Surviving the Road

Ok, so I have to confess…I had a very embarrassing, yet funny experience the last time I went on the road for business. I’ve put up a few posts about the Internet Retailer show, and I’ve been debating if I should blog about this particular experience for a few reasons (you’ll realize why if you keep reading)….so there I was….all sorts of excited for the Internet Retailer show in San Jose.

For a few different reasons while on business we all bunk with a co-worker. Now, at first blush this may seen like a nightmare scenario for some people. What most people don’t realise is that at Azoogleads, we’re like a family…seriously. We’ve all grown very close over the past two years that I’ve been here (for a few reasons). Not the least of which are: Explosive growth, phenomenal success, and lots of really bright, high energy people that are respectful to eachother at all costs. One major factor that has helped keep this company so glued together has been the shared loss of a co-worker and friend (Jai). We’ve learned from that loss, and grown together.

So this time around, I was all set to bunk with Tom Barbaro. Tom is an all star at Azoogleads. Tom happens to be a great friend of mine, so I was looking forward to handing out with Tom at the show. Our first night in California, two other members of the team had flown in from New York Chantelle White, and Karen Aquilino. We all met for a nice dinner, then off to bed to rest up for the busy days ahead (Internet Retailer show starts at 7am!!) so factoring jet lag into that equation made me head straight to bed.

When I got back to the room, Tom had already settled into the room, and was getting ready for bed (he had a later flight in from NY). We set our alarms, and off to bed (I told Tom I would get up a bit earlier so we could stagger our shower taking). I woke up (after hitting snooze a few times)…and hit the showers. I shaved, and started my morning routine. I was ready to go, this was going to be a great show. I had a great team along with me, and had set a big meeting with Netflix to dovetail into my time at the conference. As I was thinking of all these great things, a little thought kept creeping into my head “man, I am so tired…that jetlag is killing me!” as I turned the corner coming out of the shower (shaved, hair combed etc.), I gently said to Tom…hey buddy, time to get up, we’re running a little late…(my clock said 6:30am, and we had to meet the girls in the lobby). Tom sat up, looked at me like I had nine heads and said “It’s only 3:30am!” I stood there in the dark, towel on, shaved, hair combed, clean as a whistle….at 3:30am…..PST…..oh…..my…..GOD…..I forgot to change the time on my Blackberry.

So…red-faced…I crawled back into bed for 2 hours. Much to my relief I was able to get off to sleep quickly, and didn’t really feel that horrible during the show. The only issue was that (since I’m VERY Italian, my normal 5 o’clock shadow would be showing up at an un-godly 2pm that day….oh well…live and learn….

If you can’t laugh at yourself….right?
🙂

Content Network Transparency

While at Adtech, the SES show, as well as the Internet Retailer show, there was a recurring inquiry that I want to address. How can the advertiser optimize with no transparency into your network?

It’s easy. AzoogleAd’s proven methods will help you easily optimize your offer by passing of affiliate-id’s. Within the URL string we simply enter the following details %%affiliate-id%%

Sub Affiliate-ID passing
AzoogleAds will send all affiliate and sub-affiliate information to be used by our advertisers to assess the Lifetime value of the user

We offer Consistency in optimization.
AzoogleAds can proactively optimize publishers based on reports

Plus, we can ensure that the most sesitive offers can be listed as Private Offers
Based on information shared from the advertiser AzoogleAds will create private offers for specific publishers to further optimize traffic.

So there you have it. Relatively simple way of getting around having optics into which specific affiliate is running your offer.

Internet Retailer Show in San Jose SUCCESS!!

Finally getting settled back in New York where I’ve had some time to take inventory, and think about what a great show the Azoogleads team had in San Jose at Internet Retailer!

As the only pure performance based Ad Network that had a booth, we had lots of fun chatting with internet retailers about how we can help their online ad campaigns. It was great to discuss the differences between ourselves and Performics, Commission Junction, and the like.

I was especially excited because Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was attending and speaking! It was certainly a highlight since they’re a client of mine.