buy.at's 12 Merchants of Christmas!

[Nick Caulfield]

To the tune of "We Three Kings"....

We buy.at of Platform-a are
Bearing gifts for affiliates afar
Prizes Incentives, Offers Exclusives
The best Affiliate Christmas by far

O incentive of wonder, incentive so bright
Incentive that’s guaranteed to excite
buy.at’s leading, still proceeding
We’ll guide you to your Christmas delight.

Holidays to offer have I
Twelve clients agreed to supply
Offers and prizes, lots of surprises
Merchants from M&S to Sky

O incentive of wonder, incentive so bright
Incentive that’s guaranteed to excite
buy.at’s leading, still proceeding
we’ll guide you to your Christmas delight.

What merchants have chosen to star?
Many big names including ASDA
Virgin, T-Mobile, HMV, Play
O2, Littlewoods and La Senza

O incentive of wonder, incentive so bright
Incentive that’s guaranteed to excite
buy.at’s leading, still proceeding
we’ll guide you to your Christmas delight.

buy.at will, offer to you
The chance to win, huge prizes too
Amazing, thrilling, inspiring, exciting
Read on so you have a clue

O incentive of wonder, incentive so bright
Incentive that’s guaranteed to excite
buy.at’s leading, still proceeding
we’ll guide you to your Christmas delight.

buy.at’s Twelve Merchants of Christmas:

So what is it?

The origins of the Twelve days of Christmas are often misunderstood. Most people believe that the Twelve Days take place before Christmas but in actuality they occur afterwards and run until the beginning of Epiphany on 6th January

So to rectify this common mistake buy.at is launching their own version of the Twelve Days of Christmas, called the “Twelve Merchants of Christmas”.

This will run from the 16th October, right up until Christmas Eve on 24th December 2008.

On the way you’ll see maids a milking, geese a laying and lord’s a leaping but with a buy.at twist, as each merchant of Christmas will offer great deals and incentives to help affiliates get a bit more revenue during the winter months.

What merchants are involved?

On the Twelfth day of Christmas,
buy.at gave to me,
Twelve La Senza Knickers,
Eleven ASDA Electricals,
Ten Play-ers a Playing
Nine O2 Orbits,
Eight Carphone dongles
Seven Littlewoods Loafers
Six HMV bundles
Five Marks and Spencer’s
Four T-Mobile’s
Three Wii’s from Game
Two Virgin Broadband’s
And an incentive for Sky TV

How will it work?

buy.at have done their homework and have compiled the twelve best performing merchants from last year and got them to run incentives that will involve every affiliate from the top to the bottom.

Not wanting to feel left out buy.at have also thrown in mouth watering prizes:

1. - A retro video arcade console
2. - A shopping trip for two to New York, with spending money
3. - An HD entertainment system

We have split the 12 merchants into three sectors and assigned the three prizes across each vertical for Entertainment, Retail and Mobile and Broadband.

So how do I win?

October – Entertainment Month
Including: ASDA, Game, HMV and Play
Prize: A retro video arcade console
Date: 16th October to 16th November 2008

November – Retail Month
Including: La Senza, Littlewoods and M&S
Prize: A shopping trip to New York for two with additional spending money
Date: 1st November to 30th November 2008

December – Mobile and Broadband
Including: Carphone Warehouse. O2, Sky, T-Mobile and Virgin
Prize: An HD entertainment system
Date: 1st December to 31st December 2008

In order to be in with a chance to win these three buy.at prizes you will have to make at least five sales on each of the programmes. So to win the Retro Arcade System you would have to make a minimum of five sales on ASDA, Game, HMV and Play.

At the end of the month, if you have managed to complete this then you will be entered into a prize draw and the winner will be announced the first Friday after the month’s end.

To help you achieve this each merchant will run their own offers and incentives during their allocated month to help increase your ROI. These individual promotions will be communicated at the beginning of every month so keep your eyes peeled!

Christmas is a season to be jolly and to put the icing on the proverbial fruit cake buy.at are offering an even bigger prize that sits gleaming on the top like a star on the top of Christmas tree.

If you make ten sales on all 12 programmes you will be entered into a prize draw to win an unbelievable trip to the unique Ice Hotel in Sweden.

This is a Christmas incentive that is fatter than Santa, sharper than a wreath of holly and more sparkling than a tree of tinsel wrapped in fairy lights - only a Grinch would resist such festive temptation.

