Chris Dessi - Vice President zanox, Inc

Working with a performance based ad network can make you a superstar, or can get you in the hot seat quicker than you can say Vonage.

Here are a few tips that will help you as the advertiser get back into the control seat. Networks have a tendency to promise the moon, and deliver a hunk of cheese. Don't let this happen to you. Work closely with the right partner and you'll reap the rewards. Give up that control, and they will send you a bag full of useless leads that will kill your entire marketing budget. Be smart - understand your allowable acquisition and get in front of a few different networks. Ask lots of questions and insist on the following - and you'll be fine.

1. Demand full disclosure and transparency - If your brand is large enough they will offer it. If not, find a partner that will. You need the control of knowing where your ads are running.
2. Request certain hand selected publishers receive a higher payout (at the networks expense - reduced margin) to drive more volume.
A. Make sure payouts are listed privately - so you don't anger other publishers running the offer
3. Insist that the appropriate checks and balances are in place
A. List the number of leads you're willing to pay for in a set time frame - ie, if a publisher generates 2000 leads over the weekend, but you've capped the offer at 1000 leads - you're not held responsible - PUT THIS IN WRITING IN THE CONTRACT
4. Set weekly conference calls - If you think there's nothing to discuss, think again - something ALWAYS comes up
5. Don't be bullied into unfavorable payment terms - Networks are HIGHLY competitive, and they need your business.

Go get em!

In an interesting twist, my former employer Epic Advertising (former AzoogleAds) has appointed Robert Wilson Senior Vice President and General Manager, Europe. It wouldn't be so interesting to me if Rob weren't my boss here at zanox, up until a few weeks ago. Yikes.

I wish Epic Advertising the best with their new hire. Robert Wilson is one of the best in this business. Rob has laser focus that can cut through the clutter. He has an ability to execute that I'm certain Don Mathis and the rest of the team at Epic Advertising will be thrilled to support. Rob is certainly the right guy for the job, and I see him fitting in well to culture that the Epic Advertising team has fought so hard to cultivate.

This is a definitive move for Epic Advertising, who up until now have not made any major moves abroad. This indicates to me that they see huge potential in EMEA. I'm thrilled to see this move, and excited to see what unfolds in the coming months. The move supports my theory that major US business HAS to move abroad to not only survive but thrive.

See the PR Wire below:

Epic Advertising Appoints Rob Wilson

Former Zanox and 24/7 exec appointed to lead company’s European business

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com), the New York-based online marketing leader, announced today that it has appointed international online marketing veteran Rob Wilson to the position of Senior Vice President and General Manager, Europe. Mr. Wilson will be based in London, England, and will start his new post on October 16, 2008.

In his position at Epic Advertising, Mr. Wilson is responsible for the further development and general strategic oversight of the company’s European-based businesses. He will also oversee all operational facets of the European-based division, including office expansion and staffing, as well as strategic oversight and P&L.

Prior to joining Epic Advertising, Mr. Wilson served as Regional Director for the US and UK markets for Zanox, a performance marketing company headquartered in Berlin. During his tenure at Zanox, Mr. Wilson maintained full P&L responsibility for the company’s English-speaking markets, and was critical in growing the UK market dramatically within a year. Additionally, Mr. Wilson championed several operational improvements including implementation of a revised set of Key Performance Indicators and a management restructure, while also leading a project team for the company’s Search Engine Marketing business.

Prior to Zanox, Mr. Wilson held several notable posts during his career. Most recently, he was the Managing Director, Europe for 24/7 Real Media, possessing full P&L responsibility over its European businesses. Previously, Mr. Wilson was the Director of Editorial & Customer Operations, Europe, for Yahoo! Search Marketing, where he was responsible for the creation, growth and continuous management of YSM’s European operations center. His impressive career also includes positions with Lexmark, One Direct and Guardian Direct Insurance. Mr. Wilson graduated with Honors from the University of Teesside in the United Kingdom, with a BA in International Business IT.

