Top Story

• Oracle buys Eloqua to form a "Customer Experience Cloud"
  Oracle has purchased the cloud-based marketing automation company Eloqua and will use it to create an end-to-end service called "Customer Experience Cloud." "The acquisition of Eloqua will add a leading market automation solution to Oracle's strong salesforce automation products and the recently acquired RightNow call center automation solution," Nomura Equity Research analysts said in a note. Reuters (12/20), VentureBeat (12/20)     

Eye on Marketing

• Dell says Windows RT, design will sell tablets to enterprise
  Dell is hoping that small-business and enterprise customers will favor the Windows RT platform and adopt their XPS 10 and Latitude 10 tablets. The company says those computers have been designed with business in mind, with features such as long battery life. "We bring a history of knowing business and knowing consumer and building a bridge between those two worlds," said Neil Hand, a vice president of product marketing at Dell. V3.co.uk (U.K.) (12/21)     

• B2B paid search will lose ground to better tactics, exec predicts
  Small- and medium-sized businesses' need for content marketing and consulting will enlarge digital marketing firms next year, writes Optify CEO Rob Eleveld as part of his predictions for 2013. E-mail and integrated marketing services will grow, but B2B paid search should continue to dwindle in the face of more efficient, cost-effective services. "We expect 2013 to be the year of integrated channel campaigns as marketers aspire to leverage cross-channel digital campaigns to deliver real-time results at a lower cost," Eleveld writes. Forbes (12/20)     

• Post videos then practice some patience
  Web marketers can get plenty of mileage out of online video campaigns, but they need to commit, writes CJ Bruce. Unrealistic expectations of quick results and viral buzz seldom lead to success. "Putting up a single video and waiting for the revenue to start rolling in isn’t a content strategy," he adds. Intuit Small Business Blog (12/20)     

Tech Edge

• SalesFUSION adds event management to Salesforce.com pack
  SalesFUSION has added integrated event management tracking to the latest version of its package for Salesforce.com. The updated platform directly integrates, "in native Salesforce objects, online and offline event attendance metrics at the lead and contact levels," said SalesFUSION Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Miller. DestinationCRM.com (12/20)     

Innovation

• Is it possible to be free of e-mails for the holidays?
  David Grossman, a Chicago-based leadership and communications consultant, took a weeklong break from e-mail to reconnect with family and to recharge, and he recommends others doing the same during the holidays. He provides several tips for pulling it off, such as setting times for when you will stop and restart messaging, and making sure you notify others you will be offline. The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (tiered subscription model) (12/20)     

• Why passion isn't always enough to drive success
  You can't just follow a passion and expect to be successful, Malcolm Munro writes. You also must do your homework and get the necessary skills to ensure that a new business can work. "[T]echnology enables us to be creative in how we build and promote businesses. It simply won't replace the difficult and sometimes common sense information you need to be successful though," he writes. Total Career Mastery (12/17)     

Association News

• VIDEO: BMA takes international route to new membership
  Check out this behind-the-scenes peek at the BMA's Go and Grow event in London. The conference at The Crystal was the springboard for the BMA's first local chapter outside of the U.S. (BMA London), as well as the BMA's nascent efforts to recruit B2B marketers from across the globe. Read more.     

• BMA New Jersey -- Event -- Advertising and promotions law: Keeping trademarks, copyrights, ads legal
  This event will be held Tuesday, Feb. 12. Copyrights, trademarks, advertising -- they're the marketer's stock in trade. But marketers aren't lawyers, and they run the risk of not protecting their IP fully, or crossing the line on what they can do in promoting a product. Read more.     

Featured Content

On Leadership

Top five news stories from SmartBrief on Leadership this week. Want more leadership news?

• 12 steps to help leaders to keep stress in check (Management-Issues (U.K.))

• Habits that can help you control your fate (SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership)

• Leadership tips for first-time bosses (CNNMoney/Fortune)

• When statues attack (The Daily Mail (London))

• The best bosses show no fear (Knowledge@Wharton)

SmartQuote

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." --Annie Dillard, American author