Nicky Iapino

Following on from the recent announcement of Nicky Iapino’s appointment to the R.O.EYE board as a non-executive director, we’ve grabbed some time with Nicky to discuss her thoughts on her new challenge, as well as her wider views of the affiliate landscape:

Hi Nicky and welcome to R.O.EYE.

Thank you.

For the benefit of people who may not know you, how would you describe Nicky Iapino in one sentence

I am a can-do person who likes to see every day as a new opportunity, and pass that positive energy to anyone who is willing to take it.

Your career has been very much weaved into the growth of affiliate marketing in the last decade. What have been the highlights of your career?

First of all getting into the industry was a big highlight. I remember someone describing to me what affiliate marketing was and I kept asking what the catch was! I have distinct landmarks that I look back on over the past ten years – one of them is working with Barclaycard to educate its business on affiliates, and then convince the company to launch a private programme. The whole process, including sales/contract and integration, took nearly three years.  But I had said all along, if a company as brand conscious as Barclaycard would launch a programme, then this was a model that would be successful.  I then remember the real passion I had in working for CJ – in the old days I would tell people “if you cut me, I bleed green” (CJ brand colour). This was because I truly believed that they were the evangelists in the early days with their technology and CJU and I worked with some of the most passionate people I had ever met, who really believed in their product and the future of the model – they were right about the latter point.

Another highlight was relaunching Interflora – it had previously been badly burned by affiliate marketing.  It had been ill advised and had an open programme with no rules or management.  After much educating through their business, I launched a private programme with a solid strategy for growth.  I believe affiliates are still a strong part of the brand’s online strategy.  I guess my main highlight is working with affiliates like Duncan Jennings and Neil Hutchinson. There are many affiliates that I have known from the early days that have grown from being bright individuals who took risks, to now owning large companies that are extremely successful.  Watching the evolution of an industry and being a part of it from the beginning is a very rare thing to experience.

Where do you see R.O.EYE adding most value to the affiliate sector?

My network background means I understand that even the biggest brands can launch bad programmes. An affiliate programme succeeds or fails depending on the person managing it.  This is a people’s industry and affiliate management is a very rare breed of talent.  I believe the founders of R.O.EYE understood the need for specialism very early on.  Being able to focus on management is key to a successful programme.  There are many advertisers out there who rely on their network to manage their programme or try to utilize existing resource in-house.  This is not necessarily the wrong way to run a programme, but can those advertisers be sure that they are getting maximum exposure with affiliates?

What opportunities do you see for R.O.EYE?

Growth in the sector. We need to ensure that advertisers are aware of R.O.EYE and what the company is able to deliver. Despite working with a ton of huge brands such as eBay and Scholl, R.O.EYE is the best kept secret in affiliate marketing and I feel it needs to shout about the great things it’s doing with advertisers.  Multi-channel performance marketing is a massive opportunity and R.O.EYE is well-placed to work with clients across all performance channels.

How will you be working with R.O.EYE in your role as non-executive director?

This is already a good solid business, with some great ideas for future growth and direction.  I feel I can help with that direction and add value to business development through my network experience and contacts.  I would like to see a greater awareness of its business across the industry.

Do you have any thoughts on moving away from a last click model to a multi attribution model?

I have tried to not have too strong an opinion on this, as I don’t feel there is a definite solution. Multi attribution is not necessarily the solution either, but I think each advertiser is different and technology needs to adapt to that difference.  What I think is wrong about last click is that it is the only option today and that needs to change based on the type of advertiser, level of payout and other advertising activity.  I sometimes feel that this industry suffers from trying to apportion too much accuracy, which is just not possible with marketing.  Most marketers have to spend on areas where they cannot determine the success – I believe that a blend of activity is the way to success and that we can never track the conscious of seeing an ad – going to a search engine – seeing another ad and then finally clicking on that text link in an email you’ve been sent.  Each has contributed to the final action and marketers have always been used to that and understand this is how their budget is apportioned.  I am not sure that splitting the revenue that is earned from the final click between any other affiliates in that chain of events will make everyone happy.

What do you feel are the biggest challenges faced by the affiliate industry?

Technology. I think that the market has evolved quite significantly, but there still seems to be a large technology gap.  There is still consolidation to happen across the industry, as there are just too many players in some areas! If you have ever seen me talk at conferences or being interviewed in the past, then you will notice one of my theories for the past four to five years is that less is more. I believe advertisers now focus on around 20 key relationships – how does that fit in with a network model?

