Affiliate Marketing is All Wet
By SHAWN COLLINS
It was
early May 2003, shortly after the last Affiliate Force
conference, that I was chatting with Ryan Phelan and Missy
Ward. The three of us liked the idea of an affiliate
marketing conference at sea for a million reasons, but we
weren’t finding what we wanted in the existing shows.
Collectively, we thought earlier attempts at bringing
affiliate marketers together on a cruise ship hadn’t
fulfilled us, because there was too much emphasis on playing
around, and not enough on business. This was chasing away
lots of prospective attendees, notably the big brands.
So we had
this grand idea of doing it ourselves. Instead of sailing
out of Miami, where many marketers didn’t have any business
to be done, we’d do it from NYC. That way, a large share of
the industry wouldn’t have to fly, and the rest could surely
find some good meetings to manufacture before boarding the
boat.
Not to mention we’d
get a rigorous, top shelf agenda together. It would feature
leaders in not only affiliate marketing, but also search and
email. The attendees would have more networking
opportunities than they’d know what to do with. That’s where
Affiliate Summit 2004 came from.
The
Brands Don’t Take Cruises
As we
began formulating our plans, I had a chat with marketing
conference guru, Marc Lesnick. Marc is constantly running
conferences across all sorts of categories around the world,
so I figured he’s the guy to ask about conference stuff.
Marc was
very supportive of the new face of affiliate marketing
conferences, but he didn’t think a cruise was the way to go.
I argued that the cruise is so much more cost effective (pay
one price for the room, food and conference) and the
atmosphere was conducive to doing business (we were all each
other’s captive audience).
Marc told
me that while that was great, and perhaps even true, the
brands wouldn’t show. The bosses wouldn’t sign off on a
boondoggle. The incremental logistics for setting up a
cruise conference, combined with the need to collect all of
the money well in advance of the sail date, made a show on a
ship a risky venture.
Marc made
all of the sense in the world. But my partners and I have
varying amounts of stubborn Irish in us, so we decided to
soldier on.
Setting Up the Sail
In the
summer of 2003, the plans were coming together for Affiliate
Summit 2004, but it was still a long way off. Enter Marc again with
some timely advice. He put me in touch with some folks at
Baruch College in NYC, who were willing to strike a deal to
provide us with a venue for a fall event. The idea there was
to establish ourselves as a serious bunch, and sell the
marketing community on our product – a serious, useful
affiliate marketing show.
Affiliate
Summit 2003 was born. It was to coincide with Ad-Tech in
NYC, and it would have a killer line-up and bargain basement
price point (just $75 for an all day event, including
lunch). We pulled it off and had the momentum and street
credibility that we’d wanted.
The next
step was to build up a four day event that offered a heaping
serving of networking and education.
Bringing It All Together
The
speakers for Affiliate Summit 2004 were undeniably the
cornerstone of the conference. We wanted to bring along top
minds from affiliate, email, and search marketing, to cement
our promises to the community that we were serious about
creating the anti-boondoggle.
The evil
genius plan was to book top talent and sail north (to
Halifax, Nova Scotia), so the attendees would have two good
reasons to sit in on the sessions (interesting content and
lousy, non-Caribbean weather). It worked out nicely – a bit
too much so, as it was standing room only for most speakers.
Search
engines and the convergence with affiliate marketing were
covered in detail, with some fascinating data to back it all
up, by both Fredrick Marckini and Kevin Lee.
E-mail
and the effect of CAN-SPAM on affiliate programs was handled
by the likes of crackerjack lawyer, Gary Kibel, email
lightning rod, Scott Richter, Jim Mansfield from Vayan, and
David Delisle of WebBloom.
Spyware
aficionado, Wayne Porter and Gary Kibel educated/opened the
eyes of the crowd on the differences and perils of adware,
spyware, etc. The Affiliate Summit 2003 keynote, Declan
Dunn, returned and dazzled the crowd with his talk on the
importance of creating a circle of networking buddies.
There
were presentations by representatives from networks
(Commission Junction, LinkShare, MYAP, and Performics) as well as a
wide array of companies including American Consumer Opinion, Audible,
Backcountry.com, Blair.com, Chexx Inc.,
collectiblestoday.com, The New York Times Store,
PartnerCentric, Shoedini.com, and Shoes.com.
And Gary
Kibel returned for a solo turn in a gripping presentation
that touched on all of the legal issues that play a part in
affiliate marketing.
Jeff
Molander, Bryan Rhodes, and Peter Figueredo took on
moderator duties for panels, and kept the crowd engaged with
their lines of questions and artful segues.
The emcee
who pulled it all together was Corey Newhouse from FreeRide.
