a4uexpo live. The Future of Shopping: How Performance Marketing Fits. Part 2 of 2.
Written by Pete Berry in Events, Insight on 21 October 2011
In part 1 of this 2 part post I summarised some of the topics that were raised in a recent a4uexpo conference session, namely the opportunities that mobile presents in affiliate marketing. Part 2 touches on social commerce, group buying and the panel’s predictions for the future.
Social commerce
While stats are still driving home just how serious an opportunity there is with mobile, we’ve known for a lot longer that social platforms such as Facebook have an enormous reach…the issue is just how best to extract value and sales in the best way. I’ve tried to recap some of the examples that the panel discussed:
Many companies have invested in transactional facebook pages, while we’ve seen publishers such as Zibaba and Merchenta offering this service to advertisers on a performance basis.
Trialpay themselves sit within social platforms – offering virtual currency to online gamers in exchange for redeeming advertisers’ offers. If Facebook make the success of their own currency that can be exchanged for products and services then there’s another compelling string to this bow.
One of the main benefits of Facebook is the ability to share offers and products amongst friends – the level of trust increasing the propensity to buy. This was highlighted last week by the announcement of eBay and Facebook’s partnership.
Then you have the level of information that is held within Facebook and members’ profiles…this lends itself perfectly to some very clever recommendation engines. Vikki sang the praises of Hunch and Stylist Pick that had become remarkably accurate based on behaviour, friends and inputted characteristics/preferences.
Meanwhile we know that partners such as Rocketer are doing great work with Facebook’s display ads, targeting users appropriately via the API.
Unfortunately there wasn’t much attention given to the dangers of social…having to monitor the space for complaints, etc. This is something that inevitably merchants will have to consider when dealing with user generated content.
Despite this you can see that there are already some remarkable ways that advertisers and publishers are engaging with social traffic and hopefully this continues along the same lines.
Group buying
Groupon are a prime example of how this phenomenon has exploded onto the scene but the panel argued that there are already signs of saturation within the market. They also queried the quality of some offers and an unsustainable commission model, thus doubting just how long it could continue on its current course. Greg believed that there was genuine future value in it for local businesses but possibly not everyday retail brands. Jeff added that it was useful when there are instances of distressed stock or bookings that would lead to lost revenue if not taken up. Mobile was re-introduced as a solution to the need for these time-sensitive offers to be available immediately and on the move. Vikki suggested that group-buying may find some traction in niches such as coffee connoisseurs or one of Edward’s favourites AppSumo.
Panel predictions for the future
There were a couple of themes that the panel thought might be worth keeping an eye out for which led to buzzwords aplenty.
“Gamification” was seen as something that companies could use more in order to engage customers better. They explained that leaderboards and alike could drive customer behaviour along certain lines as Jeff confessed to still check-in on foursquare since he was happy being the mayor of his local bar.
Edward envisaged progress in “hyperpersonalisation”…trying to establish a more one-to-one relationship in terms of both customer service and purchase cycle. The merits of tailoring and targeting content have been addressed and I can personally vouch for a similar site in Bandsintown which selects “artists you may like” and that are playing locally. This is increasingly powerful for time-poor individuals in the same way as mobile access.
In summary, I felt that the session highlighted some key themes in our ever-evolving industry and backed them up with some clear case studies of how you can make the most of it. There is still some work to be done by networks, advertisers and publishers but this gives you a glimpse into what we can achieve together.
A little further reading to take a closer look at?
- Dealspot – Trialpay’s integration of group-buying and offers within online games
- Visit https://mobile.dominos.com via web-enabled phone
- Hunch – weekly recommendations according to social profile
- Stylist pick, Shopittome
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Tags: a4uexpo, a4uexpo live, facebook, future of affiliate marketing, group buying, social commerce, Trialpay
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