I have worked in telemedia for many years. When trying to explain it to some youngsters at Affiliate World Europe (AWE18) in Barcelona last week, I realised that affiliate marketing and what we have called telemedia for all these years is pretty much one and the same thing.
It’s all about traffic. Affiliate marketing is a catch all term for generating traffic for people. You have offers or even goods you want to sell? Then affiliates can market that for you. Influencers can also do it. Social media sites can do it. Google (and all other search engines do it). And aggregators and service providers do it.
Similarly, VAS providers, content owners, publishers, search engines and even ecommerce sites are the life blood of affiliate marketing. In fact, much of what has driven telemedia for these past 30 years is the same as affiliate marketing.
And so hearing what the thought leaders are AWE18 had to say was extremely interesting. As our video interviews reveal, the issues in the affiliate marketing world impact telemedia and vice versa and are one and the same.
SEE OUR INTERVIEW TEASER HERE
GDPR, influencers, fin tech and fraud are all key points of interest for the affiliate sector. GDPR, while already now in place, is still an unknown quantity: everyone is waiting for someone to get it wrong and then to see what happens next, warns Dominic Baliszewski from Decision Tech, soon to be part of MoneySupermarket Group.
Everyone knows what couldhappen with GDPR and what should happen with GDPR – what we don’t know is what will actuallyhappen when someone gets it wrong.
Baliszewski also cites the growing influence of influencers on affiliate marketing – though points out that influencers such as bloggers sort of kick-started the industry in the first place, so are social media influencers as affiliates really that different?
The final point Baliszewski makes is that fin tech is about to become pivotal in the affiliate world. Open Banking rules mean that a consumer can do more with their financial data, among other things, and that this could lead to a world where not only do apps and services know when your car insurance, say, is up for renewal, but can send you an offer. This is going to be revolutionary to affiliate market.
SEE THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH DOMINIC HERE
Another area that is impacting the industry – and which will be a key talking point at World Telemedia Marbella on 8 to 10 October– is where Google fits in.
Google, is a rich – if not the richest – source of traffic. All those searches are ripe for monetising. The search engine giant has done a lot of that itself – it is after all an advertising business these days – but it is looking to get more involved in the affiliate world.
While it has the power to swamp it, it seems to taking its time to do it properly and is hand picking partners to work with. One is Sam Media, which stresses that working with Google isn’t as hard as people think. So long as you follow its rules and play fair.
There will be more on this in the coming months as we lead up to World Telemedia Marbella, where Google will be exhibiting and speaking.
SEE THE FULL SAM MEDIA INTERVIEW HERE
AWE18 SamMedia’s Christian Estela talks about how Google is a great source or traffic
VAS providers too can benefit from affiliate marketing – as well as being part of the affiliate value chain – but aggregators need to properly understand the affiliate environment and vice versa, says Muhammed I Fareed from MessageCloud.
SEE THE FULL MESSAGE CLOUD INTERVIEW HERE
There is much more to how affiliate marketing and telemedia work together – something that we shall be exploring in increasing depth over the coming months and at World Telemedia Marbella – and much of it is covered in our series of interviews from AWE18, so stay tuned over the summer for those and more.
BOOK YOUR PLACE AT WORLD TELEMEDIA MARBELLA 8-10 OCTOBER NOW!
