100 films that defined a decade

I thought our affiliates might like to be involved in our biggest ever poll - the 100 films that defined a decade. It is a fun poll and also a source of information for any content you may be planning.

It's not always the very best films that have the biggest impact on their time, as you'll see from this list. So please don't hate us if some of your favourites are missing - we had to make some sacrifices ourselves.

What worries me the most is Moulin Rouge beating Shaun of the Dead, The Dark Knight and The Departed at the moment.

All networks closed for Affiliate Window move

Now that we have migrated all of our affiliate network activity to Affiliate Window our programs with Tradedoubler, Buy.at and Affiliate Future are officially closed.

I hope everyone updated their links - if you have any questions contact Jo Halstead here and she can help with any ideas for promotions or help moving over. Everyone I speak to seems to love Affiliate Window for their tracking and tools for affiliates, so I hope everyone benefits going forward.

LOVEFiLM Wins Company 'Oscars'

The office is a bit quiet today with the exec team no doubt having a rest after an eventful night, as LOVEFiLM picked up company of the year at the Fast Growing Business Awards.

Dragons Den star Theo Paphitis and Phones 4U founder John Caudwell were among the judges that praised us for being one fo the engines of recovery during the recession of the past year.

Accepting the award, chief executive Simon Calver said the award honoured his 470-strong workforce's "passion" for growth, the business and the customers.

Amazingly this is the 1st big award we have won this year after being nominated for the Fast Growth Awards, the Red Herring Awards and the A4U awards, where we were highly commended for Best Use of Affiliate Marketing As Part of an Integrated Campaign.

Virtual Goods Summit

If I had an unlimited expense account I would have been at the Virtual Goods Summit in San Francisco where things also got a bit heated in regards to social network games. The debate about the types of offers on purchases and games promoted via TrialPay, OfferPal and Zynga etc opened up the issue of what products and services are ethical. Video found on articles on Tech Crunch over the weekend.



While I am not endorsing anything dodgy around mobile phone subscriptions I can say that the traffic we get from this area is not concerning me at the moment. Just like with all the cash back and ipod giveaway sites we monitor the traffic and conversion from trial to paying, and it seems Netflix and others do the same in the states.

While the UK is still obsessed with voucher sites it seems we are some way from fully understanding virtual goods and alternative currency, maybe in 6 months we will be having the same debates here.

Ad-tech summary

Ad-tech London has been and gone and as always a lot of presentations occurred over the 2 days looking at the online industry and the future developments. Angela Natividad was the resident Tweeter over the 2 days and has a helpful summary of all the main talking points available at imedia connection with a focus on the social media aspect.

Some of these points include:
Twitter has yet to demonstrate its value, either qualitative or quantitative, to the brands that use it
Women will be driving most of the technological change. We're entering what Chris Sanderson (The Future Laboratory) calls 'the female century’
The transparency of social media mean brands must work extra hard to be loved
People aren't 100 per cent digital -- a lot of our lives are still spent at bus stops, in waiting rooms or out in parks, tossing balls. Consider where digital fits into the lives of your users, then move forward from there

I attended the show and maybe it is the result of doing so for the past 5 years but it seemed like the show was stuck in a rut in terms of companies selling a product from the stands. No one I spoke to was offering something drastically new, with the talk about evolving online advertising to be more targeted and still a lot of people working to a CPM business model. It would seem the fact that display spend fell greatly at the end of last year has not pushed everyone to the CPA model that affiliates are excelling at.

A unique movie premiere event tonight

LOVEFiLM are today taking part in a unique movie premiere event.

‘Vinyan’ is receiving its UK premiere tonight in glamorous Leicester Square, with the cast and director attending. Simultaneously with this premiere, you’ll be able to watch the film online here: http://www.lovefilm.com/film/Vinyan/134941/

At 10pm, when the movie ends, you’ll be able to click through to http://www.virtualjunket.co.uk/vinyan/ to watch a Q&A live from the cinema with the cast and director. This Q&A will be hosted by our very own Helen Cowley, and you’ll be able to submit any questions you have via the site to Helen and the cast, all through the power of the web!

LOVEFiLM are pleased to announce the exclusive launch of their affiliate programme with Affiliate Window!

• Please sign up directly to the programme here

LOVEFiLM will now be working with the award winning team at i-level to manage our affiliate network activity.

Launch Incentive - Attend an exclusive screening!

• Generate the 3rd, 7th, 8th,12th, 13th, 24th, 28th, 34th, 39th, 60th, 101st, 300th, 1984th, 2001st sale with Affiliate Window to attend an exclusive screening of a brand new film
• The numbers chosen are all references to popular films and TV shows, if you can work out which films and TV shows we’re referring to you’ll earn an invited along
• Get in touch with the LOVEFiLM team with your entry’s and for any hints!

Promotional Tools

• Regular voucher code and discounts are on offer - Free 14 day trial running throughout September for everyone to promote
• Email creative available within the Affiliate Window interface now
• Product Feed - Fully integrated with Shop Window and holds 5900+ products
• Cross tracking and 30 day cookie as standard

Special Terms

The LOVEFiLM team think it is important to keep everyone informed of any special terms, so when setting up the LOVEFiLM programme please take note of the specific link instructions.

There are comprehensive instructions in the programme description and your welcome email, if you have any questions please contact the LOVEFiLM team and we'll be able to help you out.


