Issue Six
Welcome to a4uexpo Europe
With only 61 days left until a4uexpo Europe, the team are full steam ahead in promoting and planning the event, with a tip top conference agenda,
an excellent selection of European speakers and the exhibition hall filling up fast, this really will be a must attend event for anyone operating
in the European Affiliate Marketing industry.
In this week’s newsletter, we will be interviewing Bronze Sponsor Commission Junction, reminding you all that there is only three days left to
take advantage of our early bird pass and hotel offer, plus bringing you all the latest event news and gossip.
You only have three days left to take advantage of our excellent Early Bird conference pass offer.
Don't forget our event is fully inclusive, so from just 179 euros you will have access to all conference sessions, unlimited networking
opportunities in our exhibitor hall, complimentary Wi-FI, plus access to our 5 networking parties, taking place over the duration of the event.
What are you waiting for?
Register Today
This week we have announced our 4 for 3 offer on all conference passes.
Bring a colleague along to experience a4uexpo Europe for free this April. Simply purchase three delegate passes for a4uexpo Europe and you'll be
given the option to get a fourth for free, saving up to 379 euros.
As you know by now, that a4uexpo Europe is taking place during the busiest time in
Amsterdam, Queens Day Celebrations.
While this is an added bonus to attend our event as this really is the largest street party in the world!
It also means that hotels are extremely busy.
Book today to ensure you have a room for the event and take advantage of the a4uexpo Europe reduced rates.
Hi Commission Junction, thank you for supporting the first a4uexpo Europe Event. Let's crack on with the questions!
Firstly, would you like to tell us a bit about your operations within Europe?
Headed up by Alison Guise, our European General Manager, Commission Junction has long-standing operations across Europe with offices in London,
Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm and Munich. From these nerve centres we look after hundreds of advertisers and tens of thousands of affiliates
across Europe.
What do you feel will be the key trends for Affiliate Marketing in Europe this year?
The key trend will be to do it better. Advertisers will focus on this channel because of undeniable ROI and where, in the past, they may have somewhat
lazily partaken in affiliate marketing they will now refine skills and techniques. These new efforts will need to be strongly supported by a network
which fully understands affiliate marketing as part of the online marketing mix and who can offer insight into a wider strategy.
With CJ, how easy is it for publishers/merchants to work across borders? Do you have any tips for pan-European publishers/merchants?
It is very easy and there are a number of options dependant on the needs of the merchant. Essentially, for a merchant, affiliate marketing is one
of the best ways to penetrate new markets as local affiliates will hold local market understanding and will have prior experience of what works
and what doesn’t.
The main thing to remember is that affiliate understanding and communication is the key to a successful programme so there needs to be enough
local resource to enable this. We have multiple clients who operate out of the United States and who rely on Commission Junction to be their
spokesperson and their eyes and ears on the ground. This is complemented by regular European trips and meetings with top affiliates. Likewise,
we work with pan-European clients who have an affiliate manager in each market they operate in and use Commission Junction to help hold their
strategy together.
As for affiliates, they need to be well-versed in opportunities before they enter new markets. We pull together regular information packs,
which can help decision-making. An absolute must is to translate all content into the local language.
Recently there has been an influx of publisher developed adware and toolbar applications which caused a stir in the Affiliate Marketing community
within Europe. What is your standpoint on this? Is it good for the industry?
This is a tricky one and there is no right or wrong answer. As long as these things are closely monitored (which we do separately and as part of the
IAB’s AMC guidelines) and adhere to what are acceptable and ethical practice that contributes to the development of the industry, then this
presents no issues.
What off/online industry media do you regularly read/use?
We think it is so important to keep abreast of issues and developments that as well as all business and sector-specific information, the entire
team is incentivised to keep up with the trade press. As affiliate marketing is essentially a long term partnership this is a clear way to add
value to our clients and we often forward articles which may be of use to them. We have subscriptions to all the big trade press magazines –
New Media Age, Revolution, Marketing Week, Media Week etc, as well as subscriptions to E-consultancy etc. We also all read the A4U forum daily as
well as all the affiliate blogs – most of which are linked to from our new blog – www.cjblog.co.uk.
In addition, as we are part of ValueClick we also have regular cross-team training called the ValueClick Academy which means that not only are
Commission Junction staff experts in affiliate marketing, but that they are also experts in all facets of online marketing. At the end of the day
we think that this enables us to help our clients to make smarter marketing decisions.
Are there any innovations or juicy gossip about CJ our delegates would like to know?
Yes we have a couple of things. The first one is the blog in the UK www.cjblog.co.uk which is regularly updated with lots of industry news,
opinions, advice and events information.
As well as that, and very importantly, we have a brand new team structure in the UK. In November we rolled out the first phase of change
where we created a more inclusive, customer centric account team with each person responsible for both merchants and publishers alike
(as opposed to a separate Publisher and Advertiser Management Team) The upside of this change was twofold: 1) an end to the publisher
communication bottleneck that had often been associated with CJ and 2) an account team better equipped to understand the challenges and
opportunities with both publishers and merchants. The second phase of our business realignment saw us launch our Agency team, headed by
Jason Baker, whose sole purpose is to service the unique needs of Agencies as more and more move into the affiliate marketing channel.
Thank you Commission Junction for taking the time to answer our questions.
The roadshows kicked off this week with our first stop being Paris on Tuesday evening and Madrid last night.
Matthew and Ingrid were present to meet the local affiliate marketers in person and to start the first leg of the tours.
Our roadshows are a back to basics event with no free bar, launched as an opportunity to encourage local networking in the run up to our event.
Next week we will be stopping in Amsterdam on the 4th, followed by Munich on the 5th March.
These events are FREE, however we do ask you to register prior to the event here
Take a look at who will be attending here
The conference agenda, launched last week has received fantastic feedback.
You can now see a full line up of what we have planned for you over the action packed two days, including detailed descriptions.
As you can see once again a4uexpo have developed a not to be missed conference line up.
Click here to see our continuously updated speakers list speakers list
If you cannot wait until next weeks edition of a4uexpo'sed, sign up to the a4uexpo Europe blog and keep updated as the news is announced.
Not to late to get Involved
If you would like to exhibitor, sponsor or simply have a question regarding our event please do not hesitate to contact us at
events@existem.com or +(0)1179 723 269.
Until Next time, Matthew, Claire, Ingrid and the a4uexpo team.
|