Kind regards,


St Nicholas Caulfield
Account Managers
buy.at
Nick.Caulfield@platform-a.com

[Nick Caulfield]

buy.at's Christmas Pudding - "Entertainment Month"



Serves: Everyone

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 1 month

Like it or hate it, the “figgy” pudding is a huge part of Christmas and because of this buy.at have pulled together their very own recipe to help you create the perfect Christmas Pudding.

Christmas is all about entertaining and there are no better entertainment ingredients than ASDA, HMV, Game and Play.

These four ingredients will be the core of our Christmas pudding and in order to get the best flavour you will need to make five sales on each of the programmes from 16th October to the 16th November to be in with a chance of winning a retro video arcade machine retro video arcade machine

The eagerly anticipated 12 Merchants of Christmas is now ready to start and, as any good chef knows, you should prepare your Christmas pudding a couple of months before Christmas day to allow the flavours to fully develop.

Each entertainment ingredient has added an additional incentive to help you cook up a rich Christmas pudding, so without further ado here are the bare necessities:

Ingredients

225g/8oz golden GAME x-box creative
225g/8oz fresh PLAY banners
340g/12oz ASDA Electricals
1 lemon, zest only
5 eggs, beaten
1 level tsp ground HMV content
pinch of salt
150ml/5fl oz brandy or rum

Method

1. Lightly grease the GAME x-box creative and generate as many X-box sales as you can in order to win an X-box 360 and three top selling games

2. The winner will be based on the highest percentage increase in X-box sales from September in comparison to the competition period – where affiliates have not generated an Xbox sale then a base rate will be calculated based on the programme’s average

3. Stir in the eggs and brandy and mix well

4. Spoon five ASDA Electrical sales and you will be entered into a prize draw for a Ferrari Thrill ride

5. Produce the most inventive and unique promotion for HMV and receive a selection of fantastic box sets. Once completed, steam for three hours

6. Sprinkle with icing sugar and take advantage of 75% off Play.com’s Christmas DVDs, Blue ray, Music and Games

7. Whilst cooling make sure you look out for the rest of the 12 Merchants with the Retail month kicking off on the 1st November

8. To serve: make five sales on each programme and be in with a chance of winning a spectacular arcade machine, make ten, and be in with a chance of jetting off to the unique Ice Hotel in Sweden, For more information on the competition please see the above post.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to get touch with any of the Account Managers at buy.at

Kind regards,


St Nicholas Caulfield
Account Manager
buy.at
Nick.Caulfield@platform-a.com
0191 241 6500

[Sammy Elazab]

Following on from St Nicks Post, as part of buy.at’s 12 merchants of Christmas, HMV is offering affiliates the chance to win the complete Friends boxset.

With Christmas round the corner its time to get creative!!!

To enter into this competition we are looking for affiliates to produce the most inventive and unique promotion for HMV. We will be monitoring the progress of your sites but if you feel that you have a real chance of winning this competition then please do not hesitate to drop me an email with the link to your HMV promotions.

Im looking forward to seeing what you guys can come up with

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks

[David McNiven]

I am delighted to give further details on the GAME incentive as part of the twelve merchants of Christmas on buy.at.

The affiliate who has the highest percentage increase in XBox 360 sales from September in comparison to the incentive period (October 16th - November 16th) will win this great prize. Where an affiliate has made no previous sales on XBox's, a base rate will be calculated so that everyone has an equal chance of winning.

Keep an eye out for further great prizes available in the next few days!

If you have any questions please let me know

David

[Sammy Elazab]

Hi all
Im delighted to announce ASDA particiaption in this months 12 Merchants of Chritmas incentive!

Any affiliate that makes up to 5 sales on ASDA electrical products will automatically be entered into a prize draw to win a fantastic Ferrari Thrill ride! For every 5 sales made, you will receive an extra entry into the prize draw.

Good luck promoting and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

[elineilag]

Play.com is the fourth and last merchant participating in the Entertainment section of buy.at’s 12 Merchants of Christmas and has a large amount of fantastic offers for you to take advantage of with up to 75% off selected products. There should therefore be no problems getting your 10 sales on the programme to qualify for getting in the draw for a stay at the Ice Hotel Sweden.

