TradeDoubler and LOVEFiLM pioneer first performance-based viral campaign

TradeDoubler, the pan-European digital marketing company, today announced it has been appointed by LOVEFiLM to create and manage a pioneering new viral campaign. TradeDoubler will produce, seed and track a viral game which will convert through an affiliate model for LOVEFiLM, the first time that an initiative of this kind has been done on such a large scale.

The campaign, which will complement high season demand for DVD rental, aims to increase awareness of and traffic to the LOVEFiLM website, and act as an acquisition channel of trialists to LOVEFiLM DVD and game rental service.

The concept of the game centres around the ‘LOVEFiLM Academy’ where players go to train to become superheroes, battling both good and bad guys and using LOVEFiLM DVD’s to knock them out. Once the game has ended, players are given a promotional code which can be redeemed at checkout on the LOVEFiLM website, and are invited to submit their score to a leader board. The player with the highest score will win £250 worth of LOVEFiLM Shop vouchers and the next nine high scorers will receive free annual membership to LOVEFiLM Rentals. Peer-to-peer referrals are also encouraged through a recommend-a-friend facility where players can invite others to play.
The game, which is scheduled to go live at the beginning of this month, will initially be seeded on the main gaming portals, viral communities and social networks. TradeDoubler will then track the number of people that play the game and subsequent sales via the LOVEFiLM site. Sales conversion rate is expected to be 2%, whilst click-through rate is likely to be around 25%.

Jason Norris, Affiliate Manager at LOVEFiLM, said: “November through to February is an important time for us in terms of DVD rental and we wanted a strong, creative digital campaign to explore new opportunities. The concept TradeDoubler presented to us was the perfect way to do this, making them the obvious partner for this campaign. Tracking the viral impact on a performance basis makes this a really exciting new step in our digital strategy.”

Lara Kelly, Client Services Director at TradeDoubler, commented: “We are thrilled to be working with LOVEFiLM on such a ground-breaking project. For the first time, LOVEFiLM will be able to accurately measure the impact of a viral and track the value of a campaign back to the brand and sales. We look forward to seeing results of the campaign in the months to come and hope to roll out similar offerings to our other clients in the future.”

TradeDoubler was responsible for the concept design and coordination of the project, and worked in conjunction with viral agency TAMBA to execute the campaign.

Play the game: http://www.lovefilm.com/micro/superherogame.html

Editorial Contacts
TradeDoublerJennifer CheungTel: +44 20 7798 5860Email: jennifer.cheung@tradedoubler.com
Firefly CommunicationsCarly PearsonTel: +44 20 7386 1417Email: tradedoublerukteam@fireflycomms.com

The New LOVEFiLM Logo

For those of you that have worked with LOVEFiLM for several years you may have seen quite a few versions of our logo as we have grown, merged and evolved into our current position as the place to find the films you want. Below is the official logo that has been updated.

Every time the LOVEFiLM logo appears the following legal notice should also appear on the same page:

LOVEFiLM, the LOVEFiLM logo and all other LOVEFiLM product or service names are trademarks of LOVEFiLM International Ltd. © 2008 LOVEFiLM UK Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

This can appear with the Ts and Cs or in suitable placements.

LOVEFiLM passing on the VAT saving

You probably know the Government has knocked 2.5% off VAT. You’d probably expect us to pass this straight on our customers so you have an even better offer to promote. You’re dead right.

From the start of December all prices reflect the 2.5% reduction. This will be done automatically on all of our offers, so you don’t have to do anything. Obviously our banner creative and copy on your site might been incorrect now, but our website is showing the correct VAT affected price in all references, as well as us detailing the reasons for the changes on our site. I think this change is something many of your are dealing with right now for the offer you promote, so I hope the guide below helps.

We’ve crunched the numbers and you’ll find all the new package prices below:


£3.99 - now £3.91
£5.99 - now £5.87
£7.99 - now £7.83
£9.99 - now £9.78
£10.99 - now £10.76
£12.99 - now 12.72
£14.99 - now £14.68
£15.99 - now £15.65
£18.99 - now £18.59

LOVEFiLM and PPC Policy

In the past 3 weeks LOVEFiLM has seen increased PPC activity by affiliates that have not been approved to do so. This has included affiliates bidding on our brand name, variations on the name, using our URL and also using misleading copy.

