Todays AMC Meeting

[Julie H]

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Hi

I've just got back from the AMC meeting today and I would like to say that the 'hot topic' of Ben Wood staying as Chair with his recent appointment with TD was brought up by Ben himself. It was felt by the entire room that the headway made this year is too important to discard and nobody is in favour of Ben either stepping down or replaced.

I hope we can now move forward with the issues and research that the IAB and the committee are dealing with. I would however, like to remind everybody that these meetings are open for anybody to attend and the next will be on Thursday 24th July 2008 at 3pm.

If you need any further details just ask.

Jules
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[Chris Clarkson]

Hi Julie,

I'm glad it was brought up and dealt with in an open manner, I've been made aware Ben is making good progress in his first few months as chairman.

It would still be nice to see this forum more active with details of what exactly is being achieved and to what end. Even if it just helps maintain interest in the work of the AMC as there seems to be a general apathy going by thread views/lack of comment.

I look forward to attending the next meeting and seeing the council in action.


Chris "The Rabble Rouser" C

[Julie H]

Hi Chris,

The AMC is very open. I was only made aware of the AMC after last years Expo, since then I've attended almost every meeting. They are informative and a lot of research goes into any issues discussed. Some of us are even given homework!

It is a shame there is such apathy regarding the IAB in general, not just the AMC. We have been given a voice, so we have to get out there and make ourselves heard, not just sit behind a pc and moan (that is definately not aimed at you Chris).

It would be great if more people attended the meetings, in particular affiliates as the majority of Networks are there and quite a few agencies/management companies, but there are just two affiliates myself and Keith and while we can both be vocal it would be good for someone else to speak up too. I look forward to buying you a beer or two at the July meeting!

Jules
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[KevinEdwards]

I'd echo Julie's comments.

It's an open forum to discuss and further the industry and all its facets.

Affiliates have an opportunity to participate and yet so few do.

Today we had the chance to question a representative of Phorm over its imminent launch into the online space - much discussed on the forum.

The meetings are monthly and I appreciate are not always convenient for everyone but if you can attend at any point please do.

[Elaine]

I would love to attend - and hopefully will make some later this year, travelling down from Redcar though does necessitate a 2 day trip

[drivetowin]

Just to echo what Julie and Kevin have said

There was total consensus that Ben should remain in post and that we all had confidence in both his abilities to chair the council and to retain his impartiality.

As Julie has said, it would be great to see more affiliates there (and more merchants too) - even if the mix is much better than last year when for many meetings I was in a minority of one (there were three affiliates today though Julie, you forgot Richard from rPoints ;-) ).

As to what the council is achieving, while progress is sometimes slow and frustrating, we have produced an excellent handbook already and we are now working on a set of best practice guidelines, the first set of which should be published in the relatively near future.

Today as well we had the opportunity to question Phorm about their activities - the answers to our questions were certainly enlightening and assuming that they weren't marketing spin (and I personally don't believe they were), then they served to dispel a lot of the mythinformation that is floating around the net. I may publish tomorrow some of what was said but need to check with Ben and Dan whether that part of the meeting was commercially confidential or not.

[John Jupp]

Today as well we had the opportunity to question Phorm about their activities - the answers to our questions were certainly enlightening and assuming that they weren't marketing spin (and I personally don't believe they were), then they served to dispel a lot of the mythinformation that is floating around the net. I may publish tomorrow some of what was said but need to check with Ben and Dan whether that part of the meeting was commercially confidential or not.

As I may be just as guilty through lack of information :blush feel free to let me know privately if not via the forum. I'd like to know the position.

[nim-b]

As Julie has said, it would be great to see more affiliates there (and more merchants too) - even if the mix is much better than last year when for many meetings I was in a minority of one (there were three affiliates today though Julie, you forgot Richard from rPoints ;-) ).

I'd like to back up the call for more merchants- especially other retailers. Its a really valuable thing to do and I think other affiliate managers would find it very useful- I certainly have. We all have a tendency to work in a bubble sometimes, and discussing industry issues with people can help give you a wider perspective on things.