The LOVEFiLM Team

LOVEFiLM will only be available through Affiliate Window so we’d encourage everyone to move your links away straight away, especially as the launch incentive is only available for affiliate sales on Affiliate Window.

If you’re not currently working with LOVEFiLM take a look over the description of the three product offers in the Affiliate Window interface, and please contact the team at i-level, as we'll be managing the LOVEFiLM programme, with any questions.

Looking forward to working with everyone on the campaign!

Thanks!

Joanna and the LOVEFiLM team
i-level

lovefilmaffiliates@i-level.com
0207 399 7290

Tech Track 100 - a good year for LOVEFiLM and affiliates

The new 2009 Tech Track 100 has been published by The Sunday Times here and it was a good year for the affiliate industry again.

LOVEFiLM followed up our 2nd place from last year with 9th this year, posting 127% annual growth, one of only 3 companies to maintain a top 10 position.

Others who performed well from the affiliate world included Traffic Broker in 12th and Net Media Planet in 16th.

1st place went to The Hut Group who are our partners on The LOVEFiLM Shop, with 188% growth.

Back from holiday and API beta ready

Back from a great 2 week holiday in Turkey and feeling recharged for the upcoming ad-tech, affiliate expo and Christmas events and activity. I expect this year will see even more buzz around the LOVEFiLM product due to some upcoming chnages that will be announced soon.

Meanwhile the LOVEFiLM API has an official home and will soon be revealed so anyone interested can check it out there. It is early days but the beta group is now set up and there is a forum for discussion that will be open to all.

The API will eventually be open to everyone, so if you are interested you might want to bookmark the site when we open it up.

In the next few weeks we will have some big news so watch this space.

The top Blu-Ray titles

Our members are embracing the format of Blu-Ray with increased demand for all titles. Below are some charts you can use to build content around as well as a link to our guide to Blu-Ray.

The top 5 rated titles by LOVEFiLM members
1. The Dark Knight
2. Taken
3. Batman Begings
4. Iron Man
5. WALL-E

The top 10 most requested titles this week
1. Knowing
2. Watchmen
3. Paul Blart - Mall Cop
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. Let The Right One In
6. Gran Torino
7. Valkyrie
8. Marley & Me
9. Angels And Demons
10. Lesbian Vampire Killers

Angels and Demon is not out until mid-September, so is clearly an eagerly awaited title. Paul Blart continues to be a surprise success while upcoming releases will include The Boat That Rocked and Fast & Furious.

LOVEFiLM Guide

You can check out the complete LOVEFiLM guide to Blu-Ray here including the basics and the kit you need to fully enjoy the experience. Please give credit and link to LOVEFiLM should you use any content.

We have also added some new contextual banners focused on Blu-Ray to the advertising options.

Are online discount vouchers on the decline?

Interesting article over at Hitwise - Are online discount vouchers on the decline?

In conclusion it states the online voucher market is still huge and voucher sites are sending a significant amount of traffic to retailers. But the market is maturing fast and is no longer growing at the rate it once was.

You can see how growth has slowed this year following the massive volumes being driven at Christmas time. LOVEFiLM always held back working with voucher sites closely until this year and so far I am impressed by the ability to get a special offer in front of people, with current traffic performing as expected.

Any Feedback on the new validations process?

The new LOVEFiLM validations process for leads and sales on our program is proving very useful to our internal team, I wondered if affiliates had any feedback?

To remind you, we have automated most of the process of approving free trial and PAYG activity from our affiliates, enabling us to process the batches much quicker and more often. We even managed to run the report twice in the past 7 days for Tradedoubler! We should be running every week for all networks.

Are affiliates happy seeing their leads confirmed quicker? I would be keen to know what everyone thinks now, especially loyalty, cashback and any membership sites.

New promotion - Summer sorted inside and out

From Monday 6th July we will be running a special offer for our affiliates to promote. This special offer will be available to promote via banners and most links will update automatically in the interface.

This offer is a great way to position the LOVEFiLM offer alongside promotion of summar days out. Last year when we promoted this offer with selected partners it was a huge success and has been improved for this year.

LOVEFILM July Offer

Fill up on fun this summer with 2 weeks FREE access to Europe’s favourite DVD rental service and fantastic savings to the UK's top attractions.

*2 weeks of free DVD rental with over 65,000 titles to choose from
*Four 2 for 1 vouchers to the Alton Towers Resort, Chessington World of Adventures & Zoo and LEGOLAND Windsor, PLUS £15 off adult tickets to THORPE PARK.
*Four 2 for 1 vouchers to Warwick Castle, Madame Tussauds London, SEA LIFE Centres/Sanctuaries and the Dungeons.
*50% off rooms at the Alton Towers Resort Hotels
*25% off rooms at the Holiday Inn London Chessington

Be on the lookout from Monday and let us know if you have any great ideas.

LOVEFiLM API Program - looking for developer

LOVEFiLM are looking into an API that can be used to develop apps and widgets for our customers and also for affiliates and partners to use to drive new customers that they will get paid for. Below is the full 1 pager that outlines our plans - email Jason.Norris@lovefilm.com if you are interested and I can put you in touch with the guys in our tech department that are working on this.

Introduction
LOVEFiLM are currently working on an API Programme to enable 3rd parties to securely access our data in order to build custom applications and widgets.

