LOVEFiLM Affiliate Programme Update

You may already be aware of the issues at i-level and in light of this I would like to confirm a few points and answer 2 key questions.

Payment

As Affiliate Window invoice LOVEFiLM directly there will be no effect to your normal payment cycle, and absolutely no loss of earnings/commissions for any LOVEFiLM affiliates.

Therefore, please continue your activity as originally planned.

Point of Contact

Katy Armitage is the Account Manager for the programme at Affiliate Window and will be your main contact for the programme moving forward. If you would like to discuss this or any other issues please don't hesitate to get in contact.

You can reach her on katy.armitage@affiliatewindow.com

Latest TV Campaign - helping affiliate sales and clicks

LOVEFiLM is pretty much always advertising on TV these days but in May we have a particularly heavy plan with increased exposure. What this means is CTR and click to sale rates for our online activity also increases and affiliates earn more money.

We have proven that TV advertising greatly helps all of our marketing and affiliates really benefit. Loyalty, comparison and email see the obvious help from the brand awareness but it also helps content sites, voucher affiliates and social games/apps. Affiliates are able to get their LOVEFiLM promotion in front of an online audience in a more timely manner and to drive the sale to completion better than other marketing activity.

The LOVEFiLM Player and over 67,000 titles

The LOVEFILM Player is a service we offer to all of our subscribers and is an excellent selling point for our service. Everyone that signs up to 1 of our unlimited rental packages also gets access to a vast range of online films to watch for free. This is always worth adding to site copy and any content you have on LOVEFiLM.

At the moment this includes:
Departures - Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars and exclusive on LOVEFiLM
Death Proof Two separate pairs of voluptuous women are stalked at different times by a scarred stuntman who uses his "death proof" car, directed by Quentin Tarantino
Planet Terror - the beautiful Rose McGowan with a machine gun for a leg versus zombies, I have a weakness for zombie films so recommend this of course
Broken Flowers - the story of Don Johnston (Bill Murray), a man overflowing with wealth but void of emotion
Tell No One - Alex Beck, still devastated by the savage murder of his wife Margot in the early days of their marriage eight years ago, receives an anonymous email. When he clicks on the link he sees a woman's face standing in a crowd and being filmed in real time - Margot's face
Lord of War -Based on actual events, this black comedy-drama stars Nicholas Cage as international arms smuggler Uri Orlov

Thanks to the growth of our video on demand service and recent DVD releases we are also now able to offer over 67,000 titles, Britain’s largest range. More information on the video on demand service can be found here and here, including information on how our members can watch these films on their TV.

Avatar - Biggest DVD of the year out on Monday to rent

Avatar is released on Monday 26th on DVD and Blu-ray and is currently the most searched for film on the LOVEFILM website for new and existing members.

The film also made over £91m at the UK box office - the biggest money maker ever.

Worth factoring into any activity you have planned as this will be getting massive advertising over the next 2 weeks. It will be available to anyone signing up to the LOVEFiLM service via your affiliate promotions to enjoy during their free trial.

To celebrate The LOVEFiLM Shop is offering 5% off all DVD and Blu-ray until the end of April - the code is AWLF909

LOVEFiLM Shop has increased commissions

The LOVEFiLM Shop has increased commission to help our affiliates earn mroe cash.

We have now broken down our commission by product type and are happy to offer 5% on DVD, Blu-ray and Ex Rental titles (previously 3%).

New commissions are now active and the new structure for shop sales is as follows:
DVD, Blu-ray and Ex Rental DVDs - 5%
Games, Books and CDs - 3%
Games Consoles and Electronics/Computing - 2%
Gifts/other - 5%

The new PAYG model from LOVEFiLM

At Lovefilm we have some made some exciting changes to the PAYG offering and have 3 new customer propositions.

http://www.lovefilm.com/partners/paygbonus.html

· 3 rentals in 3 months (one at a time) for £6 auto top-up plus 1 FREE bonus rental

· 6 rentals in 3 months (two at a time) for £12 auto top-up plus 1 FREE book (Time out 1000 Films to change your life)

· 6 rentals including games in 3 months (two at a time) for £15 auto top-up plus 2 FREE tickets to a cinema of your choice

As the customer proposition is a lot stronger we are expecting this to convert a lot better therefore becoming more attractive to you. We are reducing commission to £5 as although this is lower than the current commission we expect volumes to increase therefore we would hope that your ROI will be higher.

