Following the success of our last visit, Affiliate Window were once again invited to the ‘graduation’ of Young Ambassadors for The Prince’s Trust. Following a two-day public speaking course with Alastair Brunker from Speakers Trust, the session concluded their training by offering each young person the opportunity to practice their skills in front of an audience by sharing their story of how The Trust had made an impact on their lives.

In what was both an emotional and uplifting hour, we heard from 15 very different individuals who had all benefited from The Trust in some way. Many had participated in a 12-week challenge programme where they had developed team building and leadership skills, as well as growing in confidence and self-belief. Others had utilised The Trust for vocational training as a stepping stone to getting back into employment or education. The diverse group came from all walks of life, but had universally decided to seize the opportunities offered to them, to better themselves and their situation.

One participant had fought personal battles bought on by bullying at school; through her work with The Trust she was placed on an internship with Starbucks, where she had impressed management there so much they offered her a full time paid position. Another young man had taken a vocational course following a prison sentence and was now working full time at a respected law firm, which enabled him to regain his self-respect and provide a stable environment for his partner and their young daughter. The message we heard over and over was ‘The Prince’s Trust has changed my life’, with many crediting the charity with saving them from a downward spiral of self-destruction.

The continuing work of The Prince’s Trust is vital to so many young people across the UK and this year we hope to raise over £5,000 to support their work. If you can make a donation, no matter how small, you will be changing lives – as we have witnessed firsthand. Alternatively, sponsor one of the Affiliate Window and buy.at staff who are participating in this year’s British 10K Run, or keep an eye on our recently re-launched charity eBay store.

ClickBank is excited to announce and invite you to the first ever ClickBank Exchange! The ClickBank Exchange is an Internet marketing conference that will take place on August 19th-20th at the Crowne Plaza Times Square in New York, NY. Our event will be action packed, with two days of high level educational content and networking opportunities.

An amazing collection of speakers and panelists has been assembled to teach you the strategies and shortcuts to building your digital empire. We’ve gathered a mix of industry leaders and under-the-radar marketing “ninjas” to share the specific tricks, as well as the business philosophies, that have helped them dominate the Internet marketing industry. Here are some of the many topics we’ll be covering at the Exchange:

• Keynote panel: How to build your Internet marketing empire
• The latest SEO tips & tricks from the CEO of SEOMoz
• The secrets of killer copywriting that really converts
• How to drive massive amounts of free, qualified traffic through Facebook
• How to be a marketing rockstar and get raving fans
• And much more!

In this day and a half of inside information guests will get real time cash creation secrets from the top Internet marketing millionaires that ClickBank has assembled. The speaker line-up includes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Yanik Silver
• Joe Polish
• Chris Farrell
• Rand Fishkin
• Ryan Lee
• Marc Ostrofsky
• Jeff Siegel
• Mike Hill
• Joe Sugarman

And the list doesn’t end there! Discover the full lineup here.

ClickBank Exchange attendees are sure to learn more money-making techniques at this event than at any other event this year.

Click here for more information and to register today!

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Tips to Becoming a Successful Internet Marketer
2. ClickBank Giving Away 5 Gold Passes to Affiliate Summit East!
3. ClickBank Connects with its Network at Affiliate Summit West

Yesterday, Devonshire Terrace played host to Affiliate Window and buy.at’s first home and garden sector event, Al Fresco. A range of advertisers within the vertical attended for a summer BBQ and an afternoon full of networking opportunities with key publishers. Even the downpours in the afternoon could not dampen enthusiasms, as conversations continued indoors and undercover.

Each advertiser set up shop with two representatives from their performance marketing teams, to meet and greet with relevant publishers through an informal channel. With the continued emergence of advertisers and publishers within the home and garden sector, network hosted, vertical specific events are fundamental in developing long-standing and valuable business relationships. It was the perfect setting for both parties to showcase their affiliate activity, discuss tactical campaigns and propose opportunities for future programme growth.

As with all Digital Window events, a charity raffle was staged in aid of The Princes Trust, our sponsored charity, whose tireless work supports disadvantaged youths throughout the UK. There were a variety of themed prizes generously donated from advertisers, many thanks to all those who kindly contributed items for the raffle. In addition, the team at Flying Brands and Dealtastic provided an iPad which was picked up for the fantastic price of £270 in our charity auction. In total, £395 was raised for the Trust.

