ASA and iCodes (advice required)

**Leeky** · 10-03-11

Taken from a merchants updated T&C's

Affiliates do not have permission to rely on or republish content about [merchant] that comes from unauthorised third parties, and are strongly advised to avoid using third party providers due to the fact the accuracy of the content may not be able to be guaranteed. Affiliates may only use information provided to them directly by the Crabtree & Evelyn affiliate manager, through News Manager or via the Affiliate Window account executive for the programme.

Due to the new ASA regulations does this mean it is recommended such as iCodes should remove the ability for affiliates to manually enter offers into our database and soley rely on offers supplied by network feeds?

If the above is the case it would be advised that all networks include all offers in an offer feed.

We would still allow user input but this would only be to tidy and categorise the offers imported (which is a big part of what they do now)

Cheers

Lee

**Hero** · 10-03-11

I'd recommend to give the content update responsibility to the merchants and networks, rather than the affiliates. Yes, the affiliates have their fingers on the pulse, but you cannot verify the validity of the codes they input nor can you be certain they are meant to be used within the affiliate channel. And nothing guarantees you they won't come at 0% commission either.

**Leeky** · 10-03-11

Thanks for replying Hero :-)

As you say we cannot possibly verify the data inputted by affiliates, and we do state this clearly in our t&c's, I don't think codes are so much of a problem because 90% of them are via network feeds and affiliates are pretty good at only entering codes from reputable sources such as agencies and networks. (we are already very strict with entering codes from any other source)

My main concern is offers, not many networks provide a usable or populated offers feeds, and due to this we rely heavily on user input to get these offers manually directly from the network emails, blogs and merchant websites (the latter being the conern). the main problem is the expiry dates of offers as this info is rarely provided and so guessed by the user (usually they have it running for a month or two). and that the offer added may not be an offer in the eyes of the merchant.

The problem with guessing expiry dates is either if it's too short or too long it is false advertising.

We have always given networks, agenies and merchants the ability to login and add / edit / delete any data they do not want promoting, we also include a 24 hour delay on offers before they go live in all feeds which gives ammendments time to be done, but sadly very very few take advantage of this ability, and so at the end of the day it would appear we are the ones responsible for distributing any data which may break the ASA regulations. (i've no idea if we could be held responsible or not given the abilities we offer)

Cheer

Lee

**dazzer** · 10-03-11

LinkShare has a detailed Voucher Feed which includes any links that are vouchers, codes, offers or deals.
We also provide 3 different ways for publishers to access these links based on ability – our Voucher Web Service (Advanced), Voucher Finder Tool (Intermediate) and Vouchersnap Bookmarklet (Basic).

If you have any questions please contact me.

Darren

**Leeky** · 10-03-11

Yeah thanks Darren, Linkshare is one of the very few networks which has an offer feed or atleast a usable offer feed. In this day and age I find it astonishing a network can expect to operate correctly without one.

The usual network practis is to distribute offers willy nilly so eveyone has to go on a wild goose chase to find them, pluck an expiry date out of thin air, enter them up manually then get a warning email from that network to say something is invalid or incorrect with the promotional details.

It's a good job merchants have the option to move over to a network which can cater for affiliates needs, especially now these new ASA regulations have come into play.

Cheers

Lee

**KimCullum** · 10-03-11

Originally Posted by Leeky

Taken from a merchants updated T&C's

Due to the new ASA regulations does this mean it is recommended such as iCodes should remove the ability for affiliates to manually enter offers into our database and soley rely on offers supplied by network feeds?

If the above is the case it would be advised that all networks include all offers in an offer feed.

We would still allow user input but this would only be to tidy and categorise the offers imported (which is a big part of what they do now)

Cheers

Lee

Hi Lee,

As you are commenting on our program, please be aware that firstly - we always try to look at things on a case by case basis.

Secondly - I am keen to clear up some areas for confusion between your messages. - You raised the question about how do you verify offer details and what to do about unknown end dates. This is a valid thing to raise, however it is perhaps not so relevant to use against the merchant you have taken the T & Cs quote from. - We have long been aware how important this information is to affiliates and also for our own responsibilities in avoiding any issues with the ASA and so we are very proactive in supplying our affiliates with all the necessary details. - We do this by submitting details to our Networks Offer Blog, and also by replicating this in an affiliate newsletter and we always supply start and end dates - so there is no reason why any affiliate would not have easy access to our offer details.

I can submit vouchers to our network voucherfeed but there is an issue with this in that the vouchercodes can apparently be downloaded by affiliates at any time, (whether their actual start date has arrived or not) which causes a conflict / potential for confusion with our terms saying vouchers can only be promoted from the start date. We are still deciding how to address this going forward - but have tried to cover it in our Ts & Cs so that we can re-start doing this going forward.

Unfortunately, over the past few months when we have been monitoring the accuracy of our affiliate's content, we have several times now faced the feedback that they were getting their information from another party. Sometimes the other parties are not a part of our program and so this becomes very difficult for us to manage and rectify.

For this reason we felt it better to highlight that affiliates should not rely on third parties, but should rely on what we provide direct. This way there is a better chance of all content about us being correct.

I have tried raising questions about content accuracy with the AMC in a meeting earlier this year and by researching all info on the ASA website and met with some mixed feedback about it. As the AMC has yet to formalise their response, we have had to implement some interim terms while we await Best Practice feedback. I always try to be fair in our terms and conditions, giving insight into the reasons behind the changes and send out many reminders as well as giving the recommended notice.