I want to reiterate that no affiliates should ever be bidding on our brand or URL without express approval. Not only will it drive up our own CPC costs but it will lead to affiliate relationships being terminated and our relationship with super affiliates and affiliate networks being reviewed.

LOVEFiLM, our online agency and myself are not willing to tolerate affiliates brand bidding or moving around networks hoping to not get caught. Below is a clear outline or our position for PPC on all search engines.


Voucher Codes

Please be aware that you can only promote voucher codes through the LOVEFiLM affiliate programme if you have been given explicit permission by either LOVEFiLM. Promoting voucher codes which have not been made available will result in the removal of commissions and ending your affiliate relationship with LOVEFiLM. You should not be promoting the standard 2 week trial as a voucher code in any way on search campaigns or as a way to drive traffic to a voucher site.

Keyword Policy

Keyword Policy LOVEFiLM request that affiliates do not bid on our brand name, or use the display URL www.lovefilm.com or www.lovefilm.co.uk. We also ask affiliates to not bid on similar and combinations such as I Lovefilm, lovefilms, Love Film Uk, Lovefilm.net, Love Film Com, LOVEFiLM.COM and Lovesfilm. This is in competition with our own search campaigns and adds no value.

Other than this affiliates can bid on generic terms such as ‘DVD rental’ and ‘free Dvd rental trials’ and affiliates can also bid on film titles and actor names. Anything that is not LOVEFiLM specific is acceptable activity. All search traffic should be driven via your own pages and not direct to www.lovefilm.com or www.lovefilm.co.uk or any variations and URL extensions as this conflicts with our own campaigns. Affiliates should also use not clone our existing adwords campaigns, you must use your own copy. Affiliates should have a page of information or comparison page to improve response, such as listing the many benefits of our service:

UK's largest selection, over 65,000 titles
All the latest releases ever week on every format – DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray
Every classic you can think of and many more you forgot about TV series & documentaries – watch them in order or rent episodes you want
Games can be added to packages (PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS)
No due dates – keep the films as long as you like No postage costs – we send them for free and post back is free
No late fees - ever Cancel anytime, no obligation to stay

Affiliates breaking the keyword restrictions may be removed from the program and will not be paid for leads.

Any email affiliates out there for Games?

Did you know that LOVEFiLM offers gaming rentals from just £9.99 a month?

We also have new gaming rental email creative promoting a free 30 day trial, longer than all of our competition offer.
All of our packages also offer complete access to our DVD and Blu-ray range, unmatched by any gaming rental service.

And did you know all of the biggest games are released right now and we support every console?

The options are:
£9.99 - get 4 discs a month, 2 at a time
£10.99 – get 1 disc at a time, unlimited rentals a month
£14.99 – get 2 discs at a time, unlimited rentals a month
£18.99 - get 3 discs at a time, unlimited rentals a month

If you would like to promote this to gamers in the Christmas run up get in touch with me.

I also have some updated email creative for the DVD rental offer if affiliates are looking for some solus creative in the Christmas run up.

I'm eager to get some big attention around our gaming rental options, so I am open to ideas.

Another Award Win

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Data Strategy Awards 2008 (seriously, it was not as dull as it sounds). I was also able to get up on stage with my email and lead generation agency EDR and collect the award for Best Prospect Data Provision for the EDR/LOVEfiLM campaign. EDR won for 'The LOVEFiLM online lead generaion program' which we have been working on for nearly a year.

Thats 2 data awards, now to aim for the A4U and Revolution prizes.

Great A4U Expo

I had a great time at the Expo last week, and managed to take my Mac with me to write notes as the talks were going on. Once I have tided these up I plan to post some key insights from each of the speakers on here, so look out for that.

I think the highlight thought was seeing Matt Le Tissier in the bar on the final night - big boo to the Sky VIP area.

LOVEFiLM Retail Voucher code

Some good LOVEFiLM Retail good news for this week - your users will be able to get a MASSIVE 10% off from Monday 20th October until midnight on Wednesday 22nd October.

To get the 10% off everything at the LOVEFiLM shop they will need to enter HALLOWEEN at the checkout!

Personally the highlight is getting the Friday the 13th boxset (8 films) for £16.14 - each is a classic but number 6 the pick of the bunch.