Photos from Al Fresco can be found on our Facebook page. If you attended the event and would like to provide feedback, please take five minutes to complete our short survey, we’d love to hear from you.

Yesterday, Devonshire Terrace played host to Affiliate Window and buy.at’s first home and garden sector event, Al Fresco. A range of advertisers within the vertical attended for a summer BBQ and an afternoon full of networking opportunities with key publishers. Even the downpours in the afternoon could not dampen enthusiasms, as conversations continued indoors and undercover.

Each advertiser set up shop with two representatives from their performance marketing teams, to meet and greet with relevant publishers through an informal channel. With the continued emergence of advertisers and publishers within the home and garden sector, network hosted, vertical specific events are fundamental in developing long-standing and valuable business relationships. It was the perfect setting for both parties to showcase their affiliate activity, discuss tactical campaigns and propose opportunities for future programme growth.

As with all Digital Window events, a charity raffle was staged in aid of The Princes Trust, our sponsored charity, whose tireless work supports disadvantaged youths throughout the UK. There were a variety of themed prizes generously donated from advertisers, many thanks to all those who kindly contributed items for the raffle. In addition, the team at Flying Brands and Dealtastic provided an iPad which was picked up for the fantastic price of £270 in our charity auction. In total, £395 was raised for the Trust.

Photos from Al Fresco can be found on our Facebook page. If you attended the event and would like to provide feedback, please take five minutes to complete our short survey, we’d love to hear from you.

Last week saw the 7th annual European A4U expo event, hosted for the 2nd consecutive year at the Hilton Hotel in Munich. This year, 800 delegates from across the globe came together for a jam packed two days consisting of thought-provoking conference sessions covering the latest industry topics, a bustling exhibition hall with a number of brands represented, and for the first time, expert roundtables and speed networking events.

Europe’s leading performance advertising network, zanox was a platinum sponsor of the expo. With their exhibitor stand in a prime location, they displayed a strong brand presence and capitalised on the networking opportunities available.

Michael Hartwig, Chief Marketing Officer for zanox comments: “Attendance at the a4u is ‘mission critical’ for the zanox team as there is still a strong demand for information regarding the performance channel. The need for networking at the Expo is crucial; with a large number of relevant people from within the industry all under one roof, it is the ideal place to start conversations.

For zanox, the event was a huge success. Through five valuable contributions on panels and live talks, we underlined our market knowledge and leading position. The feedback we received from the audience was extremely positive and we are already engaged in discussions with potential business partners as to how we can apply our learning’s to their business.”

Digital Window’s Strategy Director, Kevin Edwards and Client Strategist, Owen Hewitson joined the 69 other guest speakers taking to the stage to present a network perspective on key topics within the channel. Day One kicked off with a joint panel session from Affiliate Window & buy.at, Top10.com, and Debenhams discussing Performance Marketing and the World Beyond.

The presentation examined how online spend continues to grow exponentially on a global scale, with an estimated 42% increase within the next three years. The UK affiliate market alone has seen a significant uplift of over 50% growth in the last three years. The session continued by looking beyond the basic online model to the up-and-coming innovations such as telephone tracking, mobile purchasing, offline voucher redemption and multi-channel promotions. Several case studies were presented which proved the value of these concepts, including Debenhams’ multichannel campaign examining how affiliates can drive offline sales through vouchers. The results were astounding – affiliates accounted for 43% of sales during the duration of the campaign; 57% in-store and 43% online. The full presentation can be found here.

Owen Hewitson’s session, Before, After and Around the Click: Publishers as a Branding Force and a Sales Force, delved into the evolution of the performance channel, where affiliates have become brands in their own right, changing relationships with advertisers to become affinity partnerships which are brand-to-brand. According to the latest Hitwise list of the top 100 retail sites in the UK, many companies listed are publishers as well as advertisers. Additionally, affiliates have achieved brand recognition through multiple specialties which has resulted in the blurring of promotional boundaries, representing and introducing new branding opportunities. Owen’s presentation in its entirety can be found here.

