Category: Specials

If you’ve never heard of Missy Ward, then join the club. Most people in agencies have never heard of her, despite her being one of the most influential people in the world in one of the fastest growing segments of interactive advertising: Affiliate Marketing.  She’s also the owner of Affiliate Summit, which has become the largest conference in the world for affiliate marketing and is the must-attend place for anyone in the industry to go. It’s grown so large, so fast that one major player in the told me that probably within a year or two it would overtake ADTECH as the largest conference in the industry–  a claim which is hard to believe until you see the list of exhibitors which include everyone from EBAY to AMAZON, companies that don’t exhibit at ADTECH.

Yet, as mentioned, most of the interactive advertising industry hasn’t heard of Missy. They better shape up and start paying attention however to what she is saying. For some reason the interactive advertising industry has grown into two huge parts:  the brand world and the Affiliate Marketing world. While many people call the Affiliate Marketing world the Direct Response world, the industry itself thinks of itself more and more as “Affiliate” or “Performance” marketing. These two worlds exist side by side, but for some reason there are very few people who cross the line and work in both – or very few that admit it. While more and more agencies are adopting CPA and performance marketing models, and hiring employees from companies like COPEAC, Azoogle and Commission junction, they are trying to keep this push somewhat secret.

However if you look at the attendance at Affiliate Summit, you’d never guess the two worlds are at odds. Over 30% of the attendeeship is from agencies, including the major agencies that only push the brand play. They aren’t willing to admit it, but they are to some degree desperate to understand this part of the industry, which often seems like a weird mix of word of mouth marketing , search and display.  One agency head told me that it was not that they didn’t understand affiliate marketing, but that they didn’t know how to make it fit with their existing clients – which didn’t seem quite right. Amazon.com, one of the leading web properties in the world was one of the earlier adopters of Affiliate marketing, and still to this day has an active, vibrant affiliate marketing program that produces the majority of their new advertising traffic.  If you sign up to any major affiliate marketing company, you will see a list of major brand companies including Dell and Microsoft.

I sincerely believe that brands actually do want to learn about affiliate marketing, that they are interested in having a conversation, but there are agencies out there that are scared of doing anything that changes their current dynamic. They’ve argued so long that brand marketing is only about eyeballs, that they can’t see that the two worlds don’t actually clash – that there are programs that can pay on a performance but also drive eyeballs and reach the audiences they want. Then again, just ten years ago there were brick-and-mortar ad houses that were arguing that interactive advertising would never provide the brand opportunities that television had, and that television networks would always dominate the advertising space.

Affiliate marketers, as a group are innovators. They are often seen by the brand media as no more than “get rich quick” people, despite long term, successful businesses.  Yes, there are those segments in the affiliate marketing industry, just like the industry at a whole that is composed of adware scammers, get-rich DVD pushers, and the same – but even in this segment there are those who are engaged in innovative processes to gain attention to their clients. It’s too easy to group everyone together and ignore the real processes that occur in the affiliate marketing world, which includes the real ability of affiliate marketers to connect to consumers – to get them to listen and pay attention.

Another common excuse I hear is that brands are scared because they are worried about protecting their brand. This might have been an excuse during the start of the affiliate marketing world, but so much technology and fraud measures have been created in the last few years that any worry of rogue affiliates is less possible than ever. Affiliate companies live off of production and the reputable ones have compliance and monitoring teams working full time to discover even the slightest deviation from the norm in reporting. In fact, I would argue that the technology developed to detect fraud in the affiliate marketing industry far outweighs what most display ad networks and agencies have, and many display networks need to learn about policing from the affiliate industry.  Having been involved in both discovering and helping prosecute impression fraudsters, I can tell you that the affiliate marketing industry examines their relationships considerably more than any display network I’ve ever seen.

Agencies need to take a better look at the Missy and listen to what she is talking about.  I promise if they don’t they will slowly find more and more of their clients leaving and going to those companies that actually know who she is.