Some of the offers at Play.com include;<ul><li><a href="http://www.play.com/HOME/HOME/6-/Campaign.html?campaign=5791&cid=8385358">Price Crash – Save Up To 85%:</a> HUGE savings to be made across all ranges. CD, Books, Clothing and DVD ranges from £1.99. With other ranges starting at Gadgets from £0.99, Games from £4.99, Electronics from £3.99, Computers from £5.49 and Mobiles from £2.99.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/3-/4582/2-/Promo.html?dpr=4582">Christmas Stars – Save Up To 75%:</a> Massive collection of Film, TV, Gadgets and Clothing products with reductions not to be missed.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.play.com/HOME/HOME/6-/Campaign.html?campaign=5646&cid=8264101&dpr=0&cm_s p=Christmas-_-ComingXmas50pc-_-Right&dpr=0">Coming This Christmas - Save Up To 50%:</a> Lots of upcoming DVD’s, Blu-Ray, Music, Games, Books, Gadgets, Clothing and Exclusives at lowest prices.</li></ul>
For more fantastic offers you can have a look at the Play.com website by <a href="http://www.play.com">clicking here</a>.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any feedback regarding the Play.com programme or the amazing buy.at 12 Merchants of Christmas campaign.

Many thanks,

Eline Ilag
Account Manager
buy.at

[Nick Caulfield]

Welcome to November's Pimp my Christmas List.

Here is my man Joe Affiliate. Joe is 34 years old and desperate for buy.at to pimp his Christmas List.

Take a look at the sorry list of presents Joe's getting people for Christmas:



That’s a sorry sight! Now watch in awe as Joe’s presents get pimped by the 12 Merchants of Christmas - Retail Style!

Socks into a Trip to New York:



All we need to do to make Joe’s socks into a trip to New York is make five or more sales on all three of our featured merchants – La Senza, Littlewoods and Marks and Spencer’s..

We can pimp two pairs of stripy socks into a shopping trip to New York for two people, with spending money, for any affiliate on our Network. If you achieve five sales on our featured merchants you’ll be entered into a prize draw where the lucky winner will be jetting off to New York for a weekend of extravagant shopping.

Perfume into Free Lingerie:



This is a pimping the "big man" would be jealous of - water into wine was easy compared to this! We took a bottle of Joe's smelly and turned it into a year's supply of La Senza's Lingerie.

This is a phenomenal prize, anyone in their right mind would want to get their hands on this – I would even start wearing women’s underwear if I knew I had a year’s supply available to me

To do this all you will need to do is increase your sales by 25% in comparison to last month (October) and you’ll then receive entry into a prize draw to win free lingerie for a year. Exceed this by 50% and 75% and receive two further entries into the prize draw. The bigger your percentage uplift, the more entry’s you receive.

Hat ans Scarf into a Littlewood's Big Cat Encounter:



I like big cats and i cannot lie....

This is a truly unique experience for anybody! This Big Cat Encounter is not open to the general public and would be an amzing addition to anyone's Christmas List.

To be in with a chance of pimping this all you need to do is improve on your last month’s sales (October) by just one validated sale. This means for anyone not promoting the programme already, you need to just make one sale to be entered into the prize draw.

M&S Towel into a M&S Hamper Worth £500:



Christmas isn’t Christmas without a hamper from Marks and Spencer’s. This luxurious “Christmas Magnificence” hamper is two bonded leather trunks filled with a carefully chosen, mouth-watering array of our finest wines and spirits, exquisite treats and delicacies from all around the world.

The affiliate that has the largest percentage increase in November compared to October will be feasting on this incredible M&S hamper over Christmas.



Now thats how you pimp a Christmas List! There is no better place to pimp up your Christmas List this year than with buy.at. Forget your usual list of calendars. smellies, socks and ropey jumpers and pencil in a trip to New York, luxurious hampers, free lingerie for a year an a unique adventure day involving big cats.

Don’t forget there is still a chance to win amazing prizes on our Entertainment Month, which runs until 16th November 2008. For me details have a look here.

Let me know if you have any questions

Kind regards


NIck "C-Dog" Caulfield
Account Manager
buy.at
Nick.Caulfield@Platform-a.com

[Sarah Johnson]

As part of the 12 merchants of Christmas, M&S will be giving affiliates the chance to win a hamper…

Christmas isn’t Christmas without a hamper from Marks and Spencer’s and this is isn’t just any hamper – this is an M&S luxurious “Christmas Magnificence” hamper

It includes items such as Cocoa dusted Marc de Champagne truffles, Monnet Cognac VSOP and of course a Vintage Christmas pudding

This prize will go to the buy.at affiliate who has generated the largest percentage increase in November compared to October transactions – simple. So everyone on the programme is in with a chance to win. Get your links up now!

There is currently a 50% Clearance Sale live in womenswear, kidswear and lingerie until tomorrow evening

Key Christmas offers onsite include:

• 3 for 2 Shop

• Create Your Christmas

• Gift Cards

• Gifts for Everyone

• Hampers

• Stocking Fillers

• Technology

• Toys & Entertainment

Also from 4pm today customers need only to enter the code FREEDELV to get free delivery!