Matt Wood, Founder of Affiliates4U says: “The A4U Expo continues to innovate, push boundaries and create a real international platform to celebrate the success of the performance marketing industry while helping to shape its future. This year saw the largest international audience from across the world ever seen before. It’s events of this nature that introduce fresh ideas, strengthen existing relationships, and create new contacts that will help meet business and personal objectives for attendees.”

On Day Two, the audience was captivated with keynote speaker Rory Sutherland who captured the perfect images of the state of the online industry with his witty and entertaining analogies. Through use of practical examples which were easily relatable, Rory demonstrated how performance marketing can play a key driver in the changing of consumer behaviour. ‘People’s perception of exclusivity affects the understanding of its value, proving that value is entirely subjective.’

To view photos from the Expo please visit the Affiliate Window facebook page. Video recordings of the Digital Window speaker sessions are available on the Affiliate Window YouTube and Vimeo pages.

For press enquiries, please contact:
Lisa Chaikin
PR Manager – UK & US
Affiliate Window & buy.at
e: lisa.chaikin@digitalwindow.com
t: 020 7553 0333

On Thursday 5^th May, a few affiliates and I had the pleasure of taking a sneaky peak at the fabulous Phase Eight Autumn/Winter collection.

Naturally, the morning began with coffee, and then we were given a quick overview of the collections from the lovely Reena Rai, Phase Eight’s Online Marketing Manager. Account Executive Marine, and our very own Partnerships Fashion Executive, Colleen, were also in attendance to see some stunning pieces.

The new collection incorporates a wider range of shoes, accessories and coats. We all fell in love with a stunning blue maxi dress, a key piece in any woman’s wardrobe! Moving back in time to the 70s, the collection also featured bold prints, floppy hats and knee high boots.

Then on to the glitz and glamour of evening wear and a little bit of pampering (manicure anyone?)!

Thanks to Phase Eight for a wonderful morning! It looks like the next few months will be exciting times for the brand and their programme.

You can see more pictures from the day here and on our own facebook page.

Find out more about the Phase Eight programme and sign-up here.

Post by:
Jeannine Martel
Team Leader, Account Development
jeannine.martel@affiliatewindow.com

Last week, Clarks hosted their very first Affiliate Day, along with Affiliate Window. As the first event of its kind, the aim of the day was to explain the Clarks brand in more detail to some key affiliate partners, as well as offering an exciting insight into what’s in store for the brand over the coming months.

Affiliates were invited to join Clarks and Affiliate Window to start the day off at Gordon Ramsay’s York and Albany restaurant for some morning refreshments of tea, coffee and biscuits, before heading on to the Clarks Press Day for around 10.30am.

The Press Day itself took place at 33 Portland Place, which is incidentally where the award winning ‘The Kings Speech’ was filmed. It was an amazing venue and a perfect match for the Clarks brand and new Autumn/Winter ‘11 collection. Inspiration for the collection is themed around the British heritage of the Clarks brand, which was founded in 1825 in Street, Somerset, where they are still based. Even the event goody bag was filled with local Somerset products, including some of my favourite things – cider and cheese!

After the Press Day it was back to the York and Albany where Jules, Gayle, Miranda and Rosie from Clarks gave an insightful presentation about the Clarks brand, from its history (who knew David Beckham was once a Clarks model?!) through to future plans. Affiliates were also given a more detailed overview of digital and advertising plans for the coming months.

Following the presentation we all tucked in to a pretty fancy three course lunch. Being a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, we expected some good food at the York and Albany and we weren’t disappointed. For starters we had choices of confit salmon or ravioli of confit guinea fowl leg, followed by Gloucester old spot pork belly or fillet of sea bream. There was even the option of blue cheese ice-cream for desert, which some people were tempted by but I’m not sure if they were convinced.

All in all a hugely successful and fun-filled day! I wish to thank all the guests who were able to come along and make the event such a success, and we would also like to say a big thank you to Clarks for putting on such a wonderful day.

