The next stage of this slightly stuttered evolution comes once again from Buy.at and there partners Coull. They’ve devised The Coull Affiliator (cool name), a nifty gadget that allows you to add your affiliate links to any video that allowed embedding. But, is it any good? And how easy is it to do?

The good news is that it’s actually quite simple to do. Find “Coull Video” under “Content & Creative” in the Buy.at CMS and then select the “Your Video” tab. You’re asked to enter your name and company details before being allowed to get on to the affiliator.

You’re then asked about the location of your video. It could be from Youtube, uploaded from your PC or from your own source. Purely for testing purposes I’ve chosen the O2 Ducks Advert. The Affiliator requires you to enter the url, and then asks for a base link. This means that if at any time a viewer clicks on the video they’ll go to the location/product you’ve set up. Click on the advert below to see a relevant item!

You can also add product links that appear throughout the video. In my example I’ve added the iPhone from O2 and the link will appear on screen for the first part of the advert. You can add more and you can also move the location of the “announcement”. The second part of the example below sees another product but in a different location.

Once you’re happy adding links, you simply “save” and “publish” your video. This generates a code which you then add to your site.

The end result should be a video with affiliate links in…

Don’t forget to click anywhere on the video above to see the base product link.

Creating an affiliate linked video is a fairly straightforward walk through process, although not without some frustrations. The main one being finding products that you want to add (it looks like O2 bought up all the giant ducks as no Buy.at merchant has any). You pretty much need to know what you’re after to narrow down the choices. You also can’t use a direct link to a merchant. For example I wanted to add a link to the free O2 sim site, but can’t as there’s no product in the feed.

Editing and adding product links is a bit of a challenge to say the least. At best it’s faffy and at worst it will lead you to drink. Setting the start and end points of the product links may result in a lot of expletives. It needs to be made easier!

There are additions I’d also like to see in the future, and I’ve already mentioned these to Buy.at during beta testing. For example it’d be nice to change the colour of the product button and at the end of the video a user could be given a list of links used during the clip.

So will it be a success?

One of the problems with video adverts is that they rely on merchants to put them together, and whilst some have taken a step in this direction, many have given up. Perhaps due to low affiliate take up or lack of resources? The Affiliator puts the affiliate in control of video content and now we have access to a boatload of videos to use too.

For example, Marks and Spencer may put out an advert – and quite quickly and easily an affiliate can include links within a clip, provided (1) the clip is available and (2) the product feed is up to date without relying on an agency, network or merchant sorting it out. Even better the affiliate can resize the clip to fit the space on their site, something not always possible with vidiboxes.

That’s the good part!

There are concerns though in terms of what is fair use of video published on Youtube. Is it right for affiliates to say take the excellent advert from Cadbury and add links to a chocolate experience day or Thorntons for want of an example?

How will Joe Bloggs demonstrating his brand new skateboard feel once he finds out someone is showing his clip and trying to earn commission by putting links over it? Perhaps it won’t be an issue, but you never ever know?

The final hurdle comes in the form of the quality of product feeds. It’s absolutely no use to anyone having this kind of cool technology if the content within feeds is second rate. Broken images, poor images, poor product descriptions, new products not in, old products not out etc. need to be a thing of the past.

The Coull Affiliator though is pretty cool, and if it becomes accessible across Awin merchants as well as Buy.at ones as part of their merger then this could be a very very useful tool for content and conversion.

About a year ago Buy.at set up video ads which incorporated affiliate links for Littlewoods. This was a bit of a false dawn but it looks like they’ve reopened the video case. They’ve partnered with Coull, a service which allows you to make any video interactive!

They’ve already launched creative for Haven Holidays…

… and also for Littlewoods

The result is pretty good!

They’re taking TV adverts and applying interactivity to it so the viewer can click on items and then click through to the merchant and make a purchase. They’re an ideal accompaniment to content or as a standalone advert.

The only thing missing is an option to click on the logos for Haven or Littlewoods at the top of the adverts and therefore visit the merchant without viewing the advert. Hopefully this can be added in the future?

