My final a4uawards nominations
Ignoring the fact that it was a travesty that I was not on the short list for the awards I thought I’d go over the final results and reveal my final votes.
Publisher Choice of Network 2007
Affiliate Future
Affiliate Window
Buy.at
Paid on Results
TradeDoubler
Has to be Affiliate Future here. It’s fair to say that their software is not the best in the world, but the account management is certainly one of the best out there and the two trips with them to Barbados (even if I had to pay) may have helped guide my vote!
Publisher Choice of Agency 2007
Affiliate Program Advice
Equator
Existem Affiliate Management
RO EYE
Obviously it’s Altogether Digital here, but in the absence from the short list i’d have to vote for RO EYE. I think agencies have come a long way over the past year or so and RO EYE is certainly one of the best.
Publisher Choice of Merchant 2007
3 Mobile
Buy a Gift
HMV
PrezzyBox
Sky
Wasn’t there a whole big palaver with 3 Mobile and unauthorized emails going to affiliates on Buy.at saying that they have closed down? Anyhow - it’s a hard choice out of either Prezzy Box of Buy a gift. I’ll pick Buy a Gift because if their excellent Christmas Competition though.
Merchants Publisher of the Year 2007
Allkids.co.uk
eStuff (holiday Watchdog)
Freebie Sites UK
Uk Web Media
My choice has to be UK Web Media here, purely as the industries I have worked with have not put me in touch with the others.
Innovation in Affiliate Marketing - Network Award
Affiliate Future
Affiliate Window
Buy.at
Paid on Results
TradeDoubler
Quite a touch one. Affiliate Window launched the Shop Window tool which seems to have gone down well and certainly helps with getting landing pages sorted for the non-technical focused PPC Affiliates. Paid on Results have a great backend, solid tracking and some excellent content units. In the end Innovation does mean Innovation though so Affiliate Window pip it.
Innovation in Affiliate Marketing - Merchant Award
Amazon
Buy a Gift
Jessops
PrezzyBox
Pru Health
It’s between Prezzybox and Amazon. Amazon release the widget recently which seems to have been taken up well but Prezzybox win my vote for their Video ads.
Innovation in Affiliate Marketing - Publishers Award
eConversions
Fraser Edwards
Nectar
Quidco
UK Web Media
Fraser Edwards gets my vote here - his podcasts have been excellent and he’s a top guy to boot.
Publishers Manager of 2007 - Merchant Award
Chris Bishop - Hotel Chocolat
Ennis Al-Saiegh - Jessops
Graham Keen - Buyagift
Naomi Brown - Firebox
Zak Edwards - Prezzybox
I vote for Naomi - she’s been doing all the right things (XML Feeds, Blogging, Events, Freebies, etc) but obviously Zak and Graham are both at the top of the pile.
Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2007
AffiliateStuff.co.uk - Kirsty McGubbin
AffiliateBlog.co.uk - Fraser Edwards
Here.org.uk - Kieron Donoghue
Mooseontheloose.co.uk - Paul Wheatley
MorleyMouse.com - Dan Morley
Hard choice. I’ve already voted for Fraser and don’t think he should get both votes, so I’m going to vote Kieron on this one. His content for the blog is always excellent and he was one of the founding affiliate bloggers! If Lee McCoy was on the list he would have been my joint top choice!
Best Account Manager 2007
Fiona MacPherson - Equator
Hero Gregoraki - Webgains
Matt Bailey - DGM
Michelle Boxall - All Response Media
Sean Carter - MediaVest International
Matt Bailey gets my vote here. I will publicly say that if I am not nominated next year then I’m going to quit my job though!
Best New Merchant of 2007
Arcadia
Childrens Rooms
Next
Setanta
Wickes
Very strange choices. I’ll vote Childrens Rooms purely because of who runs it though. Think there are other candidates who should be included here though..
Best New Affiliate of 2007
Dealpond
Maxafi
Smoolah
Not sure if I work with any of these. Smoolah gets the vote for the most web 2.0 name in affiliate marketing though.
Best International Publisher
Clicks2 Customers
eConversions
Net Media Planet
eConversions for me! A good bunch of people who I wish I worked with more.
Industry Champion Award 2007
Clarke Duncan
Fraser Edwards
Jess Luthi
Keith Budden
Matthew Wood
Nick Roveta
It’s quite obvious that Matt is going to win this. Not sure how some of the others got on the list.
Overall I still find it quite a strange short list and wonder how many votes were counted - there seems to be quite a few “Community” choices rather than actual deserved applicants.
BUMPZee
Links
Affiliates
SEO
“Innovation in Affiliate Marketing - Publishers Award” category - seems a little odd, as this should be an award for “innovation” - fella can you spell out how the below have “innovated” - i must say i am a little confused and bit hurt that affiliatebounty.com didn’t get into the awards..seems all the usual suspects get the lime light morst of the time…
eConversions
Fraser Edwards
Nectar
Quidco
UK Web Media
Don’t disagree with you Jon. Affiliatebounty is a good tool (certainly find it helpful as an agency!).
With regards to Industry Champion Award 2007 I was shock to not see your name on the list James, what with the work your doing with Affiliate Dinners and the like. I think going over the different lists many people are thinking about more than just 2007 when they cast a vote, the problem is many newer people don’t remember the good work done in the past and so are like “ah why are they on the list” guess you need to find out for yourself but I can tell you as a “old timer” everyone on that list has been involved or done stuff to better the industry. 2008 should see the awards more reflect what happened in the past year but I do think its right that 2007 being the first one people can take in years before if they so wish. My vote is for Matt in the Industry Champion slot so good luck to him and everyone else in the different sections. Being nominated in it’s self is very good however I can think of a couple of blogs that should also have got listed, guess the competition was just too hot for that section.
Thanks Clarke - don’t get my wrong, I by no means think that I am an industry champion! My comments may have sounded a bit harsh & I am not trying to downplay the amount of work and passion that all of the nominations have put into the industry, especially you.
I guess that I just some some of the nominees a bit strange and less mainstream than I would have expected - there are some suprises and some of that may be to do with the awards being voted by the a4u community & may well have changed if they were sent out by the networks, for example.
BTW - I’m hardly new. I may not have been involved as long as some but I have been working in affiliate marketing (in some shape or other) for the past 5 years or so - it’s just more recently (i.e. past few years) that i’ve got involved with the community and management side of things!
J
“If Lee McCoy was on the list he would have been my joint top choice!”
perhaps my gag-reflex has prevented me from being nominated?
My vote is torn between Fraser and Paul.
Like Clarke, who I would love to see win the “Industry Champion” one (and why isn’t Paul Wheatley in there? For &*!^ sake! He fought tooth and nail against spyware! Do we forget those days?
The pair of them, with Fraser did so much for the industry during that troublesome time!
Personally, I dont think that anyone organising the awards should be eligible to be nominated. Its all a bit incestuous. Imagine if Miramax sponsored the oscars and all their films won…..
I’ve no idea how one of my sites got into a shortlist - hopefully it’s been removed by now but good luck to all the others nominated