AffiliateFuture sets the agenda for online travel marketing with Senior speaker panel

[STEVETEST]

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Press Release

19 November 2007


Leading travel affiliate network, AffiliateFuture, will be setting the agenda in online travel today with a roll call of top level travel marketers at its Travel Masterclass. The event, which takes place aboard the HMS Queen Mary on Embankment Pier in London, features four debates between leading travel brands including Singapore Airlines, Thomas Cook and Cosmos. Each will be blogged live to the thousands of affiliates in the AffiliateFuture community.

The live blog, subsequent videocast of the four debates, and on-going online discussions are accessible at the purpose-built site http://travelmasterclass.affiliatefuture.co.uk.

Collectively these resources will provide those keen to share their experience and understand more about online travel marketing, with a valuable knowledge pool.

The speakers at the event are:

 Victoria McQuillan, Affiliate and Partner Manager, MyTravel
 Craig Kent. Marketing Manager, Olympic Holidays
 Gary Philips, E-Commerce Manager, Balkan Holidays
 Jacqueline Shalks, Head of Marketing, Reserveahotelonline.com
 Jo Ellis, Affiliate Marketing Manager, Superbreak
 Paul Riches, Sales and Marketing Director, Youtravel.com
 David Lewis, Business Development Manager, Holiday Extras
 Peter McAree, Commercial Director, Auto Europe UK
 Louise Bryan, Training and Development Manager, Rock Insurance
 Renaldo Scheepers, CEO, AtoBtransfers.com
 Alistair Hay-Campbell, Sales Manager, Singapore Airlines
 Anton Grossmann, Sales Manager, Malaysia Airlines
 Geoff Waters, Product Manager, Thomas Cook
 James Blake, Sales and Marketing Manager, Asiana Airlines
 Dan Morley, Partnership Manager, alpharooms
 Andy Washington, Sales and Distribution Director, Cosmos

And the four topics being discussed over the course of the day are:

 2.30pm: Holidays
 3.30pm: Accommodation
 4.30pm: Flights
 5.30pm: Travel Essentials


Maz Darvish, CEO of AffiliateFuture comments; “The line-up of senior speakers and leading travel brands is testament to our status as the affiliate network for travel. And this latest dimension facilitates greater reach and further builds our position as a provider of current and highly relevant content across a variety of media to the online travel marketing community.”

“During the event and thereafter we expect these threads to bring greater insight for everyone working in this growing and increasingly pioneering arena.” He continues.

To access the live blogs and participate in the debates virtual attendees can log on at http://travelmasterclass.affiliatefuture.co.uk.

[Iskander]

Just that it shouldn't have been called a Masterclass.

I can't speak for anyone else but personally I didn't feel like there was much focus on:

- How to attract more affiliates
- How to better communicate with affiliates
- How to run cost-effective PPC campaigns
- How to run cost-effective CPA campaigns
- How to increase conversions
- How to increase click-throughs
- How to increase quality score
- How to achieve better SERPs
- How to implement product feeds
- How to market your website offline
- How merchants can learn better from affiliates what they need to provide them with to generate sales

(I'm sure we could sit around and come up with ideas for about thirty other topics which would have made it something of a Masterclass)

There needed to be more questions from the floor to keep it B2B focused. The merchant-affiliate relationship is a B2B relationship and, quite frankly, we could give more of a hoot about their B2C relationships with their end-customers.

We are working as a sales channel for the merchants for heaven's sake not as a public relations channel. (They don't pay us enough for that).

(One example: If the airport-car-hire uptake in Europe is much smaller than it is in the US, could that be because there is unexploited room for growth or is it because in the US there are far fewer alternative public transport options? Personally, I don't know, but at the end of the day, so what? What has any of this got to do with Merchants providing flexible, innovative sales tools for their affiliates or improving their conversion rates? If the merchant doesn't convert we won't be forwarding much traffic in their direction for very long anyway, whatever their optimism about the future growth of their sector is.)

Apart from that excellent, well-intentioned effort and a pat on the back to everyone at Affiliate Future for putting it together.

Next time, let's talk much more about affiliate merchants and affiliate publishers and less about end-customers or industry concerns.

[pistol101]

Thanks for the feedback. In terms of event structure, we had deliberately moved the event from an affiliate focused to being an industry event. We have had lots of call from affiliates to get to know the industry further.

We've had lots of feedback about the format and in 6 months time we'll be able to move the event on further.

[Iskander]

Okay, thanks for explaining why the questions directed at the panel came over as overwhelmingly travel industry specific rather than affiliate marketing industry specific.

I don't want to come across as excessively critical because I do think it was an excellent initiative to put together a sector-specific merchant and affiliates networking event and I really appreciate that you guys have taken this extra step ahead of most of the other networks.

But shouldn't affiliates who want to know specifically about the travel industry rather than travel sector affiliate marketing issues go along to industry-related tradeshows like World Travel Market?

One thing I definitely appreciated was being able to meet some merchant programme managers who I might otherwise know by name, but had never met face to face. But that would still have been the case if we hadn't talked about (for example) how planes might be designed in 2030 or whether there will be more or less airlines by that point or if airport authorities are ever likely to be able to better resolve security issues.

Perhaps others disagree with me? It would be useful to share all constructive feedback so that the event can really kick ass next time.

[ancora]

I agree with some of Iskander's comments as I hoped to learn more of the "how to earn" than a review of the travel industry focus. However, a lot of the content was useful and of course the social networking with both merchants and affiliates is always valuable.

[pistol101]

Thanks for the feedback. We're likely to have something targeting the affiliate side of the business rather than the industries next year. The basics are similar across industries, we do this for all our merchants already.

[Azam.net]

Fabulous event. It was very professionally put together. Thank you to everyone at AF for arranging it.

I, too, would have preferred more from the affiliate side. And not just basic stuff like they have at all the conferences ("the left side of Google has the 'free' listings, the right side has the 'paid' listings"), but stuff for us to really get our teeth into and improve ourselves.

Here's my write-up of the event and loads of pictures: Affiliate Future Travel Masterclass.