Why do you feel R.O.EYE has maintained its position as the leading affiliate marketing agency? Because it has remained a specialist and is passionate about what it does. People – that’s what this market is about.

Where is affiliate marketing going?

Wow, that’s a huge question and a very exciting one.  I am keeping an eye on mobile, as I feel performance marketing is a multi-channel activity and shouldn’t just been seen as an online model. The model has matured and I look forward to seeing technology developments that take the model to other channels.

Do you have any advice for merchants in the current market?

Always review what you are doing. Just because affiliate marketing is working for you, that doesn’t mean you’ve cracked it. If you are not thinking about mobile – start doing so now. If you are relying on your network to manage your activity then are you really getting the exposure you need?  Invest in the people who manage your activity, as that is key to your results.

Thanks Nicky. Look forward to working with you!

appointments · R.O.EYE

After a total of 5 interesting months, in the hub of the affiliate marketing industry, I thought it was about time I gathered my thoughts and decipher exactly what I think of it.

Coming from an offline background specialising in press and television campaigns, digital advertising called to me like a beacon, tantalising me with the promise of a better understanding of the full marketing mix. The jury is still out whether I’m there yet? Despite my colleague’s best efforts to educate me on the tricks of this ever expanding trade.

My first two weeks began with a hard and fast induction to key themes and phrases like aggregator, merchant, cash-back and my adoption of an extensive list of notes and a dumbstruck expression. As time has worn on the expression has reverted back to its usual smiley disposition but I’m still adding to my masses of scribbled notes. As it turns out the rumours are true, and you guys in the digital world really do keep changing, and constantly evolving! At first, yes I found this to be mildly irritating for a novice like me, as sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with you, although now I think I’m slowly but surely starting to catch up. With my affiliate glossary in hand, I think slow and steady could possibly win the race.

From my experience so far I’ve learnt that this industry is about building strong relationships, and that this is especially true for those of us that are working within agencies. It’s important to be vocal and pro-active, and ask questions, questions, and more questions. Whether that be to my amazing talented colleagues (brownie points please) or to the many helpful affiliates that I have encountered. I’ve also leant that this works both ways too, and that we as an agency should strive to give back to affiliates. By making ourselves as attainable as possible, offering help and guidance to those that need it, and coordinating communication from merchant to affiliate. Enabling innovative opportunities to be indentified and most importantly executed. Distribution of key information from account managers is what builds a successful affiliate programme.

Plus it’s become apparent that there’s some great opportunities to build these relationships through networking events such as the A4U Expos which I had the pleasure of attending this year. Initially I felt like I was sinking in to the murky waters of the affiliate world, but then left feeling I had soaked up lots of useful tips and tricks, perfect for a new starter such as myself. So my advice to anyone new to the affiliate world is use those around you get yourself a very large note book.

advice · expo · R.O.EYE

This year has seen the development and implementation of various minor enhancements of the Icon integration system. Probably the most significant has been the addition of an automated validation process for our client DSGi, which has enabled us to standardise the downloaded transaction data from 5 different networks and automatically email sales lists to them for validation. The client updates the list via their internal systems then returns it to us so that we can compile comprehensive reporting and update the networks. This ensures good quality data, accurate sales information and also provides another important safeguard against fraud.

programme management · R.O.EYE · technology · tracking

We are very excited to welcome Blackwell Online Bookshop into the fold.   From 1^st August R.O.EYE will take-over the management of the existing Blackwell programme on Affiliate Window.  We are currently working on a full programme audit to provide the client with full visibility on the make-up of their programme.  Our findings will also set the strategic objectives for the next six months.

In the meantime we can’t wait to get stuck into the programme.  We love retail and are really looking forward to meeting specialist book affiliates and working across one more merchant with our existing retail affiliate friends.   If you are reading this and looking to sign up to the programme, you can do so here.

Blackwell Online Bookshop (affectionately known as “BOB”) excels in its field and we would like to amongst the first to congratulate Blackwell on winning the Online Retail Award for their category:  Books, magazines & newspapers.    The judges commended BOB, saying the site provides the “most enjoyable online bookshop experience”.

Congratulations!  We look forward to working with you.

blackwell · R.O.EYE · retail