I’d love to see this technology rolled out for other merchants. For example Next have a brand new advert (which is very M&S by the way) featuring their new range and a Gwen Stefani soundtrack. This would be a great bit of creative for a fashion blog!

The key issues with video (creative or otherwise) are time and cost coupled with do they convert?

Taking current TV advertising and converting it to this format removes the need for developing specific video, so that should save on costs so what about conversion rates? Although not specifically affiliate related Coull Case Studies are encouraging. Renault “saw a very high view-to-interaction rate” and Agent Provocateur had “engagement rates greater than 50%.”

If affiliates take this creative on board and it proves successful then it may well encourage more networks and merchants to look at video and rescue it from being left on the same shelf as “mobile will be big next year”.

What do you think? Is this the kind of creative you’d use on your blogs and websites?

Sing along now…. and Merry Christmas!

Still unperturbed by this it’s time to dust off the old crystal ball, get out the star charts and then make up 12 random comments for your amusement only! All resemblance to anyone in AM is of course purely coincidental!

January: The IAB’s new guidelines for ‘Click to Reveal’ are in force from the start of the month. At five past midnight networks are inundated with emails from intoxicated conforming affiliates grassing up non-conforming sites. A well known voucher code site appears on the first news bulletin of 2009 to announce to Sir Trevor MacDonald that they’re the first to conform and in fact it was their idea!

February: Affiliates are stunned by a new voucher code cookie dropping method based upon a top TV game show. “Click to Deal or No Deal” involves a visitor gambling on the kind of discount they get whilst cookies drop and sites pop up as the 22 boxes are opened. “It’s not a forced click” and “it’s not click to reveal” the siteowner tells Paxman on Newsnight!

March: Larry King is told “It’s a disgrace” by the siteowner who used Click to Deal or No Deal, as The IAB issues emergency guidelines to outlaw it. They also ban any derivative of “Click to ..” which rhymes with Reveal (like to Click to Beale, Click to Squeal and Click to Wheel of Fortune) just to screw up any further funny predictions in this blog post… the swines!

April: A4UExpo goes to Amsterdam! The event is a major success again and surprisingly no affiliates visit the red light area or interesting coffee shops, instead preferring day trips to see The Tulips and Windmills…. yeah, right! The rest of the month in affiliate marketing remains fairly mellow, man!

May: The codes juggernaught shows no sign of slowing down and before long big media brands from TV and newspapers are flexing their muscles and launching their own code channels… everyone claims that they were first in one form or another!

June: The second black tie A4UAwards take place at the Hilton in London! Kieron wins lots of awards, including best network, although he’s pipped for best affiliate blog by Doug who’s bribed everyone to vote for him else he’ll take their code site off them! See the pink bandana man had a plan all along!

July: A prominent code site owner announces the launch of his own TV channel, where he’ll be interviewing the stars about their online shopping experiences. It’s called Codes Until Night Time TV. Noel Edmunds is rumoured to be considering hosting Click to Deal or No Deal.

August: By now we’re either getting out of recession or are all completely screwed, in the Euro, and Southampton are playing in the First Division. Global warming means that it’s too wet in Swansea to do affiliate marketing.

September: An affiliate marketing report gives all affiliates hope – a sale (yes one sale) was made during the last quarter that did not come from a cashback or voucher code affiliate. The tide could be turning! “You mean we don’t have to have codes to get sales” becomes the most popular discussion thread ever on a4u.

October: It’s the third A4UExpo and once again it’s a roaring success and the highlight of the affiliate calendar. Shopping via your mobile is touted as the “big thing for 2010″ after failing to be the “big thing for 2009″. The most popular session at Expo involves the super affiliates. Many delegates are left disappointed when a spelling mistake involving a B and an M is pointed out – the session is actually “meet the super affiliates’!

November: It’s nearly Christmas and merchants are desperately outdoing each other with incentives. Prezzybox will be taking affiliates on a round the world cruise, Platform A are taking an expedition down to The Titanic or in search of The Yeti, whilst Buyagift will be taking their top guys and gals to the moon in 2010. Everyone else offers an ipod Nano!

