Let’s be honest. It’s been a while since anything interesting has turned up within the realm of online affiliate marketing. Yet that could change and soon. We need to know how and when to exploit the next performance-based marketing opportunity. Rest assured, there are exciting new opportunities for DRTV’ers big and small in affiliate marketing—but serious challenges lie ahead. From managing the intersection of search and affiliate programs to diversifying the mix of distribution points, the key question multichannel merchants should ask is, “How can affiliates be encouraged to send more incremental sales or new customers?”

Affiliates: Friends or Foes?
It’s a harsh reality: Web affiliates are taking a beating in search marketing. If you’ve been involved in affiliate marketing for more than a year, you’ve likely seen declining sales or leads from search-focused affiliates. Newbies and veterans of the performance-based strategies are noticing affiliates competing for searchers and wondering how to handle it. Do you ban them from using some tactics or all tactics? Do you partner selectively with them? The issue is a familiar one to the DRTV industry and was more thoroughly discussed by SendTec CEO Paul Soltoff in Electronic Retailer magazine. Bottom line is, affiliates are challenged and sometimes embattled. After wrangling with the issues, many DRTV marketers are asking “are affiliates even worth it?!”

Pockets of Innovation
Most DRTV marketers find such investment to be a difficult pill to swallow, and therefore, rely on affiliate networks to scale their efforts. This begs the question, what are affiliate networks doing to support affiliate innovation? What tools and educational support are available to open new doors? (more…)

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The ERA Minute is a new feature where ERA members can film marketing tips that will be distributed throughout all of ERA’s channels and social networking outlets. If you’re interested in making the next ERA Minute, contact Tom Quash at tquash@retailing.org. Mark Stenberg from Iceland Health delivers two quick, valuable tips for launching a new health product in a down economy.

Note: The Honeyshed video in the post below is on auto-play. Please mute or pause that video before playing the ERA minute.

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Last week I visited Honeyshed, a fresh reinvention of home shopping that elevates products and brands to the level of fetish with an irreverent mix of urban sass and scantily clad, er, lass. We’ll be covering Honeyshed in a feature article in Electronic Retailer to coincide with a major marketing launch in November. In the meantime, check out their sizzle (or is it fo shizzle?) reel and if you’re interested in advertising on Honeyshed, contact Beth LeManach at Lemanach@honeyshed.com or Blaine Pate at Pate@honeyshed.com.

Click here to check out the site!

Rick Petry is ERA’s interim president and CEO.

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Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a hearing on privacy and the Internet. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is currently investigating the use of behavioral advertising and its potential impact on personal privacy. The industry representatives did an excellent job of explaining their privacy policies. From my perspective as a consumer, I found the testimony persuasive and I am not concerned that information collected about me will fall into the wrong hands. One company offered testimony that it had more than 40 full-time privacy officers; another said they let users customize privacy settings, and all of the companies described the techniques they use to anonymize data.

However, the industry is being put on the defensive by groups who would suggest tailored advertisements are somehow a threat to the consumer. Several questions posed by the senators reflected concern about the practice of behavioral advertising in general, even if data is adequately secured. As advocates for the industry, we now have the task of explaining to lawmakers that advertisers are not interested in sensitive personal data, and have a strong incentive to protect the consumer. The consumer has many choices and the Internet sites are in many ways more subject to the consumer’s whims and fancies than other businesses. Visiting different websites usually doesn’t cost more money, and physical location isn’t an issue. If consumers are concerned about a website’s privacy policies, it is easy for them to stop visiting that website altogether.

It is also important to inform lawmakers that regulating Internet ad companies is not even the best way to protect consumers from privacy breaches. The government could more easily punish and deter illegal hacking or misuse of data. They could also provide grants to Internet advertising agencies to aid in developing new technology to protect consumer’s privacy. It’s obvious to me that Internet advertisers aren’t the bad guys, but it might be a struggle to convince Congress of the same.

Tomi Turner works in ERA’s government affairs department.

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The ERA Minute is a new feature where ERA members can film marketing tips that will be distributed throughout all of ERA’s channels and social networking outlets. If you’re interested in making the next ERA Minute, contact Tom Quash at tquash@retailing.org.

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Inventions—they are a full-time job for a guy like me. I have been licensing inventions for the past eight and a half years. I’m a matchmaker, the e-Harmony of inventions. I try to make “love connections” between inventors and companies.

I will never say that I’ve seen it all. Every day I see something new and innovative. For instance, I have been presenting new product ideas to Allstar Marketing Group for several years. They are the team that brought you Aqua Globes and Cold Heat. And who can forget the direct-response monster, Smart Spin? Last year, I found an air freshener invention in our vast catalog of products. It was a small cartridge that affixes to the top of your ceiling fan. When the fan spins, the fresh smell of lavender fills the room. I had never seen anything on the market like it before. I checked the patent status, and it had been issued a utility patent.