Chris Perrett is the LOVEFiLM Retail Account Manager if you have any questions:
E-Mail:Chris.Perrett@TradeDoubler.com

A4U Expo Tomorrow

Just been back from holiday for under a week and managed to clear some time to attend the A4U Expo for the next 2 days. Bet I am not the only one interested to seeing how the industry is dealing with the bank and credit crisis, as so far affiliates seem to be the ones bucking the trend. If anything this seems to be fueling some growth in the channel.

I'll be at the Ice Bar at the end of the last day and no doubt catching up on some emails in the Tradedoubler chill out zone (bit of a contradiction to be doing both) throughout the breaks, so hope to see some familar faces. My basic plan of attack is below, but bound to change as I look into the conferences in more detail.

Tuesday
Real World Affiliate Management Tips - How to Communicate, Motivate & Incentivise Affiliates Effectivley
10 Ways to Get the Most Out of your Paid Search Affiliates
Social Media - The Affiliate Advantage, The Law and The Future
Jupiter Research - Attracting & Retaining Customers in a Challenging Economy
Understanding Incentivised Traffic in Affiliate Marketing

Wednesday
Dare to Be Different - Affiliate Programme Brainstorming
How to Manage a Successful Affiliate Programme : Strategies from Award Winning Affiliate Managers
What the Affiliate Marketing Council can do for You
Do Incentive Sites add Incremental Value to your Programme? An example of Successful Partnerships
Payment Trends and Strategies in Affiliate Marketing
Networking Party at the Ice Bar

Lovefilm wins No 2 spot in Sunday Times Tech Track 100

In yesterday’s Sunday Times, Lovefilm came second in the highly regarded and prestigious Tech Track 100. This is the league table which measures Britain’s fastest growing and most successful private technology firms. This is the second year Lovefilm have featured in this league table. Last year we achieved an award for reaching the no 5 spot.

We have once again received public recognition for our achievements in a year when the general market and economic conditions have really tightened up.

Such growth is achieved through the hard work of every Lovefilm employee but also our partners, agencies and affiliates. We have seen great growth in our online channel thanks to working hard with affiliates to grow the programs we run and developing new offers that affiliates want to promote.

You can read the full report on our best achievement to date by following this link: http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/fasttrack2002/bin/2008-TechTrack100.pdf

EDR wins Best New Data Technology award at Connect 2008 for LOVEFiLM campaign

After being shortlisted in two categories at Monday night’s Connect Awards 2008, EDR walked away with the Best New Data Technology award for Pure Lead, their online lead generation, management and conversion software.

Fighting off competition from The Software Bureau and Digital Marketing Group, EDR took the award for their work on the LOVEFiLM online lead generation campaign, a shining example of best practice and the successful implementation of technology in a cost effective and scalable new channel.

The Pure Lead technology is used to raise data quality through real-time validation and deduping across multiple sources of data. It cuts the end-to-end process time for lead generation and ensures the swift delivery of data that is still fresh and responsive. The combination of improved data quality and dramatically reduced time to contact creates the perfect conditions for converting prospects.

Alongside our affiliate marketing I also run our lead generation and email marketing, so it was great to see my agency win this award.

Lovefilm Shop - 1 year old

Just a quick post to celebrate that the Lovefilm Retail program will have been open for 1 year at the end of September. Its been a great addition to the Lovefilm family and interesting to see a pure retail offering alongside the monthly service, gifts and pay as you go.

Thanks to anyone who has used our product feed or our banners to promote the shop - and don't forget it is cross tracked on the main Lovefilm program as well.

Tradedoubler Summit 08

I'm looking forward to the Tradedoubler Summit this Thursday as its a great chance to see the state of the industry and catch up with friends. Looks like the focus will be on hot topics for publishers and affiliates followed by some great networking opportunities, so I hope to see as many of our affiliates as possible on the day. I am available to chat about anything regarding our program or ideas you have.

And I'm sure we can persuade our account managers to facilitate the networking with a beer or 2 in the evening.

program changes - new commission structure

LOVEFiLM are making some changes to the structure of our account and standard payment tariffs.
As of the 1st of September the following tariffs apply. A lead is still classed as someone who signs up for a no commitment free trial:

Lead 1-25 @ £9
Lead 26-50 @ £12
Lead 51-100 @ £13
Lead 101-200 @ £14
Lead 201-500 @ £15
Lead 501+ @ £17

These slight reductions in tariffs are across all affiliate activity and networks. These changes will enable us to try new promotions as well as add bonuses and incentives where they are most deserved. These tariffs are still the highest paying rates across online DVD rental programs and extremely competitive across all CPL programs.

