Martech: Martech is Marketing Logo
  • Topics
    Digital Transformation
    Marketing Operations
    Data
    Customer & Digital Experience
    Performance Marketing
    Marketing Management
    Special Reports
    MarTech Topics
  • Conference
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • What is MarTech
    Mission
    Staff
    Newsletter
    Search Engine Land
    Third Door Media

Processing...Please wait.

MarTech » Performance Marketing » BIMI launches to add trusted logos to emails

BIMI launches to add trusted logos to emails

The new protocol, built on the DMARC anti-spoofing email standard, could mean zillions of free brand impressions and a boost in email trust.

Barry Levine on March 30, 2018 at 10:50 am
If you get an email from Amazon, how do you know it’s actually from the ecommerce giant? You could look for the “@amazon.com” domain. And now you will have another option, if the new BIMI approach catches on. BIMI — which stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification — is a new open standard for logo display in emails that was announced this week. It provides that the brand’s logo appears next to the email subject line in your inbox (see below) and in the upper left corner (outside of the email body) once you open the missive.
The key idea is that brands will get lots of free brand impressions — there’s no charge to use BIMI — and users get an increased sense of trust about the source of brand emails. The standard was created by the Authindicators Working Group, led by cybersecurity firm Agari and including representatives from Comcast, Valimail, Google, Microsoft and Oath (Yahoo, AOL). Members of the group, including Agari, were involved in the development of the DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) email authentication standard. Launched in 2012, DMARC was intended to counter email spoofing, where a sender’s identity is faked. BIMI is only available for email senders with DMARC-autenticated Net domains. BIMI instructions will have to be added to the domain owners’ Domain Name System (DNS) records, such as the URL of the logo file. The file in this pilot is a graphical image of a logo, but it could be any media file — video, animation — if the ISP and email provider would support that. The BIMI logo is displayed in a space controlled by the email service provider. Eventually, the fully implemented BIMI will require that domain owners utilize a currently-unspecified trusted third-party authority to verify the ownership of the logo file. Additionally, the standard may include brand info that users obtain with a click or rollover. But, Agari Executive Chairman and founder Patrick Peterson told me, the BIMI approach could also be utilized in other communications, such as mobile messaging, so that it could become common to see a brand logo alongside a brand message. Peterson also envisioned a similar audio logo, such as the Intel chime, could occupy a provider-owned spot in a voice mail. The BIMI analogue in other communication channels is the idea of a brand identity in space managed by the provider, since BIMI itself is based on a logo space retained by the provider in an email, not on any kind of universal header in other communications. Peterson noted that, because the logo resides in an email provider’s space alongside a subject line in an inbox, it is virtually hack-proof. But he acknowledged that, inside the email, many users many not notice that a fake logo in the email body is not in the correct BIMI location of upper left, outside the email. Peterson estimated that about 50,000 companies currently use DMARC, and noted that studies show DMARC has boosted open rates by 10 percent because users find that they’re getting fewer spam. The initial adoption of DMARC was slow, but BIMI’s adoption might be helped by all those free brand impressions. “Let’s write the second chapter [of DMARC],” he said. The first pilot for BIMI will start rolling out next week for Yahoo Mail users, in the app or on the web. Participating brands include Groupon, Aetna and Agari.

New on MarTech

    How clean, organized and actionable is your data?
    Replacement Survey: The top 5 solutions replaced
    What’s the biggest hidden secret in Google Ads?
    Native video tops social media in brand awareness study
    Worsening economy has more shoppers getting online info before making in-store purchases

About The Author

Barry Levine
Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.

Related Topics

Performance Marketing

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS The MarTech Conference logo.

September 28-29, 2022: Fall

Start Training Now: Master Classes

Start Discovering Now: Spring



The SMX Conference logo.

Start Training Now:: SMX Advanced

November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes

Webinars

Agencies: Grow Revenue Streams Through Web Accessibility & Compliance

Protect Your Paid Advertising Spend Against Ad Fraud and Invalid Traffic

Build an Integrated Search Strategy Across Google, Amazon and YouTube

See More Webinars
Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports
Featured White Paper

Site Search 101

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • Transformation
  • Operations
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Performance
  • Management
  • All Topics
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX

About

  • What is MarTech
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.