If you are like me, and been around the block a few times and beat up by at least a dozen affiliates in the industry, you know the name COPEAC and Intermark Media. Today, Intermark Media announced that they were going to change their name to IMM Interactive after 11 years of being Intermark Media. This follows several major branding changes of other major players including Azoogle to Epic Direct, CPAEmpire to Affiliatedotcom, IncentaClick to CX Digital and Neverblue to the Canadian BlueManGroup. I believe this to be part of a rapidly changing industry, where companies like Intermark are going to continue growing substantially, leaving those who don’t know how to make these changes in the dust.

While Intermark Media has been around for over a decade, they were never considered to be the largest of players.  We all knew of the guys over and made fun of their Long Island accents, but that was about it. Then something happened in the last few years and suddenly they are on the Inc 500 list   of the top growing players in the industry. While people used to think of ClickBooth, Azoogle and Hydra as the big daddies of the industry, now IMMi’s affiliate network COPEAC is listed in the same breath. Something happened that allowed this company to make huge strides in the last few years and grow substantially. What exactly is that difference?

At the head of the company is Mike Krongel, the founder of the company. Him and his wife Danielle are what make that difference – it’s their drive, their dedication, the culture that makes IMMi. While many affiliate networks kept on doing the same old thing, not changing their model of focusing on spam, working with the same partners, Mike was out there pounding the virtual payment, making contacts and doing business with everyone. He became involved with the community, joined affiliate organizations, got his name out there and let everyone know that while he wasn’t the biggest dog in the house right then, he was going to do everything he could to take over that title.

On top of that, he was extremely active in the message boards. While I don’t recommend everyone going on boards like WickedFire – and note that many of the members currently hate this publication, he is an active member of WickedFire and several other affiliate communities. He interacted with them when it was necessary and learned from the marketers what was upcoming, who he should be doing business with, what products he should be promoting.  He ignored the pleading of some of the “major networks” (who are no longer on the inc 500 after losing money in 2009) that it wasn’t the way to do business and found his own way of doing things.

If there is anything to be learned from Mike Krongel it is to keep on trying until you hit what works.  While tons of companies in the industry have come and gone, been “one-hit” wonders, IMMi has been there for over a decade, working in this industry, being an intimate part of what makes this industry interesting.

The News Corp owned Myspace social networking website could soon lay off as many as half of their employees, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Monday.

WSJ reporters Jessica E. Vascellaro and Russell Adams, citing sources familiar with the matter, say that the California-based website could be cutting between one-third and one-half of their 1,100 employees in what they refer to as a “dramatic downsizing of its business.” The cuts could even come before the end of the month, according to their sources.

“The restructuring is the latest step in Myspace’s intensifying turnaround effort,” Adams and Vascellaro said in their report. “The social network reduced its staff by nearly 30% last summer, laying-off hundreds of employees. But the cuts weren’t sufficient to contain costs, a person familiar with the matter said, who added the new cuts would be across the board.”

“Another person familiar with the matter said that, depending on the results of the restructuring, News Corp. may look for buyers for Myspace but there are no current talks over a sale,” the WSJ reporters added.

Myspace was acquired by News Corp, the parent company of Fox Television, for $580 million in 2005. Since then, they have been unable to keep up with social networking competitors, including the uber-popular Facebook.

In November of last year, Vascellaro and Adams say that Facebook attracted more than 150 million unique visitors in the US alone. Myspace’s traffic was slightly over one-third of that, and marked a 15% decrease from a year ago while Facebook enjoyed a 50% increase over that same time period.

According to Jemima Kiss of the Guardian, News Corp COO Chase Carey “signaled the beginning of the end for MySpace during an earnings call in October when he said the site’s losses were ‘not acceptable or sustainable’ … He also told the Reuters Global Media Summit in November: ‘There are opportunities here to do 20 things, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to do any of the 20. If there’s something there that makes sense you ought to think about it.'”

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ADOTAS – How do you explain the mystique of ad:tech? What makes it such a remarkable event for digital marketers: the breakout sessions? The evocative panels? The intense networking?

