20% off 1000's items one day only at M&S

**sara@wheel** · 10-11-04

Marks & Spencer's are running a one day only 20% off thousands of products. All product lines are included, and the offer is only running tomorrow - 11th November.

The promotion is being lead with Press and TV advertising, as well as being available in store. This is a great opportunity for Affiliates to ride on the back of this offline campaign.

Feel free to put this message live tonight and not taking it down until Friday morning, however is using text to communicate this message, please include 'November 11th only'

**drivetowin** · 10-11-04

Sarah

Just like my email last night in another forum - thanks for the lack of notice.

M&S didnt just dream this up overnight - it must have been planned for a little while - I can tell by the quality of the direct emailshot I just received about it which was the first I heard of it - so why not tell us in advance - even this morning would have been better than now.

When will merchants (with some notable exceptions like ASOS, Buyagift etc) stop treating affiliates like muppets but instead look on us as trusted business partners and give us notice of special promotions like this.

As it happens I was planning to send a newsletter this afternoon but will now not be sending it until first thing 2moro so can include your offer but if I'd sent it out a couple of hours ago as planned I would be feeling well miffed - and M&S could well have lost out on hundreds or even thousands of pounds worth of sales..

**renegade** · 10-11-04

... but thanks for letting us know ahead of time.

There have been many times I've seen a promo on TV or on site which I had no idea was live.

**jess1** · 10-11-04

In defence of Sarah, it could be that she is the last to know... having met the online marketing Manager for M&S several years ago I am still shocked they even got a website together, let alone an affiliate program. This is a huge learning curve for M&S, and whilst most of us are speeding up the M1 World of e-commerse on our Ducati's, M&S are still in their sinclair C5.... and having to take the bus lane, but they are gathering pace and in time we will see them swap over to a skoda!

**simon147** · 10-11-04

... but at such poor commission rates and compared to their competitors. Websites shouldn't really be promoting this at all.

**drivetowin** · 10-11-04

Jess

I wasnt having a go at Sarah directly - I dont want to shoot the messenger - but I would like her to pass the feelings back to M&S

**Mogga** · 10-11-04

We have had this before with lots of merchants.

Sometimes they have said they don't want to announce exact plans to us because their competitors can get the jump.

Maybe a way round this for merchants is to notify us in advance of their intention to notify us... a sort of warning without specifying anything?

They could send a message out a week or more in advance saying that on the 11th there will be something happening... or that this is the date their new campaign is planned to start... ?
Every little helps.

**mrb1970** · 10-11-04

It is a typical big company attitude......

.....remember small is beautiful....

.....until they become big ;-)

**sara@wheel** · 11-11-04

Hi guys,

Really sorry you weren't told about this promotion earlier, we do understand that the more information you have, the easier it will be to work together, and in normal circumstances, with online campaigns, we'll give you good notice of events like this.

However, as this was a cross-media & all-store promotion , it had to be kept confidential for business reasons across all media, not just online, as we were not allowed to release any information. On the up-side, the promotion has huge support from TV and radio, and so we're expecting a lot of people to be visiting the site today.

We'll be in touch over the next couple of days to let you know of any new promotions and creative.

Thanks,

Sara.