 | A Blockbuster Of An Affiliate Deal |
DVD Rental programs seem to be in short supply, especially since Screenselect became Lovefilm, who it seems own every white label version (e.g. Tesco DVD Rentals). Anyway, there’s been a further blow for affiliates promoting rental programs with the following news:
The Blockbuster program will unfortunately be closing on December 25th.
As a result of reduced budgets for the remaining period of the program, we have been instructed to reduce the commissions to £4 per lead effective from November 22nd.
Well Happy Christmas Affiliates from Blockbuster! Not only are they not honouring any cookies after the program closure (wrong) they’re also kicking affiliates in the teeth with a massive drop in commission. I guess the network are caught between a rock and a hard place with this situation. On one hand telling the merchant that their program is shut with immediate affect isn’t going to help anyone, on the other accepting these terms and letting the program limp to an unsavoury end isn’t much help either - and perhaps even sets a precedent for other programs.
What I don’t understand is how the merchant can get away with this! Surely there are contracts in place that can prevent (1) a massive drop in commission at a moment’s notice (2) honouring of the cookie period after program termination and (3) stopping merchants basically running roughshod over affiliates?
As I see it, Blockbuster signed up to run an affiliate program at a certain commission rate under the terms and conditions of a Tradedoubler contract. Fine if they want to leave the network, but they should leave under terms that are right for everyone, not just themselves! And that means the network, looking after affiliates (and themselves) by enforcing a fixed time period for commission changes and making sure cookies are honoured after program closure.
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affiliate marketing
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on November 21, 2006 at 7:56 pm Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection - Blockbuster UK Puts DVD By Mail Program In Pause Mode wrote:
[…] In a post on his affiliate marketing blog, One Little Duck has said that Blockbuster UK will stop paying affiliates to sell the online service effective Christmas day 2006. In the meantime, they’ve announced that they are immedietely cutting all commissions paid for referals to only 4 pounds as a result of cost cutting at the company. […]
affiliate marketing
on December 3, 2006 at 2:48 pm James wrote:
Apparently they run out of budget on TradeDoubler - another one of those wonderful companies that see affiliate marketing as a marketing cost (out of the marketing budget) rather than a sales cost.
:-\
It’s still available (and will continue to be apparently) on Affiliate Future.
affiliate marketing