CertifiedEmail aims to provide a safe and reliable means for consumers to easily identify authentic email messages from legitimate commercial and nonprofit email senders. Each CertifiedEmail is sent with a cryptographically secure token that assures authenticity and is marked in the inbox with a unique blue ribbon envelope icon, enabling consumers to visually distinguish email messages which are real and sent from email senders with whom they have a pre-existing relationship. Available to email senders meeting strict standards for best practices and low complaint rates, it is the only class of email available that assures delivery of all opt-in email messages to the inbox, with links and images automatically rendered intact, yielding measurable improvements in email effectiveness. CertifiedEmail has been adopted by seven of the nation’s top 10 email mailbox providers and is in use by 500 commercial, government and non-profit senders.

In-text advertising and information solutions shop Kontera has brought on board Hal Muchnick as president. Muchnick joins Kontera after spending more than 20 years in senior management, operations and marketing positions at market leaders in the interactive digital advertising and marketing services industries. In his most recent position, he served as executive vice president / general manager at Operative, a global advertising resource management (ARM) platform provider, where he oversaw global sales and professional and client services in addition to his executive responsibilities as part of the company’s management team and Board of Directors.

Goodmail Systems, creator of CertifiedEmail, has named Pam Haas vice president of channel sales. Working with Goodmail’s network of authorized CertifiedEmail providers, Haas will be responsible for sales of the company’s flagship product as well as its new suite of inbox-based advertising and e-commerce products. A marketing services industry veteran with over 20 years of progressive sales management and business development expertise, Haas comes to Goodmailmost recently from Alliant Cooperative Data Solutions, where she was vice president of sales and business development.

Global interactive marketing agency Nurun has named Christian Quenneville as vice president, director of strategy and account services at Nurun Montreal. His primary responsibilities are to lead client services and provide strategic guidance to Nurun’s clients. In addition, Quenneville will play a key role on the Nurun Montreal management team under the leadership of Nicolas Gaudreau, managing director of Nurun Montreal. Quenneville arrives from Cossette New York, where he led the digital team as vice president, director of digital marketing.

STACK Media has appointed Karen Scott as director of digital marketing and advertising solutions. Scott joins STACK Media from Time Inc. (where she was the sales development director of SPC Digital) at a time when the growth and expansion of STACK Magazine, STACK.com, STACK TV, MySTACK and STACK Events have vaulted the multi-media company into the market leader connected to active teen males – and their support networks, the company said.

“CertifiedEmail has been around since May of 2006, but we attribute this recent enormous rise and growth of usage to not only partnerships with leading email servers like AOL, but also what the service actually does for email marketing,” David Atlas, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Goodmail, told ADOTAS. “Email marketing is not a dependable vehicle for marketers – sometimes their message gets delivered, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s totally unpredictable. But with CertifiedEmail, their emails aren’t relegated to the junk folder and images aren’t blocked – users tend to automatically delete messages with blocked images.”

Goodmail’s clients are reporting serious increases in open rates and click-throughs – and Atlas attributes their satisfaction with the product to much of its recent success. “Word of mouth in this industry is huge,” Atlas said.

“We see more and more senders coming aboard every day because the improved trust, assured inbox delivery and automatic image rendering that CertifiedEmail uniquely provides translates into powerful business results,” said Peter Horan, chief executive officer of Goodmail. “Senders today are typically seeing unique click-through rates improve by 20% and open rates soar even higher – on average by more than 40%. Meanwhile the ever-growing number of CertifiedEmail recipients are reporting that they feel more in control of their inboxes and safer about receiving email messages.”

CertifiedEmail has been adopted by seven of the nation’s top 10 ISPs, more than 400 commercial brands and 200 government agencies and nonprofits. Clients include StubHub, PETCO, Classmates.com, the American Red Cross and Time magazine.