Also by adding these gifts with each package the cost of the package has increased and therefore so has profit margins so we have had to take the unfortunate decision to reduce commissions.

The new commission will be effective from 15th April 2010, please can you ensure that you are pointing all PAYG traffic to the above URL.

We have also updated the creative so please refer to Affiliate Window to view the latest.

If you have any questions, then please do not hesitate to contact us at lovefilmaffiliates@i-level.com

Nudity and profanity censored on all online movies

Nudity and profanity on all titles in LOVEFiLM’s Watch Online service will be censored from 1st June 2010, due to European Commission fears over policing and certitification of video-on-demand streaming.

As the leading UK proponents of digital streaming, LOVEFiLM has been identified by the EU to fall under the same draconian standards levied across mainland Europe, which place 18-rated and some 15 certificate movies in the same bracket as hardcore adult titles.

EU Commissioners have also instituted a pay-per-profanity charge. Rejecting claims that this is effectively a swear-box tax in reverse, Prof. Lydia Sola said: “Online content with strong language will still be available to those who want it, but the surcharges will help protect those who do not.”

We are framing a legal protest to this unilateral and heavy-handed approach. In addition, we intend to highlight the foolishness of the entire system by replacing default censorship graphics with images of satirical value – puppies on breasts, for example, or cucumbers to conceal male members – and dubbing over the more extreme profanities with words like chuff and foo-foo.

You can, of course, continue to watch 15 and 18 certificate films unmolested by renting DVD and Blu-ray versions of these titles, as these fall under normal UK licencing.

Vote in this year's A4U awards for Jo Halstead

Back from my honeymoon and up to speed with the last few weeks, cannot say its great to be back in reality but settling back in. All seems to have been running smoothly while I was away partly due to my planning and the work carried out by i-level, which leads me to the main point of this post.

Vote in this year's A4U awards for Jo Halstead
i-level's Joanna Halstead has been shortlisted in the Best Account Manager - Agency or Merchant category in this year's A4U Awards. Jo manages the LOVEFiLM affiliate activity on Affiliate Window as part of our agency team so you have all worked with Jo at some point and can thank her for any special promotions and campaign management. Please consider her when voting on the Community Choice Awards

Download the LOVEFiLM iPhone app

Our new iPhone add is doing very well in its first week:

Currently 51st in the overall free app charts for the UK
11th in the top free entertainment apps

I would really appreciate everyone downloading the app, having a play and giving a rating. While it is mainly for active members to manage their lists anyone can use it to search our catalogue of titles.

You can get it over at itunes

a4uAwards 2010 - Community Nominations Closing Friday

The fourth a4uAwards Ceremony is being held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, Mayfair, on the 9th June 2010.

There are 5 awards available on the night that are nominated and voted for by the Affiliate Community. These are:
- Community Choice: Publisher
- Community Choice: Account Manager at a Network
- Community Choice: Affiliate Network
- Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2010
- Community Choice: Affiliate Manager - In House or at an Agency

If you haven't done so already, make sure you submit your nominations before 5pm on Friday 19th February.

I have of course voted for Jo Halstead from i-level as Affiliate Manager as she has been handling all the UK network activity for LOVEFiLM since the end of Q3 last year. She has really helped to get more out of the program and manage much better than previously, as well as free up my time to do other things. I hope LOVEFiLM can get some more nominations this year after our highly commended achievement last year for 'Best Use of Affiliate Marketing As Part of an Integrated Campaign'.