Octopus Travel are part of the Kuoni group under the management of Kuoni Destination Management (KDM) with more than 4,800 employees globally and a turnover of approximately $3bn per annum.

Having been active in the affiliate marketing industry for numerous years primarily in the UK, Octopus Travel decided to expand the channel internationally, launching their initial affiliate programs in UK, Italy, Spain, USA, Germany and Sweden, to leverage on the opportunities available. Plans are in place to launch affiliate programs in additional countries to further increase the exposure for Octopus Travel.

Webgains was chosen as Octopus Travel’s exclusive network partner having proven their capabilities, coupled with international reach that offered Octopus Travel the ideal opportunity to consolidate all of their activity into a single, world class platform via a fully managed global programme.

Octopus Travel has released details on the new tools soon to be integrated into the programs. These tools include data feed and API connections, banner carousels, as well as in-banner search widgets, allowing affiliates to maximise the earning potential of their inventory.

Vijay Bhagani, Affiliate Marketing Manager at Octopus Travel, comments, ‘We chose Webgains after a review of a number of networks. Webgains exceeded our expectations in putting together an account management package which met our requirements on a viable commercial model. Having a senior account management contact in the UK, a flexible development team, access to international markets from a single platform and support from the Webgains marketing team really excited us. We aim to work very closely with Webgains over the coming months to tailor our affiliate program that would assist our affiliate base to promote us effectively.’

Robert Glasgow, Managing Director of Webgains, said, ‘We are very proud to have Octopus Travel on the Webgains network. Octopus Travel provides a valuable service to consumers and their enthusiasm and dedication to delivering this service through the affiliate channel is very exciting indeed. The Webgains team is focused on doing all that we can to assist Octopus Travel with delivering against all of their objectives.’

“Webgains is uniquely positioned to provide iStock with immediate access to new customers through our localized expertise across our US and European platforms,” said Ryan Gilbert, managing director of Webgains USA. “Moreover, we’ve put enough resources behind this program to provide iStock affiliates with a model that facilitates long-term success.”

“Webgains has the perfect combination of international reach and sound infrastructure to give us confidence that they will effectively be able grow and manage the program simultaneously,” said Blair de Jong, affiliate marketing manager for iStockphoto. “Webgains has multi-lingual account management teams in every country, which allows us to communicate more effectively with our affiliate partners around the globe.”

To learn more about the iStockphoto Affiliate Program, visit: www.istockphoto.com/help/about-us/affiliates

To join the iStockphoto Affiliate Program at Webgains visit: www.webgains.com/signup.html?programid=5387

iStock at A4U London
iStockphoto, alongside Getty Images and ThinkStock, will be attending the upcoming A4U Expo London 2011 from October 18 – 19, 2011 in London, England. Potential affiliates can arrange an appointment with iStock representatives at the show by emailing affiliates@iStockphoto.com

About iStockphoto
iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of vetted, royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash® files. Using the most advanced search in the business, customers download a file every second from a collection of more than nine million files for business, marketing and personal projects. iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography business model, and has become one of the most successful and profitable user-generated content sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out more than $1.9 million weekly in artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images.

About Webgains
Founded in 2005, Webgains is one of the leading international affiliate marketing networks, providing a highly effective combination of user-friendly technology and world-class client account management. With fully-localized platforms in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Ireland and the USA, Webgains is the fastest growing affiliate network, facilitating trans-national transactions for the benefit of both affiliates and advertisers. Webgains is part of ad pepper media International N.V, the global online marketing specialist.

iStockphoto

Blair de Jong
Affiliate Marketing Manager
Tel#: +001 403-398-6872
Email: affiliates@istockphoto.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/iStockAffiliate

Webgains

Ryan Gilbert
Director Webgains, USA
Tel#: 212-391-7316
Email: info@webgains.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/webgainsusa

It’s interesting – though not unexpected – to see large brands like Virgin Atlantic, exploring multichannel attribution as a viable means of evaluating and rewarding the different marketing streams.

While the current model ‘last-click-wins’ is a somewhat crude model, it’s the best we have so far. It also has the advantage of simplicity – it’s easy to execute and everyone knows where they stand.

The major stumbling block to the successful adoption of multichannel attribution for affiliates will be the fixed costs associated with many forms of marketing. Whether utilised directly or indirectly, many forms of marketing employed by affiliates such as paid search, display or email, incur upfront costs regardless of results. The current remuneration model at least allows affiliates to calculate approximate revenue as a result of these activities and set their maximum spend thresholds to ensure a profit.