LOVEFiLM back on TV - close the sale for us

At LOVEFiLM once again from 15th August we are going to have a huge TV campaign promoting our free 2 week trial - the same offer our affiliates have. The synergy that we get from these 2 channels always improves affiliate volumes by at least 15% and up to 30% for certain affiliate partners.

I urge you all to get our ads into prominent places on your sites, while also updating any copy to include 'as seen on TV', 65,000 titles, prices from £3.99 and the fact that over 600,000 members are already enjoying the service.

free LOVEFiLM memberships - promote our shop

Hi Guys

I am eager to get you all promoting our Lovefilm Retail program on Tradedoubler so am giving out some free memberships to our rental offer to get you motivated. I've got 5 free annual memberships for our August promotion each worth £120 to give to you.

To be in with your chance to win simply make your 1st sale on the program for August.

We have a range of banners and a product feed of our entire range of DVDs, games and blank storage/media storage.

If you are not already signed up to the Shop program on Tradedoubler the details are:

Program name: Lovefilm Retail
Program ID: 60289

Also for any queries on Lovefilm Retail get in touch with Kate Walsh, who manages our retail offerings - Kate.Walsh@lovefilm.com

She can help you if you have an idea for a coupon or other special promotions.

The LOVEFiLM Shop - 40% off Blu-ray + more special offers

The Lovefilm Shop are promoting 40% off selected Blu-ray titles including Superbad and Cars. We also have many other promotions such as film boxsets from £4.93 and DVD of the week 10,000 BC for £9.93. Also we recently good some good press from The Times Online and The Times on Sunday for our prices compared to Tesco and Asda.

In the very near future we will be updating our product feed to include blank media/storage. We are excited about this new addition and will be sure to let our affiliates know once the feed has gone live. If you are not already signed up to the Shop program on Tradedoubler the details are:

Program name: Lovefilm Retail
Program ID 60289

A/B and multi-variate testing to improve conversion on Lovefilm homepage

Thought I would post something about the multi-variate testing that Lovefilm has been doing to improve conversion on our website. As we send most affiliate traffic to our homepage all affiliates should have seen increased CCR from the recent tests.

Our digital and usability product manager Craig Sullivan recently spoke to e-consultancy about the work we have been doing in MVT. Below are the key points and the whole article can be found at http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/365649/q-a-lovefilm-s-craig-sullivan-on-a-b-and-multi--variate-testing.html

So how long has Lovefilm been testing for?

We've been A/B testing all sorts of stuff for a few years now but we recently found a really good Multi Variate testing solution from Optimost (www.optimost.com) that has been getting us good results. We're trying to do loads more tests because the gains are so fundamental to our bottom line. It's also useful for us to assess the impact of changes we sometimes make rather than trying to guess the outcome.


What benefits are you getting from MVT?

There are obvious financial benefits - because of our fast growth as a business, we drive a lot of traffic to our site. We recently did a test with 192 elements and found two major changes that increased conversion. This gets us substantial additional revenue each year.

The other brilliant side benefit is that time spent endlessly tweaking designs or choosing 'the best design' is now reduced. I spend less time in long pointless meetings arguing about whether we should use dropdowns or whether the button should have shadows or what colour an element should be - our customers let us put all the ideas into a bucket and see what things work.

What are the key lessons you've learnt?

MVT testing is easy and everyone should be doing this. There are solutions that are completely free all the way up to thousands of pounds so there is plenty of choice in the market.

The biggest things personally for me are how it radically changed our design and approval process and how it removed the guesswork from site changes. We shouldn't be trying to 'guess' customer behaviour and we just shrug now, accept this fact and get on with letting the customers settle it for us.

credit: e-consultancy

Affiliate Marketing People in Good Cause Shock!

Thats right, affilliates, affiliate networks and publishers worked together to do something good for once - Dragon Boat Racing for charity!

