The survey found that 70 percent of the respondents have requested legitimate email marketing messages to receive information on topics of interest, discounts or special offers; receive reminders of a special event; for the chance to win something; or to establish a closer relationship to the company. 51 percent of respondents were able to distinguish legitimate email from spam based on permission or a prior business relationship. Specifically, 38 percent said legitimate email marketing contains information on products or services that they have requested to receive while spam is email sent to them without their consent; 13 percent said legitimate email marketing is from companies they have done business with in the past while spam is received from companies with which they have not dealt in the past.

Additionally, 77 percent of the respondents have a neutral-to-positive impression of legitimate email marketing. The survey also explored the impact of spam on consumers' response to email marketing. Nearly three in ten (29%) felt that not receiving email that they specifically asked for was more annoying than spam.

"This poll demonstrates that while legitimate email marketing continues to deliver value to consumers and remains a highly effective marketing medium, spam poses a significant challenge to its continued success," said Kevin Johnson, senior vice president of products and marketing at Digital Impact. "At Digital Impact, we are committed to maintaining the efficacy of email marketing by supporting solutions that can combat the menace of spam and ensure that consumers' inboxes are not overloaded with offensive and/or irrelevant messages."

About the survey

Harris Interactive conducted the telephone survey for Digital Impact from November 6-9, 2003 among a nationally representative sample of 1,054 adults comprising 533 men and 521 women 18 years of age and older, living in private households in the continental United States.

The sample is fully replicated and stratified by region and only one interview is conducted per household. Completed interviews are weighted by age, sex, geographic region, and race, to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total population, 18 years of age and older. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 3.0 percentage points.

About Digital Impact

Digital Impact is the premier provider of online direct marketing solutions for enterprises, including market leaders such as Citibank, Dell, MasterCard and Hewlett-Packard. Digital Impact's solutions enable corporations to create and deliver highly successful email marketing programs that drive revenue, influence behavior and deepen customer relationships. Digital Impact provides deep customer insight and powerful execution through a combination of hosted web applications, messaging technology infrastructure and professional services. Digital Impact is a member of the TRUSTe Privacy Program and works only with companies that are advocates of strict consumer privacy guidelines. Digital Impact was founded in 1997 and has offices in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New York and London. The company is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol DIGI.

Note to Editors: Digital Impact is a registered trademark of Digital Impact, Inc. All other brands or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About Harris Interactive®

Harris Interactive (www.harrisinteractive.com) is a worldwide market research and consulting firm best known for The Harris Poll®, and for pioneering the Internet method to conduct scientifically accurate market research. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, U.S.A., Harris Interactive combines proprietary methodologies and technology with expertise in predictive, custom and strategic research. The Company conducts international research through wholly owned subsidiaries -- London-based HI Europe (www.hieurope.com) and Tokyo-based Harris Interactive Japan -- as well as through the Harris Interactive Global Network of local market- and opinion-research firms, and various U.S. offices. EOE M/F/D/V

Note to Editors: Digital Impact is a registered trademark of Digital Impact, Inc. All other brands or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.