December: Codes Until Night Time TV ends when viewing figures drop from 1 to 0 due to the siteowner falling asleep. In a surprise move The IAB announces that all click to reveal will be stopped from January 1st 2010 whilst cashback sites will be capped on their offerings to users. “All we need now is some affiliates who aren’t in these sectors” concludes the announcement.

Come back in 12 months time to find that the above haven’t come true… and what are your predictions?

… and please no jokes about crap Christmas gifts!

To give this blog an affiliate don’t forget to promote Firebox’s CrapWrap service. It’s an “exclusive, uniquely shoddy gift wrapping option involves us wrapping your pressies in a slapdash fashion”…. perfect for gadgets and gifts including Crap Trumps!

Highlights of the video including Naomi fondling a monster, Zak looking like he’s forgotten the time his talk is on and is looking for the autocue and DGM going for the pop video option.

And let’s not forget Chris’ Tubes style of interviewing. Fans of Soccer AM will know all about Tubes but if you’re not sure what it’s all about then watch this video and see just where Chris gets his interviewer inspiration.

I will be at A4UExpo… I’ll be the one hiding from Chris! ;o)

In fact something like this:

By combining the presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain with the RickRolling Rick Astley phenomena, the above video has already featured on Sky News and has over half a million views.

Whether you think it’s funny (personally I do), silly, childish, or a total waste of time… remember that the siteowner’s url is in full view all the time. Not a bad bit of publicity!

The winner of the latest Buy.at promotion is offering affiliate’s the chance to win a networking party brought to their hometown. Unfortunately the competition is based on the percentage growth of weekend sales over the summer and not the opportunity to pitch for it….. because on a pitch, Swansea would win hands down!

Despite being the fourth most miserable place to live in a recent poll (it beat Newcastle so good news for Buy.at people), the one reason why Swansea is ideal for an affiliate get together is this….

We have people stuck down holes…

… and we video them!

Littlewoods Bingo & The YouTube Video
Last month (April 2008) Littlewoods Bingo contacted their affiliates about a TV ad campaign that they were about to run. The advert, like many others, can be found in the archives of YouTube. It’s a useful bit of content and could be used as an integral part of any content.

But a little bit of additional searching and you’ll unearth this nugget of content gold:

It’s an outtake of the original advert – with the actress in the piece apparently winning £500 playing bingo whilst filming the ad. Now, for some reason the original video posted to YouTube was removed and replaced with the one above (apart from that there’s no difference). As far as I know Littlewoods Bingo have not made anything of the video which makes you wonder is it real or just some clever marketing ploy they decided against using?

Who knows the answer, but in terms of writing content and promoting the merchant it’s a much more interesting angle to comment upon compared to just another, fairly unexciting, bingo advert.

So if you’re stuck when writing content or just want a different angle, head on over to the old You Tube and see if there’s a video or two that you can include in your blogs and websites.

So slightly inspired by Fraser’s podcasts and in part looking for an angle to promote IWOOT in an innovative way the first Loquax Competitions Video newsletter was born. The result of which is below:

Now, it’s a “first attempt” (which means it’s about v1.8) but any further tweaks and twizzles weren’t going to change things too dramatically at this stage, so it has now been unleashed upon our user base (with news of our 10th birthday competition that’s revealed in the video to encourage people to watch) so the feedback (if any) will be interesting.

Admittedly the voicing could be better, it’s actually a lot lot harder than you’d imagine, and i should really have saved the outtakes, the general flow could also be improved, and there’s some minor issues with the soundtrack in that during transitions it wouldn’t play, but on the whole I’m reasonably pleased with the final video. General filming improvements will come with in time just by getting to grips with the software, which wasn’t too bad to start with but there were a few niggles towards the end, and/or finding something better to do the job.

With web 2.0 and social networking all the rage it’s important for affiliates to try and be innovative and constantly trying to find new ways to attract interest in their website. So, hopefully this experiment will work (really we can only judge it on user interest and feedback) and we can then go on and use video on a more regular basis to interact with our users in a new way.

Additional Info
The video was put together using Camtasia Studio. They offer a 30 day free trial.