Link Share Symposium: An Event Like none other in the Industry

Yesterday (June 22nd 2010) We attended the LinkShare Symposium at Chelsea Piers in NY. This is our first experience at this event and WOW it was neat! Normally I wear comfortable dress shoes because I expect to be on my feet all day. However the LinkShare Symposium is a much slower paced, yet exciting event. I’m not going to go crazy into detail but here is a quick recap and a few key points from the days events.

Centered around an award ceremony the event was very scheduled and organized. The day started off with opening remarks and then a Keynote Speaker.

After a short break, we headed into the Trend Watch session featuring a few top advertisers. (Crocs, Drugstore.com, Extrabux, TheFind.com and North Face.) The discussions that caught my attention were on mobile websites and planning for “holiday” trends. Let’s touch on these real quick:

-Converting your site to accept mobile traffic is a topic of great discussion over the last year especially. As mobile shopping grows advertisers are trying to capitalize on the increasing capabilities of our mobile devices. Something to consider is how you want to setup your mobile site. Some companies simply optimize their existing site to read well on hand-held devices. Others redirect mobile users to an “m.sitename.com” version of the site. Either choice is a viable option and depending on your business one may make more sense.

-The Discussion of “holiday” planning was quite interesting. All the advertisers on the panel said they start planning for q4 in q1 or q2. The North Face in particular said she already has a loose plan laid out in January. In fact, she said she begins reaching out to affiliates during the summer to see what they have planned!
Besides the Q4 holiday blitz, they all agreed the only other surge of note was “back to school.” It should be no surprise to even unseasoned marketers that Q4 is big. But Back to school may slip by some due to the idea that they might view it as niche. In reality there is a huge market for this sector and the season lasts from the day kids are let out to about 3 weeks after school starts back up. Most school supplies are on the lower end of cost, but the volume should help even that out. More expensive items to focus on start at backpack (big seller!!!) and go up to new computers. Lots of opportunity here!

Once the discussion panel was finished we headed into the dining room for lunch… Oh my, Lunch was high class and delicious! When we sat down there was a great appetizer with goat cheese, boiled tomato? and a bunch of other goodies, backed by a raspberry tart desert already on the table! Once everyone destroyed their app and many started on their desert, the main course came out. A wonderful stuffed chicken with fresh veggies and beans.
Besides the good food we got to see the award ceremony and all the hilarity around it. Combining lunch with the Golden Link awards; The Upright Citizens Brigade brilliantly hosted the show. Even the bad jokes got laughs because they sold is so well. There were a lot of new categories this year including best OPM agency of the year, which was given to Brooklyn based agency, The Jar Group. Below is the full list of winners:

• Best New Advertiser: The Limited
• Best New Publisher: Deals Woot
• Innovative Advertiser of the Year:Macy’s
• Innovative Publisher of the Year:Clicks2Customers & RingRevenue
• Affiliate Manager of the Year: Gus Brito of Tiger Direct
• OPM/Agency of the Year: The JAR Group
• Advertiser’s Choice: Savings.com
• Publisher’s Choice: CheapOair
• International Advertiser of the Year: ASOS
• Technology Genius Award: Skimlinks
• Performance Marketing’s Most Vocal Advocate: Steve Schaffer of Offers.com

After the awards everyone made their way over to the lighthouse for the deal makers networking session. Here Advertisers got a chance to interact with publishers, agencies and potential partners as well as display their merchandise, explain their services, etc… Unlike many conventions this was nice and small with less than 50 booths from what I could tell. It was well designed to allow the advertisers and services with booths to speak 1 on 1 with potential partners.

If you are active in the LinkShare Network, I would highly recommend this event next time. It’s a great opportunity to meet your account managers, advertisers you work with and hopefully make new connections. Making that personal connection with your partners is a great help in growing your business.

-Dan Spivak

The Smartest Search.com