Declan Dunn's Report from Web Attack
Free Publicity and Dennis Rodman: The Real Power of the Internet

The other night I sent you an email telling you how Dennis Rodman is a featured part of the excellent Web Attack conference held this week in San Francisco.

Most of you responded like I was nuts, like Dennis Rodman knew nothing about the Internet. And you could not be more correct. What Dennis Rodman represents is the brand. If Dennis Rodman didn't change his appearance, none of you would care about him. He'd be another basketball player.

But he is a brand; you should have seen the media clamoring, taking pictures, for a guy who was there maybe 10 minutes.

Sitting in a room of 1000 people, most of whom spent $795 (and more) to see this two day event, you begin to understand the brilliance. It is not about the Internet experts, or even Dennis Rodman.

It is about media, publicity, the press, and the brilliance of Michael Tchong's marketing mind. He has brought together some of the leading players on the Internet, and in the beginning was Dennis Rodman.

Rodman drove into the show on a Harley, opening the morning with some brief comments about his future in basketball and a few jokes. Yet there is much more to this story; first, he allowed Tchong to use the Rodzilla image (it looks like Godzilla and Rodman owns it; if Tchong used Godzilla to symbolize this radical event, he'd be sued). Secondly, the media was omnipresent, waiting to take pictures of the opening of this event.

Dennis Rodman brought thousands of dollars worth of publicity by driving in for about ten minutes. And that is the brilliance of a good marketer.

Those who look at the literal value of Dennis Rodman think it's insane. Those who understand the power of branding know that Dennis Rodman was a wise, cost effective choice.

Before We Begin, A Revelation About Affiliate Programs

Before I share some information from this conference, let me touch on an issue concerning affiliate programs that became apparent to me on this trip. Many companies are wasting their efforts on affiliate programs. They are basically using them as a cheap place to put banner ads which don't work.

Understand that the problem lies not in the banner ad, but in the usage of that banner ad space. The problem is not with banner ads, but in putting the right creative mix into that place.

Many affiliate programs stick some poor schmuck, with no experience, into a dark corner and hope that something happens. Most companies just end up doing the same old thing, posting banner ads and wasting the value of their affiliates.

They could be turning this into value by being innovative, but it seems that most are happy to be doing the same thing. In that lies the seeds of failure.

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. The old way of doing banners ads does not work; we must all begin redefining banner ad space.

To take a peek how we are redefining this space, visit My New Banner Tips Page and check out the ways we are pushing content onto sites via banner ads.

I'll let you know how the testing goes, but I can tell you this for certain; if you do not redefine the way you deal with banner ads, your affiliates will suffer. Banner ads are drawing a 0.67% response rate according to Jupiter Communication's latest report.

You have to change the way you are doing business to succeed. Affiliate programs are a complete integrated marketing solution. Instead of relying on only banner ads, be sure to instill opt in email marketing, clickthrough, qualified leads, and content-like banner ads.

Even affiliate programs can't rescue the old way of doing banner ads.

The Conference

This conference is an amazing gathering of 1000 plus marketers, presented in a unique style where speakers can't drone on about statistics or themselves. They have to get to the point, have to share data (Tchong is adamant about stats, the best part of the conference), and must be relevant. Participants get to vote on selected questions Tchong poses between speakers by picking up a device that allows you to vote. We voted on everything from text based email vs. HTML based email to game show questions about important Internet statistics. The best part are the short, quick presentations that Tchong encourages; each speaker gets 10 minutes. That's it.

The features today ran the gamut from email marketing to offline branding and ROI. The offline branding was particularly amazing.

Those companies that can afford to advertise on television get a tremendous return on their investment. Traffic increases and people remember. The remarkable logic of this is so simple; most Internet surfers who see a company on TV figure this company is big enough, and well funded, to be worth checking out.

Another great idea for Internet offline marketing was shared by Eisner Interactive; they are hired by their clients to promote the Internet in offline media. So they research the daily habits of the target customer and put the unusual advertising in front of their customers, where they are in the real world.

For example, they have people holding signs in the subways of New York; commuters are on their way to work, and on the way to a computer, so they put the message in front of them minutes before they get to a computer. This was for TheStreet.com. Eisner has also put hitchikers, dressed in odd white costumes, on commuter highways. Passers by see the Web Site URL and check it out at work.

There were so many speakers, from ZDNet rep Jesse Berst's funny and interesting twist called "spiral marketing", where you integrate all forms of marketing into one approach, to the permission marketing approach of companies like YesMail.com.

What became apparent is that the Internet is becoming a heavily funded, competitive marketplace. Those with deep pockets will try to bury those who don't. There's so much valuable content at this show, I would have to write pages and pages to simply share what is happening.

This conference reminds me of how important it is to step out behind the computer and meet with real people doing real things. I got two to three new ideas myself just today that will literally change the way I do business -- it is all about being inspired.

Tomorrow I speak on a panel with MyPoints.com, LinkShare, Sharper Image, AdWeek, and Impulse Buy Network. Yours truly is the smallest of these players, but I plan to make the biggest impression.

Tune in tomorrow night and I'll share the story of how the small guy gets to the top of the Internet game by being real sharing common sense. And having fun.

The real secret is to enjoy what you are doing, and never compete with others. Test, test, test. Everything else is commentary.

The challenge to us all is to keep improving; this market is being driven by many brilliant minds, like Michael Tchong people who know the value of a good brand like Dennis Rodman.

People who take a chance and are not afraid to be different.

Like Apple's ads say, think different. Until later, take care.

Peace,

Declan