Benefits

Engaging with LOVEFiLM’s API provides exciting opportunities to:

gain access to a wide range of LOVEFiLM and 3rd party content
develop custom integrations in partner sites
increase partner traffic through sticky content
increase partner revenue through initiating member registrations, which may lead to full subscriber sign-up

Overview
Our preliminary research suggests key interest areas include simply enabling customers to display their LOVEFiLM activity on other websites, blogs and social networks – for example, exposing their ‘at home’ or rental list, or their ratings and reviews. Customers may like to have an automatic Facebook update when they add a movie to their list, or perhaps Tweet when they rate a movie, for example.
In addition to these customer needs, there are great opportunities for partner sites who may wish to build widgets to display specific charts / genres on their site, or to make a custom LOVEFiLM collection to display with synopsis, ratings, reviews, images, trailers, etc.

Developers may also like to build widgets to search for titles to view and add to list, in a variety of new ways – longer term this could be integrated into a hardware from set-top boxes to cameras, or scanning tools in handheld devices.

There also may be opportunities for partner websites to display LOVEFiLM gift options to initiate a purchase remotely, or to send/show a customer personalized cinema listings for their local or favourite cinemas.

In addition to LOVEFiLM customer data such as reviews and ratings, we also have content from multiple 3rd parties that we may be able to expose in various ways – this could include select charts and reviews from critics, or additional images or trailers. Whilst we are in the early stages of the programme, we are yet to confirm exactly how such 3rd party content may be used and branded on widgets outside of LOVEFiLM’s site.

Naturally, the scope of opportunities with an API is very broad, so our next step is to identify what our customers and partners are really looking for in this service, so that we can deliver the most exciting and focused product possible. Above are just a few simple ideas of what we think our partners may be looking for – but we hope to gather as much information from you as possible in the coming weeks about the sort of widgets and applications you would like to build, in order for us to provide value to you as early as possible.

Available Features

We are currently developing APIs to expose:

Search
Catalogue data (title, synopsis, rating, certificate, image/s, trailer, contributors, reviews);
Viewing or adding a rating of/to a title
Viewing collections
Viewing charts (including Weekly rental, Weekly TV rental, Blu-ray top 20, All-time top 250, BFI Top 100, AFI Top 100)
Customer Rental List (at home list, Rental List, View, add and delete titles)

This development is already underway and will be reviewed shortly in an internal alpha. There are further additional features already in discussion internally for possible inclusion in the beta, which we would be able to confirm at a later date.

Closed Beta

We are working with a 3rd party – Mashery – to manage our API, from providing access and handling calls to the API, to providing a range of tools and resources, such as usage reporting & developer forums.

LOVEFiLM will be holding a closed beta within Q3. Invited participants will then be able to access the service to build applications targeting new and exciting niche areas and customer needs using these APIs.

Next Steps

Not sure what this all means? Please pass on to your appropriate technical lead and we would be happy to discuss in more detail. Our next step is be to hold a session in the LOVEFiLM offices for parties who would like to register their interest in participating in the closed beta, to provide an opportunity to discuss technical logistics and also high-level discussion of available features and data. We would warmly welcome your thoughts, comments and requests for specific feature exposure via API and look forward to discussing this further.

Affiliate marketing article: Survive the online jungle

I meant to post this the other week but never got to it, so am slightly late now but the article is still very interesting.

Affiliate marketing: Survive the online jungle

I took part in an interview with David Benady for Marketing Magazine to talk about brands and their use of affiliate marketing. We talked about the role of affiliates, loyalty sites and voucher codes etc.

Its worth a read for anyone in affiliate marketing with thoughts from PrezzyBox and Moneysupermarket alongside LOVEFiLM.

Summer Lovin' Sale - The LOVEFiLM Shop

SALE, SALE, SALE, GO, GO, GO...- At last Summer is here and we have launched the LOVEFiLM Summer-lovin' Sale. We've handpicked the best titles below on our opening day, we've got some choice Boxsets to up basket size for maximum commissions.

Massive Savings on US TV Boxsets
Heroes - Season 1 and 2 - Complete on DVD - £16.93
Gossip Girl Season 1 - Only £11.93
ER Season 1 Only £6.93

Huge Savings on Games
Fun Fair Party (Wii)- £9.93
Alone In The Dark (Wii & XBox360) Only £4.93
Assassin's Creed (PS3)- Only £9.93

Ex-rental DVDs
We are adding more Ex-rental DVDs to our list over the next couple of days - this has been an extremely popular promotion to date with most titles added last week showing as sold out in a couple of days -so stay tuned for mega discounts on things that we have bought too many of - Whoops!

Contact Kate.Walsh@lovefilm.com with any queries and ideas, and follow The LOVEfiLM Shop on the new Twitter page - LOVEFiLM_Shop (lovefilmshop) on Twitter

Examples of LOVEFiLM Viral and Video Marketing

A clip showing the different ways LOVEFiLM have used viral. The final game clip 'Superhero Shooter' is available for affiliates to use on their sites via Tradedoubler.

LOVEFiLM Validations Process

I wanted to confirm the LOVEFILM affiliate lead approval process following some tightening up of the process on out end.

We have been working on a new way to fully automate the process to be more consistent. We have also been reviewing the amount of leads and sales we pay for that are auto approved despite not renting any films, the 1 main requirement of a lead.

