Ymultimedia is a proud member of the Performance Marketing Association (PMA), American Marketing Association (AMA), and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Through these memberships, Ymultimedia is able to leverage the power of each organization’s reach in the industry. Enabling power through knowledge, our partnerships provide us insight into everything from comprehensive data and research to legislation and regulation.

Performance Marketing Association:
The PMA is the first formal organization representing the burgeoning performance marketing space and offering members a means to learn, share or communicate on a global scale. The collective knowledge of the community is shared and best practices are outlined, thereby providing performance marketers with the tools, information and support they need to grow their businesses.
In addition, the PMA gives performance marketers a unified voice to address issues and challenges facing the industry, such as the “advertising tax” proposed in some states. The PMA investigates these issues, maintains close contact with members, advertisers, legislators and news organizations to inform and educate and provide resource materials. The association also coordinates advocacy efforts, speaking on behalf of the industry – allowing its members to be heard while still focusing on their respective businesses.
With the PMA leading the charge, businesses will continue to grow and succeed, the quality of work will be demonstrated, and further quality participation in the performance marketing field encouraged.

American Marketing Association:
The American Marketing Association (AMA) is the largest marketing association in North America. It is a professional association for individuals and organizations involved in the practice, teaching and study of marketing worldwide. It is also the source that marketers turn to every day for information/resources, education/training and professional networking. AMA members are connected to a network of experienced marketers over 30,000 strong and include leading marketing academics, researchers and practitioners from every industry.
AMA offers highly acclaimed seminars, workshops and Hot Topic events focused on the immediate needs of marketers, as well as trends shaping the future. AMA’s website, MarketingPower.com, is the everyday connection to marketing data, articles, case studies, best practices and a robust job bank. The AMA also is the source for the field’s top magazines and journals, including Marketing News. AMA professional and collegiate chapters and special interest groups keep members in touch with the best people and the best practices.

Interactive Advertising Bureau:
Founded in 1996, The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising.

At Ymultimedia, our goals are to stay ahead of the industry through our leveraged partnerships. In doing this, we are able to pass through real-time insight, direction, and up-to-date strategies and tactics to our partners and customers. Ymultimedia plans to grow our industry reach by continuing to partner up with the top industry organizations.

Affiliate Summit West 2010 was one of the best ever and Las Vegas was the place to be! The show was a big success with over 4,100 attendees and 200 exhibitors, it was the biggest Affiliate Summit to date. We made tons of great contacts, connections and met up with a lot of old friends. Also learned some great new and exciting ways to make money in the industry and will definitely pass that on to you guys! The “after show” events were amazing as well! It was great to get to know everyone on a different level, Sin City Style!

Here are a couple pictures we have received so far. More to come:

If we weren’t able to hook up with any of you for any reason, don’t worry, Affiliate Summit East is only months away. It will be taking place August 15-17 in New York City. BE THERE!

Social media this year has turned its tide to a more personal approach. With Twitter being the talk of ’09 we will speak of how this social platform has formed the way we communicate and possibly how we will do business in the future. (more…)

Recently released results of an investigative report into the “Aggressive Sales Tactics on the Internet and Their Impact on American Consumers”, has been a major hot point for Senator Rockefeller.

A hearing on the subject by the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation examines “controversial e-commerce business practices that have generated high volumes of consumer complaints”.

“After six months, this Committee has found that the companies we are investigating have figured out very clever ways to manipulate consumers’ buying habits so they can make a quick buck. American consumers have been complaining for years about these misleading practices and asking for answers – and rightly so. [...] Millions of Americans are getting hit with these mystery charges every month – we have to do all we can to protect the hard working families relying on us to look out for their wallets and well-being”.

According to the staff report, the sales tactics that Rockefeller is interested in taking down are the ones that “charge millions of American consumers for services the consumers do not want and do not understand they have purchased”, a controversial practice known as “post-transaction marketing”.

The report reveals that numerous, well-known e-commerce companies have earned millions of dollars through post-transaction marketing “scams”, including sellers such as 1800Flowers.com, Fandango, FTD, Orbitz, Priceline, Shutterfly, Buy.com, Barnes & Noble, Expedia, as well as many, many more.

KEY FINDINGS FROM THE INVESTIGATION:

* Three Internet companies–Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty–exploit consumers’ expectations about online shopping to trick them into joining their membership clubs.

* Consumers often do not know these companies have their credit card numbers until they start seeing charges on their bank statements.

* Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty and their e-commerce partners have earned over $1.4 billion in revenue with their misleading tactics.

* There have been more than 30 million consumer enrollments in these clubs and several million people are unknowingly enrolled in these clubs at any one time.

* More than 450 e-commerce websites and retailers have partnered with Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty to employ aggressive sales tactics against their online customers splitting the revenue about 50-50.

* Eighty-eight companies have made more than $1 million by partnering with Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty, including Classmates.com, which made more than $70 million.

* Almost no one receives the “cash back award” that Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty offer to online consumers at the time of enrollment.

It’s evident that standard practices and methodologies are going to be replacing some of the more dubious tactics currently seen in today’s marketplace. To learn more:

http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=5f3f7e3d-210e-4978-9034-f58d33ced8c8&Month=11&Year=2009

Monday, November 30, 2009, was the much-anticipated round table discussions on technology and online privacy of consumers. The conference took place at the FTC Conference Center in Washington D.C. and consisted of researchers, executives from Google and Yahoo, as well as consumer advocates. This conference took an in-depth look at the challenges posed in the 21st century technology and business practices that collect and use consumer data.

Social networking, cloud computing, online behavioral advertising, mobile marketing, and the collection and use of information by retailers, data brokers, third-party applications, and other diverse businesses were the current focus of scrutiny throughout the conference by these key executives.

The key focus was to determine how best to protect consumer privacy while supporting beneficial uses of the information and technological advancements. They seemed most interested in tactical changes and their questions revolved around privacy policies and notices within ads that were behaviorally targeted. Some questions included how could they get consumers to understand and use these notices, and how could privacy policies be standardized and understood?

These issues will continue to be of concern until the FTC feels that consumers are protected and aware of the ever changing promotional advertising tactics used to benefit both advertiser and consumer. It is in our best interest to be aware of the changes and learn to incorporate them into our everyday business practices. To learn more:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/11/oecd.shtm