However, if we didn't make this recommendation then it leaves us in a rather difficult position when it comes to trying to get content errors corrected. As we provide regular communication on offers, start and end dates and issue reminders about expired offers, are our terms really so unfair?

I'm really interested to hear more thoughts / feedback on this although it is my birthday tomorrow so I may not be able to respond until Tuesday.

All the best,
Kim

**Leeky** · 10-03-11

Hi Kim

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply, and I didn't realise I left in the merchant name otherwise I would have removed it from the quote, my corncerns are not directed so much towards the merchant as i'm on the merchants side with this, my concerns are that networks generally do not provide usable offer feeds for the affiliates to ensure accuracy and some automation atleast.

It's all well and good you provide offer details in emails and network blogs etc but if you put yourself in the shoes of an affiliate who has to trawl through such blogs and emails day in day out, then manually enter up each and every deal you would soon realise that it is essensial such offers are provided in a network feed in order to get your offers promoted quickly and accurately. (or even at all)

Our drawbacks are due to most networks not providing such feeds for affiliates and which is why instead of pushing the networks to give you the ability to enter your offers into a feed, you instead chose to recommend affiliates to not use a third party service (which includes iCodes)

To be fair on our service all I can say is when a network feed is available our users find and correct merchant inputted data such as typos, incorrect spelling, missing words, inaccurate offer descriptions then categorise them before it goes live in our feeds, so in actual fact our feeds are far more accurate than network feeds (which is why hundreds of affiliates pay to use them)

I'm sure affiliate window have informed you of the ability to login to iCodes and add / edit / delete any offer you wish, or the ability to take sole control over offers of yours we distribute.

I can guarantee that using our service properly as a merchant will give you far more exposure and accuracy than any network blog or network feed can provide, simply because our feeds cover 15 networks and so standardized across the board making it far more likely affiliates will use them, and now rely on them. Plus other third parties provide ready made websites to use our feeds and we also provide javascript units which use the feeds, due to this the feeds are useful for all affiliates whether they have the technical ability or not.

Cheers

Lee

**KimCullum** · 10-03-11

No problem about including our program name - I was hoping to get feedback from affiliates on the updates so at least you gave the discussion a starting point! So often I hear nothing at all back and you never know how people feel.

Hmm I guess whichever side of the fence we sit on we are both dealing with lots of contact points. If I manually uploaded details for every affiliate it would take me forever! But I appreciate it must be the same time constraints affiliate side too. - I hadn't considered an offers feed before -I have already let my AM at our network know about this thread and she is feeding back internally so who knows -maybe we will see a feed at a later date??

Meanwhile, I'm not sure I have login details for you - feel free to send them on via email (I think you have mine already?)

Hopefully the ASA & responsibilities issue will become a bit clearer in time!

All the best,

Kim

**Leeky** · 10-03-11

You wouldn't have to manually upload details for every affiliate, all you do is enter them once, the syndication between all affiliates (inserting their id's) is done automatically by us.

Taking Control of Your Own Codes and Offers

Lets say you make a mistake in an offer, or you want to end an offer early, or extend it.. on a network blog or email this is time consuming and usually ignored or unseen, using our service it's updated instantly in all feeds, so if the affiliate uses the feeds live the change is instant on their sites.

Or you could provide your own offers feed and we could automate it that way.

Cheers

Lee

**KimCullum** · 10-03-11

Thanks I will take a look on Tuesday.

I'm not sure how likely it will be for us to create an offers feed. But if you have an example of a good one, feel free to email it to me and I'll ask at my end whether it might be feasible.

Have a great weekend!

All the best,

Kim

**Leeky** · 10-03-11

Great stuff thanks Kim.

If you don't have that many offers available it would be much easier to simply login from time to time and enter them up manually. I'll send you details of a recommended offer feed structure, but we can cope with all sorts of junk feeds and make them good.. They say you can't polish a turd but that's what we do on a daily basis with some network feeds lol

Hope you have a great Birthday btw :-)

Lee

**HelenMarie** · 13-03-11

Hi Lee,

Good point raised here. I think the key point is that anything that an affiliate publishes on their website, whether this is a voucher code or standard content, it must be accurate and be updated regularly.

I'm not completely clear on how your system works, might be worth giving me a shout in the week and we can run through?

Thanks
Helen

**Leeky** · 13-03-11

Hi Helen

Yeah i'll give you a shout in the week :-)

In it's very basic form iCodes is a platform to enable affiliates to input codes and offers into a shared database, they are then fed back to them in a standardized feed / api

Any one of these affiliates can also edit / delete the data so it's also policed quite effectively.

Me and Vince (who run iCodes) don't have much to do with the data inputted, we just provide support and keep it constantly updated with more and more automation to make the affiliates job easier.

Cheers

Lee

**dougs** · 16-03-11

What happens then with people like Moneysupermarket who uses MVC feed and then ammend it......

Doug

**HelenMarie** · 16-03-11

Hi There

There is no blanket answer to any of this and we'll be releasing a good practice document shortly which hopefully will provide support, but every single case is going to be slightly different.

I think this really is a matter of common sense. If an affiliate is taking content provided by a merchant or supplier, and they adapt this, then the responsibility lies with that affiliate to ensure that the content on their site is accurate.

In a nutshell, all members of the value chain have a responsibility to ensure that information they are providing for the consumers end use is accurate and not mis-leading. This has always been the case and is nothing new .....

Helen