“Rob brings over a decade of experience in international business, sales, marketing and operations to our company,” said Don Mathis, CEO of Epic Advertising. “He has effectively combined strategic management skills with a proven track record of innovation and the rapid development of online and media businesses. He is a perfect fit for our company as we build upon our European presence and continue our journey towards being a dominant global player in the online marketing industry. We are fully confident Rob will help to lead this area of our company’s expansion and we’re excited to have him on our team.“

About Epic Advertising:

Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending contextual and behavioral targeting technologies, and the over 35,000 publishers in its highly-acclaimed Azoogle Ad Network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reach.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent display and search consumer traffic. Epic scales its solutions by leveraging vast quantities of data, enormous internet reach and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus, July 2008) and being named a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco and Toronto. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

While walking around logan airport in Boston today after spending a few days at the Affiliate Summit, I noticed the cover of US News - American’s Best Graduate Schools. This issue resounded with me, because although I have a Masters Degree in Direct Marketing from NYU, I feel that there are still some gaps in my education that I know I’ll need as my career evolves.

Then it dawned on me.

We’re in an industry with so much money being pumped into it by advertisers. The affiliate channel has become a legitimate venue for companies to generate new users online in a cost efficient manner. We’re all still making money during an economic downturn, and still I don’t see the MBA’s? Why?

There are CEO’s in our industry that have MBA’s from top Universities, but are our companies recruiting from top schools? There are very smart people in our industry for sure, but take one lap around the floor at the Affiliate Summit, and you will quickly be able to select the top tier executives, and the publishers that just don’t have the depth of experience to enter the board room.

Why? Is it our fault for not recruiting properly, or is it because there is a certain type of person that does well in this business, and your traditional MBA just isn’t it? I think in order for our industry to continue to grow we will need leaders that can make that transition from meeting and interacting with the young gun internet guys to the MBA’s that may be more attracted to the VC firms than the actual companies themselves.

The Fatal Flaw of Pay for Performance

By Christopher Dessi, Vice President of Ad Sales for zanox, North America

The Harvard Business Review, however interesting, is not always at the top of my reading list for a seven-hour flight to the UK. I’m more of an Esquire kind of guy, but I recently relented and forked over the cash for good old HBR (I still bought an Esquire to keep me entertained). While flipping through the articles, it struck me that the issues discussed on those pages transcend industries and are widely appealing because they affect any business. The contents seemed to be custom produced by writers that perhaps had been listening in on my team meetings and brain storming sessions over the past six months. This reminded me that some dilemmas – strategic, operational, motivational and ethical – are universal.

One piece in particular sparked my interest immediately, as it resounded for the performance-based online marketing industry yet had little to do with it. Odd. The title of the article was something along the lines of “The Fatal Flaw of Pay for Performance.” I immediately devoured the article, quickly realizing that it had nothing to do with online marketing. It was, however, fascinating and perfectly applicable.

The article discussed how rewarding a CEO for performance may satisfy certain critics so they don’t get swept away with backdating stock options, or the like. One of the main points addressed in the piece, which I felt was perfectly appropriate for our industry, is that when people (or in our case publishers/affiliate marketers) are rewarded for performance only, there is a fatal flaw – the temptation to cheat.

We open the system up for fraudulent activity because the one responsible for performing is so desperate to meet a certain benchmark that they loose site of the bigger picture. The article listed examples of CEO’s who had “cooked” the books. In my mind, I thought about rampant fraudulent leads I’ve seen over the years – affiliates forging applications, entering fake emails, even using stolen credit cards – all with the intent to be paid for performance.

The bottom line is, however appealing it is for advertisers, if not properly regulated, this model is flawed. You don’t want a CEO to be rewarded for something he or she didn’t really do. Nor do we in the performance-based marketing industry want to reward someone for performance they didn’t achieve on behalf of our advertisers.

The model shouldn’t be just pay for performance, but rather pay for performance with integrity. Let’s be honest though, there are too many affiliates and publishers to cut out all of the shady guys. So, how do we solve this dilemma? The first step is to be AWARE of the issue, and then monitor, regulate and participate.

Once you’ve recognized the existing threat, it’s important to monitor your affiliates and the manner with which they generate leads for your advertisers. Have a task force assigned to not just monitoring, but identifying and then terminating the relationship if the publisher is seen to be doing anything out of the ordinary. It’s also crucial to regulate the publishers that join your network. It’s your integrity as well as your advertisers’ at stake, be in charge and lay down the law. Finally, participate in removing these publishers actively as well as educating your advertisers about the pitfalls of pay for performance (i.e. Don’t allow incentivized traffic on lead generation offers).

