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How to embrace 2014's all-new

Marketing Channels

October 2014

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Contents

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Introduction

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Introduction

Affiliate Marketing has changed

A simple commission-based, outsourced sales channel has become

• An ideal test environment and hotbed of innovation

But also….

• An established market dominated by a few top players

What does this mean for publishers and advertisers?

This presentation will take you on a journey through the evolving

landscape of affiliate marketing channels and try to answer some

of these questions.

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Affiliate Marketing perspective

The ‘sandbox’ for new approaches

• Term borrowed from IT security: a

restricted environment for testing

unverified code

• The ideal incubator platform

• Lets advertisers try new marketing

approaches until proven and ready to

scale up

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Affiliate Marketing perspective

Dominance of the big brands

• The rise of the Affiliate Brand

• Household names with big ad budgets

• Generate the most sales and revenue

Customers are buying your products… but are they

buying your brand?

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Top challenges facing industry in 2015

• Reliance on ‘the last click’ for commission and reward

– Customer journeys not linear

– Growing role as influencer

– Challenge of attribution

• Reliance on the Affiliate Brand

• Reliance on Business As Usual for sales and revenue –

loyalty, vouchers and discounts

• Reliance on traffic from a small number of players

Where is the innovation coming from?

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New sand in the sandbox

investing in innovation

Social commerce

• Benefits include:

– Measurable value

– Significant traffic volume

– Increases repeat purchases

– Enhance customer loyalty

• Examples include:

Hyperlocal

• Benefits include:

– Localised messaging

– Interest based prospecting

– High conversion

– Value exchange

• Examples include:

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New sand in the sandbox

investing in innovation

In-store activity

• Benefits include:

– Measurable value

– In-store up-sell

– Stock management

– Localised activity

• Examples include:

Programmatic buying

• Benefits include:

– Pre-, re- and post-targeting

– Dynamic adverts

– Scalable

– Immediate

• Examples include:

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New sand in the sandbox

investing in innovation

On-site conversion

• Benefits include:

– Increased conversion

– Increase engagement

– Customisation

– Targeting

• Examples include:

Search retargeting

• Benefits include:

– New Customer Acquisition

– Targeted

– Dynamic adverts

– Scalable

• Examples include:

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New sand in the sandbox

investing in innovation

Video networks

• Benefits include:

– Guaranteed engagement

– Creative

– Social

– Mobile

• Examples include:

Native advertising

• Benefits include:

– Traffic

– Engaged audience

– Collaboration

– Education

• Examples include:

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How can innovative publishers in these fields make

their voice heard?

How can advertisers invest in innovation?

Some top tips for success

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Top tips for publishers

• Find yourself a ‘mentor’ and learn from your peers

• Develop a ‘media pack’ – think of it as the CV for your ideas

• Communicate effectively

• Turn the tables: think of the network as your outsourced

commission-only sales people – and make sure they have the

tools they need

• Create a compelling pitch

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Top tips for publishers

• Do the maths: understand the potential ROI you offer:

– Predicted audience x potential CTR x Advertisers

OSC x Advertisers AOV = Revenue potential

– Revenue potential/total cost = ROI

• Remember: everyone likes cool stuff

– Advertisers may like business as usual, but they also

want to innovate and win awards!

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Top tips for advertisers

• Give your affiliates everything they need to be creative

– Product feeds

– Social space

• Be responsive

• Always be thinking of - and open to - new ways of reaching potential customers

• Test new ideas

– Its not a mistake to fail – but try to fail fast

– Learn from every experience

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Top tips for advertisers

• Challenge your network to focus on affiliates that

deliver the mid and long tail

• Invest in innovation

– Any budget you can set aside will reap immense

benefits

• Issue RFPs to publishers to inspire creative thinking

– Seasonal campaigns

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What we do to foster innovation:

The Zoo Project

• Started in 2012 – now in 3rd phase

• Incubator for entrepreneurial publishers with great ideas

• Dragons’ Den-style selection process

• Office infrastructure provided

• Business and affiliate mentors

• Access to clients

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LUX FIX

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Who is LUX FIX?

LUX FIX unites the UK’s best independent designers in

one easy-to-shop website

What makes LUX FIX unique?

• Exclusivity

• Expertise

• Affordability

• Age Appropriateness

The challenge: To build our fledgling business and

reach the right audience

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Who is our customer?

Our aim is to become the first destination for 30–65 year

old, AB demographic women looking for an alternative to

mass-market brands

Where does this customer get her fashion inspiration?

• Fashion magazines

• Fashion websites

• Personal recommendations

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Using performance to find her

We have a permanent home on the

Telegraph Fashion’s homepage that leads

to a co-branded version of the site

Relationships with

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The Zoo effect

We wanted to find the right mentor and support system to grow our business

• Technology

– Tradedoubler allowed us to plug into robust, well financed tech and also get

advice straight from the brains that built it

• The network

– Once we had established our audience, we used Tradedoubler's connections to

help us access them via publishers - from best practice in showing our product

to negotiating terms

• The human network

– The Zoo brought us together with other start-ups

– Opportunities to share knowledge and swap skills.

– From media coverage to the developer who built our first responsive site

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How can you get involved?

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Interested in joining the Zoo?

• The next round of our incubator programme gets underway in 2015

• We encourage and welcome all applications

• If you have a good idea and we can help to make it happen - please get in touch today!

http://bit.ly/TradedoublerZooProject

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If you remember nothing else…

• Publishers

1. Build a wish list of your ideal clients

2. Get in front of them

3. Sell them the figures

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until complete

• Advertisers

1. Be flexible

2. Encourage innovation

3. Complement business-as-usual with cool stuff and awards

4. Get an innovation budget – and spend it