CJ has renewed IAB membership

Commission Junction has just signed up for another year’s membership of the IAB. In fact, the contract spans all of the UK businesses meaning that, amongst other things, we retain our membership of IASH (of which Richard Sharp the MD of ValueClick Media is the current chair) and, crucially for CJ, the Affiliate Marketing Council (AMC). I wanted to talk a little bit about why we felt, despite tightening budgets across the industry, it was so important to continue to invest in the IAB.

The gathering together of affiliates, agencies, networks and merchants is old hand for the AMC. Although the faces around the table have changed over the years, the organisations represented have remained consistent. Through these collaborative efforts, excellent work such as the IAB Affiliate Marketing handbook has been delivered to a wider marketplace that does not always understand affiliates and their place in the online mix. The AMC has also allowed all its members and guests a voice in discussing issues. Such an open door policy allows discussed topics to flow freely back to the marketplace.

As any stakeholder in affiliate marketing knows well, the landscape is a quickly evolving one and requires not only nimble technology, but also nimble best practices. As a network we well know how working at the forefront of a fast-moving sector can provide challenges to match opportunities. Although there is a great overlap in network policy towards certain traffic models, there has rarely been a consensus on how to approach challlenges facing the industry – there can be winners and losers from any changes so agreement is difficult.

Against this backdrop, it became clear by  the middle of 2008 to the AMC that the proliferation of voucher sites and the myriad of ways in which these sites promoted merchants presented a tough question for the networks in the council. These sites drive revenue but are they completely right for the customer? Are they right for other affiliates? And are the merchants being displayed in the best light?

So we get to today, three months since the rollout of the AMC’s voucher code best practise guidelines which has been largely successful.  Across the participating networks, 24 out of 25 publishers who were warned are now compliant. The code, crafted by all parties in an open forum is a step forward for the industry. It represents a commitment from the member networks to put short-term revenue gains aside and think on behalf of the industry.

Whilst it was not a seamless process-the first time out with this sort of corroperation rarely comes off without a hitch-the AMC has a developed policy for the marketplace should be the first step in a consensus-building process.  The goal is have a more mainstream affiliate channel that is respected by its participants and coveted by media buyers. Having Matt Bailey as chairman will give us an objective viewpoint and help in concensus building. 

For all these reasons we feel that we are almost duty-bound to invest both time and money in the IAB and the AMC. If anyone wants any more information please drop me a line at admin@cjblog.co.uk.