Am disappointed I couldn't make this meeting (was in Barbados ), but I'd agree with everyone that Ben's appointment at TD shouldn't affect his position as chair.

[ChrisBishop]

I'd happily attend.

Is there a meeting diary?

[nim-b]

I'm sure there was a full list of dates somewhere in this forum, but I can't find it anywhere.

Tends to be the last Thursday of the month at 3pm.

If anyone can find the list perhaps we could make the post sticky, so everyone can easily see council dates and plan ahead.

Would be really great to have you there Chris- someone extra to give a merchant perspective in discussions would help a lot

[Julie H]

Am disappointed I couldn't make this meeting (was in Barbados )

Liar!

Jules
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[Chris Clarkson]

Today as well we had the opportunity to question Phorm about their activities - the answers to our questions were certainly enlightening and assuming that they weren't marketing spin (and I personally don't believe they were), then they served to dispel a lot of the mythinformation that is floating around the net. I may publish tomorrow some of what was said but need to check with Ben and Dan whether that part of the meeting was commercially confidential or not.

Hi Keith,

any update on this?

[ChrisBishop]

I'm sure there was a full list of dates somewhere in this forum, but I can't find it anywhere.

Tends to be the last Thursday of the month at 3pm.

If anyone can find the list perhaps we could make the post sticky, so everyone can easily see council dates and plan ahead.

Would be really great to have you there Chris- someone extra to give a merchant perspective in discussions would help a lot

Hey thanks -

Dan from IAB has emailed me with more information so I will see you there on the 24th July.

[moredial]

Today as well we had the opportunity to question Phorm about their activities - the answers to our questions were certainly enlightening and assuming that they weren't marketing spin (and I personally don't believe they were), then they served to dispel a lot of the mythinformation that is floating around the net.

I too would love to hear what Phorm can offer affiliates. So far, everything I have learned about the methodology behind Phorm suggests that it is bad news for affiliates who promote brands/popular products.

When I first started in affiliate marketing, the theory was that a business did not spend any money on advertising. Instead, that budget went into paying affiliates commissions in return for the affiliate taking all the risks of advertising the business.
Where a business did their own independent advertising, they were competing for business with the affiliate, thereby increasing the costs to the affiliate and not as attractive to promote.

With Phorm coming into the equation, I can currently see only 2 possibilities:
1/ Phorm replaces the affiliate networks as primary advertising network - affiliates display ads supplied by Phorm rather than the af networks.
2/ Phorm uses affiliate sites to profile the visitors to the affiliate sites and then displays merchant adverts to those visitors as they surf the net, thereby removing affiliates from any earning potential.

Where an affiliate has a 100% conversion rate, Phorm won't be an issue. For all the rest, Phorm will have harvested their visitors and be reminding them of their interest in a product. Who needs to search for what they found before if they are being bombarded with reminder adverts by the OIX partner sites.

Phorm is no more than an industrial spy who is encouraging ISPs to supply it with a copy of the content of websites so that it can profile and track e-commerce visitors from site to site until Phorm can earn an income from delivering an advert and other metrics. How much can Phorm earn from selling (to the competition) data like (from the OIX privacy statement) "For example, Phorm may tell a merchant that our network contains 50,000 users who have visited a travel website URL in the past six months, but cannot disclose which randomly generated IDs have visited that URL, because that information is simply not stored."

If, at the AMC meeting, Phorm presented something to reassure website owners and internet users, then it is in their own self interest to make that information public. I could do with some good news on this subject as so far everything has just become worse as more has been revealed.

Until then, can anyone find just one reason why Phorm should be allowed the access to web content which it enjoyed during the 2006/7 trials during the forthcoming BT trial?

The exisiting UK laws which were broken during the earlier trials are already well documented - the police are finally agreeing to look at the evidence provided by internet users and website owners. Nothing has been published to indicate that those same laws will not also be breached during the next trial.

In the USA, the use of DPI by the ISPs is being suspended as people there begin to understand the [illegal] technology abuse by the various ad networks using similar processes to those used by Phorm. Visits from UK IP addresses to services hosted in USA won't be exempt from investigation.