Thank you to those who donated to the charity event in aid of The Anthony Nolan Trust on the 12 of June. Tradedoubler entered 4 strong teams and in all participates raised over £10.5k for charity, and you can still donate if you like at http://www.justgiving.com/tradedoublerdragonboat

Below is proof of said activity, with guns pumping after a hard fought race. Lovefilm’s involvement with Tradedoubler’s Viking team also helped us to thrash our competition on our way to winning the final and being showered in glory. Smaller contributions were made by the likes of Nectar, TMN Media, Jessops, CK Net Ltd and Tradedoubler themselves - George 'Splasher' Head and Wolfy “check out these guns” Light-Wilkinson

The Anthony Nolan Trust takes back lives from leukaemia by managing and recruiting new donors to the UK's most successful bone marrow register as well as undertaking vital research leading to improvements in the effectiveness and safety of bone marrow transplants.

The Anthony Nolan is responsible for finding suitable unrelated donors for patients who require bone marrow transplants. Fewer than 30 per cent of patients who need bone marrow transplants are able to find a compatible donor within their own families. The rest rely on the generosity of strangers who have volunteered to donate bone marrow to anyone in need.

June - back on TV, time for affiliates to cash in

The latest LOVEFiLM.COM TV spot featuring a voice over by Simon Pegg is now out. Clips from I Am Legend, The Golden Compass, Sweeny Todd and some classic clips. Its my favourite so far due to a clip from The Big Lebowski that always makes me laugh.

As always TV exposure is great for our affiliates - you guys get to close the deal and take the commission. Let me know if need anything from me to help with this, and you can always embed this ad on your page with your links.

New Gaming Package and Creative

Lovefilm have just launched a new package that focuses on gaming at our lowest price ever.

For £9.99 a month members can rent 4 games and have 2 at home at any time. We think this is better than any other option from other rental companies. We are now also stocking Nintendo DS titles alongside Wii, Xbox, PS2 and PS3 so this offer is great for affiliates that promote gaming. We had GTA 4 stock on day of release for our members to rent.

Also to promote the new package we are promoting an extended 1 mont trial on Tradedoubler. Banners in our gaming rental section in sizes 728x90, 468x60 and 120x600 will be promoting this special offer.

We continue to offer our normal commissions of £10-£17.50 depenign on your volume every month.

New PAYG Promotion - Toshiba HDTV Giveaway

For the month of May LOVEFiLM.COM are running a special promotion for our Pay As You Go offer. Everyone who buys a pack of rental credits will be entered into a prize draw to win a Toshiba Regza 40 inch HDTV worth over £1000.

LOVEFiLM PAYG is the alternative to a monthly subscription and is aimed at film lovers who do not watch enough films justify a regular membership. With LOVEFIlM PAYG a user would buy a pack of credit and be able to use this to rent when they like. They get the same great LOVEFiLM.COM features with no late fees, full site access and the ability to rent every DVD available in the UK.

We have updated out banner creative for this offer as well as the landing page, in order to help communicate the great prize on offer. We are also still paying £15 for every sign up for this service.

I would hope this help affiliates to promote the offer - when you have used prize draws previously for other offers we have seen a good response increase.

Do Affiliate prefer a high CPA or a stronger offer to promote?

Here at Lovefilm we have built our affiliate program on promoting a 2 week trial and paying our affiliates £12-17 (volume pyramid) for every person they drive to our service. Our affiliates are told not to promote offers not on the network, such as the longer trials we use to win customers back or premia included promotions (wine, cinema tickets).

I am looking at allowing some affiliates to promote special offers such as a longer trial and cinema ticket giveaway, but this moves some of the affiliate commission budget into the offer instead. Affiliates have a choice - promote the normal offer and take the money, or try the different offer on a lower CPA but hope conversion is better (as it should be).

What do affiliate prefer though - a higher CPA with less risk or the gamble of 3 times as much (or less) money in the bank if the special offer works?

Best week of the year for Lovefilm's Affiliate Marketing

Last week saw the best week of the year for Lovefilm in terms of affiliate marketing - a great achievement. Although we were advertising on TV in January the current TV spots that started 2 week ago seem to be having a better halo affect on affiliate based promotions.

Considering the doom and gloom currently going around regarding the economy are people seeing affiliate marketing bucking the forecasts? I would hope affiliates promoting great savings and offers would prosper right now.