Leads can slip though between validations reporting due to time limits given by various networks for approving of leads. I hope our affiliates can support our new process that will see more regular reporting and approval of leads, but will also catch and reject leads that do not meet the criteria we set.

The following criteria are used to approve and deny leads and sales in relation to LOVEFiLM free trials and PAYG. This is an automated process that we every week when possible, otherwise every 2 weeks.

LOVEFiLM would like to take this opportunity to state that affiliates should not use promotional codes that they have not been approved to use. Leads will be rejected and you could be removed from our program. Our validations process will also find any examples of fraudulent activity based on the criteria used.

Summary

We will approve leads where the person has tried our service

We will reject leads where the person has not tried our service

You cannot have a 2nd FREE trial if you have already been a member of a LOVEFiLM or LOVEFiLM powered service (screen select, tesco etc)

Affiliates should be aware of the terms of our program

Validation Process for a LOVEFiLM Trial

Approved leads
Leads that have come from approved affiliate codes that pass 1 requirement:
Signed up and had at least 1 rental and added 10 films to their rental list

Rejected Leads
Leads that have not used an approved code, such as those that swapped for a different offer or sites that have promoted a direct mail code for a longer trial

Leads that have failed to pass credit card and address checks 2 weeks after sign up, meaning they are not renting or using the service as a complete lead. We email these leads to prompt sign up completion and after 2 weeks assume the sign up will not be completed.

Leads that have cancelled without renting any discs during the trial, which is more common when an incentive for signing up is being used by an affiliate

Pending Leads
Leads that have come from approved affiliate use codes that pass 2 requirements:
Leads that have not rented any discs or added any films to their list
Leads that have failed to pass credit card and address checks within 2 weeks of starting sign up, meaning they are not renting or using the service yet but we continue to email these leads to complete sign up


Validation Process for a LF PAYG and direct paying customers

Approved Sales

Sales that have come from approved affiliate use codes that pass 1 requirement:
Signed up and made 1 payment

Denied Sales
All sales in the past 20 days that have not made an actual payment, suggesting bank card issues or declined sales due to bank balance. These people are emailed to complete the sale by LOVEFiLM

All sales that cancelled before payment, due to bank balance or bank card issues. When LOVEFiLM attempted to charge the card payment was not possible. This is more common when an incentive for signing up is being used by an affiliate

Pending Sales
All sales as recent as 20 days with no payment, these people are actively targeted by LOVEFiLM to complete payment and become a full member

Official launch of the sale of Ex-rental DVDs

Today sees the official launch of the sale of Ex-rental DVDs from LOVEFiLM. We have a collection of over 100 DVDs to offer in our first week, stock is limited but we will be updating these titles weekly. This is a unique offer and one we are happy to shout about. We will let you know about new additions to the list and related deals as and when they come.

For all Shop queries please contact Chris or Carla at Tradedoubler or your account manager.

A4U Awards - we are highly commended

It was a great night and I am suitably recovered from the A4U Awards. It was amazing to see 500 people in 1 room from the affiliate industry, with the boys in suits and the ladies all looking glamorous. Thanks to Tradedoubler for inviting myself and my colleague Isabel, with our table near the stage.

Unfortunately we were not award winners this time, but we were highly commended in for 'Best Use of Affiliate Marketing as Part of an Integrated Campaign'. A nice way to say we came second to Argos, but still a great nod from the judges who had a lot of nominations this year (half a tree of paper I was told).

It was also great to see some friends win awards as well. Credit Expert retained Finance Vertical (merchant), I-level won Affiliate Marketing Digital Media Agency and VoucherCodes.co.uk collected the Retail (affiliate) award. The full list of award winners can be found here and well done to them all.

Also a couple of photos from the night. In the first I am joined by colleague Isabel and the guys from Tradedoubler including Lee Griffin. In the second I am giving kudos to Patrick for Credit Expert's win, along with Jeff Sullivan from TrialPay. From the red eyes I have I seem to have turned into a terminator.

LOVEFiLM - Love is in the Air

As promised the new LOVEFILm TV Advert

We've got our old friend Simon Pegg back as our voice over, who couldnt be bigger right now as Scotty in Star Trek - along with a brand new sound track and new film clips.

Also here is a youtube link of the advert should you need it.

URL - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SK3PZAWmgw

LOVEFiLM - New TV campaign to boost affiliate conversion

From June 1st (Monday) LOVEFiLM will be increasing our TV advertising compared to previous months. It will be back up to the levels we saw in January.

So why am I telling you this? In January we saw an amazing month, maybe the best of all time for Affiliates and other online activity. We always see a good 10-15% uplift for affiliate channels during TV campaigns of this level, but results were even better due to the messaging and more offer focused attitude of the public. Why pay for a DVD or Sky subscription when you can try us out for free and then get better value?

This time we are across an even wider range of channels, including terrestrial on Channel 4. On Digital channels we are across all channels types - entertainment, sports, news, film, news and educational/documentary. I think by the end of the month you will be sick of us, but the new ad does have a catchy (and well suited) song you will be humming all the way to work. When I get a copy I will post it online.

So, in June we have new TV creative and we have also refreshed all the main flash banners to show more integration in style. We have already seen increased CTR and conversion levels from this creative in our display advertising.

