Performance Marketing 2.0: Innovation & Collaboration

LinkShare Symposium 2007 was one of the best ever, with more than 650 leading executives from the world's most innovative e-commerce companies coming together for a day of learning, exchanging of ideas, and networking. This premiere event for leaders in performance-based marketing drew record participation from the most influential companies doing business on the web, including Chase, IBM, American Express, Walmart.com, Lumber Liquidators and Overstock.com.

The theme for this year's event was Performance Marketing 2.0: Innovation and Collaboration. Distinguished industry speakers provided insights on innovative trends redefining the web today and how affiliates and merchants are collaborating to maximize ROI.

The day began by recognizing the 2007 LinkShare Golden Link Award winners. LinkShare president, Stephen Denton, opened the conference by welcoming attendees and introducing LinkShare Showcase, LinkShare's new ad network offering, and Traffic Strategies.com, our recent acquisition that will expand Lead Advantage, our lead generation business.

Keynote speaker Don Tapscott, Chief Executive of New Paradigm and best-selling author of Wikinomics: How Mass Colloberation Changes Everything, spoke about transformations happening on the Internet, and the impact on information and communication technologies in business and society. Tapscott inspired the audience with his perspective on the Net Generation and where opportunities lie ahead for all of us.

TrendWatch 2007, a panel of experts assembled to debate and discuss innovation on the web today, delivered highly compelling perspectives on trends shaping today's online world. This year's panel included Ken Eisner, Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Shop.org; Sara Holoubek, Free Agent and Columnist; Karen Parrish, Vice President, BI Solutions, IBM; Lisa Picarille, Editor-in-Chief, Revenue Magazine; and moderater David Liu, Managing Director, Jefferies & Company, Inc.

Seminars
Afternoon's seminars, led by LinkShare executives and featuring industry veterans and innovators, were designed to provide attendees with takeaways to help plan business initiatives in the months ahead. Sessions in the Innovation Track explored evolving methods of online commerce that have developed as a result of affiliate innovation and new distribution platforms. The Collaboration Track looked at ways that online partners can work together to enhance cross-channel initiatives and optimize search marketing partnerships.

Affiliate 2.0: Ecommerce Mash-Ups
This popular session, led by Adam Weiss, Director of Network Development for LinkShare, featured panelists Jake Bailey of Overstock.com, Jeff Eichel of MyPickList.com, James Keating of ShopWiki, Inc., and Scott Kolber of Linkstorm who discussed dynamic new technologies and models emerging to drive online revenue, including social commerce, wikis, widgets, and more.
Winning with Multichannel Collaboration
Moderator Melissa Feemster, Managing Director of Merchant Services for LinkShare, led an animated discussion about how multichannel marketing is evolving. Panelists, who included Gina Bernadet of America's Gardening Resource, Darrell Cavens of Blue Nile, Lisa Frankina of Mall Networks, and Tom O'Brien of IBM Global Business Services, shared strategies and tactics for multichannel success, including developing a marketing calendar across channels and creating offline promotions to attract online members.
Partnerships 2.0
This session spotlighted emerging distribution platforms, including geographic expansion and mobile commerce. Amy Solomon, Director of Network Development for LinkShare, led a panel which included Harry Boadwee of Market Annex LLC, Karen Snyder of Incentive Networks, LLC, and Brent Stafford of VideoClix. Speakers discussed how real estate on the webpage is changing, and demonstrated tools available through LinkShare to help online marketers expand their channel initiatives.
Performance Marketing Today: Affiliate and Merchant Debate
Peter Chun, Managing Director of Search Services for LinkShare led this session which explored how critical changes to search engines have impacted both merchants and affiliates. Panelists Rick Renaud of America's Gardening Resource and Steve Schaffer of Vertive, Inc., discussed how to approach search marketing today and shared ways merchants and search affiliates can work together to ensure greater success in their partnerships.

LinkShare DealMaker
One of the biggest benefits of attending the LinkShare Symposium is the opportunity for online partners to meet face-to-face. From networking in the meeting hall to LinkShare DealMaker tables, affiliates and merchants made new connections and built better business relationships throughout the day.

This year, we had more than 40 LinkShare DealMaker Hosts, including Bloomingdale's, CouponCabin, Inc., drugstore.com, FabulousSavings.com, Freshpair, McAfee, The Sharper Image, ShopNBC, SmartBargains.com, and YOOX.com. Attendees benefited from a four hour networking segment in which the power of the LinkShare Network came to life!

LinkShare Symposium 2007 ended with friends and colleagues taking in the breath-taking views of Manhattan on the boat party cruise sponsored by Lumber Liquidators and Overstock.com.

Click here to see more pictures from LinkShare Symposium 2007.

LinkShare Golden Link Awards
A Night to Recognize Innovation and Collaboration

The night prior to LinkShare Symposium, the Fourth Annual LinkShare Golden Link Awards were hosted by comedian Kevin Meaney. This black-tie awards ceremony honored the extraordinary achievements of LinkShare partners in e-commerce. Representatives from 1-800-Flowers.com, DBG Loyalty, Keycode.com, Informatica, Revenue Magazine, Sephora and Walmart.com were in attendance.

From a pool of over 150 nominees, three finalists were selected in each category. A group of third party industry experts was appointed by LinkShare to its E-Commerce Committee to judge the entries and select the winners. Judges included Ken Eisner, Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Shop.org; David Liu, Managing Director, Jefferies & Company, Inc.; and Kerry Murdock, Publisher, Practical E-commerce Magazine.

Winners of the 2007 LinkShare Golden Link Awards

Innovative Affiliate of the Year: StarStyle
Innovative Merchant of the Year: Gaiam
Best New Affiliate: Discover Card
Best New Merchant: ProFlowers
Merchant's Choice Award: Upromise
Affiliate's Choice Award: TigerDirect
International Merchant of the Year: Boden
Best Performance-Based Search Strategy: Gardener's Supply Company
Best Online Merchandising Campaign: American Express and TigerDirect
Best Integrated Online-Offline Marketing: Fabu.com and GSI Commerce
Best Overall Online Distribution Strategy: Avon
Performance Marketing's Most Vocal Advocate: AffiliateFairPlay.com

Congratulations to all the LinkShare Golden Link Award winners for their achievements in the performance-based marketing industry! Click here to see more pictures from this special evening.

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