Commission Junction
 |
| Type |
Subsidiary |
| Founded |
Santa Barbara, California (1998) |
| Headquarters |
Santa Barbara, California |
| Key people |
Kerri Pollard, general manager
Dave Osman, senior vice president, operations
Jen Lovette, vice president, client development - west
Kim Riedell, vice president, client development - east
Anders Bjoras, vice president, engineering |
| Industry |
Affiliate marketing |
| Products |
Affiliate network |
| Website |
CJ.com |
Commission Junction is an online advertising company owned by ValueClick. It is specifically in the affiliate marketing industry.
Commission Junction is the largest affiliate network in North America, powering 53% of the top 500 web retailers affiliate marketing programs and operates worldwide. Along with being the world's largest Affiliate Network, Commission Junction also promotes their Search Marketing services and their media services. Their corporate headquarters is located in Santa Barbara, California, with other offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Westborough and Westlake. Commission Junction has also offices in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden and Spain.
Commission Junction has over 1,500 customers including Overstock.com, Buy.com, Home Depot, Circuit City, and Yahoo!.
beFree, Inc. / Reporting.net
The former competitor beFree, Inc. (spelled as one word with lower-case "b") is also owned by ValueClick. beFree was founded by Tom Gerace and brother Sam Gerace in 1996. The company went public on November 2, 1999. beFree was purchased for $128 million (in stock) by ValueClick[1] before Commission Junction. Only after the acquisition of Commission Junction[2] did ValueClick slowly transition affiliate programs away from beFree's BFAST technology platform.
Contracts with current beFree merchants were not being renewed and no new merchants were accepted as beFree customers. Once the contract with beFree expired, merchants had the choice to either migrate to the Commission Junction platform or look elsewhere for an alternative provider. This process began around January 2004 and was completed in spring of 2008.
The BFAST platform was closed and no longer available after May 15, 2008, at which time all ad serving and new transaction tracking ceased. Reports were still accessible through June 15, 2008, when the beFree platform BFAST was turned off permanently. [3]
Commission Junction University - CJU
CJU is an annual affiliate marketing conference, which is organized by Commission Junction. The conference is for publishers and advertisers who use the CJ platform as well as for third party agencies and vendors who provide complementary tools and services for the affiliate marketing industry.
The conference is being held every year at the end of the summer in Santa Barbara, California, the location of CJ's world headquarters. The first conference was held in 1999. The conference is primarily a networking event, but also includes seminars, educational sessions and panel discussions about topics related to the Commission Junction affiliate network platform or the affiliate marketing industry in general.
Commission Junction CJYou Awards
The CJYou Awards were renamed from the Horizon Awards (2002-2007). Each year since CJU 2002, Awards are presented to top-performing clients. The Awards recognize customers for measurable performance metrics and are focused on getting results. Plus there is an added award for People's Choice which gives Commission Junction clients the ability to participate in the awards process.
- Awards categories
- Rookie of the Year (debut in 2008): Awarded to a new advertiser and to a new publisher who have achieved the highest total revenue.
- People's Choice for Advertisers and Publishers (debut in 2008): This is voted on by clients within the network. Publishers nominate their favorite advertiser and advertisers nominate their favorite publisher, based on who demonstrates excellence within the Marketplace.
- Innovator of the Year (debut in 2008): This award will be given to a publisher or advertiser that demonstrates the most successful use of emerging technologies (online video, mobile retail, blogging, social networks, alternative payments, shopping comparison, visual search, and international publishers).
- Advertiser/Publisher of the Year (debut in 2008): Awarded to an advertiser and a publisher who have achieved the largest year-over-year increase in revenue and greatest percentage of growth.
- Agency of the Year (debut in 2008): Awarded to an agency that has excelled at fostering relationships between its clients and Commission Junction.
- People (2002-2007): The award for people is presented to an advertiser and publisher who have shown an enthusiastic commitment to performance marketing, are market leaders, and are dedicated to building a strong community among online marketers.
- Greatness (2002-2007): The award for greatness is presented to an advertiser and publisher who have demonstrated exceptional performance over the previous year.
- Innovation(2002-2007): The award for innovation is presented to a client in appreciation of its support to Commission Junction and to ongoing performance marketing educational outreach. This award represents the company's commitment to the people in the industry.
- Global Vision (2005-2007): the award for global vision is presented to one client whose action, strategy and initiatives best reflect a commitment to realizing the global potential of affiliate marketing.
CJU Horizon/CJYou Awards winners per year: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003,
See also
References
- ^ Internet Retailer (March 11, 2002),Valueclick and beFree to Merge, Internet Retailer, retrieved May 27, 2007
- ^ Rebecca Lieb (October 10, 2003), Valueclick Snaps Up Commission Junction, Clickz.com News, retrieved May 27, 2007
- ^ Todd Crawford (former VP of CJ) (June 20, 2008), Death of a Platform, Todd Talks, retrieved on January 16, 2009
External links
