The IAB is furthering its bid to enhance awareness of the performance marketing industry with the launch of a consumer-facing website to explain the mechanics of affiliate marketing.
The trade body’s Affiliate Marketing Council (AMC) launched Online Performance Marketing, Cookies and You in an attempt to explain the terms of the recently imposed ePrivacy Directive in the simplest terms possible and the role of affiliates within it.
Loyalty card company Nectar has sponsored the site, which is part of the IAB’s five-point plan to achieve transparency in the wake of the enforcement of the ePrivacy Directive, which came into force fully on 26 May.
The website clearly explains what cookies are, how and why they are used in online performance marketing and the role they play in consumers’ everyday lives on the internet.
Clare O’Brien, industry programmes consultant on the IAB, told new media age that the launch of the site was a reaction to the ePrivacy Directive, saying that it had “galvanised the industry” to be more open with consumers.
“We set out to contextualise how performance marketing works within the online industry by explaining the mechanics of how it all works [including cookies],” she said. “This was seen as an important part of our five-point communication plan [to achieve transparency] over the past 12 months.”
O’Brien also highlighted how increased transparency would help sustain the affiliate marketing industry because users were more likely to interact with marketing activity provided they are well informed.
“The more open about things we are [as online marketers], the more likely people are to trust us,” she said. “This is the first real step the industry has taken to take the lead in describing the mechanics of a business that the majority of online shoppers will probably have used at some point.”
The launch of the site comes as Affiliate Window made its ePrivacy Plug-in available to its network of publishers to help ensure their sites are compliant with the directive (nma.co.uk 31 May 2012).
Kevin Edwards, a strategy director at Affiliate Window, said, “Publishers have been scared of the ePrivacy Directive and not all have had the budget to prepare in time. This will help them with compliance.”