An attribution model would increase the difficulty of calculating these thresholds (and the resulting breakeven points) as affiliates will not know at what stage in the attribution process their efforts have been deemed to have added value, nor how much of the ‘pot’ they will be awarded. Naturally, this leads to uncertainty over projected earnings and a need to safeguard against over-expenditure.

This could lead to affiliates calculating breakeven points at minimum attribution levels. And ironically, this would mean merchants receivingless promotion from their affiliate partners as a result of implementing multichannel attribution – which, by its very nature, is designed to increase promotion.

Andrew Copeland is Client Services Manager at international affiliate network Webgains. He has 5 years of affiliate marketing experience and has worked with Mazuma, Envirofone, Toshiba and Barclays.

A few years ago, impression cookies were commonplace: many a sale was tracked as a result of customers ‘viewing’ ads and publishers were rewarded for the sale. This resulted in abuse by some members of the affiliate community and ultimately, impression cookies were essentially outlawed in the UK.

Fast forward to present day and once again impression cookies are a major topic of discussion within the affiliate community. This is largely as a result of behavioural retargeting companies entering the UK affiliate marketing space, and introducing a method of promoting advertisers which relies on impression sales.

Without going into too much detail, behavioural retargeting (BRT) is a digital marketing method of recording when customers view products on a site but don’t transact. Those customers are then served advertising from that particular advertiser, while surfing the net, in the hopes of convincing them to return and complete a transaction.

It is clear that unlike traditional affiliate marketing, BRT cannot refer newtraffic to an advertiser. Rather, BRT is concerned with increasing the return conversion rate of traffic that the advertiser has already received. So why the need for impression cookies?

BRT companies buy inventory on a CPM basis. They incur costs regardless of whether the customer returns to transact. Additionally, the customer has already visited the advertiser and reviewed the product/s. This increases the chances of the customer returning to the advertiserdirectly rather than clicking through the ad. As a result, BRT runs a much higher risk of their activities remaining untracked, and therefore unpaid, if restricted to the last-click-wins model. Enter the impression cookie. Now BRT companies can be rewarded for their part in enticing the consumer to return.

Luckily, the current concerns surrounding impression cookies have been mitigated thanks to some sterling work by the IAB and IAB AMC in setting industry rules around cookie hierarchy. The rules are very clear in that a click cookie ‘weighs’ more, and lasts longer, than an impression cookie.

It is the combination of BRT and cookie hierarchy which is helping to benefit other publishers on an advertiser’s campaign. All publisher traffic has a natural level of drop off, those consumers who click but don’t transact. Previously, this had to be accepted by publishers as they had little or no access to the consumers after they had clicked through to the advertiser.

Now though, publishers know that there is a BRT company actively targeting that traffic if the consumers don’t convert. Thanks to the cookie hierarchy, the existing click cookie on the consumers computer means that if a customer is enticed back through viewing BRT ads, the original publisher is awarded the commission as the BRT impression can’t overwrite it.

It is for this reason that we’re seeing conversion rates increase for traditional publishers on campaigns where the advertiser has employed BRT. The conversations surrounding impression cookies are a little less heated this time around as traditional publishers begin to see that they can finally benefit from impressions, even if they aren’t the ones serving the ads.

Andrew Copeland is Client Services Manager at international affiliate network, Webgains. With over 7 years of experience in digital partnerships, 5 of which have been dedicated to affiliate marketing, he has worked with some of the world’s most recognised brands including Toshiba, Barclays, Chevrolet, Renault and Vodafone. Andrew is a seasoned public speaker having spoken at the IAB Digital SME Seminar, the 2011 Online Marketing Show and the Online Marketing and Affiliate Expo 2011.

Affiliate recruitment is arguably the most important part of an effective affiliate programme. It is also the most challenging, particularly in the current climate.

E-consultancy’s 2010 Affiliate Buyers Guide reports that the UK affiliate market grew by 12% from 2009 to 2010 alone, a positive sign for the industry as a whole. But individual merchants are faced with more competition, bringing with it more noise.

Standing out becomes essential so we’ve pulled together our top creative tips to help merchants find the right affiliates, communicate in the right way and build great relationships with them.

