Astonishing quote from ASOS CEO

This was posted on the a4uforum today as a quote from the latest edition of NMA.

“Next year we’ll reintroduce affiliate marketing but as it should be, as opposed to affiliates as they were” said Nick Robertson, ASOS CEO.

“(There’ll be) no silly commissions being paid to grubby little people in grubby studios growing income at our expense, getting in the way of genuine sales”

I am absolutely astonished (and that’s putting it mildly) at this quote.  ASOS was a big success story in the UK on how a brand can be built by affiliates but famously killed that relationship after culling affiliates and changing the terms before shutting it down completely towards the end of 2006.

Bearing in mind that sales are on a PERFORMANCE basis I still have no idea how on earth they can say that affiliates were €œgetting in the way€ of sales.  Can’t wait to see how their re-launch goes and will make sure I remember this quote at the time.