It's rare that we, Stateside, pay attention to the European or UK marketplace but given a recent UK Affiliate Marketing Roundtable event hosted by Advertising.com it's worth tuning into. In a nutshell, industry executives, agencies and super affiliates are discussing highly controversial issues right out in the open -- putting them on the Web (via podcast) for all to listen to. And these aren't poorly executed (transparent) propaganda podcasts as Commission Junction has been criticized for recently.

Although the recording quality of the podcast made nearly 40% of the event unintelligible I strained to listen. Why? Bold statements and, in fact, arguments were put forward by powerful voices including executives from:

Advertising.com
TradeDoubler
Net Imperative
Buy.at
iPoints
Leadpoint

TradeDoubler on the Defensive
At one point TradeDoubler was put on the defensive as the company was pressed for answers with regard to the accountability of affiliate networks -- from a legal perspective. Case in point, European giant (and TradeDoubler client) Tesco successfully won a summary judgement against one of its largest affiliates for ALL commissions earned over the course of YEARS (of visitor referrals to Tesco.com). The affiliate was using mis-spells of the Tesco brand name as its tool of choice... a popular affiliate strategy and a legitimate one, argued one gentleman in the group.

Legitimate considering:

A) Tesco knew of the practice and did nothing (to stop the affiliate)
B) TradeDoubler knew of the practice and kept facilitating the relationship

Rogue Affiliates or Rogue Merchants?
What's more it was suggested that the affiliate could have (if it wanted to) waged a serious, costly legal battle against the affiliate network. The affiliate network also could have been targeted by Tesco based on gross negligence -- given TradeDoubler's claims (like all networks) of constant vigilance against deceptive or illegal affiliate practices.

The topic of "rogue affiliates" was quickly turned around and aimed at "rogue merchants" who act without regard for serious legal considerations.

Network Quality: Entry Fee for Affiliates
Many topics were discussed including AffiliateWindow's move to start charging affiliates a small entry fee to participate in the network (refundable as a credit in their account and available upon racking up a minimum earnings threshold).

Blacklisting affiliates, cookie deletion, the diminishing reputation of affiliates were also discussed with TradeDoubler (I believe... it was difficult to hear) suggesting that affiliates need to move from infancy to adolencnce... and soon.

Posted by Editor on June 3, 2006 11:40 AM

Comments

Posted by: Chris Sanderson at June 3, 2006 10:29 PM