Things I learned at A4U Expo 2010
I’m back from a two day conference known as the London A4U Expo. For those not familiar, this is a get-together for online marketeers, agencies, and merchants. The Expo was held in the large aircraft hanger known as Excel, in London’s Docklands.
I’m writing this summary, not for the benefit of the three people that follow my blog, but for me, so that a year from now, when deciding whether or not to go to the 2011 event, I’ll have a frame of reference. So, here goes with the lessons I’ve learned from A4U 2010…
1. This year, I’ve noticed that the smaller affiliate networks are more keen than ever to talk to smaller partners, and more importantly, to listen. This, in fact, is where the opportunities lie. Good to talk to the guys and girls at Webgains, Linkshare, Tradetracker and Digital River (amongst others)
2. As for the larger networks, if you’re not a super affiliate or a voucher code site, some networks are too busy frying larger fish to want to talk to you. (Update: Although blogging seems to get their attention – Thanks for the mail!)
3. Working with smaller merchants could be a high yield strategy. It’s less competitive, and many merchants that don’t want margins squeezed by voucher codes, may value new business.
4. From the last session of the day, as one speaker said, the onus is on the affiliate marketeers to know who they’re working with, do their research, and choose carefully. Smaller players now struggle to influence the larger networks and merchants, so need to start talking to new people and playing a different game.
5. I need to read emails more carefully (I missed a key one from Argos, and am kicking myself – Thanks Andrew!)
6. Changes to attribution models give everyone a headache, and seem unlikely to change in the short term.
7. I need to download 19 WordPress plug-ins
8. I now have too many things on my “cool – I’ll try that!” list.
9. Beware of all things non-transparent
10. Just ask
11. Tradedoubler make a lovely cappuccino!
12. Note to self: Go next year – Spend 75% of time in seminars, and 25% on the floor chatting to those that want to chat.
Well done to Matt and the team for organising the event. I hope everyone else found it as useful as I did…
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Interesting notes! Yes, I had a good day too, and will be back next year. Some of the talks on Day One were a bit odd (lots of in-house references from the speakers that mean nothing to me as a newbie to AM), but some real gems in other sessions
As for the networks, I’m 100% with you on that. Affiliate Window completely uninterested in talking to me, but people like clickbank, tradetracker and even valueclick wanted to see what I could offer (and had better freebies!). I guess when you get as huge as AW/Buy/Platform A/Perfiliate/DigitalWindow/Zanox, you can only afford to concentrate on a handful of affiliates, and bedroom boys like me are at the bottom of their food chain.
No mention of the lovely ladies at DFDS though Pete?
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You make some keen points to which we at Affiliate Window and buy.at are obliged to sit up and take notice. We are very concerned that you found us less approachable than other networks. From our perspective we feel we champion the interests of committed affiliates, be they market leaders, mid-tier or part of the long tail.
Your experience of the network at the A4U Expo is doubly disappointing when you consider we had staff from AWin, buy.at and Zanox present covering everything from senior management, strategy, new business and both publisher and advertiser management. We fully understand the benefits of working with all engaged affiliates, regardless of their size. To that end our Partnerships team is a dedicated group within Affiliate Window and buy.at whose role it is to specifically facilitate relationships between affiliates and merchants. While this team has large affiliate accounts to look after, we believe that it is equally important to spend a significant amount of time focusing on developing the potential of smaller business opportunities like your own. All members of the company met with countless partners throughout the 2 days and the fact that the stand was always busy wouldn’t have helped casual visitors as many had booked meetings in advance. In future we may need to have an on-site system which allows visitors to highlight their interest to meet with a representative when available, however this will only be effective if followed up by the team.
Our commitment to help develop all partners is more than rhetoric. Darwin, our latest technology release, is the affiliate industry’s first interactive directory. It includes a feature called Marketplace comprising real-time activity streams, comprehensive user dashboards and detailed affiliate (and merchant) profiles that act as a platform for both parties to showcase themselves in an effort to initiate new business and is very much a ‘long tail’ initiative. Granted, this shouldn’t exclude the networks duty to engage parties especially when a face to face opportunity arises.
Actions speak louder than words and we will be in contact with you to discuss and identify correcting much of the above. After we have spoken and made genuine progress, I hope you will be able to describe your experience at the Expo as “out of character”.
Hi David,
Thanks for the response, and the follow ups from yourself, Kevin and Edwyn by email. Good that Affiliate Window (correctly) assumed I was referring to them in my post. I deliberately avoided name-dropping.
In a way, it’s also good to know that a simple tweet is able to get such a fast and positive response, especially when email, support tickets, forum posts and face-to-face contacts all fail.
Regarding my experience at the show, I understand. The larger organisation means more partners, more people wanting face time, and only a limited number of hours. Perhaps I’d just got used to the days when I could walk up to AW, pick up a clinic pill (remember them), and have a chat.
I’ve done my fair share of trade shows, and know how it gets, so when no-one from the publisher team was free at the start of the day, I explained my concerns to someone who was free, handed over a business card, and said I’d be free all day if someone from the Publisher team or the Account Manager for the merchant became free. When no-one called during the show, I assumed that perhaps everyone was still busy and maybe someone would follow up the day after the show. Sadly no. My 140 character observation (that didn’t even name AW) did manage to get spotted though!
As outlined to AW today, “migration issues” resulting in an a partner not being paid approved commission is a serious concern for a small operation. A lack of heads-up is disappointing, but silence is scary. The warm welcome from other, albeit less busy, networks at the show, was a stark contrast, and reminiscent of the good old AW days.
Nonetheless, I’m very happy that Affiliate Window has been in touch today, and has provided me with a single point of contact and two escalation paths at Affiliate Window. I’ll be stopping by the stand next year to look for warm, welcoming smiles and a free pen!
Thanks again for taking the time to address the concerns of a humble long-tailed small fish…