Finding the right affiliates
The most straightforward approach to affiliate recruitment is to choose the most searched-for keywords that relate to your product/service. Simply type them into Google and one other major search engine, and approach the affiliates that appear on the first two pages.

The downside is this can be very time consuming.

Software applications can automate the process and help you find prospective affiliates that either (a) already work with competing affiliate programmes, or (b) run websites that target the traffic you are after.

Free tools that are available are Internet Success Spider and the most obvious, the Google link tool. For bigger budgets, Hitwise and Syntrix, which claims over 1.6 million contacts, are worth considering.

One useful innovation is a tool that categorizes affiliates based on technology that can ‘understand’ what web pages are about. A good example is Webgains’ SiteSeeker, which allows relevant content publishers to be found with one quick search.

Saying the right thing (in the right way)
Email is the cornerstone of communication with busy affiliates but the cardinal mistake a lot of merchants make is adding too much information to email copy, which affiliates (who get thousands of emails) do not want to wade though.

Make the email clear, concise and attractive to read. If you are doing the obvious – HTML, catchy subject line, original design, timely,personalisedand relevant concise copy – and you are not getting results, what else could you do to get your message out there?

Consider different channels and pick the right time of day to use them, e.g. Facebook, Linkedin, affiliate blogs and forums, Twitter, Affiliate Directories, Youtube and SlideShare. Share your views, ask for advice, contribute and become part of the community that you are looking to recruit within.

What about the substance of your communication? Make your offer as original and exclusive as possible. For example a marked down TV is a surefire win for price comparison affiliates.

To recruit attractive and larger affiliates offer them something exclusive. Orange, for example, has offered affiliates Go Mobile, an exclusive SIM card deal. They are subsequently seeing an increase in non-contract leads and an increase in traffic within its site’s contract section.

Creativity is also about flexibility and ingenuity – can you spot a demand and respond to it? For example, the GardenCentre.co.uk noticed its affiliates were promoting a product range it did not stock. It promptly stocked the range and recruited some new affiliates.

Next, see if your commission structure is attractive. Having the ability to customize commissions for particular affiliates is more beneficial than a ‘one size fits all’ solution and merchants can be creative with their offer over time if they keep something in the bank from the outset. Not only can short term commission increases help recruit new affiliates, but they can help activate existing affiliates as well.

Don’t stop there: Consider creative incentives schemes as well.

For example gift experience website Treatme.net rewarded affiliates for (a) the most revenue (b) the most sales (c) the best newcomer and (d) the most improved. The programme saw a 20%+ increase in uptake. An incentive of this type creates a level playing field for both super and smaller affiliates alike.

Another idea is to create an interactive, on brand and imaginative incentive, e.g. Sainsbury’s Virtual Supermarket Sweep.

Affiliate marketing is well established and there are several events in the calendar like the a4uAwards, the a4uExpos, Network Sponsored Parties, IAB workshops, E-consultancy and NMA roundtables. These offer great sponsorship and branding opportunities for merchants looking to recruit new affiliates. Why not consider some event or guerilla marketing that will help you stand-out there?

An example of this is gonedigging.co.uk which sponsored candid photos at the a4uAwards and gave away 250 spoof newspapers to attendees who sent in their photos.

Other powerful and under-used traditional channels are snail mail, telephone, direct mail, PR and corporate hospitality For example, my-wardrobe invited top affiliates and prospects to London Fashion Weekend in September 2010 for some VIP pampering and catwalk shows.

In summary, to find the right affiliates, think laterally. Make use of the latest technology and your network’s knowledge and capabilities. Then do your research to get the offer right and pick the appropriate communication channels, treating your relationships with affiliates as a two way exchange.

Underpin this activity with dedicated investment: again your network should be able to help you build an internal ROI case for an annual affiliate recruitment budget, with spread sheets, case studies and forecasting plans.

And don’t just take our word for it. Ian Gregory, Head of Digital Marketing at Viking Direct had this to say: “Creativity and commitment in affiliate recruitment has really paid off for us. We’ve become fully engaged with the top affiliates in our space who listen to what we’re offering because we’ve taken the time to understand their needs. The results speak for themselves!”

Andrew Copeland is Client Services Manager at international affiliate network Webgains. He has 5 years of affiliate marketing experience and has worked with Mazuma, Envirofone, Toshiba and Barclays.