When we are on TV it gives affiliates the chance to take the additional brand exposure and awareness and close the sale. This works great for all, especially cashback, loyalty and email affiliates. Tradedoubler has the flash banners but all of our networks have more email and gif versions.

Lets hope for a another great month.

Useful film lists for affiliates

I was gathering some information for something else and I thought affiliates might have a use for a few lists we have on our website. The lists below give you an idea for what the critics and our members rate as the best films of all time, as well as the current films with the most buzz (no surprise it is Slumdog Squarepants that people are most requesting right now)

The most popular films this this month

The BFI Top 100

The Top Rated Films - by our members

Cool non LOVEFiLM affiliate things I found this month

lemonade.com
Getting big in the states, run via Linkshare. Take the old lemonade stand and put it on your blog or facebook page, get paid when friends buy your recommendations

freebiejeebies
Referral site Freebie Jeebies takes it to another level and gives away £5k or a car to a lucky member

Prezzy Box
Prezzy Box shows you the potential points you can make if a member of ipoints.co.uk on every product. Great way to promote the loyalty partnership

New banner creative - great flash versions

The newest LOVEFiLM creative is now ready for use by affiliates. While we have updated the basic gif banners I would suggest the flash versions are much more interesting and worth using:
300x250
728x90
160x600
120x600


We have been using these newer banners for our online display advertising and in some cases doubled CTR and CTS. We will also be updating the new images used every couple of weeks to make sure we always showcase the hottest new releases.

These can all be found in the main creative category 'LOVEFiLM DVD Rental' on the Tradedoubler/LOVEFiLM pages.

A 2nd A4U award nomination

Well I went off on a long weekend break and missed the final A4U nomination annoucements, and missed our 2nd nomination. I only found out about this on Saturday on the e-consultancy/LOVEFiLM Google alerts.

Retail (merchant)

• Argos
• Debenhams
• JD Williams
• LoveFilm
• PrezzyBox
• Red Letter Days

So we are up against Argos in both categories, which could make for a fun rivalry. All the entries are strong though, and Prezzy Box is a fun gift site with a great ipoints partnership.

We are nominated for the way we have used radio, viral and traditional affiliate channels to grow our rental offering hugely year on year, as well as promoting PAYG, gifts and The LOVEFiLM Shop.

Nominated for an A4U award

Great news for LOVEFiLM and the team at Tradedoubler - we have been nominated for an A4U Award - the most important awards there can be for affiliate marketing in the UK.

Best Use of Affiliate Marketing as Part of an Integrated Campaign:
Argos, Elemis, LoveFilm, Play.com and SKY.

This award relates to the work we have done with affiliate marketing in non-traditional affiliate marketing channels, so it is great to see it recognised.

Full list here, well done to everyone who was nominated and don't forget to vote in the community awards. Special well done to my old friends at Books Direct who are up for Innovation Merchant of the Year.
Full Shortlist

LOVEFiLM Superhero Shooter

LOVEFiLM are now opening up our viral game for use by all of our affiliates. LOVEFiLM Superhero Shooter is a fun and fast paced game where you have to shoot the bad guys while avoiding the good guys, throwing DVDs and games at the targets. The whole time you are learning about LOVEFiLM.

We have been promoting this game with Tradedoubler for the past 6 months in a closed group but are now offering to all affiliates.

How to use the game:
The game should not replace existing links and content - this is something extra.
Promote the game on websites about flash games, action films and general ways to enjoy a 5 minute break from work.
The game can be found within our creative assets, and when you place the game on your site your links will track anyone who signs up after playing.
This is pretty much the same as using a flash banner, only much more fun.
The game offer offers a 30 day trial and the chance to win a free membership and £250 to spend at The LOVEFiLm Shop.

Below are some screenshots of the game within the Tradedoubler interface.

CPA model - E-consultancy Article

The guys at Econsultancy have posted a new blog entry about CPA deals, which is worth a read:

Can you make more money by adding CPA to your revenue mix?

Its a nice angle and instead of just talking about affiliates and cashback ir looks at guys like TrialPay and the use of CPA deals to fund purchases. I can see this growing as a model in the coming year as the market changes - TrialPay have been quite a success for us with constant growth.

Special LOVEFiLM offers with £5/10 retail vouchers

At LOVEFiLM we have set up a couple of special offers for affiliates to promote via banners and email creative.

30 day FREE trial of rentals and a £5 voucher for The LOVEFiLM Shop
- LOVEFiLM.com

30 day FREE trial of rentals and a £10 voucher for The LOVEFiLM Shop
- LOVEFiLM.com

These are not available to all affiliates so please contact myself or your account manager at Tradedoubler, Affiliate Future or BuyAt if you would like to run the offer.

These special offers do not follow our standard £7-£17 commissions. For the these offers we pay £5-8 depending on activity involved.

LOVEFiLM's Top 25 Rentals of all time

Here is some great content for affiliates to add to their sites about films and our service. I'll post some more over the next few days but I am starting with the top 25 films in terms of member rentals.