Katy Armitage
Agency Team Leader
Affiliate Window
katy.armitage@affiliatewindow.com

Last week, Clarks hosted their very first Affiliate Day, along with Affiliate Window. As the first event of its kind, the aim of the day was to explain the Clarks brand in more detail to some key affiliate partners, as well as offering an exciting insight into what’s in store for the brand over the coming months.

Affiliates were invited to join Clarks and Affiliate Window to start the day off at Gordon Ramsay’s York and Albany restaurant for some morning refreshments of tea, coffee and biscuits, before heading on to the Clarks Press Day for around 10.30am.

The Press Day itself took place at 33 Portland Place, which is incidentally where the award winning ‘The Kings Speech’ was filmed. It was an amazing venue and a perfect match for the Clarks brand and new Autumn/Winter ‘11 collection. Inspiration for the collection is themed around the British heritage of the Clarks brand, which was founded in 1825 in Street, Somerset, where they are still based. Even the event goody bag was filled with local Somerset products, including some of my favourite things – cider and cheese!

After the Press Day it was back to the York and Albany where Jules, Gayle, Miranda and Rosie from Clarks gave an insightful presentation about the Clarks brand, from its history (who knew David Beckham was once a Clarks model?!) through to future plans. Affiliates were also given a more detailed overview of digital and advertising plans for the coming months.

Following the presentation we all tucked in to a pretty fancy three course lunch. Being a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, we expected some good food at the York and Albany and we weren’t disappointed. For starters we had choices of confit salmon or ravioli of confit guinea fowl leg, followed by Gloucester old spot pork belly or fillet of sea bream. There was even the option of blue cheese ice-cream for desert, which some people were tempted by but I’m not sure if they were convinced.

All in all a hugely successful and fun-filled day! I wish to thank all the guests who were able to come along and make the event such a success, and we would also like to say a big thank you to Clarks for putting on such a wonderful day.

Katy Armitage
Agency Team Leader
Affiliate Window
katy.armitage@affiliatewindow.com

Inspire 2011 certainly lived up to its name, not only by motivating advertisers to actively engage with a new set of innovative technologies, but also by sparking much debate about the startling size, clout and potential of the digital advertising landscape.

Each guest speaker’s presentation was a rich source of captivating statistics and facts. So much so that the Twitter hash tag for the event (#Inspire2011) was buzzing with delegates sharing insightful little morsels.

Turn out on the day was also impressive, with over 250 digital marketers present! Even if you weren’t able to attend, we want to give you the lowdown on what we learned. We’ve scoured guest speaker presentations and social media chatter surrounding the event to bring you a collection of stats that may surprise and inspire you as well.

For a bit of Friday fun and education: Did you know…

-  Around 80% of affiliate sales only involve interaction with a single affiliate.

-  Humorous video campaigns can really work to promote brand as well as going viral in their own right. Old Spice’s “the man your man could smell like” campaign received 1 billion impressions across various social channels but also increased traffic to the brand website by 300%.

-  Social media influencers have real selling power. After Stephen Fry’s one single tweet in praise of David Eagleman’s book Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, sales increased by 6000% and the book rose from number 3,629 in the Amazon book chart to number 2.

-  An average Amazon product page features a whopping 90% social tools and only 10% product information.

-  ComScore found a 0.07% click-through rate in the UK for static image, flash and rich media format display ads. Most people online never click on a display advert; in fact 3% of browsers are responsible for 64% the clicks.

-  ComScore found that heavy clickers of display advertising are not necessarily representative of the online audience. In fact, despite low click conversion, use of display advertising is still influential, as it can increase trademark search queries by 94% and site visitation by 72%.

-  Digital Animal quoted research that showed that only 33% of all users online trust online banners. More than 90% of these users trust the online recommendation of their friends. 70% even trust the online recommendation of strangers.

-  Almost 60% of the UK online population uses Facebook regularly.

-  In the UK, Facebook receives more traffic than Google.

-  TBG place 2 billion adverts on Facebook per day, covering 65 markets.

-  Facebook advertising can generate a 500% better conversion rate when the landing page stays within Facebook.
Retail and travel adverts are the most difficult to convert from Facebook advertising because of their longer sales process.

-  66% of online transactions are abandoned due to price-comparisons, website difficulties, payment issues and add-on or hidden costs such as postage.

