What a fantastic couple of days it has been at the London A4U Expo. It genuinely does seem that each year gets better, with the usual faces and fresh new faces in abundance. The event must be one of the best networking events in the UK. We are usually such a reticent bunch – comparing US (where power networking is the norm) events to UK ones just highlights to me how bad we tend to be at chatting to people we don’t know. None of that has ever been in evidence at the A4U Expo’s though – where the atmosphere is always very welcoming and relaxed.

That said – the first thing I saw when I ascended up the escalator on the first morning was a short, menacing squirrel. Scary, really scary. The picture is blurry because my hands were literally shaking with fear!

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Every so often we allow people to leave the CJ offices for important events and client meetings etc. A few weeks ago we allowed Roger, Cheryl and Tom out to go to the Argos Supplier Summit which was held at Wembley. They were joined by a few publishers and Argos’ other digital suppliers.

The event was a chance to discuss Argos’ website and promotional activities across all digital channels and to look at how that integrates with offline promotions.They discussed what they were seeing in terms of trends and then planned on how to capitalise on these trends. These events are key to Argos’ multi-channel success which was, in case you forgot, one of the two awards that they picked up at the A4U awards earlier this year.

The event also provided Roger with an opportunity to hold the FA Cup. He was very happy – look!

We are also allowing people out for the A4U Expo next week. We are sponsors and will be at all networking events as well as manning stand 20. We hope that you will be allowed out to join us – see you there!

It only seems like a blink of an eyelid has gone by since I was preparing Commission Junction for the first ever A4U Expo. Unbelievably though, this is now the 3rd year that the Expo has been running and, once again, Commission Junction has secured ourselves a sponsorship slot at the event. We will be there on stand 20 so come along to say hi.

As well as just exhibiting at the event we will also be speaking. Along with FusePump and TUI we will be talking  in a session called ‘Feeds can do WHAT?’. This is an overview of how feeds can be crucial to the success of an affiliate marketing programme. It is at 12 midday on the Tuesday so do try to pop along if you can – we have been working with the FusePump guys on some really interesting innovations.

Commission Junction and FusePump recently joined forces to develop advanced feed solutions. You can read about it here. In addition, FusePump have deveworked with TUI to develop an AdCreator tool which you can read more about here.

We hope to see lots of you there.

Hannah blogged a few weeks ago about the fact the CJ sponsored the Sway. For those of you who don’t know, this is an event which is organised by the Skimlinks crew and is a meet up for anyone interested in blogging as a business and making money from social media. I attended the event with Florian and also spoke.

Hannah made me include this

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12 of the biggest networks have got together to host a summer bbq for affiliates, advertisers and agencies. It is taking place on the 29th July and we would like to invite you to attend. The only stipulation is that it is only two people per company as there are space limitations.

For more details and to register to attend please click here. Not sure who is going from CJ just yet but would be great to see lots of you there,

Daniel wrote a while ago about the importance of the IAB’s Affiliate Marketing Council to help regulate and drive best practices within the industry (see here).

The IAB is running a seminar on Affiliate Marketing on Wednesday 24th June at its offices near Holborn in London. The event is a quick look into affiliate marketing – an introduction by Matt Bailey (AMC Chair) covers what the industry is doing to standardise and self regulate. This is followed by two short case studies, one of which is with Daniel Powel from CJ and Lina Patel from lastminute.com who recently won the best use of affiliate marketing within the travel&leisure categories.

Daniel and Lina are also speaking as part of a panel which closes the event. Questions for the panel are submitted beforehand to dan@iabuk.net.

Full details of the agenda can be found on the IAB site here

Claire from existem sent around the promotional buttons for a4u award winners yesterday which acted as a reminder that I had not yet blogged about it. So I will  take this opportunity to congratulate:

• Argos - who won in both categories they entered; the retail award and best use of affiliate marketing as part of an integrated campaign
• lastminute.com who won in the travel and leisure category. Fingers crossed that they also win at the NMA awards in a couple of weeks. Lina will also be presenting this at the IAB affiliate marketing seminar on the 24th of June. I will blog about that shortly
• Payday who were shortlisted in the Finance section
• Hildegunn who was shortlisted as Publisher’s Choice of Account Manager

Congratulations must also go to all of the other winners, advertisers, affiliates and agencies alike.

I was actually at the awards, kindly invited by Payday UK  which is a rare treat for a marketing person in this industry (boo sob). The event was great  – loads of people, lots and lots of CJers from over the years who have gone on to do great things at networks, agencies and affiliate companies. A bit of a family reunion.

I did attempt to take photos to show you all and whilst I would never claim to be the best photographer in the world I can usually do a bit better than a blurred shot of the floor which is what my camera is now full of. I toyed with uploading a photo to show you how very poor they were but then I felt this would diminish the outstanding success of the award winners and shortlisted companies. So I am not going to!

Well done everyone. Thanks A4U. Over

The CJ UK team and our clients have been sprinkled with award dust. Let me tell you all about them:

You already know that the exceptionally talented Hildegunn has been nominated for the Publisher’s Choice of Account manager award at the A4U awards.  What you don’t know is that we have have worked with our clients and are shortlisted for more:

• Payday UK for the finance vertical
• lastminute.com for the travel vertical
• Argos for TWO awards -  the retail vertical and for the best use of affiliate marketing as part of an integrated campaign.

In addition – lastminute.com with CJ have been shortlisted for an NMA Award: “Championing affiliates for lastminute.com”

It is very exciting. Congratulations to all. Fingers crossed……:-) See you at the A4U Awards.

Calling all affiliates…

Matt Bailey at i-level is running a new initiative - the ‘i-level Affiliate Surgeries’. These are open to all affiliates – you don’t need to have worked with i-level to get a place.

The first session is about SEO and Content and will be held on May 26th from 5 – 7pm at i-level’s offices in Oxford Circus. It will be run by Matt Bailey and also joining him will be Judith Lewis, i-level’s Search Director.

All details can be found here. If you want to attend you need to email matt.bailey@i-level.com. Only 30 spots up for grabs so get in early. Happy learning

I am very pleased and proud to announce that Hildegunn has been shortlisted in the Publisher’s Choice of Account Manager category in the A4U Awards. Whilst I think all of our Account Management team are completely worthy of the award it is great to see Hildegunn’s achievements recognised by the wider industry.

Here she is…..

So….all affiliates out there…..log in to your A4U account and vote for Hildegunn – I implore you