Advertiser’s Guide to the Complexity of the Channel – Helen Southgate from Sky explains.

This was posted on: 300910, by Matthew Wood

Day One, 09.00-10.00, Room 2-4

Helen Southgate, Senior Online Marketing Manager at Sky, is conducting the session entitled ‘The Advertiser’s Guide to the Complexity of the Channel’ at a4uexpo, plus she’s appearing on another couple of sessions. We caught up with her to discuss reasons to visit her sessions at the a4uexpo London in 1 week and 4 days (and counting!)

Hi Helen, thanks for chatting to us! With your a4uexpo London sessions based around the advertiser areas, what’s your background within the market?

Well, I’ve worked in the Affiliate Marketing sector for over 8 years, starting my career at Silvertap in 2002, then moving to DGM in 2007 and most recently to Sky in 2009. My role at Sky is Senior Online Marketing Manager where I manage the PPC and Affiliate teams. Coming from an Agency background, I’ve worked across a number of clients within the Affiliate Marketing sector but moving to work client side has been a real learning curve which i’ve enjoyed immensely so far.

Working with such a big brand in the Performance Marketing sector, how much of an impact are Affiliates making?

The Affiliate channel is an integral part of the Online Marketing mix which we value very highly at Sky. The beauty of the Affiliate channel is that it can be used tactically, we know that if we need to drive more volume or satisfy a certain KPI – Affiliate is the channel that can help us do this, it has the flexibility that other channels do not always have which makes it invaluable. The lines between Affiliate and other channels, such as display, are also beginning to grey. Affiliates are no longer seen as simply an effective Cost Per Acquistion channel, they can also assis in driving brand awareness and specific KPI’s.

Your first session at the a4uexpo is entitled ‘The Advertiser’s Guide to the Complexity of the Channel’; What can delegates expect from your session and why should this be the first session they attend this year?!

I’m going to really get under the bonnet of large, complex Affiliate Programmes. I’ll explain what it looks like, why the channel needs to be so complex and how you can manage a programme of this magnitude effectively and continue to drive sales. I’m going to show some real life examples, share some experiences and hopefully provide a great deal of insight into the future of affiliate channel management. Every client affiliate programme is different so this is not going to be me telling delegates what to do or teaching them to suck eggs, but hopefully some of the experiences I have had over the past 8 years will help to provide insight and spark some great ideas for other client programmes. I would really recommend that any agency or network account managers attend this not forgetting advertisers.

Other sessions you are involved with at the a4uexpo include the anticipated ‘Affiliate Armageddon’ session, Day Two @ 17.15-18.15, Room 14-16. Should be a good viewing for delegates, are you ready!?

I think so! The session includes Duncan Popham, Tina Judic and Kevin Edwards, which is a great mix of people to discuss the whole ‘Affiliate Armageddon’ idea with. With plenty of personality on the panel I expect this session will be extremely feisty with many a conflicting view and probably a few controversial subjects. None of us have been known to shy away from a challenging topic so expect this one to be a real eye opener and some good old fashioned heated debated with hopefully a lot of audience participation.

There you have it – Thanks to Helen for taking time to answer our questions. Catch Helen at the a4uexpo by booking your place today and registering now .