Monday 30 June 2008
Possibly the coolest gadget of all time??
I read an article about this over the weekend, why did nobody think of doing this before?!
Google Affiliate Network
So a significant move today for Google with the rebranding of the Performics Affiliate operations as 'Google Affiliate Network'. It's not totally unexpected and certainly had seemed to be on the cards for a while, but what seems slightly surprising is that Google are associating themselves with that most dirty of phrases 'affiliate' - I would have thought they would have tried to differentiate the affiliate side of the branding or not used 'Google' as the main asset of the brand. It certainly is suprising to see the words 'Google' and 'Affiliate' sitting quite so comfortably on a logo!
In terms of what this means for the industry then no doubt many affiliates will think that this is the start of the slippery slope for their business models and the traditional network, affiliate and even agency models. I agree to a certain extent but think there is a big enough pie for all comers to have a slice. The obvious convergence plan for Google's technologies; Adsense, Adwords, Affiliate Network, CheckOut, Analytics and display activity with DoubleClick integration will benefit advertisers in the long run. The holy grail for nearly all online marketers is a ratifiable and comfortable 360 degree view of the customer, which channel / medium is contributing to the sale and in which order - back to the old queston of where is the money best spent? A burgeoning affiliate offering from Google that offers a merchant:
1) A new publisher base
2) A different approach to account management from the traditional networks
3) Cost and scale benefits with other Google products or beta projects
4) A 360 degree view of the customer through; organic search, paid search, CPM activity, content network and also CPA affiliate activity
5) 100% ratifiable stats from Google Analytics
Will be quite hard for most merchants not to at least consider. Ultimately the majority of online advertisers are still looking for more comfort about how they're splitting their spend. In many cases it will be good news for affiliates, with better stats around the true incremental value of affiliate activity then publishers might not be so readily cut out of the mix (or have commissions reduced) as they are at the moment - a theme explored by this rallying cry for affiliates to show their true worth in times of budget cuts.
It's an interesting and logical development but i'd be more worried if I was network side, how do you possibly compete with the Google full service arsenal? BTW Has anyone any thoughts on when this will be coming to the UK market?
In terms of what this means for the industry then no doubt many affiliates will think that this is the start of the slippery slope for their business models and the traditional network, affiliate and even agency models. I agree to a certain extent but think there is a big enough pie for all comers to have a slice. The obvious convergence plan for Google's technologies; Adsense, Adwords, Affiliate Network, CheckOut, Analytics and display activity with DoubleClick integration will benefit advertisers in the long run. The holy grail for nearly all online marketers is a ratifiable and comfortable 360 degree view of the customer, which channel / medium is contributing to the sale and in which order - back to the old queston of where is the money best spent? A burgeoning affiliate offering from Google that offers a merchant:
1) A new publisher base
2) A different approach to account management from the traditional networks
3) Cost and scale benefits with other Google products or beta projects
4) A 360 degree view of the customer through; organic search, paid search, CPM activity, content network and also CPA affiliate activity
5) 100% ratifiable stats from Google Analytics
Will be quite hard for most merchants not to at least consider. Ultimately the majority of online advertisers are still looking for more comfort about how they're splitting their spend. In many cases it will be good news for affiliates, with better stats around the true incremental value of affiliate activity then publishers might not be so readily cut out of the mix (or have commissions reduced) as they are at the moment - a theme explored by this rallying cry for affiliates to show their true worth in times of budget cuts.
It's an interesting and logical development but i'd be more worried if I was network side, how do you possibly compete with the Google full service arsenal? BTW Has anyone any thoughts on when this will be coming to the UK market?
The power of the internet in a sentence (or two)...
I've heard many lengthy jottings and articles about what the essence of the internet actually is, but I think John Battelle has hit the nail on the head:
"...the web is not organized top down. It's organized bottoms up. Distribution is not something you use to push shit AT people, it's something that happens when people organize TOWARD something. That's the whole point of the web, ain't it?"
Succinct and to the point...
"...the web is not organized top down. It's organized bottoms up. Distribution is not something you use to push shit AT people, it's something that happens when people organize TOWARD something. That's the whole point of the web, ain't it?"
Succinct and to the point...
Sunday 29 June 2008
Taking data 'import' to a whole new level
An interesting piece discussed on the Freakonomics blog over the past couple of days regarding ImportGenius. This new site collects and displays the contents of all the import and export containers shipped into our out of the US.
A very very powerful set of data to look at industry trends, competitor movements and a tool that investors will be looking at more and more to gague company buoyancy if they are export or import dominated.
A very very powerful set of data to look at industry trends, competitor movements and a tool that investors will be looking at more and more to gague company buoyancy if they are export or import dominated.
Monday 23 June 2008
The Wisdom of Crowds
I've just finished reading The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, a book that combined a number of my interests, namely social development, fresh business thinking, the stock market and behavioural economics. The basic premise of the book is suggested by the title - the fact that the best decisions are made by 'wise' crowds rather than one person, groups that are diverse in opinion, depolarised and have independent decentralised constituents make better decisions.