I thought: This can’t be real. It’s so simple. It’s so inexpensive. Has this really never been done before? Let’s see what Allstar thinks. So, I presented it to Gary Sullivan, who is an “all star” himself and works as their new product scout. When he presented it to the gang, it was a hit and “Fan Fragrances” was born.

Allstar developed the product in China, and has just begun to market the product nationally and internationally. They do a great marketing job on their own; we assisted by using our own publicity department to get the word out there and help promote their new product.

Is your company looking for new inventions or products to sell on TV or into retail? Our service is free to qualified manufacturing companies, distributors and catalogers. Also, by checking out our online retail store, marketers can search through all of our products available for wholesale distribution. We have thousands of patented inventions with prototypes in most categories waiting to find your love.

Ronny Smith is responsible for innovation licensing at Intromark Incorporated.

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As I prepare for this year’s ERA Annual Awards Show under the call to arms “Retailers Rock,” I’ve been on an iTunes download binge worthy of Barry, Jack Black’s dogmatic record clerk character in the movie “High Fidelity.” A few classic gems from the Stones and The Who, a nice sprinkling of three-chord bliss from the likes of X and the Ramones, even a download of The Tubes’ first gem, which provided the soundtrack for my first job as a pump jockey at 16. Maybe this latter disc was prescient for what I would go on to do for a living for it contained the Zappa-esque, “What Do You Want From Life?” Sample lyrics:

“What do you want from life?
To get cable TV and watch it every night…
Well, you can’t have that, but if you’re an American citizen you are entitled to:
A heated kidney shaped pool,
A microwave oven—don’t watch the food cook,
A Dyna-Gym—I’ll personally demonstrate it in the privacy of your own home,
A king-size titanic unsinkable Molly Brown waterbed with polybendum,
A foolproof plan and an airtight alibi,
Real simulated Indian jewelry,
A Gucci shoetree,
A year’s supply of antibiotics…”

You get the idea. Yes, this was the ’70s and drugs were prevalent in the workplace. But it also points out how personal each person’s quest for nostalgia is and why, despite the best efforts to tap into a collective consciousness for the good ‘old days, advertisers so frequently fail in their attempts to reference music in television advertising.

Personally, I don’t care if I ever hear another cut from Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” in this lifetime. That “Now dare you go again, you say you want your freedom” thing has been warbling on the radio ad naseum since both Steve Nicks and I actually had abdominal muscles. Nor is Led Zeppelin going to make me ever buy a Cadillac. And please spare me the Ameriprise and Cialis ads with well-heeled, frisky Centrum Silver Surfer-types frolicking on the beach (Psst: they’re havin’ sex tonight!) I’m an American. I want something new. And shiny.

Nobody serves this up better than Apple that consistently introduces new candied-like objects of desire accompanied by fresh cuts that springboard out of their commercials to become the soundtrack of our lives—today. Whether it’s introducing U2’s “Vertigo” or breaking Yael Naim’s “New Soul, “ they’ve got it down. Heck, my mother—who is in her 70s—bought the new Coldplay as a result of their most recent ad.

I imagine the younger generation—the one I’m a guest speaker to annually who have informed me that the Geico caveman spots are the apex of good advertising—would site U2 and Coldplay as contemptible examples of sellout bands. Meanwhile, my son listens to Tom Petty, while I favor Snow Patrol. Bottom line: With easy access to an infinite catalogue, tidy generational generalities don’t work anymore. I lived through the Gerald Ford Presidency, disco and “Family Feud” once and it was enough, thank you. So, even though the juice in my gin may be of the joint variety, I need it to move to Amy Winehouse, not April Wine. Hit me.

Rick Petry is ERA’s interim-CEO

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There’s a big fuss across the pond about two men kissing. A recent Heinz ad was taken off the airwaves after the UK Advertising Standard Authority received over 200 complaints.

And I always thought they were supposed to be so much more open-minded than us Yanks! A Boston news outlet’s editorial claims, “As far as images of same-sex families go, it’s positively delicious.” I think that author missed the boat completely. What’s funny is that I don’t think the commercial has anything to do with being gay. We’ve discussed marketing to gays on this blog before, but this is an entirely different scenario. The idea behind the ad is that the deli mayo is so authentic tasting that the “mother figure” is replaced as a New York deli worker. Either that, or it’s normal for children of gay couples in London to call their one father “mum” and for that person to be dressed in the morning like they’re working at a diner.

Heinz used creativity in making a provocative, compelling and memorable ad. What more could a brand want?

What’s your take on the ad? Was Heinz wrong to make it? Were they wrong to pull it?

Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia Editor

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According to a New York Times article, viewers are shown programs—and ads—they can respond to by using remote controls to click on icons they see on their screens. Each click sends a signal to the viewer’s personal portal—basically, a site where everything the person has expressed interest in is aggregated. Then, the viewer can look up more information there the next time he or she goes online.

For example, someone who clicks on an icon embedded in a