Calling all Agencies

[drivetowin]

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Jess

Good as Wickedfire and Abestweb are, they combined would probably struggle to have 10% of the UK affiliate audience that A4U has, and the IAB actions are all about the UK.

I don't think any of us have tried to claim that the IAB is going to be a panacea for all of the ills of the affiliate world - but surely collaboration on an agreed form of best practice has to be a good step forward. In time it may well be that it comes to help the affiliate who has lost earnings, or equally it may come to the aid of a network or merchant who has just been defrauded out of thousands of pounds of commissions by a rogue affiliate too - there are bad pennies in all piles of coins.

If the IAB is not for you then fair do's, no one is going to think any the worse of you for not attending - we all know you to be one of the stalwarts of the UK affiliate scene and then are many of us who have much to thank you for over the years.

For the record, other than myself and Mark and Bruce from Existem, other agencies who have indicated that they are going to attend are Mediacom, BLM Quantum, Equimedia, Mindshare Interaction, i-Level, MV Media Group, RO-EYE, Steak Media, Stream:20, Total Search Solutions, Shine Marketing, EDR Agency and Vizeum.

Given APAs standing in the industry I agree with Duncan that it is a real shame you won't be there as I think you would have some valuable input but I respect your decision not to attend.

[jess1]

Cheers Keith and I know you and what you have done in the past and present. We share a lot of the same views always have done. Your right it's not for me, Ill only be confrontational and hold up the meeting by asking far too many annoying questions, you go ask them for me
Gotta get legals in place for affs, guidlines on what to do if one of the IAB's members is not towing the line

I nearly spat out my coffee re Ilevel being quoted after recent events.
Ohhhh contraversial

[jess1]

Good as Wickedfire and Abestweb are, they combined would probably struggle to have 10% of the UK affiliate audience that A4U has, and the IAB actions are all about the UK.

I'll be discussing the UK census revisted on Thursday and I hope to get included a US comparison, early days yet.

I think you will find affiliates are diversifying. From what I can see affiliates (UK affiliates) are starting to monetise their websites re non UK traffic that comes across it, as it should be. Now is it a mini trend or the start of real cross boarder affiliate marketing? Certainly we are seeing a rise in US affiliates promoting UK merchants, we are seeing a rise in merchants selling their products abroad. I love it.. about time! :tup

[3wdl]

So the question is again... which no one seems to want to answer, how is the IAB going to help the affiliate that just lost all his/her earnings via a merchant or network that has just absconded, how is a bit of paper advising people what they should do, going to help? Are they going to provide legal and financial support to mr B affiliate who just lost 3K in commissions? No.. why? Cos mr B affiliate is required to go to the small claims court and put his hand into his own pocket, despite the fact that mr M erchant had a little seal on his website saying "My affiliate program is compliant"

You've not been to the IAB, so you've not seen some of the good things that have been coming from it over the past few months, but the whole point is not about addressing the point you make. It's not a body to help individual affiliates get their money back from merchants - that would be the role of the Affiliate Association, but unforunutely that has not, and probably will not, ever happen.

The point is, the IAB are trying to bring some of their members (and now non-members) together to discuss some of the issues that different parties involved in affiliate marketing face; they have tried to be as inclusive as possible and it's a shame you were not invited but it's obviously difficult for them to invite every single agency in the country via email, especially when they are not IAB members and not known to them - the A4UForum works as you've obviously now seen about it.

You may have issues with the IAB but at the end of the day at least someone is trying to help improve the perception that the industry has and as mentioned, there have already been some great things to come out of it.

I won't be able to make the meeting as I'm on holiday at the moment which is a real shame, but look forward to hearing some output from it and hope that sessions like these continue to happen.

J