The Last King Of Scotland

Little Miss Sunshine

Atonement

Casino Royale (2006)

Deja Vu

The Pursuit Of Happyness

The Departed

Hot Fuzz

Blood Diamond

American Gangster

Children Of Men

Crash

The Bourne Ultimatum

The Devil Wears Prada

Run, Fat Boy, Run

The Constant Gardener

The Holiday

The Queen

Die Hard 4.0

Walk The Line

Knocked Up

Inside Man

Million Dollar Baby

I Am Legend

The Prestige

LOVEFILM back on TV - and use the right codes

Quick one - LOVEFiLM is currently back on TV for a solid promotion, we are in the middle of a major direct mail campaign and recently massive new releases have included Quantum of Solace and Changeling.

So its a good time to push the offer up the lists on any free offers, great deals of savvy tips website you may run.

And also a good time to make sure you only have affiliate approved codes and links on your site. If you are promoting a code that you do not have permission to promote you will not be paid for those sales.

French films banned

All French-made and French language films will shortly be removed from the LOVEFiLM service. This controversial decision comes in the wake of new French legislation, which has "pulled up the drawbridge" on food imports.

British onions are among the first products targeted by the French government, in measures it justifies as "safeguarding our economy and national interest." The UK government has urged businesses across the country to levy whatever sanctions they can in protest, describing the French decision as "a significant blow to British exports, international trade in general and the spirit of a global economy."

We are responding to this call by removing all French-made and French language films from the LOVEFiLM service. We will contact all members who are currently renting a French title with return details and deadlines. Thanks for your support in this regrettable measure.

New Product Page

Check out the new LOVEFiLM product page:
http://www.lovefilm.com/film/Zombie-Strippers/97352/
http://www.lovefilm.com/film/How-To-Lose-Friends-And-Alienate-People/97847/

The new page will allow people to view trailers, news, images and reviews for each title, which will increase conversions from affiliate traffic. Watch this space for more information but this will be reflected in the product feed landing pages.

Gaming Top 10: Ultra-Violence

The top rental requests for games at LOVEFiLM this week are:

1. Resident Evil 5 (Xbox)
2. Tom Clancy's HAWX (Xbox)
3. Resident Evil 5 (PS3)
4. Street Fighter IV (Xbox)
5. Tom Clancy's HAWX (PS3)
6. Halo Wars (Xbox)
7. Street Fighter IV (PS3)
8. Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360)
9. Killzone 2 (PS3)
10. Left 4 Dead (Xbox)

The 1st week in a long time we have had no Wii titles in the top 10, the nearest being Mario Kart at 13.

Odd to see so many big titles being released when we are nowhere near Christmas, such as Street Fighter, Resident Evil and Halo Wars. Every title is also about war, fights and violence so maybe that is just not Christmas material.

LOVEFiLM - not award winners shock!

Well it had to happen eventually - after an amazing run of winning awards whenever nominated we did not win at the Fast Growth Business Awards.

Seatwave won our category for Online Business of the Year, and they also picked up Angel or VC-backed Business of the Year and made the final 4 for the T-Mobile Company of the Year. If you are going to lose it is nice to lose to a company that had such recognition, similar to ourselves last year. The overall company of the year winner was King Of Shaves.

Seatwave also have an affiliate program, which is run on Affiliate Window, BuyAt and Zanox. Well done to them for their success.

All the winners cna be seen at
http://www.fgba.co.uk/2009_winners2.html

MCV AWARDS '09: The Finalists are announced

Nearly 40 companies are set to fight it out for the big prizes at the games industry's trade awards in April

The Finalists of the MCV Industry Excellence Awards have been announced – and now the countdown begins to the big event on Thursday April 23rd and our 1st ever nomination at the event.

We are up for 'Retail Innovation' and the group consists of:
HMV Gamerbase
HMV Re/Play
Play.com Live
Lovefilm Rental
CHIPS accessories

Thanks to all affiliates that have been promoting this offer. No other channel has seen the focus on telling potential members about the great service we have and the full range across all consoles.

Resident Evil 5 - Zombie fun at LOVEFiLM

The long awaited Resident Evil 5 is coming out tomorrow on PS3 and Xbox - I think a lot of people are very excited about this one and it looks amazing.

LOVEFiLM has stock for both consoles ready for rental - affiliate commission is £7.50-£17 on a 14 day FREE trial

LOVEFiLM DVDs, Blu-ray and Games rental

And we also have it ready to buy from the LOVEFiLM Shop for £33.93 - affiliate commission is 5%

Also right now we have a special promotion code for an extra 5% off for customers - the promotional code is SPRING and that brings the cost to £32.24

LOVEFiLM Shop: Found 26 results for "Resident Evil 5"

In related news Capcom have promoted the game by a leaving behind a trail of body parts from zombie victims around Trafalgar Square. This could go badly wrong and we could see London Tonight reporting on body parts scattered around London, but it sounds fun.
http://www.capcom-unity.com/snow_infernus/blog/2009/03/10/find_body_pieces_win_trip_to_africa

British Academy Video Games Awards

Some surprises at the British Academy Video Games Awards the other night.
http://www.bafta.org/awards/video-games/nominations,664,BA.html

Remember all of these winners can be rented from LOVEFiLM, here are the highlights:

Best Sports Game - Race Driver: Grid (beating Wii Fit)
Artistic Achievement - LittleBigPlanet
Best Handheld Game - Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Best Action and Adventure Game - Fable 2
Best Game - Super Mario Galaxy (beating GTA4 and Rock band)

LittleBigPlanet has been a massive rental title, but we have seen more people going for Wii games. I think gaming rental is proving popular as a way to get a group game for the weekend for families or gaming friends, and that defintely applies to myself. Sadly I do not think a lot of people realise you can rent DS and PSP titles just the same as normal console games.