Lovefilm.com - Retail/Leisure Business of the Year

This past Wednesday I attended the Fast Growth Business Awards in London as part of the Lovefilm.com team, hoping to win the Retail/Leisure Business of the Year Award. Not only did we win this category, but we also made the top 4 for the overall award - something we had not expected. Below are the judge's comments:

LOVEFiLM disruptive nature and meteoric growth was simply too impressive for the judges to overlook. Since forming just six years ago in 2002 it’s captured the online DVD rental market with frightening pace, harnessing a market that brought in revenues of around £65m in 2007. Determined to stay ahead of the game, LOVEFiLM has also invested heavily in the emerging digital downloads market and struck deals with a number of major film studios, as well as white label agreements with the likes of Tesco. The pace of growth and drive for innovation has come at the expense of profit, but the judges felt the founders’ acceptance of risk in a bid to rapidly capture market share, was the essence of entrepreneurial zest that the awards aim to champion.

Not only did we do well at this awards ceremony, but on the same night we also came 7th in the Media Momentum awards which aim to identify the UK’s 50 fastest growing media businesses. This is the third year running that we have been recognized in the top 50.

All of these awards and recognitions for growth have would be happen without the hard work of everyone at Lovefilm, but also the hard work of every partner and affiliate. I would like to thank anyone reading this that has worked on our affiliate campaigns or any other promotions that we have run. Our affiliates have played a key part in our growth and it is great to be able to say that our affiliate marketing is a major success.

Lovefilm.com back on tv - expect affiliates activity to increase 30%!

Just a quick message to tell you that Lovefilm.com is going to be back on the telly as of the 14th of this month. As those that are already on our program know - being on TV makes our affiliate activity work even better. Every time we have been on TV I have watched our affiliate numbers increase, around 30% last time in January.

30%!! - get those Lovefilm.com links up now. The TV ad is the same as our affiliate offer of a 2 week FREE trial while you can earn £10-£17.

Contact myself or your Tradedoubler contact to get involved.

Easy Cinema and Lovefilm PAYG - Commission changes and updates

Commission Changes

The Easy Cinema brand (powered by LOVEFiLM.com) has experienced some great growth thanks to affiliates over the last year. However over the last few months, LOVEFiLM has developed a new Pay As You Go offer which we want to now focus on with all your support. We are offering a whopping £15 commission in order to bring as many new people to this Pay As You Go plan.
The Easy DVD rental commission will be lowered to £4. £4 is still in line with, or more than, most of our competitors in the DVD rental sector. This change will occur as of Monday 25th February 2008.

We feel that the LOVEFiLM PAYG is the best offer on the market for those people who want to rent DVDs (plus Blu-Ray and HD titles) with no subscription. We're so sure of this that we're offering 2 free bonus rental credits for every new customer, which make rentals cost from just £1.76 each, plus all the film content and community which LOVEFiLM is famous for.

The £15 commission is also extremely strong for incentive and cash-back sites to offer. You can access Lovefilm PAYG creative on the main Lovefilm program.

Thank you for your continued support and hard work. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call or email your Tradedoubler contact or send me a message.

A video guide to Lovefilm.com

Check out this cool video someone made of how to use Lovefilm.com:


Lovefilm.com Video Review - Online DVD Rental In Practice - More free videos are here

Not bad and with a kicking soundtrack. Feel free to use it in any affiliate activity to promote our service.

Also while on the subject on film from Lovefilm.com, check out an old vodcast of ours. The always delightful Helen has a quick feature on the Autumn hits but the real highlight is the winner of our contest 'I Love London'. We asked our members to make videos on why they love our capital and got some great results.
Its a nice way to spend 12 minutes on a Friday Afternoon, and the winning clips start around the 6 minute mark.


LoveFilm Vodcast October - The most popular videos are a click away

credit to hackinglovefilm.com and http://blog.pi-imagedesign.com

Lovefilm Banner Creative - shedloads of it for affiliates to use

We've been busy adding all the possible banner creative we can for our affiliates to use on Tradedoubler. Here's a quick breakdown of our creative offerings so you can see what might work best for you. This creative is clearly broken down on our Tradedoubler program into ad categories so you will be able to find it easily.

Lovefilm DVD Rental
Good old 14 day trial creative - telling your site's audience about the main benefits of our service, the free trial, the range, the warm fuzzy feeling Lovefilm gives. Also we have some new flash banners that are very smart and feature a bunch of clips.

