Fan mail - that old barometer of an entertainer's popularity - has become off-limits for many in Hollywood since the anthrax mail attacks in New York City, Washington and Florida.

Studios, networks and publicists say thousands of letters have been returned to sender or just set aside. Some celebrities have signed up with services that open fan-mail for them; others have simply stopped opening mail.

"For the time being, we are just not opening fan mail. Just to be careful, we are putting it off for now," said publicist Pat Kingsley, who represents actor Tom Cruise, among others.

Thousands of unsolicited letters pour in to celebrities every week. Although most are simple declarations of admiration, precautions have long been taken to check for suspicious letters and packages.

"There is always a concern with celebrity fan mail because it comes from unknown people. But anthrax has added a new element," said PMK publicist Tracy Shaffer, who represents such acts as singers Evan and Jaron.

The FBI has not received a specific threat related to celebrity mail, said Cheryl Mimura, an FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles.

"We haven't sent out any sort of advisory in Hollywood," she said.

Shaffer said some of her clients contacted her after a letter containing anthrax was received in the New York office of NBC anchor Tom Brokaw.

"We are directing our clients to use fan-mail services," she said. Such services open mail for celebrities, and return photographs and autographs to fans.

Studio Fan Mail Services, one of the oldest and largest fan-mail services in the country, has begun advising fans to send postcards rather than letters.

"Most of the mail our clients get is from children. We're telling them to write a postcard. That way they can still send their message," said owner Jack Tamkin.

Others suggest e-mail.

"We are returning fan letters and sending a note along asking them to correspond by e-mail," said Scott Rowe, Warner Bros. vice president of communications. Movie studios and TV networks receive the bulk of fan mail, and some have stopped delivering it.

Rocker Pat Benatar said she always was careful with fan mail and "I'm trying really hard not to wig out on this. I'm trying to keep a perspective on it. But when we get the mail I'm careful about t. I tell my children not to touch it."

Fan mail is important to many actors and celebrities.

"It's somebody that takes time to buy a card or get a piece of paper and pencil, collect some thoughts and put them on a piece of paper. That means something," said David Brokaw, who along with his brother Sanford make up the Brokaw Co., which represents Bill Cosby among others.

Brokaw would not comment on mailroom procedures implemented because of the anthrax scare.

"We are being vigilant. But I also say we are by no means hysterical about it," he said.

Some newspaper columnists, including those at The Washington Post, are asking readers to correspond with them via e-mail as opposed to snail-mail.

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