While some of his material bordered on Love Boat meets the
Catskills (circa. 1963), he kept the crowd in stitches, and
moved things along nicely.
In
addition to the education sessions, we incorporated some
networking events that were tested, to hugely popular
feedback, at Affiliate Summit 2003. We ran a speed
networking session, which was a modified version of speed
dating.
Also, we
ran a Roundtable Rotation, where six experts moderated
tables on various topics. These sessions lasted 10-15
minutes, and then attendees were urged to switch to a
different topic for a chance to meet new people and learn
new information.
Plus,
there was lots of informal networking to be had at events
thrown by Shareasale (NYC) and Kowabunga (Halifax), group
dinners, as well as nightly gatherings on the upper deck of
the ship (and early mornings around the piano, played
fantastically by Brian Littleton of Shareasale, or so I
heard).
The
Boat People
While the
Carnival Victory provided a unique environment for spending
extended periods of time with the conference group, the ship
as a venue had deficiencies.
While the
room we were in, the Ionian Room, was aesthetically pleasing
in a cheese ball cruise kind of way, one of the
idiosyncrasies/annoyances was the fact that they had columns
throughout the room. It was one part aggravating
obstruction, and one part Wrigley Field-esque charm.
And who
will ever fail to think of Britney Spears when they see
Peter Chun and Dan Pfeffer of LinkShare? That’s because the
room above us happened to be the disco, and even though it
was mid-morning, they were in full swing with a kiddie
event, which apparently required playing the first five
seconds of “Oops, I Did It, Again” over and over. (Sorry
guys!).
Then
there were the people on the boat. In addition to the
Affiliate Summit group, there was something like 2,500
others enjoying the same cruise. And despite the signs
outside the meeting room imploring people to be quiet and
steer clear of the conference that was in session, there
were constant dawdlers making their way through the room.
Some even
decided to have a seat and watch the presentations for a
spell. I’ll never forget the baffled looks on the faces of
Affiliate Summit delegates when they ended up with some
kid’s Grandma during speed networking.
There
were distractions, for sure, but thankfully the speakers
took it all in stride and played off the occasional wacky
episodes. Kudos to them.
Sailing Back into the Port
By most
accounts, the attendees really enjoyed the experience of
being on the ship (Carnival Victory) for a conference. But
don’t take my word for it, hear it from them.
“Very
well organized, and a very interesting group of speakers and
presenters. The cruise was convenient (NY departure and
during a weekend), affordable, and served its purpose of
keeping the attendees in close contact throughout the
event.”
-
Gary Kibel,
Davis & Gilbert LLP Attorney
“Great
networking, excellent speakers and topics.”
-
Cynthia Thomas,
QuickBooks
“It was
great! Exceeded my expectations. Great content, high-quality
people, and a lot of fun.”
-
Beth Kirsch,
Audible
“I wanted
to thank you three for such a great conference. It was my
first as I am new to this space and I learned a great deal
about both Affiliate and Search marketing, and met so many
great people.”
- Rachel Lazar, RealNetworks
“Most of
the sessions were very high caliber; I learned a lot and
enjoyed the event tremendously.”
–
Linda Woods,
PartnerCentric
“A very
good conference overall. Well organized. I liked that the
ship kept everyone in close proximity and enabled some
late-night networking that would otherwise not have
happened. The affiliate marketing community is relatively
tight knit and this event has created or improved any number
of relationships.”
- Brook Schaaf, Shoes.com
“I
thought the conference was a great opportunity to meet new
people as well as put faces to names.”
- Jaime Meyers, Intermark Media
The
Future of Affiliates on the High Seas
While a
good half or so of the attendees were gung ho for another
cruise conference, according to the feedback surveys we’ve
received, an equal share of the crowd found that the “cruise
line sucked” and that the conference facilities were
“horrible,” “unacceptable,” “lacking,” “terrible,” and
“distracting.”
It seems
the slow Internet connections, seasickness, walk through
traffic, pricey phone calls, ice sculptures, Britney Spears
music, and being at sea for days are a nightmare for a large
bunch of folks.
At this
point, with a slew of attendees vehemently opposed to cruise
conferences, we’ve got to think twice about hitting the high
seas, again. The shows in the big cities or at a somewhat
secluded resort seem to be the preferred venues of the
future.
While
there were lots of logistics to juggle in order to get a crowd to
board the ship, the roster of companies was healthy (the
show was sold out) and there was a nice balance of small,
midsize and monster brands, in attendance. So the concept
works.
What’s
next? Is another cruise out of the question? Well, never say
never. ;-)
Take a
look at the
Affiliate Summit photos.