The top 5 worldwide selling Games of 2008

Today I received my copy of The Leveller, I-Level's monthly newsletter. Apart from the comment about Martin Lewis and MSE as an affiliate (featuring Matt Bailey's apparent dating website photo) there was a good list some affiliate might want to use.



The top 5 worldwide selling Games of 2008

1. Mario Kart Wii -1.94m copies sold

2. Wii Fit

3. Grand Theft Auto 4

4. Super Smash Bros Brawl

5. Call of Duty: World at War

source - Chart Track, NPD, Media Crate, Feb 09



Why of interest to affiliates:
It is worth noting that these can all be rented from LOVEFiLM
3 of these are Wii games, matching the trend we see for Wii rental being more popular
Anyone with a more causal gaming audience could benefit from promoting these titles


P.S - in case you don't believe me about Matt's photo I have place below - does he not look like he's about to start talking about his hobbies?

Fast Growth Business Awards

The Fast Growth Business Awards recognise the most pioneering and creative businesses and entrepreneurial owners, and once again LOVEFiLM has been nominated and made the short list.

Last year we attended the event and won Retail/Leisure Business of the Year and this year we are up for Online Business of the Year.

The 4 finalists are:

Buyagift.com
LOVEFiLM International
Seatwave
WhiteLabelDating.com

Personally I think WhiteLabelDating.com will be strong competition having seen them around at the online events and shows.

Always nice to see us up for an award, but I want to see us showing up the A4U awards this year as a contender.

More info at
http://www.fgba.co.uk/2009_finalists.html

Brands that are thriving in a recession

Marketing Magazine has a nice article on brands that are thriving in the recession:

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/886686/Case-studies-brands-thriving-recession/

Alongside Moneysavingexpert.com and The Economist is our very own LOVEFiLM with a quote from the always quotable Simon Morris.

The three words that repeatedly come up during LoveFilm's customer research are, says Morris, range, convenience and value. 'In this climate, range becomes less important [to consumers than] value.' Members are also returning discs faster and renting more of them, but this trend is as much to do with the long winter nights as it is the recession.

An article worth checking out as it has some other information on how we are doing right now.

LOVEFiLM Affiliate Activity - lets make some plans

I'll be asking some of you guys directly but I am putting out a general request as well. I am eager to agree some interesting CPA based activity through April-July so please send me your ideas.

I want to know what affiliates want to do with LOVEFiLM on loyalty, email, viral and anything else. If you get in touch now we can make sure we have everything set up and ready to roll around your plans as well. I would like to see LOVEFiLM integrated into any special promotion you might be planning.

Reviewing the previous years we have had some great success with different affiliates such as:
Ipoints Indy Jones competition
Quidco's Savvy Tips supporting TV coverage
The 1st Viral game on affiliate model with Tamba
Halloween Horror Downloads promotion
ChooseDVDrental reporting all the news and developments

It would be great to agree to similar activity in the upcoming months.

LOVEFiLM Payout Structure + Affiliate Groups

LOVEFiLM is adjusting its payout structure as we look to bring all program structures and promotions in line. This consolidation will also allow us to move onto the next stage of our affiliate marketing with greater understanding of the ROI and value of special promotions.

We are also looking at ways to integrate affiliates using APIs, Widgets, Content, Email and Mobile during these changes so please get in touch if you have a focus on these areas. I am hoping that we are developing our program in the right way so we can look at the different classifications of affiliates so we will be able to reward hard work and judge each on a more fair and consistent basis.

Please note this will be active from Sunday 8th March at 11.59PM and will be across all of the affiliate networks we work with.

NEW set up
Lead 0-49 @ £7.50
Lead 50-99 @ £10
Lead 100-199 @ £13
Lead 200-500 @ £14
Lead 501+ @ £15
Lead 749+ @ £17

Feel free to contact the guys at the networks or myself if you have any questions.

The top 10 Movie sites of 2008

Beta Labs has an interesting article on the Hitwise Top 10 lists of 2008 out:
http://blog.betalabs.co.uk/2009/03/03/hitwise-top-tens-out-today/
http://www.hitwise.co.uk/

This includes the top 10 Movie sites of 2008

1 www.lovefilm.com
2 www.odeon.co.uk
3 www.cineworld.co.uk
4 www.myvue.com
5 www.showbiz.sky.com
6 www.movies.uk.msn.com
7 www.empireonline.co.uk
8 www.tescodvdrental.com
9 www.uk.imdb.com
10 www.uk.movies.yahoo.com

Great to see LOVEFiLM being recognised as a source for all movie related news, cinema listings and interviews as well our DVD rental.

I wonder how much of this traffic is down to our affiliates driving people to the site to sign up?

More ways to promote LOVEFiLM - bonus rentals and screenings

Here is something useful if you want to promote the extra little things a member gets when they join LOVEFiLM

http://www.lovefilm.com/micro/nokia-5800.html

You have to be logged into your account to get to the page but then just answer the question and you get a bonus rental. This is a nice little treat of members and shows what else we give to improve the value of the membership. You can get the free rental during the free trial as well and this runs for the month of March.

We often give away these bonus rentals to our members alongside prize draws and exclusive screenings of the latest releases. We even give away film props as random as Jennifer Ellison's fake leg that was used in The Cottage.