My trans-Atlantic encounter with HBR ultimately reminded me that pay for performance is flawed – a dilemma that echoes across all industries. For those of us in performance-based online marking, particularly affiliate marketing, it should be clear that pay for performance with integrity is always better, albeit difficult to execute, and therein lies the differentiating factor for the best networks.

Ad:Tech Miami Conference attended – June 3rd

After spending a full day in sessions and walking the floor at Ad:Tech Miami, the message is clear – the Latin market is growing exponentially

Highlights/Insights
Hispanic online market has grown 18% YTY
Top 25 % of Latin consumers use the internet 250% MORE than the general market
Bottom 50% use it 78% less than the general market
Most of those users are under the age of 25
38% have some college education
76% use cell phone as the PRIMARY phone
19% use the internet to connect with family and friends, and they’re generating their own content online – blogging, social networking etc.
Major US Markets = LA, NY, Miami, Houston, Chicago

Top Latin Markets = Brazil, Mexico
Latin American has 87% online search penetration - 3million searches per month
Brazil = 90% online search penetration

Mexico
2008 27.4 million Mexicans are online
70% have broadband. (Most likely due to the usage of internet cafés – this does not indicate that they have broadband services in the home).
97% of Mexicans multi task while online
- 50% on the phone
- 41% while working
- 35% listening to music
- 25% watch TV

49% user generated content
33% own a blog
96% growth this year
2011 = $192million
UP 134% in 2008
Only 1.5% of total ad spend is going toward digital in Mexico.

Brazil and Mexico have a great deal of online user’s spending money online. There is also a huge potential in the US market for advertisers to target Spanish speaking Americans. Latino culture in the US is becoming more educated, and more versed in the online arena. Social networks are exploding, and Latin Americans are generating content to stay in contact with family back in their mother countries.

The third week at Zanox is coming to a close, and things are just starting to heat up! Week One: Rani Nagpal VP (formerly of Gratis, and Meetmoi) and I headed to Berlin for training. What a phenomenal, inspiring and bright group of people we encountered! The teams from Zanox UK, Zanox Spain, Zanox Amsterdam, Zanox France, Zanox Italy, and of course Zanox Berlin were there in full force. Then the following week Rani and I headed to Chicago for a few days, now back to the office in New York. Currently we're located on 42nd and 5th at the Axel Springer offices (Our parent company). We have a great view of the empire state building. This has proven to be the perfect setting to brainstorm our 2008 strategy. We are all excited about the upcoming Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas, and we're ready to show the performance based online marketing world that we're here to stay, and nobody can compete with our international reach, boutique customer service and industry know-how.

Looking forward to a break-out 2008!!

zanox at a glance

Who we are
zanox is the market leader for performance-based multichannel commerce. We offer a global solution for efficient marketing products and services on the Internet. In addition to affiliate marketing and search engine marketing, zanox’s online marketing services include e-mail marketing, online shopping, and customer loyalty programs. zanox was founded in 2000 by the directors, Thomas Hessler, Heiko Rauch, and Jens Hewald. Today zanox has more than 300 employees.
It operates in an extraordinarily dynamic, future-oriented market and enjoys above-average growth.
zanox joined the Axel Springer and PubliGroupe in 2007. Axel Springer is Germany´s biggest newspaper publishing house and third-largest magazine publisher. PubliGroupe is an internationally active marketer and service provider for cross-media commercial communication.
Our customers
More than 2,000 prestigious international companies across various industries from telecoms to travel and retail to finance, including Allianz, Amazon, Axa, Citibank, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, o2, Vodafone, Orange, DADAmobile, Celldorado, Expedia, Jamster, Lycos, Procter & Gamble, Sixt, Staples, Neckermann, La Redoute and many more employ zanox's strategic distribution channels. zanox currently works with more than one million sales partners in over 190 countries worldwide and offers local support in over 30 countries.
Our vision
We will create the ultimate global alliance to monetise the Internet

Starting on January 7th I begin an exciting journey as the VP of Ad Sales at the only multinational ad network Zanox, Inc.

I loved working with the team at AzoogleAds, and I look forward to this next challenge for my career. Zanox has offices in 14 countries, and generate leads for advertisers in over 30 countries! This is sure to be an exciting new year!