Content area
Full text
Affilinet has set tough targets for growth this year, but MD Nicky Iapino is confident its attitude to affiliate marketing is setting it on the right track, finds Will Cooper
Nicky Iapino likes a tough target. She wants her company, Affilinet, to be one of the top three affiliate networks in the country by the end of the year. With less than six months left for it to clamber to the top of a highly competitive sector, its German backers have placed a hefty bet on Affilinet's sales model and Iapino's experience.
The buzz around Affilinet's arrival in the UK last October (NMA 27.10.05) wasn't just about the bold goal of a French-born and German-owned company making its first steps on UK shores. It was also to do with Iapino herself. This was someone who had vast experience of the UK affiliate industry, having been previously worked as MD of Commission Junction and COO of Deal Group Media (DGM), and who therefore could make the target achievable.
"People ask me why I went to work for another affiliate marketing company when the sector is so crowded," she says. "My answer is that I passionately believe the market has changed significantly in the past two years and that the change is now starting to come to fruition."
In her view, this change is a move away from large networks and flooding the system with both clients and publishers. "The business used to be about size - how many affiliates a network had, how many clients," she says. "That has meant the attention to detail has been lost."
Iapino says this really hit home about two years ago, when she sat in front...