If you have any specific questions, please give me a shout

Thank you!

[elineilag]

Win a Year’s Supply of La Senza Lingerie!

La Senza and buy.at is giving you the chance to win the fabulous prize of a whole year’s supply of lingerie this month as part of the buy.at 12 Merchants of Christmas campaign.


How do I qualify?

All you need to do in order to qualify is to increase your sales by 25% in comparison to your sales in October. This will give you one entry into the prize draw. You can also receive additional entries by increasing the sales by further 25%, meaning that you will have a larger chance of winning if you really push your promotions of La Senza this month.


Affiliate Commissions

I would also like to remind you of the commission on the programme which is 10% - 14%, depending on your number of sales per month. This runs all year round, but the tiered structure can give you even a further bonus on your sales when you move up to a higher tier on the La Senza programme.


And there is more..

On top of this you can also win the trip to New York for two, which means that a push on the La Senza, Littlewoods and M&S programmes this November could be very rewarding indeed!


Good luck!!

Many thanks,

Eline Ilag
Account Manager
buy.at

[peterarmstrong]

Fantastic Big Cat Experience Courtesy Of Littlewoods This Christmas!

This Christmas, if you make just one incremental sale in November compared to October you will receive a ticket to win an incredible Big Cat Experience Day!

That’s right, when you are unwrapping your Christmas socks and falling asleep after your Turkey dinner you could be doing so knowing that you will be coming face to face with Lions, Tigers, Cheetahs and Leopards!

The more incremental sales you manage to achieve in November the more tickets you will get! As this is a truly unique experience, the best chance you have of winning is to use all the fantastic Christmas deals Littlewoods has to offer! Aside from being a huge brand, Littlewoods is also providing your customers with:

• 3 for 2 on all Toys and gifts!
• 3 for 2 on all fashion gifts
• A gift guide to take the stress out of shopping
• Fantastic savings for November
• 2 Years Interest Free Credit on selected goods

With such great offers, Littlewoods truly is the place for your customers to shop this Christmas. With an attractive commission of 8% and a great consumer offering it really is a great time to convince your customers to shop with us! If they do, the Big Cat Experience could be yours!

If you need anything else then please don't hesitate to get in contact with me on the details below!

Thanks,

Peter Armstrong

(0191) 222 9740

peter.armstrong@platform-a.com

[Nick Caulfield]

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, toys in every store, but the prettiest sight to see is the incentive that will be, in the month of December.

Imagine, if you would, the 12 Merchants as a Christmas tree; October’s “Entertainment” month was the tinsel round the branches, November’s “Retail” month was the baubles and fairy lights, now December is the final decoration - the star perched on the top – the last but brightest embellishment.

December marks the final month of buy.at’s 12 Merchants of Christmas and our five remaining merchants are:

• Carphone Warehouse
• O2
• Sky
• T-Mobile
• Virgin

So what can you win?

Our main prize this month is a fantastic Home Entertainment System with HD TV, DVD player and incredible surround sound speakers worth over £1000.

How do you win this?

All you need to do is make five validated sales or more on each of our five December merchants – Carphone, O2, Sky, T-Mobile and Virgin - to be entered into our grand prize draw at the end of the month.

To help you achieve this each merchant has added their own incentive with additional fantastic prizes for you to win. Keep reading to find out more…

Carphone Warehouse:

Carphone Warehouse is giving a buy.at affiliate the chance to win a Nokia Comes With Music handset by simply promoting it!

The affiliate who generates the most volume on this pay as you go phone can win one - simple!

We have creative and content available in the management area now. For further details contact sarah.johnson@platform-a.com.

O2

O2 is launching an exciting affiliate incentive for buy.at’s 12 Merchants of Christmas where you could win FREE Mobile Broadband for 18 Months.

All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning this is generate the most Mobile Broadband sales in December.

O2 has been performing extremely well over the past two months thanks to their improved consumer offers and competitive mobile broadband tariffs, so an affiliate incentive should be the icing on the cake for December.

There is new Mobile Broadband creative in your Management Area in either:

• Content & Creative > Graphic Links > O2 > Creative Type: Offer Banners > Creative Group: Mobile Broadband
• Content & Creative > Graphic Links > O2 > Creative Type: Flash Banners > Creative Group: Mobile Broadband

For details and information on the new tariffs and pricing please click here. For more details on the programme please contact nick.caulfield@platform-a.com

Sky

Sky is offering all affiliates the chance of winning - A designer Sky + HD box with Sky world for 12 months – which is worth nearly £1000

In order to be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is make at least 2 new Sky plus sales during December and you will be entered into a prize draw – for every additional sale you make past this you will receive an additional entry in the prize draw. The more sales you make the better chance you have of winning.

