Following on from this post here are what I see as the stand out events on day 2.
Day 2 9.30
Clearly I’ll be intrigued as to what Auke Boersma of Affilinet has to say about the role of media agencies in affiliate marketing. This is something I have strong views on, as you would expect, so it will be interesting to see if my experiences are matched by what’s going on over on the continent.
Also the session from Alain Heureux of IAB Europe should be a good one. We often get told that consumer behaviour in Europe is different to that in the UK so it should be good to hear what the IAB have to say on the matter and where there may be opportunities.
Day 2 – 11am
Ethics in Affiliate Marketing. This should be a lively one and I’d hope to find out if people think there are any. The industry still seems to be tarred with a bad brush and I spend a lot of time trying to overcome that. Whilst affiliates will always be at the cutting edge, should we be tightening down on what goes on a little bit more than we do now?
Day 2 – 12.30
One of the sessions that I’m most looking forward to is Managing Your Start Up. Whilst I’m not familiar with Felix or Thomas, I know Shak and Dr Steve and am really excited about what they have to say. I expect this to be an inspiring session so recommend it to any budding entrepreneurs.
It’s a shame that this clashes with Kev and J Lil’s cashback session which will be great too. Any merchants in any doubt as to how they should be using cashback and reward sites to maximum effect should go and listen to two people that really know what they’re talking about.
Day 2 – 3pm
Judith Lewis from i-level speaks again and attempts to explain the enigma that is the Google quality score. Good luck with that one J Lew!!
The stand out presentation at this time looks to be Ewan’s on the need for Transparency. Obviously Ewan comes from an agency point of view like me and this is something that I bang on about quite a bit. If we are to establish affiliate marketing as an integral part of the online mix then we need to increase professionalism within the market.
There’s no longer any room for affiliates driving traffic blindly and expecting merchants to cough up when sales occur. It has to be a partnership, which means that affiliates shouldn’t feel threatened that merchants are going to steal their ideas and merchants should be able to know what affiliates are doing.
Then it’s out to celebrate Queen’s Day in Amsterdam, which Alicia Navarro claims is the wildest party she’s ever attended, and she’s had a night out with me and Matt Wood, so it must be good.
