What an eye-opening few days! So many great people and so many interesting stories from all sides of Affiliate Marketing. When you get the chance to step back for a moment, you can really start to appreciate how sophisticated our industry is.
For us, two takeaways immediately come to mind:
1) We have some incredible niches.
In an affiliate landscape that changes almost daily, companies are finding new opportunities just as rapidly. It’s a pleasure to witness such a high level of entrepreneurship, business savvy and advancement.
2) And we have some dedicated people.
How do all these companies respond to the market so readily? Sharp people who enjoy solving problems. Behind the progress of every business in this space, you’ll find some keen, adaptable minds.
On that subject, we’d like to issue a quick thank you to Affiliate Summit founders, Shawn Collins and Missy Ward. Their dedication has not only made made the Affiliate Summit experience possible, but has also made it great. We look forward to seeing the event videos once they’re posted.
To everyone who joined us at our table:
Thanks for stopping by. It was our pleasure to see you, whether meeting you for the first time or simply catching you up on some Poachmark features.
Presentations we enjoyed (and learned from)
There were plenty of interesting topics to explore and experts to hear from, and we would be happy to hear what you may have found most valuable. To us, two really stuck out.
The first, Kevin Edwards’s presentation on mobile commerce, showed some impressive data on trends in mobile buying habits. Interestingly, while iPad traffic and iPhone traffic are just about equal in terms of total clicks, the iPad has a significant lead in terms of total sales. That makes for an impressive conversion rate on the iPad—something we suspect is attributable to the device’s more immersive visual experience. You can see the full presentation here.
We were all energized by Julie Clark’s keynote. It’s just a great story. The concept, the development, and especially the persistence—it’s all fantastic inspiration for everyone in our industry.
One jaw-dropping stat we couldn’t forget: when Baby Einstein reached $25 million in annual revenue, they still had a staff of just 5 employees.
And finally, the award was a great honor
But first: congratulations to all the other nominees and award winners! You deserve so much credit for your accomplishments. We’re proud to be recognized alongside you all, and to work with so many of you as our clients.
This year, in fact, we saw many familiar faces at the awards ceremony. Affiliate of the Year winner Pat Grady, as well as each of the nominees for Agency of the Year and Affiliate Manager of the Year, all use BrandVerity.
Many thanks to them and our other users for putting our service into action every day, to the Advisory Board for selecting BrandVerity, and to all the attendees for making this event possible. Service of the Year is a great honor, especially with this being the first year it was awarded.
We look forward to seeing you all next year!
