Our office observed Pi-Day today. Christopher led the team in a blind tasting of five store-bought frozen apple pies.

The Candidates:

• A: Mrs. Smith's Original Flaky Crust Dutch Apple Pie ($5.99): The box art highlights 'real' butter and they are quite proud of their flaky crust.
• B: Safeway Select Dutch Apple Pie ($4.89): The cheapest pie on the list. The box doesn't describe much else about the pie, other than that it is 'select'. The only pie without a web page to link to.
• C: Sara Lee Oven Fresh Dutch Apple Pie ($5.00 reg. $8.99): Kind of funny that Sara Lee uses the phrase 'Oven Fresh' to describe a pie that you buy frozen.
• D: Grand Central Bakery U-Bake Apple Pie ($16.95): Grand Central Bakery is a popular bakery a few blocks from our office in Pioneer Square. A few of us remember when President Obama had lunch there.
• E: Marie Callender's Lattice Apple Pie ($6.49 reg $8.99): This pie even has you sprinkle sugar on midway through the baking process.

FTC Compliance is not a new topic for the BrandVerity blog--in fact, our first post after announcing our launch touched on FTC issues! And we’ve added a fair bit more content since 2009. In 2013, Sam Engel explored .Com Disclosures with the help of law professor Eric Goldman and looked at how well affiliates on Twitter were complying with those standards. We also recently took a look at e-cigarette companies and the potential for the FTC to enact further regulation in that space.

Did you know there’s a new digital marketing podcast in town? Digital Strategy Insights, a podcast hosted by Sarah Bundy and produced by All Inclusive Marketing, launched this February and is already doing exciting things. Sarah will be interviewing experts in the search, digital, and social marketing fields to provide insight and information regarding marketing strategy for brands, digital marketers, and affiliate managers.

Sometimes the stars align and topics you’re already thinking about suddenly become major news items. Last week’s news cycle was was all about affiliate marketing, starting with a Wall Street Journal article about how style bloggers monetize their blogs, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, and culminating in Pinterest’s announcement that it would be banning affiliate links from its site.

With 2015 now well underway (can you believe it’s February?!) and Affiliate Summit West behind us (though we’re already looking forward to our next chance to meet up with our customers in person!), BrandVerity’s team is looking towards what’s next for this blog space. Last year we did several exciting things, including deeper dives into how major events like Valentine’s Day, Black Friday, and the NFL Season impact paid search, how best to navigate the delicate balance of Reseller trademark bidding, and how to work with Lead Generation Publishers in a smart and thoughtful manner. This year we want to do even more.

Affiliate Summit West 2015 was, by all accounts, a great event. The office has been buzzing for the last week as the ten (!) people who were at the conference have shared stories, contacts, and favorite moments.

My intrepid partner in [educating the world about trademark] crime, Sam Engel, presented at Affiliate Summit West yesterday morning on a panel called “Affiliate Legal Issues: Three Immediate Action Items.” Sharing the stage with him were Gary Kibel, a partner at Davis & Gilbert, LLP, and Gerri-Lyn Becker, President of The California Wine Club. The panel was moderated by Carolyn Kmet, CMO at All Inclusive Marketing.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse released a survey yesterday revealing that teenagers now use e-cigarettes at substantially higher rates than traditional cigarettes. The results of the annual, federal survey was written up in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Tripp Mickle, an expert on drugs and alcohol for the WSJ, writes:

Right before Thanksgiving, we ran a quick post outlining how to minimize the non-compliant paid search tactics that often crop up around Black Friday. We also said in that post that we’d update with any trends we noticed in the days leading up to and on Black Friday. This is that post! (Aren’t you excited?)