Lovefilm Games Rental
Similar to the above but with a focus on games. Did you know we have PS3, Wii and Xbox games to rent? Watch this space for some new additions as well, and these work great if you have a gaming audience. Also Lovefilm Gaming has its own landing page.

DVD Rental - Special Offers
You can check here for anything new and special. Currently we have some new creative promoting the offer of 2 months for the price of 1. This means if you want to offer something different to the standard 14 day trial this might float your boat.

Bollywood
Does your site promote the wonders of Indian Cinema? Then this range is for you, linking to a special Bollywood themed page. This range promotes the 14 day trial.

For Him
Our attention grabbing range inspired by an old classic about a killer shark. The boys should love them. This range promotes the 14 day trial.

For Her
A softer approach but still set at sea, this range is inspired by a famous love story set on a boat that is attacked by a cruel iceberg. This range promotes the 14 day trial.

Lovefilm PAYG
The alternative Lovefilm offer of Pay As You Go. Think your audience is not interested in a trial or has a limited demand for rentals? If they just want to pay for what they rent then Lovefilm PAYG is a great option. Rental credits can work out as low as £1.76 each while getting all the benefits of being a member of our site.

Lovefilm Gifts
Do you promote gifts and special presents? Lovefilm Gifts allows someone to send a special book and membership combo in our lovely presentation box.

LOVEFiLM to Acquire Amazon’s UK and German DVD Rental Business

Luxembourg, February 4, 2008 – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and LOVEFiLM International (www.lovefilm.com), today announced that LOVEFiLM will acquire Amazon Europe’s DVD rental business in the United Kingdom and Germany. As part of this transaction, Amazon Europe will also make a cash investment and become the largest shareholder in LOVEFiLM International Ltd., and finally, the two companies will enter into a multi-year marketing agreement in which Amazon Europe will promote LOVEFiLM’s services on its sites for UK and German customers.

Completion of the deal is subject to regulatory approval in the UK and Germany. Following completion of this deal, the new LOVEFiLM subscriber base will total over 900,000 customers predominantly in the UK and Germany, but also in the Nordics (Sweden, Norway, and Denmark).

“As one of Europe’s largest online DVD rental businesses, LOVEFiLM is well established to serve customers’ increasing demand for entertainment,” said Greg Greeley, Amazon’s vice president of European retail. “Our investment will enable LOVEFiLM to grow the business further and we are excited to be part of their future.”

Simon Calver, CEO of LOVEFiLM International said, “Customers are faced with an astonishing array of choices in the entertainment world these days. LOVEFiLM International will ensure that Amazon Europe’s customers get the best possible DVD rental service. We will be delighted to welcome all Amazon Europe customers to the LOVEFiLM service. This new, bigger customer base will give us an even better position from which to build LOVEFiLM as the best place for customers to find film.”

Amazon Europe will continue to operate the DVD rental business on behalf of LOVEFiLM for a period of time following the close of the transaction to ensure an efficient transition and smooth customer experience. No staff reductions are planned at Amazon’s German or UK operations as a result of the business transfer.

Lovefilm and (RED) - plus new flash banners

Lovefilm are working with the company (RED) for Valentines day. (RED) are fighting the war againts AIDS in Africa, and we will be giving half of the profits from our gifting service to the cause for the Valentines Day period. We will be supplying new banners, and I would be interested in what other merchants (and affiliates) like to do to promote a good cause. Would be great to know if any affiliates specialise in supporting fund raising and charity and want to get involved.


Also have lots of new creative on Tradedoubler. We've just updated our flash banners so they reflect the new price and increased choice, as well as some cool clips from Rocky and Die Hard.

Affiliate Success from TV Advertising

You may have noticed Lovefilm.com on the TV again this month. Standard stuff for us, ads on Sky Sports, Uk Gold, E4 etc. What some affiliate may not know is that whenever we advertise on TV we see on increase in conversions and people signing up for a trial on affiliate websites. I know from speaking to some affiliates there is a concern that TV advertising takes away from affiliate activity and commission, but we are proving it is not the case.

Every time last year we have been promoting the Lovefilm.com service on TV we have seen affiliates close the sale and benefit from increased brand awareness. We have a lot more TV advertising planned for this year as well as some new offers and online activity, so I hope our affiliates continue to support us.

Also, are you interested in how we see our service and ideas to maximise potential from running our banners/offers? Feel free to get in touch.