Rob Berrisford.com

Kevin Edwards has been in the industry for a while now, he was my mentor when I first started working at dgm and would wrongly claim he taught me everything I know. Kevin is head of the affiliate channel at Awin and is very well respected in the industry, he is never shy about voicing an honest opinion so this made for quite an interesting interview.

Hello mate, do you want to take us through how you got into affiliate marketing and your experience so far?

Back in 2002 I was working in the London office of US search engine LookSmart. As well as onther online channels LookSmart derived revenue from the affiliate channel and was actually one of the biggest affiliates in the UK, so I had my first exposure to the range of affiliate networks that existed at that time. Following the decision to close the UK office I had a number of options including a job offer from dgm in the account management team so I headed up to Kentish Town for nearly three years working through the ranks. I ended up sitting somewhere between account management and sales as well as helping newer members of staff to find their feet in the affiliate world.

When I was looking to move on Affiliate Window offered me a fantastic opportunity I couldn’t refuse, that was in October 2006 and I’ve been lucky enough to be part of probably 2007’s biggest network success story. Although I feel a bit decrepit, having worked in affiliate marketing for a whole four years, there’s still loads to do and Affiliate Window has a number of exciting projects for 2008 that should hopefully keep us at the forefront of the industry.

How have you seen Affiliate marketing change in that time?

I guess it’s obvious but there have been several key changes. The whole PPC space was completely unregulated; absolute free for all with certain people getting very rich for doing very little. There were far fewer networks and staff at those networks so a very small elite of people held the knowledge for the whole industry. I look back and cringe at how unprofessional some of the practices were but I guess that’s inevitable for a relatively fledgling industry. Affiliate marketing’s biggest challenge is communicating its complexity simply - this has always held it back but there have been massive inroads with a whole raft of blue chips dedicating significant resource to it. Agencies have built teams, networks have bulked up account management support and we’re all taken a lot more seriously now. That said the danger is the industry doesn’t innovate. In the UK technology developments are pretty much network led and we’re acutely aware of that at Affiliate Window.

What do you think are the biggest problems affiliates face moving forward?

I think affiliates need to up their game. As we all mature and grow those that dedicate resource to self-promotion and development will reap the rewards. I’m constantly telling affiliates that just as they’re time poor so are network and advertiser staff. Just as an advertiser has to offer something different and persistently push their message so affiliates need to as well. Having worked for two networks I see the affiliates who flourish are those who get themselves out there, with supporting literature to send to advertisers, demographic breakdowns of their user bases, testimonials and so on.

I also think adware, malware and spyware is still a significant issue that people assumed went away because the UK took a firm anti-spyware stance. It’s a constant challenge and undermines the whole industry so I find it disappointing that it’s not more widely recognised and acknowledged. You could phone up a number of big networks and ask them what they’re actively doing to police the situation and whilst you might not get the honest answer I’m confident it would be ‘not a lot’. Affiliate Window has taken a very proactive stance on this and I’d urge anyone concerned about spyware to give us a call to find out exactly what we’re doing.

Staying one step ahead has always been crucial as well. As you know Google changes can happen overnight and an affiliate’s ability to speedily adapt can mean the difference between significant profit or significant loss.

Finally affiliates still have to battle against less enlightened merchants who don’t necessarily apportion the same value to the affiliate channel as they do to other online activity. This is a challenge we have to address collectively. Things are improving but it is a slow process.

Obviously you have worked at more than one Network, what do you see as the main difference between DGM and Affiliate Window?

I spent nearly three years at dgm and am hugely grateful for the opportunity. I think Adrian Moss is one of the most creative men in the industry and looking back at ideas he had four years ago that are only now being discussed more generally bears this out.

From an Affiliate Window perspective one thing we do exceptionally well is bridge the difficult gap between the work the development team do and the commercial imperative of the company. I’ve been hugely impressed by how ideas that can benefit an advertiser or affiliate are grasped and turned around by our small in house team. Very recently one of our new developers was tasked with creating an untracked transactions interface that he built, tested and rolled out within a couple of weeks, complete with documentation and internal training. The feedback we received from those affiliates who use it was fantastic. That the development team ‘gets it’ makes the job of client facing staff much easier. This I think is just one example of why Affiliate Window has made such inroads in the last two years.

Affiliate window has grown rapidly in the last 18 months, what do you think are the companies main assets?

Obviously its people. The account management teams are relatively young (even by online standards) but are incredibly enthusiastic. As I just mentioned we have great development and integration teams as well who provide fantastic support to those members of staff who are talking to advertisers and affiliates on a daily basis. There is a genuine sense of optimism in the company that I think permeates through into the work everyone does.

Affiliate Window seem to have taken clients off other networks recently, why do you think this is?

A combination of factors I think based around technology, service and integrity. There is a genuine desire within the company to offer something different and the low rate of attrition in the key accounts team bears this out. Interestingly the company has never really compromised on override in an age when networks have been prepared to take business at all costs. I don’t think this has been healthy for the industry, reducing everything to the lowest common denominator and I think we’re now seeing a bit of a backlash against this approach.

Obviously shop window has been a big one for Awin this year, where do you see this going? Do you think there will be many more improvements to creative? and what do you see these taking the form of?

I think it’s early days but ShopWindow has been a good step in the right direction. As PPC becomes prohibitively expensive and networks search for the holy grail of good quality ‘content’ affiliates all networks should be looking at the add ons it can offer. There will be constant upgrades to ShopWindow headed up by Amo who’s done a fantastic job in getting the product out there. There are so many widgets now that inevitably some are more useful than others so we need to ensure the products and creative we offer are the most relevant for generating revenue.

Another big piece of news from Awin this year was the contract with the Sun website, do you think this will be the start of a trend in affiliate marketing?

Definitely. Huge portals have traditionally relied on CPM but as the web develops and becomes more interactive, partners like The Sun will be able to offer more of a user experience in partnership with Affiliate Window. We have some exciting developments for 2008 bringing additional partners on board and working with them in a far more bespoke way. This will inevitably trickle down into Affiliate Window’s more general affiliate offering.

There have been rumours around the sale of Affiliate Window for a while now, can you give us any insight into this?

We’re a successful company so I think it’s inevitable given how everyone’s talking about CPA that these rumours persist. Consolidation is an issue everyone is talking about so 2008 will certainly be interesting.

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