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September 21, 2004

CJU Day 2

Posted by Adam Viener

Day two at Commission Junction University was interesting.

Jeff Pullen, CJ's General Manager, gave a good opening overview of where the industry has gone over the past year and what CJ's plans for the future are. He made special note to let people know that CJ is committed to maintaining and enhancing the BFAST technology that BeFree is based on.

In the keynote address, Tim Smith, President, Tvtalk, Inc. presented "Karate vs. Judo: Marketing in the Age of Consumer Control". Although he focused a lot on broadcast media, he laid very thought provoking concepts about the progression of advertising as consumers become publishers. Basically, his theory is that advertising is being turned on it's head as consumers take more control of the content. Ultimately consumers become the broadcasters of content and therefore affiliate / performance marketing may become the key element on how these new broadcasters cash in on their content. I also think this theory also puts products like Adsense in a great position and should make us all think more about how to best leverage content match advertising.

The funniest part of the keynote, was when Tim shared some of his "consumers creating content" examples. The audience loved the Bush and Blair's 'Endless Love' Video. If you haven't seen this, it's great!

My favorite part of the day was the Networking Match session in the afternoon. The conference attendees were placed into NetworkingMatch.com's database and setup with seating arrangements at various tables. In a series of six 8-minute meetings, you got a chance to connect and network with other conference attendees and explore how you might be able to work together. I made some very interesting contacts which may turn into longer marketing partnerships.

In the evening, CJ hosted a Dinner and Awards presentation. The presented Horizon Awards to outstanding Advertisers and Publishers. (Merchants & Affiliates). I am not sure if I can remember them all, but will post a link when CJ publishes them. On the merchant side I recall awards going to eHealthInsurance, BackCountry.com, and ShopNBC. One the Affiliate site I recall awards for FatWallet, UPromise, and Clicks2Customers.com. I think they said there were 7 awards, so I must be missing one.

Day 2 was very productive.