For more information on the Sky programme please contact Hayley.Nolan@platform-a.com

T-Mobile:

T-Mobile has got together a great list of their most competitive offers and estimated end dates, so you can maximise your promotion over the Christmas period.

• Combi 30 – Get FREE Web ‘n’ Walk when you sign up on Nokia 6650, Nokia 6300 and Samsung U800 – End date of 31st December
• Flext – FREE Web ‘n’ Walk on Flext 30, 35, 40,50 & 75 – End date of 31st January
• Solo – UNLIMITED texts on Solo 20, 25, 30 & 35 – End date of 31st January

If you would like any further assistance with your promotion of the T-Mobile programme please contact Rosalyn.Fenwick@Platform-A.com

Virgin Media:

Virgin Media is offering an affiliate the chance to win Broadband, TV and Phone free for a year!

To win this Virgin Media 3 for £30 package, all you have to do is make 2 sales on the Virgin Media programme in December. Each affiliate that achieves this will receive one entry into a prize draw - to be drawn in January.

To help you achieve this target, Virgin Media has some great customer offers on at the moment:

• £25 credit on your first bill when you get two cable products
• £50 credit on your first bill when you get three cable products
• V+ HD box for £5 a month when you take a phone line with free TV
• FREE V+ HD box when you take the XL TV package which also includes free Setanta Sports

We will keep you informed of any new offers Virgin Media releases throughout December to give you the best chance yet of getting into the prize draw.

If you would like any further information on Virgin please contact Mark.McQuillan@Platform-A.com

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______

December is set to be a cracking month and our biggest so far, to quote Vanessa Williams, “Just when I thought our chance had passed you go and save the best for last”.

If you have any questions please get in touch with me for the details below

Kind regards,


Nick Caulfield
Client Services Manager
buy.at
Nick.Caulfield@platform-a.com
0191 241 6500

[Joanna Halstead]

Hi Guys

Sales have been counted and everyone here would like to congratulate the winners of Octobers 12 Merchants of Christmas promotion!

The big winner of a retro video arcade game is Michael Green, who made sales across all of Octobers merchants - Games, HMV, Play.com and ASDA

And the individual winners of our merchant specific prizes have gone to:

• ASDA's winner of a Ferrari Thrill ride is Aldo Ciarrocchi of Scuw1
• Steve Debank of Britmovie has won a selection of HMV box sets
• The Game winner of an XBox and three complementary games has gone to Spear

Congratulations to all the winners above and thanks to everyone who promoted the incentives so well in October. There are still plenty of chances to win - our December Mobile and Broadband month has just launched where there is a HD entertainment system up for grabs!

Also, the overall 12 Merchants prize of a trip to the Ice Palace Hotel is Sweden is still running - make sure you are making sales across all of the 12 Merchants to be in with a chance of winning.

If you would like any further information about the December of Ice Palace promotion please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks

Joanna

Joanna Halstead
Account Manager
Platform-A's, buy.at

Joanna.Halstead@Platform-A.com

[aldo]

Great News!!
Thanks to everyone at Buy.at and ASDA for this great prize, I would also like to apologise to Ferrari in advance for the pathetic attempt I will make to drive one of their cars flat out on a race track,

Cheers guys

[plussize.co.uk]

Dear Nick.
Instead of giving us all a different promo, with a different offer that has to be uploaded each day, why not give us [a] an exact list of EVERY day's promo AT THE START, and [b] preferrably, a SINGLE, PERMANENTLY SELF-UPDATING, banner that we can use, which we can place and leave.
Both of these would be a temporary, stop-gap, solution until you get specific product-class, self-updating promo banners in place.
The truly desireable situation would be where we affiliates could get PRODUCT SPECIFIC promo banners, eg where I could get and place a banner which gave a different clothing/footwear promo every day, even if this was from several merchants.
Call me weird, but I as an affiliate with subject specific websites simply cannot see the point of promoting scented candles or flatscreen TVs to my viewers who arrive from search engines because they have been looking for large clothing.

[Sarah Johnson]

Hi There,

Really appreciate your feedback

I wondered whether you could PM me with your number or handle so we can have a chat?

My direct line is 0191 222 9744

Looking forward to hearing from you

cheers