-  22% of consumers who abandon their cart (the largest %) do so because of hidden fees or high costs – leaving a big opportunity to remarket to them with discounts soon after the “sale”.

-  15-20% of abandoned records can be converted to sale.

-  Personalised retargeting (based on site behaviour) is becoming a standard and vital practice, making “2011 the year for early adopters”.

-  myThings found that personalised retargeting led to 80% incremental traffic increase for merchants on the Affiliate Window network. They also achieved up to 500% uplift in return conversion rate.

-  When retargeting with display ads, myThings suggest that the best practice is to cap personalised ad impressions and ensure a browser is un-tagged after purchase to avoid over-exposure.

-  Ve Interactive has achieved 10% uplift in conversion from a generic remarketing email but another four times that conversion rate when using a bespoke email featuring a time-limited discount.

-  Coupons/vouchers are more popular with mobile internet users than check-ins. JiWire found coupons to be the second most valuable benefit of location-based applications (second only to GPS/Maps and appearing above reviews, status updates, checking-in etc.)

-  According to VouChaCha’s current projections, in 2014 there will be 300 million mobile coupon users.

-  VouChaCha also say that near field communication (NFR) for mobile devises is not that far off – there are already retailers using this technology.

***********************************************************

Thank you to everyone who highlighted points by engaging with us on twitter. You can see the presentations that were delivered on the day via the links below. If you have any questions about the information above or Inspire, please contact us at communications@digitalwindow.com.

Making sense of new technologies | Affiliate Window & buy.at | Kevin Edwards, Owen Hewitson

Social Media Display | TBG | Lee Griffin

Email Remarketing | Ve Interactive | | David J Brown, Mark Hargreaves

Behavioural Retargeting | myThings, comScore | Benny Arbel, Mike Shaw

Social Media Audience Engagement | digitalanimal, fandistribution | Oliver Huggins

Yesterday afternoon my colleague Michelle and I had the privilege of attending The Prince’s Trust and L’Oréal Paris Celebrate Success Awards. This annual event aims to recognise and celebrate young people who have changed their lives with the help of The Trust.

The high profile event was hosted by Kimberley Walsh and Steve Jones, with red carpet coverage from Konnie Huq, entertainment from VV Brown and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales sat centre-stage for the ceremony. Many of the trust’s celebrity ambassadors were also there to present the winners with their trophy’s, including Cheryl Cole, Christine Bleakley, Gareth Southgate and Naomi Harris.

But Martina Milburn, Chief Executive of The Prince’s Trust, talked about the real stars of the show; “We see the value young people can bring to their communities, the economy and the people around them – if given the right support. We are here to recognise those individuals who have overcome significant barriers to achieve outstanding success. Despite facing challenges such as unemployment, homelessness and addiction, these young people have battled against the odds to turn their lives around.”

Accolades awarded on the day focused on the entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated by the young people who engage with The Trust and ranged from ‘Educational Achiever of the Year’ to the ‘Community Impact Award’. Eddie Afekafe was named as the ‘Young Ambassador of the Year’ and the title of ‘Young Achiever of the Year’ went to Katey England, both of whom are from the North West. The full list of winners can be found on The Prince’s Trust website.

To close the celebrations, The Prince of Wales himself addressed the room in a warm and friendly manner, speaking of his pride at both the work of The Trust and of the thousands of young people it helps each year. He also highlighted the growth plans for The Trust across the next twelve months, namely their merger with Fairbridge, which takes place on the 1st April this year. With the network of centres that this unison provides, and the increase in funds available, their aim is to deliver a more joined-up, wide-ranging service for an increased number of disadvantaged young people.

It was a real treat to be at such a prestigious event; to rub shoulders with royalty and people from off the telly! But more than that, it served as a fantastic reminder of why we continue to support the work of The Trust and enabled us to see first-hand what impact our fundraising has in the real world. To support our latest charitable venture, get behind the Affiliate Window and buy.at runners who are participating in the British 10K Run this summer; our enthusiastic team are hoping to raise £1,000 before the starter pistol fires, so please give generously.

Samantha Surry
Head of Communications