Or… Is it because the parties freakin’ rule?

ClickBooth’s parties have become such the thing of digital marketing legend that when a rumor floated claiming the affiliate network wouldn’t play host to fun and games this year, ad:tech almost canceled the conference. (No, not really.) Fortunately, the boy and girls at CB proved that was bunk — “Affiliate Apocalypse 2: Return of the Immortals” will be held tonight (Wednesday, Nov. 3) from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. at Marquee (289 10th Ave. between 26th and 27th Sts.)

Thao Tran, head of social media for ClickBooth, chatted with me about why parties are an important part of the ad:tech experience and why I can never remember how I got home after a ClickBooth event.

ADOTAS: ClickBooth is known for its fantastic ad:tech parties — why does the company pride itself on its parties?

TRAN: Because we work hard and we play hard. Have you seen our campus? Besides, our parties are a great way to get to know everyone outside of their suits and ties. It’s more of getting to know the industry players on a more personal level.

What’s on the menu for this party? How are you upping the game from past parties?

Hehe, that’s a pretty good question. How about having a full PREMIUM open bar? We’ve gotten a lot of RSVPs already. If people don’t get there early, they’re looking at standing in a line that has been known to extend around the block.

Where is it better to party — New York or San Francisco?

New York, definitely! But we reserve the right to re-evaluate that decision before ad:tech San Fran.

Who parties harder — affiliate marketers or search marketers? Can ad network people even hold their liquor?

We know of some search marketers who can throw it down all night and some affiliate marketers who would make the “Jersey Shore” kids look like wusses. Let’s just say that some of our reps have competed against them and have lost. Anyone up for a challenge?

Do we have to fight for our right to party? Who do we have to fight?

No, but you will need to fight your way through day two of ad:tech.

Why does my head always hurt so much the day after one of your parties?

Because that’s when you know you partied like a rockstar! That kind of life ain’t for everyone.

There was this really hot brunette I was chatting up at the last San Fran party, but I totally forgot her name. Could you help a brother out?

That was actually Clicky in a wig. But he’s gotten a haircut since then, so hopefully there won’t be any more confusion. Awkward!

Rebecca Madigan is executive director of the Performance Marketing Association. Since leading the formation of the PMA 2008, Rebecca has built the PMA to be the only trade association representing performance and affiliate marketing. The PMA has committed to connect, inform and advocate on behalf of this growing industry, most recently spearheading the fight against the ‘affiliate nexus tax’, legislation being proposed in several states, and which is detrimental to affiliate marketers. Rebecca was formerly director of product management at Commission Junction, Impact Radius, and at Lurn, Inc., where, with Anik Singal, they founded the PMA in April 2008. She has collected 25 years of leadership experience in product management and marketing.

The Performance Marketing Association is a not-for-profit trade association founded in 2008 by the leaders of the performance marketing industry, to connect, inform and advocate on behalf of this rapidly growing field.

The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) strives to raise the profile of performance marketing by demonstrating the value of this multi-billion marketing channel, which comprises more than 200,000 businesses and individuals. Continued growth of the performance marketing space is expected as advertisers, facing small budgets and big expectations, increasingly look to performance-based marketing initiatives to expand their business.

The PMA is the first formal organization representing the burgeoning performance marketing space and offering members a means to learn, share or communicate on a global scale. The collective knowledge of the community is shared and best practices are outlined, thereby providing performance marketers with the tools, information and support they need to grow their businesses.

In addition, the PMA gives performance marketers a unified voice to address issues and challenges facing the industry, such as the “advertising tax” proposed in some states. The PMA investigates these issues, maintains close contact with members, advertisers, legislators and news organizations to inform and educate and provide resource materials. The association also coordinates advocacy efforts, speaking on behalf of the industry – allowing its members to be heard while still focusing on their respective businesses.

With the PMA leading the charge, businesses will continue to grow and succeed, the quality of work will be demonstrated, and further quality participation in the performance marketing field encouraged.