Working in other European countries & Affiliate Opinions

I am interested in knowing how many of the affiliates on the forum also promote sites and services in Europe. LOVEFiLM also has services in Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and I would be keen to refer you to our online managers in each country. It would be great to see how you differ your sites by country - do you change much other than the language?

The LOVEFiLM affiliate model varies slightly by country in terms of program structure but the offer is the same - Free trial and CPA payouts.

While on the subject - what does everyone think of affiliate marketing in different European countries? I know the markets vary in size by quite a bit and can be affected by currency, postal services and attitude to online buying. Has anyone seen results differ greatly by country?

Thanks in advance.

The Affiliate Census - the value affiliates can/want to add

In The UK Affiliate Census 2009, Affiliates ranked a range of affiliate methods by how much revenue they generate:
True content (SEO) (36%)
PPC (20%)
Price comparison (11%)
Blogs and forums (8%)
Email marketing (5%)
Voucher codes (5%)
Cash-back and reward (5%)
Shopping directories (4%)
Social networking (3%)
Corporate intranet (2%)

My impressions of this - I was amazed that so many affiliates have a focus on content and building their sites naturally. The industry gets a bad rap at times for just being voucher and incentive based, and most affiliates are looking to educate and add value.

It was also really encouraging to see this data just before we held a 'LOVEFiLM and Affiliates - Widgets and APIs' meeting at Tradedoubler Towers a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks to all that attended, I shall be working on the feedback with the team here to see what the next steps will be. It was great to see a group of affiliates passionate about taking what merchants would give them to improve their SEO rankings, while anyone from a comparison site to a new technology affiliate can use the same information. If we are able to open up our data as much as you all requested I think we could see some amazing new ideas in the next 12 months.

The 3 step Simple guide to LOVEFiLM - in technicolour 3D HD

Here's an example of content I want to start offering more often to affiliates:

The 3 step Simple guide to LOVEFiLM

This page is a video guide to our service that should answer any questions people would have that prevent them from signing up, covered in 69 seconds. The page also includes a trackable sign up button.

Let me know if you could use it, or any other LOVEFiLM content on your site or linked to. We are sitting here waiting for your ideas.

WE’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER POSTBAG - - LOVEFiLM.COM CELEBRATES ONE MILLION SUBSCRIBERS

MAY THE POST BE WITH YOU this morning…film fans across the country have been left rubbing their eyes after their post was hand-delivered by the likes of Batman, Shrek and Star Wars Storm Troopers. LOVEFiLM.com, the revolutionary online DVD-by-post rental service, joined forces with the Royal Mail to dress their postmen and women as film characters for the day to mark the company blasting past their one millionth subscriber milestone.

LOVEFiLM has transformed the film rental industry since its launch in 2004 and despite the current recessionary gloom membership over the last six months has continued to soar by a record 20%. In the last month alone the company registered its highest number of new subscriptions, seeing the total LOVEFiLM.com membership sail past the one million mark.

Simon Calver, CEO of LOVEFiLM.com, comments:

“We’re delighted Royal Mail has marked our milestone by encouraging its postmen and women to deliver their rounds dressed as their favourite film characters. In less than five years we’ve grown from a UK kitchen-table business to the UK’s third largest home entertainment subscription service – offering unrivalled choice, value and convenience that has genuinely changed the way people consume film. There is no doubt that the ‘staying in is the new going out’ trend is perfectly suited to the LOVEFiLM offering, and with people now spending more time at home we are providing access to the biggest film collection in Europe. With over 65,000 unique titles, no late fees, subscription packages from £3.91 as well as the largest online film community, if ever there was a right product, at the right time, it is LOVEFiLM,com. We’re looking forward to welcoming the next million!”

Your affiliate sales increase in January

As I have stated before, when LOVEFiLM is running a major TV advertising campaign our affiliates benefit by promoting the same offer online and closing the sale when the awareness has been raised. For the whole of January we are once again on TV promoting our 14 day free trial, so now is the month to promote this offer.



In previous months of TV advertising we have seen affiliates sales increase by 30% for those that know to place our offer in 'hot deals' sections of their sites, or with information about the service. Last January affiliates did well during the sales and money saving buzz, and this year the credit crunch is even bigger.

If you are not currently promoting LOVEFiLM then let me know if anything is stopping you, or contact your account manager. We can see what we can do to change this.

Also while I have you attention - would anyone like to meet LOVEFiLM to tell us what you want from APIs that we can develop to meet your specific affiliate needs?

New Gaming Creative

LOVEFiLM has updated its gaming rental banner creative. Our new banner range features big name releases across Wii, PS3 and Xbox.

These have already been updated on Tradedoubler so if you are already promoting our gaming offer you do not have to do anything. If not, now would be the perfect time to start. Think of all the people that did not get the games they wanted at Christmas, and need a cheap way to play them. Or the amount of people that got a new gaming console and have realised games cost £30-40 each. With our offer these people could be playing games for free during their trial of our service.



And to give you some more information here are some articles on the console wars from this Christmas.

Christmas games sales fight
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2008/dec/03/games-microsoft
PS3 suffers in holiday season
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/224/1050224/ps3-suffers-in-holiday-season
PS2 is still console king
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/217/1050217/ps2-is-still-console-king