Part 3 of my Review of the Year as Chair of the IAB’s Affiliate Marketing Council (AMC)

As 2010 draws to a close we inevitably turn our attention to 2011 and what can realistically be achieved. And as the person who won’t have to organise it I can therefore safely make some statements knowing I won’t have to deliver on them!

Whilst I think self-regulation is important I feel we generally need to push back to affiliates that the onus is fully on them to ensure they are delivering quality content in an ethical and transparent way. My main issue with making codes of conduct too detailed is they can become onerous and prescriptive; potentially dampening the entrepreneurial spirit the industry is built on. It’s clearly a fine line between the two and I hope the growing confidence of networks to act swiftly and collectively will lead to any possible issues in the future being nipped in the bud.

I would also like to see a big education programme for advertisers and agencies aimed at instilling best practice.

Last year the AMC launched the Ethical Merchant Charter for advertisers and this needs to be expanded and pushed out to every advertiser as they enter the affiliate market. There are some simple elements to it that set common standards centring on respect for your affiliate base. This is too often overlooked.

On this note there also needs to be a slight redress in balance; affiliates often don’t buy into a lot of the work of the AMC. This has always frustrated me because when affiliates do attend full Council meetings they generally praise the ethos, spirit and the work undertaken.

We should also be realistic about what we can achieve. With the high profile collapse of i-level and dgm this year, there were calls for the AMC to somehow ring fence affiliate payments.

The practicalities of this were enormous and it just wasn’t feasible for the AMC to take this project on. We’re also a promotional body that doesn’t involve itself in commercial disputes. Our work is also reliant on volunteers; there are no full time employees with all the work achieved to date delivered by people dedicating their spare time. With this in mind, the AMC could always do with more willing and proactive volunteers so make yourself available if you’d like to lend your support.

We also need to involve ourselves in research pieces and case studies. Let’s gather this data and start shouting about how great our industry is; don’t let’s succumb to too much introspection. We know research pieces are really well received by marketing professionals love so let’s do the groundwork and gather the proof.

What do you think? What would you like the Council to focus on in 2011? Please leave any comments you may as I’m sure the next Chair will be eager to hear any feedback in order to hit the ground running.

With four very able and experience candidates, Tina Judic from Found, Sanjit Atwal from Tradedoubler, Helen Southgate from Sky and Ewan Darby from Neo@Ogilvy, I’m extremely optimistic the Council will go from strength to strength in 2011.

I wish the new Chair all the best!

That’s it from me, just time for a few thanks. First off, thank you to those who elected me Chair in January. It’s been a real privilege to take on this role, offering me frequent glimpses of the passion and strength of our channel. I’d also like to thank those individuals who have made some really positive contributions this year. You can see some of their views on the AMC in the next blog post. Last, but certainly not least a huge thank you to the IAB’s Dan Redfearn who has coordinated the AMC since its inception in 2007. His contribution is often overlooked but he has been instrumental in ensuring we’ve had such a good year.