One of the bits that stuck out for me was around the IEM, something i've heard about before but never really taken an interest in. In short it's a future's market set up for academic research that focuses on the US Presidential Elections and various other smaller markets. It allow users to invest up to $500 in buying shares in the next US President. The IEM embodies the core of Surowiecki's premise; that a non-pressured group who are not saturated with the same potentially biased information can weigh up their own experiences, opinions and views of the problem (Who is more likely to win the Presidential election?) and make a judgement call on the value of that position within this market. The sum of all this individually held information is then collectively expressed in the snapshot of the price for each candidate ($0.62 for Obama & $0.39 for McCain at the time of writing).
There are many other interesting bits and pieces within the book but in terms of application to business it makes the point that businesses that pay lip service to decentralisation and the usefulness of local knowledge don't really benefit from it. A decentralised business structure that enables a flow of appropriate information from top to bottom should be crowned by a board that isn't run by an autocrat but one that really takes on board the views of others and allows dissenting voices. Nothing too revolutionary there you may think - people listening to other people is always good, that's true, but then ponder on the value that businesses now put on chasing the superhero CEO who can do it all? Why do they renumerate Chief Execs so well as if they hold all the answers whilst embarking on what can be an arduous series of feedback loops? Surowiecki's argument is that often listening to other views goes hand in hand with the process of encouraging consensus to a prescribed view anyway and that the whole pitch of the listening process is basically designed to reinforce the original view.
So in short let's not be too gloomy about what a group of people can do, the aggregation of knowledge nearly always outperforms the single smartest member.
One of the bits that stuck out for me was around the IEM, something i've heard about before but never really taken an interest in. In short it's a future's market set up for academic research that focuses on the US Presidential Elections and various other smaller markets. It allow users to invest up to $500 in buying shares in the next US President. The IEM embodies the core of Surowiecki's premise; that a non-pressured group who are not saturated with the same potentially biased information can weigh up their own experiences, opinions and views of the problem (Who is more likely to win the Presidential election?) and make a judgement call on the value of that position within this market. The sum of all this individually held information is then collectively expressed in the snapshot of the price for each candidate ($0.62 for Obama & $0.39 for McCain at the time of writing).
There are many other interesting bits and pieces within the book but in terms of application to business it makes the point that businesses that pay lip service to decentralisation and the usefulness of local knowledge don't really benefit from it. A decentralised business structure that enables a flow of appropriate information from top to bottom should be crowned by a board that isn't run by an autocrat but one that really takes on board the views of others and allows dissenting voices. Nothing too revolutionary there you may think - people listening to other people is always good, that's true, but then ponder on the value that businesses now put on chasing the superhero CEO who can do it all? Why do they renumerate Chief Execs so well as if they hold all the answers whilst embarking on what can be an arduous series of feedback loops? Surowiecki's argument is that often listening to other views goes hand in hand with the process of encouraging consensus to a prescribed view anyway and that the whole pitch of the listening process is basically designed to reinforce the original view.
So in short let's not be too gloomy about what a group of people can do, the aggregation of knowledge nearly always outperforms the single smartest member.
I decided to start a blog
I have a pretty interesting job, not very interesting and nothing to get too excited about if you're not in online marketing but it's pretty interesting. I also like to think that i'm quite a rounded chap with a view on many things in the world, so why not start a blog with no explicit ambition other than to give my views and thoughts an airing?
In terms of the interesting job then I manage the website Holidays Uncovered one of the UK's leading holiday review websites. I also manage the affiliate programme and online partnerships for Thomson and a whole host of other TUI Travel PLC websites such as Portland Holidays and Simply Travel. It's obviously very important to stress that any opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not at all affiliated to TUI Travel PLC. I plan to give a relatively frequent view on what is going on in the affiliate marketing arena, online marketing more generally (apparently something called 'search' is quite popular these days), social networking trends & views and also the travel industry so i'm sure i'll never be short of a subject or two.
Outside of work, online marketing and social network sites my hobbies (and no doubt future topics I will write about) are US Politics, football (Coventry City imparticular), reading and also running.
So feel free to question, prod, criticise and ask for clarification on anything I write in this blog, enjoy!
In terms of the interesting job then I manage the website Holidays Uncovered one of the UK's leading holiday review websites. I also manage the affiliate programme and online partnerships for Thomson and a whole host of other TUI Travel PLC websites such as Portland Holidays and Simply Travel. It's obviously very important to stress that any opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not at all affiliated to TUI Travel PLC. I plan to give a relatively frequent view on what is going on in the affiliate marketing arena, online marketing more generally (apparently something called 'search' is quite popular these days), social networking trends & views and also the travel industry so i'm sure i'll never be short of a subject or two.
Outside of work, online marketing and social network sites my hobbies (and no doubt future topics I will write about) are US Politics, football (Coventry City imparticular), reading and also running.
So feel free to question, prod, criticise and ask for clarification on anything I write in this blog, enjoy!
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